So astonishing was the spectacle of three lightly-clad men, appearing suddenly on board a craft moored out on the river, that the three boatmen sat immovable, in the attitudes in which they had been sitting at the entry of these strange visitors, without uttering a word. Superstitious by nature, they doubted whether there was not something supernatural in the appearance of the three strangers.  
"If you cry out or make the slightest sound," Fergus said, showing his knife, "you are all dead men. If you sit quiet and do as we order you, no harm will come to you. We want clothes. If you have spare ones you can hand them to us. If not, we must take those you have on. We are not robbers, and don't want to steal them. If you will fix a fair price on the things, we will pay for them. But you must in any case submit to be bound and gagged till morning; when, on going on deck, you will find no difficulty in attracting the attention of some of your comrades, who will at once release you.
 
"Keep your hands on the table while my friends take away your knives. If one of you moves a hand, he is as good as a dead man."
 
His companions removed the knives from the belts of the two men sitting outside, and then Fergus said to the third man:
 
"Now, hand over your knife. That will do.
 
"Now, which of you is the captain?"
 
"I am," the man sitting farthest from the door said.
 
"Very well. Now, have you spare clothes on board?"
 
"Yes, my lord," he replied, in a tone that showed that he had not yet recovered from his first stupefaction, "we have our Sunday suits."
 
"We don't want them," Fergus said. "We want the three suits that you have on. What do you value them at?"
 
"Anything you like, my lord."
 
"No, I want to know how much they cost when new."
 
The man asked his two comrades, and then mentioned the total.
 
"Very well, we will give you that. Then you will have no reason for grumbling, for you will get three new suits for three old ones.
 
"Now do you--" and he touched the man nearest to him "--take off your coat, waistcoat, breeches, neck handkerchief, and boots, and then get into that bunk."
 
The man did as he was ordered, as did the other two, in succession. As they did so, Captain Ritzer had gone up on deck and returned with a coil of thin rope that he had cut off. With this they tied the men securely.
 
"There is no occasion to gag them, I think," Fergus said. "They might shout as loud as they liked and, with this wind blowing, no one would hear them; or if anyone did hear them, he would take it for the shouting of a drunken man.
 
"Now, look here, my men. Here is the money to buy the new clothes. We have not ill treated you in any way, have we?"
 
"No, sir, we are quite satisfied."
 
"Now, I should advise you, in the morning, to manage to untie each other. We shall fasten the door up as we go out, but you will have no difficulty in bursting that open, when you are once untied.
 
"Now I ask you, as you are satisfied, to say nothing about this affair to anyone. It would only make you a joke among your comrades, and could do you no good. The best thing that you can do, when you get free, will be to dress yourselves in your Sunday clothes, take your boat ashore, and buy new things in the place of those we have taken."
 
"That is what we shall do, sir. No one would believe us, if we told them that three men had come on board and taken our old clothes, and given us money to buy new ones in their place."
 
The three boatmen were all tall and brawny Bavarians, and their clothes fitted Fergus and his companions well. Fishermen's hats completed their costume. The little cabin had been almost oppressively warm, and they had completely got over their chill when they left it, closing the door behind them.
 
They took their places in the boat, crossed to the opposite shore, which was to some extent sheltered from the wind, and rowed some three miles up. Then they landed, pushed the boat off into the stream, kept along the bank until they came to a road branching off to the left, and followed it until it struck the main road, a few hundred yards away; and then walked west.
 
There had been but few words spoken since they left the barge. It had been hard work rowing against wind and stream. The oars were clumsy, and it had needed all their efforts to keep the boat's head straight. Now that they were in the main road, they were somewhat more sheltered.
 
"Well, Drummond, we have accomplished what seemed to me, in spite of your confidence, well-nigh impossible. We have got out, we have obtained disguises, and we have eight or nine hours before our escape can be discovered. I shall believe anything you tell me, in future," Ritzer said.
 
"Yes," his companion agreed, "I never believed that we should succeed; though, as you had set your heart on it, I did not like to hang back. But it really did seem to me a wild scheme, altogether. I thought possibly we might get out of the fort, but I believed that your plan of getting disguises would break down altogether. The rest seemed comparatively easy.
 
"The rain has ceased, and the stars are coming out, which is a comfort indeed. One was often wet through, for days together, when campaigning; but after five months' coddling, an eight hours' tramp in a blinding rain would have been very unpleasant, especially as we have no change of clothes.
 
