"No, your excellency, only seven whole pipes, and eight broken ones."
"You may ride to Neisse to-morrow, and buy a box of pipes. Now, give me one, and let the hussar and his son come in."
CHAPTER X.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MECKLENBURG.
John, the footman, opened the door of the anteroom, and shouted in a loud and solemn voice, "Your excellency, here is Hennemann, the hussar, and his son Christian!"
"Well, come in!" said Blucher, good-naturedly, puffing a cloud of smoke from his pipe.
An old man with silver-white hair, his bent form clad in the old and faded uniform of a hussar, and holding his old-fashioned shako in his hand, entered the room. He was followed by a young man, wearing the costume of a North-German farmer, his heavy yellow hair combed backward and fastened with a large round comb; his full, vigorous form dressed in a long blue cloth coat, reaching down almost to his feet, and lined with white flannel; under it he wore trousers of dark-green velvet that descended only to the knees, and joined there the blue-and-red stockings in which his legs were encased; his feet were armed with thick shoes, adorned with buckles, while their soles bristled with large nails.
"Where do you come from?" asked Blucher, fixing his eyes with a kind expression on the two men.
"From Rostock, your excellency," said the old man, making a respectful obeisance.
"From Rostock?" asked Blucher, joyously. "Why, that is my native city."