isappear in the thicket. Like caterpillars they destroyed
everything; whole tracts of forest-land would be cut down in a single
night and immediately made away with, leaving nothing to be found next
morning but chips and disordered heaps of brushwood. The fact that there
were never any wagon tracks leading towards a village, but always to and
from the river, proved that the work was carried on under the
protection, perhaps with the cooeperation, of the shipowners. There must
have been some very skilful spies in the band, for the foresters could
watch in vain for weeks at a time; nevertheless, the first night they
failed, from sheer fatigue, to watch, the devastation began again,
whether it was a stormy night or moonlight. It was strange that the
country folk in the vicinity seemed just as ignorant and excited as the
foresters themselves.

Of several villages it could be asserted with certainty that they did
not belong to the "Blue Smocks," while no strong suspicion could be
attached to a single one, since the most suspected of all, the village
of B., had to be acquitted. An accident had brought this about--a
wedding, at which almost every resident of this village had notoriously
passed the night, while during this very time the "Blue Smocks" had
carried out one of their most successful expeditions.

The damage to the forest, in the meanwhile, was so enormous that
preventive measures were made more stringent than ever before; the
forest was patrolled day and night; head-servants and domestics were
provided with firearms and sent to help the forest officers.
Nevertheless, their success was but slight, for the guards had often
scarcely left one end of the forest when the "Blue Smocks" were already
entering the other. This lasted more than a whole year; guards and "Blue
Smocks," "Blue Smocks" and guards, like sun and moon, ever alternating
in the possession of the land and never meeting each other.

It was July, 1756, at three o'clock in the morning; the moon shone
brightly in the sky, but its light had begun to grow dim; and in the
East there was beginning to appear a narrow, yellow streak which
bordered the horizon and closed the entrance to the narrow dale as with
a hand of gold. Frederick was lying in the grass in his accustomed
position, whittling a willow stick, the knotty end of which he was
trying to form roughly into the shape of an animal. He seemed to be very
tired, yawned, rested his head against a weather-bea