eager to know the worst. The brigadier, a
stiff martinet, but accounted a valuable and active
officer, glanced frowningly to left and right.
He saw anxious faces, but no smile of welcome,
not a rosette of the Schleswig colours, not a
scrap of tricolored ribbon.  The Danes had too
much manliness to curry favour with the foe
by wearing these hated emblems, and the few
Germans in the Fladswäst were too prudent or
too kind to outrage the feelings of their
neighbours.

Brigadier Hahn rated us all collectively in
the purest court German, which every man and
woman there, of whichever race, understood
sufficiently well, save myself.  I could only
nick up broken scraps of the discourse,
but I gathered that the Fladswästers were
abused as a pack of disloyal churls, unfit for
liberty, that they were threatened with all sorts
of penalties for giving countenance to the cause
of Denmark, and that the Prussian ended by
demanding guides to show the nearest way to
Flaxbye.  There was a murmur, for suspicion
had been exchanged for certainty.  Flaxbye
was to be attacked, and by surprise, if the
enemy could manage it. It was well known
that a road existed between our village and the
Danish camp, but so miry and wet, so intricate,
that few but the Fladswäst fenners, when out
after wild-fowl, could have pointed out the true
course.  And this fact the Prussian commander
evidently knew well.

"I must have two guides.  Do you hear?
Tausand Teiflern! must I have you pricked by
bayonets to sharpen your wits!" called out the
brigadier, harshly.  The Free Corps began to
get noisy as they heard the general's voice in
anger; hard words were bandied from side to
side, and I dare say the village might have been
sacked, or even burned, on light provocation.
But the officers were firm, and in a few moments
all was quiet again. When the brigadier next
spoke it was in a different key.

"Come, my lads, there's no use in making
wry faces.  You are all subjects of Schleswig-
Holstein, and had better forget the king of
Copenhagen as soon as may be.  We don't want
to harm peaceable people; but that wasps'-nest
at Flaxbye shall be smoked out, if I have to
burn fifty hamlets in the doing it.  Give me
guides, and I promise you protection.  Come, I
offer a hundred rixdollars.  Will no sensible
fellow step forward?"

No reply.

"Two hundred.  Three," repeated the Prussian,
more impatiently.  A man came shouldering
forward through the crowd, dragging a
youth by the arm.

"I'm your man, general.  For three hundred
rixdollars in hard money, I'll guide you to Flaxbye,
by day or night; for I know every inch of the
way and my boy here knows it as well as I do."

To my astonishment—and astonishment is a
mild word for the stupefaction with which I listened
to these words—the man was my own
dear Captain Bluenose, the staunchest Dane in
the place.  The lad, of course, was Han.  I think
the neighbours were as surprised as I was.  They
were silent for a minute, and then there broke
out a storm of hissing and curses.

Old Peter stood up undaunted.  His grim
face betrayed no touch of shame, but Han hung
his head, and I could see that he was sobbing as
he stood beside his father under that hailstorm
of disgrace.  Some of the Prussian troopers
were now ordered to ride into the crowd and
enforce order, which they did by beating the
people over the heads and shoulders with the
flats of their swords, but not very severely, and
the throng soon sunk into a dead, sullen silence.
The brigadier gazed hard and long at the rugged
face of his volunteer guide, and the scrutiny did
not seem to satisfy him.

"You look a determined fellow.  You have
the air of one who has served, too,"  said the
general, with a piercing glance at the tough old
mariner.  "Of course there are two sides to
the bargain.  Guide us well, and I pay you
down the cash as soon as we have destroyed
the camp.  Mislead or betray us, and I will
have you shot like a dog.  Do you know that?"

The voice of old Voss was very thick and
husky, like that of a drunken man, though it
was plain that he was sober, as he replied
unflinchingly:

"Herr General, I accept the bargain.  My
life, and Han's life, against three hundred
silver dollars.  I don't say it's a pleasant job,
but I'm in debt over head and ears, and want to
be off to America, and this money—-"

"Enough, enough!" broke in the general,
with an involuntary sneer; "the money shall
be yours if you earn it.  Corporal Hencke, take
two file and guard these men.  They must not
give us the slip.  The troops may stand at ease.
The assembly will sound in due time."

I never saw such indignation, horror, or
amazement, stamped on human faces as on those
of the inhabitants of Fladswäst, when they
thoroughly understood that the bargain was
struck, and that the old skipper, hitherto
respected by all, was to be the traitor who was to
lead the Prussians to his countrymen's place of
refuge.  Some of the elder men still shook their
heads, and seemed deaf to conviction, but the
young and the females, more impulsive, could
not find words to express their loathing for the
veteran's treachery.  The men, cowed by the
presence of the troops, did not venture on loud
speech, but some of the women set up a shrill
cry of "Judas!" followed by an outburst of
frantic execration, such as it was terrible to
hear.  I thought I saw old Voss wince a little,
but his stern countenance betrayed no emotion,
and I turned away with a sickness of heart such
as I had never felt before.  I made my way out
of the village, and quickly, for already there was
talk of posting sentries, on the part of the
Germans, on every road, to prevent intelligence
from being conveyed to the Danes.  Indeed,
although the bulk of the troops were crowding
into the kro and beer-houses, or settling in
impromptu bivouacs to take what refreshment
the commissary could afford them, patrols began