utants,
Heppner and Wiegandt, and last came the woman and her son.

At the grave the pastor pronounced the blessing and prayed. Then the
four soldiers lifted the coffin up by the black straps, the sexton
removed the supporting boards, and the dead man was slowly lowered to
his place of rest.

The colonel now stepped forward and spoke a few simple words in
remembrance of the dead. He recalled his genuine loyalty to his
comrades, proved even by his death, and pronounced happy that prince
and that country in whose army so brave a soldier was counted.

Every man present threw three handfuls of earth on the coffin, and the
funeral was at an end.

The little procession left the graveyard at a quicker pace than when it
came. Vogt remained alone at the graveside.

The carriage drove up, but Vogt was still missing, and they had to
fetch him from the grave. As he sat on the box, he looked back
wistfully at the spot where his dear friend lay buried.

The last day of the man[oe]uvres had come. A light mist which veiled
the autumn sun made the heat bearable. The exercises ended in the early
forenoon, and, after a final parade, the troops marched off to their
garrisons. The infantry were despatched in long railway-trains, while
the mounted branches of the service covered the ground by moderate
marches. The 80th regiment was lucky; its garrison could be reached by
a four hours' march.

In order to avoid the inevitable stoppages of an immoderately long
marching column, the colonel had appointed different roads for the
separate batteries, and had fixed on a meeting-place at a short
distance from the barracks, whence they could march in together.

The sixth battery had trotted down a slight incline on the high road,
and afterwards climbed the next rise at a slow pace. The horses no
longer tugged at their traces. They drew the guns patiently and
bravely, but with subdued spirits. Sergeant Heppner looked on
thoughtfully; the animals were certainly more used up this time than on
former occasions of the kind. Their sleek sides had fallen in; and a
couple of them looked very rough in the coat, too. This in addition to
the facts that away somewhere in a bone-mill poor old Turk's bones had
perhaps already been ground into dust, and that Eidechse was not
exactly improved by that gigantic wound in the buttock, which had been
sewn up by the farrier with innumerable stitches.

But this was all because the officers would not listen to s