“They work slowly, sire, because the ground is so frozen and rocky,” remarked M. Mégret, “but the place will be taken in eight days.”
“We shall see,” replied Karl.
He entered the trenches accompanied by his aide-de-camp Siquier and the engineer; they had no lights, but now and then there was a dull glow from a bomb cast by the enemy; mingled in the sound of the cannon was the rattle of pick and spade on the hard ground.
The King continually complained as he advanced from trench to trench of the backwardness of the work.
“You would make me take as long to gain Fredrikssten,” he said, “as I mean to use for the whole of Norway.”
So splendid was his quiet presence that these words did not sound boastful from the lips of a king of broken fortunes; looking at him the officers forgot the lost provinces, the brass money, the starving populace, and remembered only Narva and Klissow.
The King continued to move rapidly from one portion of the works to another; he was now joined by the captains of the trenches.
An intermittent firing came from the fortress, the red light of the cannon showing now and then in the cold night.
Occasionally there was the whistle of a musket-ball as the Norwegian sentries fired at the Swedes working in the dark.
The King reached an angle of a boyau in the finished portion of the entrenchment; he paused, wishing to observe how far the parallel was advanced, and mounting the fire-step rested his elbows on the parapet and watched his soldiers moving, crouching, running, digging among the dislodged fragments of rock and the heaps of frozen earth; here and there the starlight showed dully a patch of snow; the noise of the hurried labor was continuous; despite the random cannonade from Fredrikssten the Swedes were carrying their works up to the very glacis of the fort, and they occupied the entire terre-plein. Above the northern sky showed clear as water agleam with cold stars that palpitated in the pale colorless night; a bitter wind swept these frozen heights, and nature’s stillness reigned above the horrid sounds of war.