wait for that."

His pressing representations and the authority of the intelligent
bailiff brought the community to a unanimous resolve. The young men of
the village took up the matter eagerly, many professing themselves ready
to buy a gun; and the women began to pack up their most valuable effects
in chests and bundles.

From Neudorf, Anton went on to Kunau, where similar regulations were
made; and finally it was arranged that the young men of both villages
should come every Sunday afternoon to the baron's estate to be drilled.

When Anton returned to the castle, the existing means of defense on the
estate itself had to be taken into consideration. A martial fever
prevailed in the German colony: all were affected by it, even the most
peaceful: the shepherd and his dog Crambo, who had, by night patrols,
sentinels, and other disturbances, been worked up to such a state of
excitement that he took to flying at the legs of all strangers--an act
he had often rebuked in his young associate. All thoughts turned on
weapons of warfare and means of defense. Alas! the mood of mind was all
that could be desired, but the forces were very small. To make up for
that, the staff was a distinguished one. First of all, there was the
baron--an invalid, it is true, but great in theory; then Karl and the
forester, as respective leaders of the cavalry and infantry; while Anton
was not to be despised in the commissariat and fortification department.

The baron now left his room each day to hold a council of war. He
superintended the drill, heard reports from surrounding districts, and
sent off messengers to the German circles. A remnant of military ardor
lit up his face. He good-humoredly rallied the baroness about her fears,
spoke words of encouragement to his German tenantry, and threatened to
have all the evil-disposed in the village locked up at once, and kept on
bread and water. It was touching to all to see how the blind man stood
erect, musket in hand, to show certain niceties of manipulation to the
forester, and then bent his ear down to ascertain whether the latter had
thoroughly acquired them. Even Anton put on something of a martial
panoply. He stuck a cockade in his cap; his voice assumed a tone of
military severity, and ever since the Rosmin day he took to wearing an
immense pair of water-proof boots, and his step fell heavy on the stair.
He would have laughed at himself if any one had asked for what purpose
he gave this parti