"Then you are really in earnest," returned von Stolzenberg. "And now I must prescribe an extra glass of punch; for I retain my opinion that love is a sickness, especially at the beginning of a campaign."
Wendenstein did not reply, but continued attentively to watch the course of the stars, which at the same moment were shining down on the old house at Blechow, upon the old trees and the well-known pastures and fir-woods, and upon the Pfarrhaus with its beds of roses, and he hummed to himself:
"Wenn Menschen auseinander gehn,
So sagen sie: Auf Wiedersehn!"
"Halt! who goes there?" cried the sentry on the hill, and presented his carbine.
Both the young officers sprang to their feet. A carriage and two extra post-horses, coming rapidly along the road, drew up at the challenge of the sentry.
In a moment the officers were at the carriage door. Some dragoons appeared a little way off.
"Whom have we here?" asked Herr von Stolzenberg, looking into the carriage, in which sat a figure wrapped in a cloak. "You cannot pass the outposts."
A young man with a fresh open countenance threw back his cloak and leaned over the door to greet the officers.
"Everything is quite in order, gentlemen," he said, laughing. "I am Duve of the Chancery, and I am sent by Count Platen and General Arentschildt with a despatch from Count Ingelheim to Baron Kübeck at Frankfort; I am also to seek the Hessian army and to bring back intelligence which may enable you to join it. Here are my despatches, and here is the order for passing the outposts."
Lieutenant von Stolzenberg stepped with the pass to the light of the fire, read it, and returned it to Herr Duve.