When they reached Hochkirch they found the troops there astir. The cavalry trumpets were sounding to horse, and the clamour round the village told that the troops encamped there were getting under arms.
"Do you know what is going on to the right, sir?" Fergus asked a field officer, who was in the act of mounting. "Marshal Keith has sent me to inquire."
"Not in the least; but as far as I can tell by the sound, they must be attacking us in force, and they seem to be working round in rear of our battery there. The sound is certainly coming this way."
"Then I will go on to the battery," Fergus said.
He had ridden but a little way farther, when he was convinced that the officer was right. The crash of musketry volleys rose continuously, but although the boom of guns was mingled with it, there was nothing like the continuous fire that might have been expected from a twenty-gun battery.
Suddenly from his right a crackle of firing broke out, and then heavy volleys. The bullets sung overhead.
"They are attacking us in the rear, sir, sure enough," Karl said.
"I am afraid they have captured our big battery, Karl," Fergus said, as he turned his horse.
It was but a few hundred yards back to the village but, just as he reached it, a roar of fire broke out from its rear. They could make their way but slowly along the streets, so crowded were they now with infantry who, unable to see until a yard or two away, could not make room for them to pass, as they would otherwise have done for a staff officer. With feverish impatience Fergus pushed on, until the road was clear; but even now he had to go comparatively slowly, for unless they kept to the track across the open ground that led to the farmhouse, they must miss it altogether.
Lights were moving about there as he rode up. Keith himself was at the door, and the orderlies were bringing up the horses.