led. The king stood at the
door looking in amazement at the glorious scene before him. He inhaled
with delight the soft summer air; never had it seemed to him so balmy,
so full of strengthening power, and he acknowledged that never had the
stars, the moon, the sky looked as beautiful. With lively joy he felt
the night-wind toying with his hair. The king would not tire of all
this; it seemed to him as if a friend, dead long since, mourned and
bewailed, had suddenly appeared to him beaming with health, and as if he
must open his arms and say, "Welcome, thou returned one. Fate separated
us; but now, as we have met, we will never leave one another, but cling
together through life and death, through good and evil report."

Life was the friend that appeared to Frederick, and he now felt his
great love for it. Raising his eyes in a sort of ecstasy to the sky, he
murmured, "I swear not to seek death unless at the last extremity, if,
when made a prisoner, I cannot escape. I swear to live, to suffer, so
long as I am free."

He had assumed the harness of life, and was determined to battle bravely
with it.

CHAPTER XIII. THE TWO GRENADIERS.

Smiling, and with elastic step, the king advanced to meet the two
grenadiers, who stood rooted to the spot as he approached them.
"Grenadiers," said he, "why are you not with your comrades?"

"Our comrades fled," said one.

"It is dishonorable to fly," said the other.

The king was startled. These voices were familiar, he had surely heard
them before.

"I ought to know you," said he, "this is not the first time we have
spoken together. What is your name, my son?"

"Fritz Kober is my name," said the grenadier.

"And yours?"

"Charles Henry Buschman," said the other.

"You are not mistaken, sir king! we have met and spoken before, but it
was on a better night than this."

"Where was it?" said the king.

"The night before the great, the glorious battle of Leuthen," said Fritz
Kober, gravely; "at that time, sir king, you sat at our tent-fire
and ate dumplings with us. Charles Henry knows how to cook them so
beautifully!"

"Ah! I remember," said the king; "you made me pay my share of the
costs."

"And you did so, like a true king," said Fritz Kober. "Afterward you
came back to our tent-fire, and Charles Henry Buschman told you fairy
tales, nobody can do that so beautifully as Charles Henry, and you slept
refreshingly throughout."

"No, no, grenadier," said the king, "