“I have sent an officer and two hussars for the purpose of ascertaining the particulars.”
“That is not sufficient, sir!” exclaimed Count Goertz. “You must do more than that, you must strain every nerve on this occasion, for this is not an ordinary murder, but your honor, sir, is at stake, as well as the honor of your monarch and the honor of the German nation!”
“The honor of the German nation is at stake,” shouted the ambassadors, unanimously. “Our honor has been sullied by the assassination!”
But the captain remained cold and indifferent. “It is a deplorable misunderstanding,” he said. “It is true, the patrols were going the rounds at night, and such things may occur at this time. The French ministers should not have set out by night. The crime has been committed, and who is to blame for it? It was not done by anybody’s order.” [Footnote: The literal reply of Captain Burkhard.—Vide “Report of the German Ambassadors concerning the Assassination of the French Ministers near Rastadt.”]
“Who would deem it possible that such an outrage should have been committed by order of any commanding officer?” exclaimed Count Goertz, indignantly.
“Ah, yes, an outrage indeed!” said Burkhard, shrugging his shoulders. “A few ambassadors have been killed. A few of our generals, too, were killed during the last few years.”[Footnote: Ibid.]
Count Goertz turned to the other ambassadors with an air of profound indignation. “You see,” he said, “we need not hope for much assistance here; let us seek it elsewhere. Let some of us repair in person to Colonel Barbaczy’s headquarters at Gernsbach, while the rest of us will go to the spot where the murders were committed. If the captain here declines giving us an escort for that purpose, we shall repair thither without one; and if we should lose our lives by so doing, Germany will know how to avenge us!”
“I will give you an escort,” said Burkhard, somewhat abashed by the energetic bearing of the count.
While the ambassadors were negotiating with the captain at the Ettlinger gate, the hussars were incessantly engaged in plundering the six carriages. After finishing the first three carriages, they ordered the ladies and servants to reenter them and to await quietly and silently what further would be done in relation to them. No one dared to offer any resistance—no one was strong enough to oppose them. Dismay had perfectly paralyzed and stupefied all of them. Madame Debry lay in her carriage with open, tearless eyes, and neither the lamentations nor the kisses of her daughters were able to arouse her from her stupor. Madame Roberjot was wringing her hands, and amidst heart-rending sobs she was wailing all the time, “They have hacked him to pieces before my eyes!” [Footnote: “I ls l’ont hache devant mes yeux!”—Lodiacus, vol. iii., p. 195.]
No one paid any attention to the corpses lying with their gaping wounds in the adjoining ditch. Night alone covered them with its black pall; night alone saw that Jean Debry all at once commenced stirring slightly, that he opened his eyes and raised his head in order to find out what was going on around him. With the courage of despair he had been playing the role of a motionless corpse as long as the hussars were in his neighborhood; and now that he no longer heard any noise in his vicinity, it was time for him to think of saving himself.