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"It would be horrible not to have noodles this evening," said Fritz Kober, furiously. "Who knows but they may be the last we shall eat in this world? The balls may take our heads off to-morrow, and we never could eat Charles Henry's noodles again." "What you can do to-day never put off until to-morrow," cried one of the soldiers.
Behind the hut was a little garden whose thick shrubs and bushes gave complete concealment to the two grenadiers. Noiselessly they sprang over the little fence, and made a reconnoissance of the terrain unseen, unnoticed, they drew near the house. As they stepped from behind the bushes, Fritz Kober seized his friend's arm, and with difficulty suppressed a cry of joy.
"Stop," said he, "you must do me a favor this coat is too narrow, and it pinches me fearfully; you are thinner than I am, and I think it will fit you exactly; take it and give me yours." He jerked off the coat and handed it to his friend. "No, no, Fritz Kober," said Charles Henry, in a voice so soft and sweet, that Fritz was confused and bewildered by it. "No, Fritz, I understand you fully.
"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, "I did not sleep, and I can tell you to-day all that Charles Henry related." "Well, what was it?" said Fritz Kober, with great delight.
"Come, then," said Charles, giving him his hand. It was indeed a fearful path through which they must walk. They passed by troops of corpses by thousands of groaning, rattling, dying men by many severely wounded, who cried out to them piteously for mercy and help! Often Charles Henry hesitated and stood still to offer consolation to the unhappy wretches, but Fritz Kober drew him on.
They thought of the hordes of Cossacks which infested that region, and that a dozen of them would suffice to surround this little hut, and make prisoners of the king and his adjutants. "I have not the courage to open the door," whispered Fritz Kober. "I fear that the king is no longer here. The Cossacks have captured him."
What care they if the cats do scratch in the mean while? No, no, sir king, the cats cannot hold out to the end; claws are neither so strong nor so lasting as teeth." "Yes," said the king, laughing, "but how do you know but our foes over there are the hounds and we are the little cats?" "What!" cried Fritz Kober, amazed, "we shall be the cats? No, no, sir king, we are the great hounds."
"It is a fearful attempt," said the king, earnestly; "the Cossacks are swarming in every direction, and if you escape them, you may be caught in the camp and shot as spies." "I will take care that they shall not recognize me as an enemy," said Charles Henry, quietly. "I also," said Fritz Kober, zealously. "You stay, Charles Henry, we dare not both leave the king.
"Yes, sire," said Fritz Kober, jumping up and approaching the king; "yes, you shall eat with us; here is my spoon and knife, and if you reject it, and are only mocking us, I shall be very angry indeed." The king laughed, and turning to the officer who had followed him, said as if to excuse himself: "I must really eat, or I shall make the man furious.
"Well, it is a pity he isn't one," said one of the soldiers, with a merry laugh; "perhaps you have a sister at home, Henry, whom you could give to Kober." "No, comrade," said Charles Henry, sadly; "I have neither father, mother, sister, nor brother. I am alone in the world, and have no other friend but my comrade, Fritz Kober. Will you not give him to me, comrades?
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