"Morbleu!" vociferated the other, in a rage; "do you want to take the trick from your commander, Captain Loffler? For shame, for shame! he is a rebel who dares do that. May my soul be punished, but you want to take the command away from me." The general, for such he was, frowned furiously, pushed his hat off his ears, and discovered a large red scar on his forehead, which heightened the savage appearance of his look.
"There is no military discipline at play," General Peter, "answered the other. You may order us captains to blockade a town, and raise contributions, but at play one man is as good as another."
"You are mutinous, a rebel against the authorities! Thunder and lightning! were it not against my honour, I would cut you into a hundred pieces;--but play on."
"There"s an ace," said one. "Here"s a quart," said another. "I cut with the ten," exclaimed a third. "And here"s the knave,--who can take him?"
said the fourth player.
"I can," cried the large man; "there"s the king,--Morbleu! the trick is mine."
"Where did you get the king?" said a little thin man, with a cunning face, small searching eyes, and shrill voice, "didn"t I see it at the bottom of the pack when you dealt. He has cheated! Long Peter has cheated, by all the saints!"
"Muckerle, captain of the eighth company! I advise you to hold your tongue," said the general; "_Ba.s.sa manelka!_ I don"t take a joke,--the mouse should not play with the lion."
"And I say it again,--where did you get the king? I"ll prove you false before the pope and the king of France, thou foul player."
"Muckerle," replied the general, drawing his sword deliberately out of its scabbard, "pray another Ave Maria and a Gratias, for as soon as the game is over you are a dead man."
The other three men were roused from a state of indifference at these angry words. They sided with the little captain, and gave the general to understand clearly that they thought he was capable of the imputed meanness. He, however, looked big, and full of importance, and swore he had not cheated. "If the holy Peter, my gracious patron, who I carry on my hat, could speak, he would bear me witness, as true as I am a Christian lansquenet, that I have not played false!"
"He played fair," said a strange voice, which appeared to issue from the tree. The men crossed themselves to defend them from an evil spirit, the gallant general even turned pale, and let drop his cards; when a peasant stept forward from behind the tree, armed with a dagger, and having a guitar slung over his shoulder with a leathern strap. He beheld the group with an undaunted eye, and said, "That gentleman did not cheat; I saw all the cards that were dealt to him."
"Ah! you are a fine fellow," said the general, much pleased; "as I am an honest lansquenet, what you say is all right."
"But how is this?" said the little captain, with a sharp look, "how did this peasant get here without being announced by the piquet? He is a spy, and deserves to be hung."
"Don"t be astonished, Muckerle, he is no spy; come and sit down by me, my friend, you are a musician, I see, by your instrument hanging over your shoulder, like a Spaniard going to serenade his love."
"Yes, sir! I am a poor musician; your guard allowed me to pa.s.s when I came through the wood. I saw you playing, and I ventured to look on."
The commanders of this free corps not being accustomed to hear themselves addressed in such polite terms, took a liking to the peasant, and invited him courteously to seat himself among them; for they had learned in the military service of foreign countries that kings and princes often went about in the guise of minstrels.
The general filled a cup of wine out of a pewter bottle, offered it to the little captain, and said, with a good-natured smile, "Muckerle, what I drink shall be my death, if I don"t forget everything that has pa.s.sed between us! an end to strife and quarrel. We won"t play any more, gentlemen: I love a song and the sound of the guitar--what say you to some music?"
The men agreed, and threw the cards aside. The peasant tuned his instrument, and asked what he should sing.
"Give us a song upon card-playing!" cried one of the party.
The musician considered awhile, and sung the following upon the game of lansquenet, which they had just been playing.
"Cinque, quatre, and ace Bring many a man to disgrace; Quatre, and cinque, and tre Make many to cry well-a-day; An ace, a seize, and a deuce Make many an empty house; A quatre, a trois, and cinque Cause many pure water to drink; A cinque, a trois, and quatre Make parents" and children"s eyes water; From cinque, and quatre, and seize, Miss Catherine and Miss Elize Must long unmarried remain, Unless from your play you refrain."
Long Peter and his a.s.sociates praised his singing, and reached him the flask with their thanks. "May G.o.d bless you!" said the singer, as he returned the bottle; "I wish you luck in your campaign. If I don"t mistake, you are the commanders of the League, and are on your march to the enemy. May I ask who you are going against?"
The men looked and smiled at each other, but the general answered him: "you are quite in the wrong. We did, indeed, serve the League formerly, but we are now free and our own masters, ready to a.s.sist any one who wants us."
"This will be a good year for the Swiss, for it is said the Duke will return to his country with their a.s.sistance," said the peasant.
"May the Swiss be hunted by wolves," said the general, "for having treated him so ill! The good Duke set all his hopes upon them, and, _diavolo maledetto_! did they not desert him in Blaubeuren?"
