wing
day (Oct. 2) I went with a detachment to the Imperial camp at Buda.
Here I met two hundred other Prussian deserters, each of whom had, so
to speak, taken his own way and his own time.

"We had permission to see everything in the camp. Officers and soldiers
stood in crowds around us to whom we were expected to tell more than we
ourselves knew. Some, however, knew how to brag, and flatter their
present hosts, concocting a hundred lies derogatory to the Prussians.
There were also among the Imperialists many arrant braggadocios, and
the smallest dwarf boasted of having, in his own flight, killed, in
their flight, I know not how many long-legged Brandenburgers. After
that they took us to fifty prisoners of the Prussian cavalry, a
pitiable sight! Scarcely one who was not wounded; some cut about the
face, others on the neck, others over the ears, shoulders, or legs, &c.
There was amongst all a groaning and moaning. How fortunate did these
poor fellows esteem us who had escaped a similar fate, and how thankful
were we to God! We passed the night in the camp, and each received a
ducat for the expenses of his journey. They sent us then with a cavalry
escort--there were two hundred of us--to a Bohemian village, from
whence, after a short sleep, we went, the following day, to Prague.
There we divided ourselves, and obtained passports for six, ten, or
even as many as twelve, who were going the same way. We were a
wonderful medley of Swiss, Suabians, Saxons, Bavarians, Tyrolese,
Italians, French, Poles, and Turks. Six of us got one passport for
Ratisbon."

Here we end with Ulrich Braecker. He arrived happily at home, but no one
recognised the moustachioed soldier in his uniform. His sister
concealed herself; his love had been faithless and married another;
only the mother's heart discovered her son in that wild-looking figure.
But his later life in the lonely valley was ruined by the adventures he
had passed through. A strange, uneasy element now pervaded his
character--irritable restlessness, covetousness, and a distaste to
labour.

But Frederic II. wrote, after the battle of Lowositz, to Schwerin:
"Never have any troops done such wonders of valour since I have had the
honour of commanding them."

He whose narrative we have had was one of them.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE STATE OF FREDERIC THE GREAT.
(1700.)

What was it that after the Th