chill, march with God!"]

CHAPTER XLVII.

SCHILL TAKES THE FIELD.

The following afternoon (March 28, 1809) Major Ferdinand von Schill
proceeded with his regiment through the streets of Berlin to the Halle
gate. The people saluted him everywhere with loud cheers and waving of
hats.

Schill thanked them more gravely than he had hitherto done, and marched
his soldiers out of the gate. No one was surprised at this; all supposed
that he only intended to-day, as he had often done, to drill his troops
and to encamp near the city. His adjutants, Baersch and Luetzow, were,
however, aware of his plans, and had secretly made preparations to carry
them into effect.

The regiment took the road to Potsdam. Major von Schill and his two
adjutants rode at its head, and patriotic songs from the soldiers
resounded along their march. About half-way between Berlin and Potsdam,
near the village of Steglitz, the major stopped his horse, and, with a
wave of his sword, ordered the regiment to halt; then to move from the
road into the adjoining field, and form in square. The command was
obeyed in a few minutes; and Major von Schill, resting in the centre on
his chestnut charger, surveyed his men with evident pleasure.

All eyes were turned toward him--all hearts were beating with affection
for that man of indomitable courage towering above them. Addressing
them, his sonorous voice rang over the welkin as the first notes of a
trumpet summoning to the field of blood.

"Soldiers," he said, "comrades! the moment has come to fight the enemy,
against whom all our souls are filled with hatred--the despoiler of
thrones, who has plunged our fatherland into such distress; who has
trampled under foot all the rights of man; to whom no treaty, no peace
is sacred, and who is only waiting for an opportunity utterly to destroy
the constitution of our country. The perfidious oppressor thus treated
Spain, after she had made numerous sacrifices to him in order to
preserve peace. He intends to degrade Prussia in the same manner, and
not to rest until he has dethroned our beloved king and prostrated the
illustrious dynasty of the Hohenzollerns. But never shall he succeed in
carrying out so nefarious a plan! Austria, Germany, every patriotic
heart is rising against him, and we Prussians cannot remain behind. It
is a sacred obligation to fight for the fatherland, for our beloved
king, for the queen whom we all worship, a precious token from whom I am