ave the signal that a man
had escaped, the alarm was given to the surrounding villages, mounted
foresters and troopers trotted along all the roads, detachments of foot
and horse scoured the country as far as the frontiers, and information
was given to the villages. Whoever brought in a deserter received in
Prussia ten thalers, but whoever did not stop him, had to pay double
that sum as a punishment. Every soldier who went along the high road,
was obliged to have a pass; in Prussia, by the orders of Frederic
William I., every subject, whether high or low, was bound to detain
every soldier he met on the road to inquire after his papers. It was a
terrible thing, for a little artisan lad to be brought to a standstill
in a lonely street by a desperate six-foot grenadier, with musket and
sword, who could not be passed. Still worse was it when whole troops
prepared for flight, like those twenty Russians of the Dessauer
regiment at Halle, who, in 1734, obtained leave to attend the Greek
service at Brandenburg, where the King kept a patriarch for his
numerous Russian Grenadiers. But the twenty were determined to make a
pilgrimage back to the golden cross of the holy Moscow; they passed
with great staves through the Saxon villages, and were with difficulty
caught by the Prussian Hussars, brought back by Dresden to their
garrison, and there mildly treated. But yet more grievous was it to the
King, that even among his own Potsdamers a conspiracy broke out, when
his tall Servian Grenadiers had sworn to burn the town, and to desert
with arms in their hands. There were people of importance at the bottom
of it; the executions, cutting off of noses, and other modes of
punishment, occasioned the King a loss of 30,000 thalers. In the field,
also, a system of tactical regulations were necessary to restrain
desertion; every night march, every camp on the outskirts of a wood,
produced losses; the troops, both on the road and in camp, had to be
surrounded by strong patrols of Hussars and pickets; in every secret
expedition it was necessary to isolate the army by means of troops of
light cavalry, in order that deserters might not carry news to the
enemy. This order was still given to the Generals by Frederic II. In
spite of all, however, in every campaign, after each lost battle, and
even after those which were won, the number of deserters was fearfully
great. After unfortunate campaigns, great armies were in danger of
entire dissolution. Many