"
"Your excellency," cried a loud voice outside, at this moment--"your
excellency, are you not coming at all?" The door of the anteroom was
violently thrust open, and the pipe-master appeared on the
threshold. "It is past eight o'clock," he exclaimed, "and--" He
paused on perceiving the two gentlemen, and was about to retire very
quickly.
"Come here, pipe-master," exclaimed Blucher, "come here and look at
me. Now tell me, pipe-master, have you been a chatterbox, after all,
and told these two gentlemen what was the object of our airing?"
"No, your excellency; I have not uttered a word about it to any
one," replied the pipe-master, solemnly. "I have been as dumb as a
fish; only in secret have I complained of my distress; and, when
that did not relieve me, and I still felt as though my heart would
burst, I did what I have learned to do from the field-marshal: I
went to my room, closed the door, and swore in the most fearful
manner! That relieved my heart, and I proceeded to do all your
excellency charged me with."
"First, therefore, you had to swear?" asked Blucher, drawing his
long mustache through his fingers. "You were, then, greatly
dissatisfied with my departure?"
"I did not conceal it from your excellency. I told you honestly that
you would no longer be called Marshal Forward if you retreated."
"Yes, retreat--that is just what he said," exclaimed Blucher,
laughing, and turning again toward the two gentlemen; "and when I
told him I would leave the army and set out for Brussels he remarked
that it was a secret flight.
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