Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places | Page 3

soon found the young Feldwebel; and the Hauptmann of his company
when he heard the state of the case, smiled a grim but kindly smile, and
gave him leave for two days with the proviso, that if any hostile action
should be taken in the interval he should rejoin the colours immediately
and without notice. "No fear of that!" was Eckenstein's reply with a
significant down glance at his sword; and then, after a cheery
"good-night" to the hardy bivouackers, we visitors started in triumph on
our return to the Hagen, the young Feldwebel in our midst It was good
to see the unrestraint with which Minna--she of the apple face and
frank eyes--threw herself round the neck of her betrothed as she met
him on the steps of the Hagen, and his modest manly blush as he
returned the embrace. Ye gods! did not we make a night of it! Stolid
Hagen came out of his shell for once, and swore, Donner Wetter that he
would give us a supper we should remember; and he kept his word. The
good old pastor of the snow-white hair and withered cheeks--he had
been engaged to perform the ceremony of the morrow--we voted into
the chair whether he would or not; and on his right sat Minna and
Eckenstein, their arms interlacing and whispering soft speeches which
were not for our ears. The table was covered with bottles of Blume de
Saar, the champagne peculiar of the Hagen; and the speed with which
the full bottles were converted into "dead marines" was a caution to
teetotallers. Then de Liefde the polyglot gave the health of the happy
couple in a felicitous but composite speech, in which half a dozen
languages were impartially intermixed so that all might understand at
least a portion. George the jolly insisted in leading off the honours with
a truly British "three times three;" and that horrible dog of Hyndman's
gave the time, like a beast as he was, with stentorian barkings. Then
Minna and her sister retired, followed by Herr Pastor; and after a
considerable number of more bottles of Blume de Saar had met their
fate we formed a procession and escorted the happy Eckenstein to the
Rheinischer Hof where he was to sleep.
Next morning by eleven, we had all reassembled in the second saal of

the Hagen. In the great room the marriage-breakfast was laid out, and
in the kitchen Hagen and his Frau were up to their eyes in mystic
culinary operations. Minna looked like a rosebud in her pretty
low-necked blue dress, and the pastor in his cassock helped to the
diversity of colour. We had done shaking hands with the bride and
bridegroom after the ceremony, and were sitting down to the marriage
feast, when young Eckenstein started and made three strides to the open
window. His accustomed ear had caught a sound which none of us had
heard. It was the sharp peremptory note of the drum beating the alarm.
As it came nearer and could no longer be mistaken, the bright colour
went out from poor Minna's cheek and she clung with a brave touching
silence to her sister. In two minutes more Eckenstein had his helmet on
his head and his sword buckled on, and then he turned to say farewell
to his girl ere he left her for the battle. The parting was silent and brief;
but the faces of the two were more eloquent than words. Poor Minna
sat down by the window straining her eyes as Eckenstein, running at
speed, went his way to the rendezvous.
When I got up to the Bellevue the French were streaming in
overwhelming force down the slope of the Spicheren into the
intervening valley. It was a beautiful sight; but I am not going to
describe it here. Ere an hour was over the shells and chassepôt bullets
were sweeping across the Exercise Platz, and it was no longer a safe
spot for a non-combatant like myself. Before I got back into the Hagen
after paying my bill at the Rheinischer and fetching away my knapsack,
the French guns were on the Exercise Platz. I heard for the first time the
angry screech of the mitrailleuse and saw the hailstorm of its bullets
spattering on the pavement of the bridge. Somehow or other the whole
of our little coterie had found their way into the Hagen; by a sort of
common impulse, I imagine. The landlady was already in hysterics; the
Vogt girls were pale but plucky. Presently the shells began to fly. The
Prussians had a gun or two on the railway esplanade above us, the fire
of which the French began to return fiercely. Every shell that fell short
tumbled in or about the Hagen; and a company