"Yes, it was too bad," said Captain Muckerle; "but when one looks at the circ.u.mstance in its proper light, it served him half right, because he should have known them better. May the devil take them all!"
"They were the Duke"s last resource," replied the musician; "but if he had trusted to such men as you, the League would still be at Ulm."
"You have spoken a true word there, my hearty friend!" said the captain. "He ought to have preferred the lansquenets before those Swiss dogs. And if he trusts to them now, I know what will happen. I say it again: he should take lansquenets. Is it not so, Magdeburger?"
"That"s my opinion also," said the Magdeburger: "no other than lansquenets can seat the Duke upon his chair again. The Swiss only know how to use their long halberds; that"s all their art. But you ought to see us load our guns, how we lay them in the fork, and fire them with a match. No one can come near us in that man[oe]uvre. The Swiss take half an hour to fire their guns, but we only half of a quarter."
"With all respect, gentlemen of this n.o.ble corps," said the peasant, raising his cap respectfully, "the Duke should certainly have thrown himself upon your bounty. But the League rewarded you too well for the poor Duke to be able to crave your a.s.sistance."
"Rewarded, did you say?" cried the captain of the fifth company, and laughed; "yes, those Swabian dogs would have melted gold out of lead if they could! But I say they paid us ill, and if his grace the Duke will take me, my services are at his command."
"You are right, Staberl," said the general, and stroked his beard.
"_Morbleu!_ the cat likes to have his back stroked:--if the Duke pays well, the whole corps will join him."
"Well, you shall soon see that," said the peasant, with a cunning smile; "have you had an answer to your message to the Duke?"
The general"s whole countenance became as red as fire at this question.
"_Mordelement!_ Who are you, child of man, who knows my secret? Who told you I had sent to the Duke?"
"Did you, Peter, send to him? What secret have you between each other that we should not know? Tell us immediately," said the Magdeburger.
"Well, I thought it was my duty to think for you all again, as I always have done, and sent a man to the Duke in our name, and with our compliments, to know if he required our services? Our terms were, half a broad piece a man per month, and for us generals and captains a gold florin, with four measures of old wine."
"Those are no bad terms: a gold florin a month! none of us will object to them. Have you had an answer from the Duke?" said the Magdeburger.
"Not yet," said the general. "But, _ba.s.sa manelka!_ tell me, how do you come to know my secret, peasant, or I"ll cut off your ear, and pin it to my hat? Tell me immediately, or off it comes."
"Long Peter," cried the little captain Muckerle, "let him go in peace, for G.o.d"s sake! he is a resolute man, and possesses the art of witchcraft. I recollect his face as well as if it was but to-day, when we had orders to arrest him in Ulm, and were sent to look for him at the stable of Herrn von Kraft, the clerk of the council, where he resided. He was a spy, and was able to make himself smaller and smaller, not bigger than a sparrow, and flew away from us."
"What!" cried the gallant general, and edged away from the peasant; "is this the man? Why did not the magistrates of Ulm order all the sparrows to be shot, because a Wurtemberger spy had turned himself into one?"
"That"s him," whispered Muckerle; "that"s the fifer of Hardt; I knew him as soon as I saw him."
The general and his companions did not recover their astonishment for some time. They beheld the man of whom many wonderful stories had been related with mingled curiosity and apprehension. Hans was clever enough, however, to understand what they whispered to each other, without the appearance of remarking the state of surprise he had created among them. At length, Long Peter, the official organ of the rest, took heart, twisted his whiskers, and, taking off his enormous hat, thus addressed the fifer of Hardt: "Pardon us, worthy companion, and highly respected fifer of Hardt, that we have treated you with so little ceremony; but how could we know who it was we had among us? be many times welcome; I have long wished to see so renowned a man as the fifer of Hardt, who had the power of flying away from Ulm like a sparrow in the middle of the day."
"Let"s have done with those old stories," interrupted the fifer, hastily. "I heard this day from the Duke, who desired me to find you out, to know if you were still inclined to join him upon the terms he has proposed."
"_Canto cacramento!_ he is a good man! a gold ducat a month and four measures of wine daily! Long may he live!" cried the general.
"When will he come?" asked captain Loffler. "Where shall we meet him?"
"This very day, if no ill luck attends him. He was to advance upon Heimsheim this morning, where the garrison is weak, and, when he has taken it, he will come on this way."
"Look! there rides a man in armour, to all appearance a knight!" The men looked towards the end of the valley, and remarked a helmet and armour shining in the sun, with a horse occasionally visible. The fifer of Hardt jumped up and climbed the oak, whence he could overlook the valley with greater ease. The horseman was too distant from him to be able to recognise his features, but he thought he knew the scarf which he wore, and that it was the person he had been expecting to appear.
"What do you see?" said the men; "is it one riding by chance through the wood, or do you think he comes from the Duke?"