With Frederick the Great: A Story of the Seven Years' War

by G. A. Henty

"How long shall I be before I am fit for duty again?" he asked the surgeon, two days later.

"Six weeks or two months. It will be fully that time before you can regain your strength. In a month, no doubt, you will be able to sit a horse; but I should say that it would be quite twice that time, before you will be fit to perform the work that falls to your lot on the king's staff. You want to have quiet, and at the same time you need pleasant company. The worst thing you can possibly do is to worry and fret yourself. Instead of bringing things about sooner, it will only delay them. What you have to do is to bask in the sun, eat and drink as much as you can, and take life pleasantly.

"There is one thing, you have nothing to grieve about that you are not with the king. He is marching hither and thither with wonderful celerity but, do what he will, he cannot induce either Daun or Lacy to give battle; though together they are three to one against him. Whenever he approaches they simply shut themselves up in impregnable places, erect palisades and batteries, and hope that he will dash himself against them; which he is not likely to do."

Fergus found that Frederick, when he marched, had left behind a force sufficient to check any attempt that the Austrian garrison of Dresden might make, towards the north; but that at present all was quiet, the enemy venturing on no aggressive movements, never knowing when the king might suddenly pounce down upon them. He found that there was no attempt made to blockade the town. No carts with provisions were allowed to pass in from the north side, but on the west there was free ingress and egress, there being no Prussian troops in that direction. Fergus therefore hired a peasant to carry a letter for him to Count Eulenfurst, explaining how it was that he had been unable to get leave during the winter; and that, for the last two months and a half, he had been laid up in the hospital.

Three days later a carriage drove up to the house. The count himself leapt out, and hurried across the garden to where Fergus was sitting.

"This is indeed kind of you, count," Fergus said, as he rose.

"By no means, Drummond. I only wish that we had known your situation before. You should have got someone to write, if you could not do it yourself. We were not surprised at your not visiting us in the winter, for with both armies on the alert we knew that, in the first place, you were busy, and probably not able to get leave of absence; and in the next place, you could hardly have got in.

"You can imagine the concern we felt when your letter reached us, yesterday evening. Of course, I determined to start at once. You must indeed have had a hard time of it, for you have fallen away so much that I should hardly have known you."

"I have picked up very much in the last fortnight, count; and I hope, in another month, to be something like myself again; though the doctor insists that I shall not be fit for campaigning work for double that time."

"Well, I have come to take you back with me. The countess asks me to tell you that if you do not come at once, she will drive hither with two or three of her maids, and establish herself as your nurse. It will not be a very long drive, for I am well known to the Austrians, and have a pass from the governor to go through their lines when I please, and to visit a small estate I have, thirty miles to the north. And no doubt you can get a similar pass for us to leave your lines."