about eight o'clock that same evening, twenty wagons, loaded alternately with hay and straw, left froeschwiller by the road to enashausen. each one was driven by a man who, in accordance with the old saying that french was intended to be spoken to men, italian to women, and german to horses, addressed his horses in a language marked by the strange oaths that schiller put in the mouths of his robbers.
once beyond froeschwiller the wagons went silently along the highroad leading to the village of enashausen, which bends straight back, by an angle, to woerth. they stopped in the village only long enough for the drivers to take a drink at the door of the wine-shop, and then continued on their way.
when they were within a hundred feet of the town the first wagoner stopped his cart and went on alone to the gate. he was challenged by a sentinel before he had gone ten paces, to whom he replied: "i am bringing some wagons that have been ordered and am on my way to report."
the first sentinel let him pass, as did the second and the third. at the gate he slipped his paper through the wicket and waited. the wicket closed again, and in a moment the little side door opened and the sergeant in charge appeared.
"is it you, my boy?"' he asked; "where are your wagons?"
"about a hundred feet off, sergeant."
it is needless to add that both question and answer were in german.
"very well," said the sergeant, still in german, "i will[pg 203] bring them in myself." and he went out, charging the man he left behind to be careful.
the sergeant and the wagoner passed the three lines of sentinels and reached the wagons which were waiting on the highroad. the sergeant glanced at them carelessly and ordered them to proceed. wagons and wagoners started, and, led by the sergeant, passed the sentinels and entered the gate which closed behind them.
"now," said the sergeant, "do you know the way to the barracks or shall i go with you?"
"no need of that," replied the chief wagoner; "we will take the wagons to the golden lion to-night in order to save trouble, and in the morning we will take the forage to the barracks."
"very well," said the sergeant, re-entering the guard-house; "good-night, comrades."
"good-night," replied the wagoner.
the golden lion was scarcely a hundred feet from the gate by which they had just entered. the chief wagoner rapped upon the glass, and as it was only ten o'clock the landlord appeared upon the threshold.
"ah! is it you, stephan?" he asked, glancing at the long line of wagons, which extended from his door almost to the haguenau gate.
"yes, monsieur bauer, myself," replied the chief wagoner.
"and all goes well?"
"perfectly."
"no trouble in entering?"
"not the slightest. and here?"
"we are ready."
"the house?"
"a match is all that is needed."
"then we had better bring the carts into the courtyard. our men must be stifling."
fortunately the courtyard was large, and the twenty carts had no difficulty in entering. the great gate was[pg 204] closed, and the landlord and the wagoner were alone. then, at a given signal—three claps of the hand—a singular thing came to pass.
the bales of hay or straw in each wagon began to move. then two heads appeared, followed by two bodies, and finally two men, dressed in the prussian uniform, emerged. then from each of the carts they took another uniform, which they gave the wagoners. then, to crown the work, each soldier, standing in the wagon, armed himself with a musket, and took out a third for the wagoner. thus, when nine o'clock sounded, stephan, clad as a prussian sergeant, had under his orders the sixty resolute german-speaking men for whom he had asked pichegru. they went directly to the stable, where the door was shut after them when they had received the order to load their muskets, which had been left unloaded for fear of accidents in the wagons.
then bauer and stephan went out arm in arm. they went to the house to which the latter had referred when they met; it stood in the highest part of the town, as far as possible from the haguenau gate, and not a hundred feet from the powder-magazine. the house, which resembled a swiss chalet, was built entirely of wood. bauer showed stephan a room filled with combustible matter and resinous wood.
"at what time shall i fire the house?" asked bauer, as simply as if he had been speaking of the most trivial matter.
"at half-past eleven," replied stephan.
it was then nearly ten.
"are you sure that the general will be on hand at half-past eleven?"
"in person."
"you know," said bauer, "that once the prussians realize that the burning house is near the powder-magazine, they will rush here to save the powder, and the inclosure in which the military wagons are stored. in the meantime the rue de haguenau will be empty, and that is the time to carry the gate and enter the town. the general can reach the[pg 205] great square without firing, and at the first report five hundred patriots will open their windows and begin to shoot at the prussians."
"have you men to sound the tocsin?"
"two in each church."
"then all is ready," said stephan. "let us take a look at the powder-magazine, and then go back."
they returned by the ramparts, and found that, as bauer had said, the wooden house was within fifty feet of the inclosure. at eleven o'clock they entered the courtyard of the golden lion. the sixty men were ready and full of enthusiasm, and understood that they had been intrusted with a great enterprise.
at a quarter past eleven bauer shook hands with stephan, and, assuring himself that he was provided with his tinder-box and flint, made his way toward the wooden house.
stephan, who remained behind, called his sixty men and explained his plan to them. each understood what he had to do, and swore to carry it out as far as possible. they waited. half-past eleven struck. stephan, at the highest window in the house, was watching for the first gleam of light. scarcely had the strokes ceased to vibrate in the air than a reddish glare began to color the roofs in the upper part of the town. stephan ran down; the time had come.
the men were drawn up in the yard in three platoons of twenty men each. stephan half opened the gate. every one was running to the other part of town. he ordered his men to march toward the haguenau gate in single file, while he himself ran ahead, crying: "fire! in the higher parts of the town, comrades! fire! near the powder-magazine! fire! save the wagons! fire! keep the powder from exploding!"
stephan ran to the guard of twenty-four men at the gate. the sentinel, taking him for the sergeant of the post, did not stop him.
"every one of you to the upper part of the town to save the wagons and the powder. to the fire! to the fire!"
[pg 206]
not one of the twenty-four men remained, save the sentinel, chained by his orders. but his curiosity got the better of his discipline, and he asked the pretended sergeant what had happened. the latter, full of good-will toward his subordinates, told him that a servant had fired the wooden house belonging to the landlord of the golden lion. in the meantime the patrol was approaching from behind.
"what is that?" asked the sentinel.
"oh, nothing," replied stephan, "a patrol." and so saying he slipped a gag into the sentinel's mouth and pushed him toward the first two men of the patrol, who bound him firmly.
then they carried him into the guard-house, locked him in the officer's room, and took out the key. one of the men volunteered to replace the sentinel, and as they were obliged to know the countersign stephan undertook to find out what it was.
holding the key in one hand and a sharp dagger in the other he entered the room. no one knew what arguments he used, but when he came out the sentinel had spoken in spite of his gag. he told the sentinel that the words for the day were stettin and strasbourg.
then they seized the gate-keeper, bound him and locked him in the cellar, stephan again taking the keys.
then he put fifty-five of his men in the gatekeeper's room, bidding them hold the gate at all odds so long as one of them was alive. finally he went out with his five men to relieve the outside sentinels.
in ten minutes two of them were dead and the third a prisoner. their places were taken by three of his men. then with the other two he hastened toward enashausen; but scarcely had he gone a hundred yards when he came upon a black, compact mass, which proved to be pichegru's men. he was soon face to face with the general.
"well?" asked the latter.
"not an instant to lose, general; we must hurry."
"the haguenau gate?"
[pg 207]
"is ours."
"come, children," said pichegru, who realized that this was no time for lengthy explanations, "forward! march!"
