“Then I for one shan’t go to the ball,” Ralph said.  “No doubt it will be a pretty sight; but there have been lots of balls, and this bivouac will be a new experience altogether.”

“I don’t know that you are wrong, Conway,” Captain O’Connor said.  “Beside, you will probably find the colonel will issue orders that only a certain number of officers may go.  I shall look in for an hour or two just to see the scene.  But I don’t know many people, and with a room full of generals and colonels, and three or four men to each lady, there won’t be much chance of getting partners.”

When they reached the village Stapleton said good-by to them, as his company lay half a mile further on; and Captain O’Connor and Ralph entered their quarters.  They found their servants busy packing up the baggage.

“What is this all about, O’Connor?” Lieutenant Desmond asked.

“It is in orders that the whole division is to assemble to-night in readiness to march at a moment’s notice.  News has come that the French have attacked the Prussian outposts, and the duke is not to be caught napping.  Of course it may be nothing but an outpost skirmish; still it may be the beginning of operations on a grand scale.”

“And there is an order,” Desmond said dolefully, “that only one officer in each company is to go to the ball.”

“You want to go—­eh, Desmond?”

“Well, of course I should like to go, and so would everyone I suppose, however, it can’t be helped; for of course you will go yourself.”

“Well, I have made up my mind to look in for an hour or two.  Conway doesn’t wish to go.  I’ll tell you how we will arrange, Desmond.  What the order means is that two officers must stop with their company.  It doesn’t matter in the least who they are; so that there are two out of the three with the men.  Dancing will begin about eight o’clock.  I will look in there at nine.  An hour will be enough for me; so I will come back to the company, and you can slip away and stop there till it’s over.”

“Thank you very much,” Desmond said gratefully.

“And look here, Desmond.  You had better arrange with your man to leave your undress uniform out; so that when you get back from the ball you can slip into it and have the other packed up.  That’s what I am going to do.  I can’t afford to have my best uniform spoiled by having to sleep in it in the mud.  A captain’s pay doesn’t run to such extravagance as that.”

“What will be done with the baggage if we have to march?”

“Oh, I don’t suppose we shall march to-night.  But if we do, the quartermaster will detail a party to collect all the baggage left behind and put it in store.  We needn’t bother about that; especially when, for aught we know, we may never come back to claim it.”

But although O’Connor did not know it, the duke had by this time received news indicating that the attack upon the Prussian outpost was the beginning of a great movement, and that the whole French army were pressing forward by the road where the Prussian and British army joined hands.