"Now, commanding officer, what is to be our next tale?"
 
"That is simple enough," Fergus said with a laugh. "We have been down with a raft of timber from the mountains, and are on our way back. That must be our story till we have passed Ratisbon. There is but one objection, and that is a serious one. As raftsmen we should certainly speak the Bavarian dialect, which none of us can do. For that reason I think it would be safer to leave the Danube at Passau, and make down through Munich. We should be at Passau tomorrow morning, and can put up at any little place by the riverside. Two days' walking will take us to Munich.
 
"Certainly no one would suspect us of being escaped prisoners. We can get some other clothes tomorrow morning, and finish the rest of our journey as countrymen.
 
"The principal thing will be to get rid of these high boots. I think in other respects there is nothing very distinctive about our dress. It will be more difficult to concoct a story, but we must hope that we sha'n't be asked many questions, and I see no reason why we should be. We shall look like peasants going from a country village to a town, but if we could hit upon some story to account for our not speaking the dialect, it would of course be a great advantage."
 
They walked along in silence for some time. Then he went on:
 
"I should say we might give out that we are three Saxons who, having been forced at Pirna to enter the Prussian army, had been taken prisoners at Hochkirch and had been marched down with the others to Vienna; and that there, on stating who we were and how we had been forced against our will into Frederick's army, we were at once released, and are now on our way back to Saxony; and are tramping through Bavaria, so as to avoid the risk of being seized and compelled to serve either in the Austrian army or the Prussian; and that we are working our way, doing a job wherever we can get a day or two's employment, but that at present, having worked for a time at Vienna, we are able to go on for a bit without doing so.
 
"I think with that story we could keep to the plan of going up through Ratisbon. It would be immensely shorter, and the story would be more probable than that we should make such a big detour to get home."
 
"Yes, I should think that would do well," Ritzer said, "and will shorten the way by two hundred miles. But after leaving Passau, I should think that we had better not follow the direct road until we get to Ratisbon.
 
"I grant that as far as that town we ought to be quite safe, for there is no chance of their finding out that we have escaped until eight o'clock in the morning; then our colonel will have to report the matter to the commandant in the town. No doubt he will send off a small party of cavalry, by the Freyberg road to Budweis, to order the authorities there to keep a sharp lookout for three men passing north. But I doubt very much whether they will think of sending in this direction. The escape of three Prussian officers is, after all, no very important matter. Still, one cannot be too careful, for possibly the commandant may send to Munich, Ratisbon, and Vienna.
 
"It is more likely, however, that the search will be made principally in and round Linz. They will feel quite sure that we cannot possibly have obtained any disguises, and must have gone off in our undergarments; and they will reckon that we should naturally have hidden up in some outhouse, or country loft, until we could find some opportunity for obtaining clothes. Most likely the barge went on this morning, before the alarm had been given; but even if it didn't, boatmen would not be likely to hear of the escape of three prisoners.
 
"No, I think beyond Passau we shall be quite safe, as far as pursuit goes; but it will be best to halt there only long enough to take a good meal, and then to go on for a bit, and stop at some quiet riverside village."
 
"I don't think I shall be able to go very far," Ritzer said. "These boots are a great deal too large for me, and are chafing my feet horribly. The road is good and level; and I was thinking, just now, of taking them off and carrying them."
 
"That would be the best way, by far," Fergus said. "I should think at Passau we are sure to find a boat going up to Ratisbon, and that will settle the difficulty."
 
The distance was some thirty miles and, making one or two halts for a rest, they reached Passau just as morning was breaking. In a short time the little inns by the river opened their doors, and the riverside was astir. They went into one of the inns and ate a hearty meal, then they went down to the waterside, and found that there were several country boats going up the river. They soon bargained for a passage, and had just time to buy a basket of bread, sausage, and cheese, with half a dozen bottles of wine, before the boat started. There were no other passengers on board and, telling the story they had agreed upon, they were soon on good terms with the boatmen.
 
Including the windings of the river, it was some eighty miles to Ratisbon. The boat was towed by two horses, and glided pleasantly along, taking three days on the passage. They bought food at the villages where the craft lay up for the night, and arrived at Ratisbon at nine o'clock in the evening. There they found no difficulty in obtaining a lodging at a small inn, where no questions, whatever, were asked.
 
A short day's journey took them to Neumarkt, a tramp of upwards of twenty miles. It was a longer journey on to Bamberg, and two days later, to their satisfaction, they entered Coburg.
 
