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Updated: June 17, 2025
A tall European, dressed entirely in white flannel, followed at the man's heels and brought his riding-whip down mercilessly upon the naked back of the howling wretch. Heideck's presence did not, evidently, disturb him in the least. At the first glance the young German perceived that his neighbour could not be an Englishman, as his servant had told him he was.
The word of command rang out, and the soldiers posted opposite to him had already, with clank and rattle, shouldered arms, when from the other side a loud peremptory shout reached Heideck's ear, and he saw a horseman in Russian dragoon's uniform dashing up, in whose dark red face he immediately recognised the Prince Tchajawadse.
Their faces did not wear that expression of rage and exasperation, which Heideck had seen in so many soldiers in the land battle at Lahore; rather, he observed a certain dull indifference, which could no longer be shaken by the horror of the situation. A shell struck a battery before Heideck's eyes, exploded, and with its flying splinters struck down nearly all the men serving the guns.
From the general political situation Heideck's thoughts returned to Edith and her letter, and at last he decided to write to her that very evening. To carry out his intention, he went back to the restaurant where he had met Penurot, and called for ink and paper.
War had certainly not yet been declared, but Heideck's mission might, under the circumstances, suddenly acquire a peculiar importance, and it was, at all events, impossible to make at this moment any definite plans for the immediate future. The walk to his bungalow in the immediate vicinity of the English camp took perhaps an hour, and was sufficient to give him a keen appetite.
Suddenly the curiously altered, now hoarse voice of the Colonel struck Heideck's ear: "What are you still doing here? Ride, for Heaven's sake! Ride quickly! If you should see them again, take my last loving messages to my poor wife and children! Stay by them!"
"The risks these dwellers on the coast run are astonishing," said one of Heideck's staff. "They cross the Channel in their fishing-boats and slip by the warships. The man who brought the last English papers told me that he passed close by them to give the impression that there was nothing wrong. It needed considerable courage to risk that." "But the enemy's spies are equally efficient.
Herr Casper's daughter, Frau Isabella Siebenburg, had already, with her twin sons, found shelter at the Knight Heideck's castle. Her husband, who had joined his guilty brothers, would speedily fall into the hands of justice and reap what he had sowed. For the final settlement of this affair he begged the Honourable Council to appoint commissioners, whom he would willingly join.
A line of fugitives, like an immense stream, passed the English regiments, which still stood firm in serried ranks, making for the plain of Lahore, in order to find protection behind the walls of the fortified city. In Heideck's opinion the day was lost to the English, and he prepared himself to die a soldier's death, together with the brave men surrounding him.
The guards, who were by this time intoxicated, had allowed the slender young rajah, into whom she had transformed herself, to depart unmolested, and Morar Gopal, who was waiting for her at a place agreed upon close at hand, had conducted her to Heideck's tent, where she might, for the moment at least, consider herself to be safe. "But Georgi?" asked the Captain with some anxiety.
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