for Parsemachi, in Bohemia.

They started early, and a day in the open, together with a night's sleep,
had almost obliterated the memory of their adventure at the inn.

The cold was intense. The day was gray with heavy clouds that no longer
promised rain, but which shrouded the country with a pall of gloom. The
wind swirled and howled, and though the two friends struggled to keep
their few thin garments drawn closely about them, they still searched the
horizon hopefully, thinking of the journey's end and the peaceful
existence which awaited them. To their right, the aspect of the
countryside had altered somewhat. Great wooded stretches spread away into
the distance, while to the left all was yet free and open.

They had gone about half a mile past the first clump of trees when they
noticed, through the swaying branches by the roadside, a motionless object
around which several men busied themselves. With every step they gained a
clearer impression of the nature of this obstacle until, at last, an
expression of half-mockery, half-anger overspread their features.

"Now God forgive me!" exclaimed Schell finally, "but that is the infernal
brown traveling carriage from the inn!"

"May the devil take me!" rejoined Trenck, "if I delay or flee a step from
those miserable rascals."

And they strode sturdily onward.

As soon as they were within speaking distance, one of the Prussians, a big
man in a furred cap, believing them to be wholly unsuspicious, called to
them:

"My dear sirs, in heaven's name come help us! Our carriage has been
overturned and it is impossible to get it out of this rut."

The friends had reached an angle of the road where a few withered tree
branches alone separated them from the others. They perceived the brown
body of the carriage, half open like a huge rat-trap, and beside it the
forbidding faces of their would-be captors. Trenck launched these words
through the intervening screen of branches:

"Go to the devil, miserable scoundrels that you are, and may you remain
there!"

Then, swift as an arrow, he sped toward the open fields to the left of the
highroad, feigning flight. The carriage, which had been overturned solely
for the purpose of misleading them, was soon righted and the driver lashed
his horses forward in pursuit of the fugitives, the four Prussians
accompanying him with drawn pistols.

When they were almost within reaching distance of their prey they raised
their pistols and shou