les are terrible, and you may be sure
that the king will not be idle while you and the Saxons are
marching to meet each other.

"However, it was a hard-fought battle, and I should think that our
loss must be quite as great as yours; for your artillery must have
played terrible havoc among our infantry, as they marched to the
assault of the village."

"Yes. I hear this morning that we have lost about a hundred and
twenty officers killed and wounded, and about two thousand one
hundred and fifty men, and nearly seven hundred missing or
prisoners. What your loss is, of course, I can't say."

"I cannot understand your taking so many prisoners," Fergus said.

"A great many of them belong to the cavalry. You see, all who were
dismounted by the fire of our guns were captured when our horse
swept down."

"Ah, yes! I did not think of that. I saw a good many men running
across the plain when I galloped out."

Two of the officers belonged to the 3rd Royal Dragoon Guards, half
of which regiment had taken part in the reconnaissance; and both
their horses, like his own, had been shot under them. As soon as
they were brought up from the tents where they had been lodged,
they exchanged a cordial greeting with Fergus. He no longer
belonged to the regiment, as on his promotion he had been gazetted
from it on to the staff; but during the time he had drilled with
them, in Berlin, he had come to be well known to all of them.

"I thought that it was you, lieutenant," one of them said. "I was
not far from you, when you charged through those Austrians. I was
unhorsed as we went forward, and was running back when I saw them
come out. There were a good many of us, and I thought their object
was to capture us. It was no use running, and I threw myself down,
in hopes they would think I had been knocked over. You passed
within thirty yards of me. Our guns opened so heavily on them,
after you had got through, that I thought it prudent to keep quiet
a little longer before I made a move; and the result was that the
Austrian cavalry, as it came along in the pursuit of our men,
picked me up.

"Do you know where we are bound for?"

"Prague in the first instance, but beyond that I cannot say. I
suppose it will depend a good deal on what takes place now. There
is no doubt the Saxons will have to surrender; and I suppose that,
anyhow, they will send us farther away, unless indeed there is an
exchange of prisoners."

A long day's ride took them