He laughed quite gaily now, and the meal was not without a certain air
of festivity, though it consisted of nothing better than two ounces of
horse and half an ounce of ham eaten in company of that rye-bread made
with one-third part of straw which Rapp allowed the citizens to buy.

For Rapp had first tamed his army, and was now taming the Dantzigers.
He had effected discipline in his own camp by getting his regiments into
shape, by establishing hospitals (which were immediately filled), and by
protecting the citizens from the depredations of the starving fugitives
who had been poured pell-mell into the town.

Then he turned his attention to the Dantzigers, who were openly or
secretly opposed to him. He seized their churches and turned them into
stores; their schools he used for hospitals, their monasteries for
barracks. He broke into their cellars, and took the wine for the sick.
Their storehouses he placed under the strictest guard, and no man could
claim possession of his own goods.

"We are," he said in effect, with that grim Alsatian humour which the
Prussians were slow to understand; "we are one united family in a narrow
house, and it is I who keep the storeroom key."

Barlasch had proved to be no false prophet. His secret store escaped the
vigilance of the picket, whom he himself conducted to the cellars in
the Frauengasse. Although he was sparing enough, he could always
provide Desiree with anything for which she expressed a wish, and even
forestalled those which she left unspoken. In return he looked for
absolute obedience, and after their frugal breakfast he took her to task
for depriving herself of such food as they could afford.

"See you," he said, "a siege is a question of the stomach. It is not the
Russians we have to fight; for they will not fight. They sit outside
and wait for us to die of cold, of starvation, of typhus. And we are
obliging them at the rate of two hundred a day. Yes, each day Rapp is
relieved of the responsibility of two hundred mouths that drop open and
require nothing more. Be greedy--eat all you have, and hope for release
to-morrow, and you die. Be sparing--starve yourself from parsimony or
for the love of some one who will eat your share and forget to
thank you, and you will die of typhus. Be careful, and patient, and
selfish--eat a little, take what exercise you can, cook your food
carefully with salt, and you will live. I was in a siege thirty years
before you were born, and I