"So was the taking of the post horses," Stauffen agreed, "and your getting a disguise from the postmaster. I should like to have seen the Austrian's look of surprise, when he got his uniform back again.
"I am afraid that your adventures do not afford us any hint for getting away from here. Even you will admit that three Austrian uniforms could not be secured, and the tale by which you procured the post horses would hardly hold good in the case of three."
"No, if we get away at all it must be done in an entirely different manner. The place is not so difficult to get out of as Spielberg was, for with patience we could certainly manage to cut off the rivet heads of the bars. But I don't see, at present, how we could cross this wide moat, with a sentry pacing up and down thirty feet above us; nor climb up the brick wall on the other side, without making a noise. That done, of course we could, on a dark night, cross the glacis and swim the outer moat. All that accomplished, the question of disguises will come in. Just at present it is not very easy to see how that is to be managed.
"Can you swim?"
Both officers replied in the affirmative.
"Well, that is something gained. As to the rest, we need not bother about it, at present. We are not uncomfortable where we are, and if we get back in time for the next campaign, that is all that really matters."
The others laughed at the confident tone in which he spoke, but after hearing the details of the prior attempt, it seemed to them that their companion was capable of accomplishing what almost seemed to be impossibilities. They had, they knew, very slight chance of being exchanged so long as the war lasted. A few general officers, or others whose families possessed great influence, were occasionally exchanged; but it was evidently the policy of Austria to retain all prisoners. In the first place she desired to reduce Frederick's fighting force, and in the second, the number of Austrians taken had been very much larger than that of the Prussians captured, and the support of some fifteen or twenty thousand prisoners of war added to the drain on Frederick's resources. Three campaigns had passed without materially altering the position of the combatants, and as many more might elapse before the war came to an end. Indeed, there was no saying how long it might last, and the prospect was so unpleasant that the two officers were inclined to run a very considerable risk in attempting to obtain freedom.
A week later the snow began to fall heavily, and the moat froze.
"There is no getting across that without being seen, even on the darkest night," Fergus said, as he walked up and down the rampart with his two companions, "unless the sentry was sound asleep; and in such weather as this, that is the last thing likely to happen. Unless something altogether unexpected occurs, we shall have to postpone action till spring comes.
"Now that we have bought some books we can pass the time away comfortably. It was a happy thought of Major Leiberkuhn that each of us should buy one book, so that altogether we have got some forty between us; which, taking our reading quietly, will last us for a couple of months. They mayn't be all equally interesting; but as the sergeant bought them second-hand, at about half a franc a volume, we can lay in another stock without hurting ourselves, whenever we choose."