The crowd was denser in the churchyard square, and he was obliged to rein in his horse to give it time to get out of his way. Here and there a smothered laugh or a half-whispered imprecation fell on his ear.
Otherwise total silence was the order of the day. Close to the church, some twenty paces from its flight of stone steps, he saw the troops drawn up in double line, about fifteen or sixteen squadrons in strength.
Lieutenant Merckel was parading up and down, giving first one and then another--as it seemed--a word of encouragement. His face was aflame, his gait uncertain; once or twice his cavalry sabre got entangled with his legs and nearly tripped him up.
Boleslav cast one rapid, searching glance at the parsonage. Its windows were closely curtained, and in the garden too there was no sign of life.
He drew a deep breath, and rode into the heart of the crowd, which closed behind him.
Once again he stood single-handed, face to face with the Schrandener wolves, but this time he was master.
The sense of iron calm and perfect coolness, which he had always experienced at moments of life and death issues, did not forsake him now.
"I am waiting for your salute, _Herr Lieutenant_" he cried in a threatening tone.
He was answered by a drunken, jeering laugh.
So they intended to mutiny! His suspicions had not been ill founded.
He tore his sabre from the scabbard. "Halt!" he commanded.
There was a murmur of dissent. Two or three stepped out of the ranks, and Lieutenant Merckel, with an abusive epithet, drew his sabre and rushed at Boleslav.
This was a moment in which hesitation would have been fatal. A flash of steel, a whiz, and Lieutenant Merckel sank howling on the sandy earth.
The ranks broke their line, made as if they would spring on him: but surprise and terror petrified them.
"Halt!" The command came forth for the second time in a voice of thunder; and no one dared move an eyelash.
Boleslav drew a pistol from the saddle-pocket, and, holding it with the trigger c.o.c.ked in his left hand, he let the reins slip into his armed right.
"Men of the Landwehr!" he shouted in a voice that reverberated through the square, "you know that during the last six hours you are bound in obedience by a war-decree, and that the slightest attempt at insubordination will cost you your lives. What has taken place up to this moment I will overlook, but whoever does not instantly comply with my commands without grumbling will find that I shall not scruple to send a bullet through his brain on the spot."
Felix Merckel, who was bleeding copiously from a wound in his head, regained consciousness, and tried to raise himself. But the blood that streamed over his face blinded him.
"Take away his sabre and bind him!" were Boleslav"s instructions.
The men exchanged glances; they had nothing to bind him with.
Again to hesitate would be to lose the day; so with a quick resolve he sprang off his horse, tore the bridle from its bit, and handed the thongs to the flugelman on his left.
"Set to work, and two others help."
Reluctantly, and with evil sidelong glances, they obeyed. The prostrate man hit out with hands and feet, and endeavoured to wipe the blood out of his eyes with his sleeve, but his struggles were in vain; the reins bound his wrists, and the foam-spattered curb served as a gag.
Meanwhile the spirited black charger had broken away, and was rearing among the terrified rabble.
Boleslav saw, as he looked behind him, that the church door stood open for a farewell service, and that the key was in the lock.
"Put him in the church," he commanded; and at the same moment the old landlord of the inn appeared on the scene, whimpering and wringing his hands.
"Felixchen!" he yelled, "what are they doing to you? Don"t give in; cry for help. Help him, dear people. I order you to help him. I am your mayor. I insist--I command you."
"It is my place to issue commands here," exclaimed Boleslav loftily.
Then the old man changed his tactics, and, by cringing, tried to soften the disciplinarian"s heart.
"_Herr Captain_, have compa.s.sion on a wretched father. I have known you since you were a little boy, who sat on my knee, and I always, always was fond of you. Isn"t it true, you people? Wouldn"t any of us have willingly given our lives for the _Junker_?"
Had his corpulency permitted, he would have thrown himself at Boleslav"s feet. On seeing his son hustled away, he ran after him in despair, and made a futile attempt to hold him back by the coattails.
But the door was promptly closed on him.
"Give me the key!" shouted Boleslav.
The old man hurled himself on the steps, and pounded the oak panels of the door with his fists.
The key was delivered up by the flugelman and his companions.
"Your name?"
"Michael Grossjohann!" the Schrandener answered curtly.
"And yours," turning to the two others. "Franz Malky."
"Emil Rosner."
He entered the names in his pocket-book.
"You three will keep watch on the prisoner through the night, and are answerable for him with your heads."
Old Merckel, finding the church door did not yield to his furious onslaughts, came to his senses, and squinting askance at Boleslav, sneaked off in the direction of the parsonage. The latter thought he knew what he wanted there.
"Three more of you," he continued, "will kindly guard the vestry door, the key of which I have not got in my possession, and take care that no one goes in and out except the barber, who is to bandage the prisoner"s wound."
Three voices quivering with suppressed anger a.s.sured him his orders should be obeyed.
"Now then, to business!" he exclaimed. "According to the lists the village of Schranden is capable of supplying troops to the number----."
And the mobilisation began.
CHAPTER XVI
Two hours later Boleslav quitted the gaping crowd, who glowered at him with a sort of stony superst.i.tious awe, as if he were a magician, and as he crossed the open common he felt as if he had just left a cage of wild beasts, the duty of taming which, had fallen to his share. The danger seemed safely over for the present. "Having mastered them to-day, they won"t dare to mutiny to-morrow," he thought, and revelled in the joyous sensation of having won a victory.
Now he had only to take leave of Regina, and his troubles would be at an end. The world was all before him once more; an unknown future seemed to be enticing him onwards with bugle-peals and battle-cries.
"Regina! now for Regina!" welled up in him with such jubilation, from the depths of his soul, that he was frightened at himself. He took a round by the wood before approaching the Cats" Bridge, to brace and harden his nerves for this last and most arduous encounter.