"
continued the merchant, "and I have, during the last few days, rejoiced
to discover how perfectly I can depend upon you. What you have just done
to save my head-piece will be unforgotten as long as I live. And now
draw a writing-table here beside me; we have still some plans to
arrange."

The next morning a post-chaise stood before the inn door, into which Mr.
Schroeter was lifted by Anton. It was then drawn up to the side of the
street till he had seen the wagons pass one by one out of the gateway.
Then pressing Anton's hand once more, he said, "Your stay here may last
weeks, nay, months. Your work will be very disagreeable, and often
fruitless. But I repeat it, do not be too anxious; I trust to your
decision as to my own. And do not be afraid of incurring contingent
loss, if you can only get unsafe debtors to pay up. This place is
devastated and lost to us for the future. Farewell till our happy
meeting at home."

Thus Anton remained alone in the strange town, in a position where great
trust imposed upon him great responsibility. He went back to his room,
called the landlord, and at once made arrangements for his further stay
there. The town was so filled with military that he preferred to remain
in the small quarters that he had already occupied, and to put up with
their inconveniences, having little expectation of changing for the
better.

It was indeed a devastated town which Anton now explored. A few days
back, crowds of passionately-excited men had filled the streets, and
every kind of daring enterprise was to be read on their wild faces.
Where was now the haughty defiance, the thirst of battle, that inspired
all those thousands?

The crowds of peasants, the swarming town populace, the soldiers of the
patriot army, had vanished like ghosts scared by the presence of an
enchanter. The few men to be seen were foreign soldiers. But their gay
uniforms did not improve the aspect of the town. True, the fire was
quenched, whose clouds of smoke had darkened the sky. But there stood
the houses in the pale light, looking as if they had been gutted. The
doors remained closed; many of the window-panes were broken; on the
flags lay heaps of mud, dirty straw, and fragments of furniture. Here, a
car with a broken wheel; there, a uniform, arms, the carcass of a horse.
At the corner of a street stood barrels and pieces of furniture which
had been thrown out of the houses, as a last barricade to impede the
advancing troops;