They were now out of Bavaria, and had escaped all difficulties as to the dialect far better than they had anticipated, never having been asked any questions since they left the boat at Ratisbon. They had now only to say that they were on their way to join the Confederate army that was again being gathered; but they preferred avoiding all questions, by walking by night and resting at little wayside inns during the day. Avoiding all towns, for the troops were beginning to move, they crossed the Saxon frontier three days after leaving Coburg, and then travelled by easy stages to Dresden.
 
Here they went straight to the headquarters of the commandant of the town, and reported themselves to him. Fergus had personal acquaintances on his staff, and had no difficulty in obtaining, for himself and his companions, an advance of a portion of the pay due to them, in order that they might obtain new outfits.
 
This took a couple of days, and the two captains then said goodbye to Fergus, with many warm acknowledgments for the manner in which he had enabled them to regain their freedom--expressions all the more earnest since they heard that the Austrians had decided that, in future, they would make no exchanges whatever of prisoners--and started to rejoin their regiments.
 
Fergus felt strangely lonely when they had left him. The king was at Breslau. Keith was lying dead in Hochkirch. What had become of Lindsay he knew not, nor did he know to whom he ought to report himself, or where Karl might be with his remaining charger and belongings. Hitherto at Dresden he had felt at home. Now, save for Count Eulenfurst and his family, he was a stranger in the place.
 
Naturally, therefore, he went out to their chateau. Here he was received with the same warmth as usual.
 
"Of course we heard of your capture at Hochkirch," the count said, "though not for many weeks afterwards. We were alarmed when the news came of the marshal's death, for as it was upon his division that the brunt of the battle had fallen, we feared greatly for you. At last came the list the Austrians had sent in of the prisoners they had taken, and we were delighted to see your name in it; though, as the Austrians have been so chary of late of exchanging prisoners, we feared that we might not see you for some time. However, remembering how you got out of Spielberg, we did not despair of seeing you back in the spring.
 
"Thirza was especially confident. I believe she conceives you capable of achieving impossibilities. However, you have justified her faith in you.
 
"Supper will be served in a few minutes, and as no doubt your story is, as usual, a long one, we will not begin it until we have finished the meal. But tell us first, how were you captured?"
 
"I was riding through the mist to find the marshal; whom I had not seen for two hours, as I was with the regiment that defended the church at Hochkirch, and then cut its way out through the Austrians. The mist was so thick that I could not see ten yards ahead, and rode plump into an Austrian battalion. They fired a volley that killed poor Turk, and before I could get on my feet I was surrounded and taken prisoner--not a very heroic way, I must admit."
 
"A much pleasanter way, though, than that of being badly wounded, and so found on the field by the enemy," the countess said; "and you were fortunate, indeed, in getting through that terrible battle unhurt."
 
"I was, indeed, countess; but I would far rather have lost a limb than my dear friend and relation, the marshal. I was allowed to attend his funeral the next day. The Austrians paid him every honour and, though I have mourned for him most deeply, I cannot but feel that it was the death he would himself have chosen. He had been ailing for some months, and had twice been obliged to leave his command and rest. It would, in any case, probably have been his last campaign; and after such a wonderfully adventurous life as he had led, he would have felt being laid upon the shelf sorely."
 
"His elder brother--Earl Marischal in Scotland, is he not?--who has been governor for some years at Neufchatel, is with the king at Breslau, at present. They say the king was greatly affected at the loss of the marshal who, since Schwerin's death, has been his most trusted general."
 
"I have never seen the marshal's brother," Fergus said, "though I know that they were greatly attached to each other. I hope that he will be at Breslau when I get there. I shall go and report myself to the king, after I have had a few days' rest here. At present I seem altogether unattached. The marshal's staff is, of course, broken up; but as I served on the king's own staff twice, during the last campaign, I trust that he will put me on it again."
 
"That he will do, of course," the count said. "After saving his life at Zorndorf, he is sure to do so."
 
Supper was now announced, and after it had been removed and the party drew round the fire, Fergus told them the story of his escape.
 
"It was excellently managed," the count said, when he had finished. "I do not know that it was quite as dramatic as your escape from Spielberg, but I should think that, of the two, the escape from Linz must have seemed the most hopeless. The plan of getting the shutters open and of swimming the moat might have occurred to anyone; but the fact that you were in uniform, and that it would have been impossible to s............