The toast was drunk enthusiastically, all standing, with the exception of Kurzbold, who came down in his seat with a thud.

“All right!” he cried, waving his hand.  “All right; all right!  That’s what I said.  Greusel’s good man, and now he’s elected by the companionship, he’s all right.  I drink to him.  Drink to anybody, I will!”

In groping round for the flagon, he upset it, and then roared loudly for the landlord to supply him again.

“Now, comrades,” said Roland sharply, “fall in!  We’ve a long march ahead of us.  Come, Greusel, we must lead the van, for I wish to instruct you in your duties.”

It was rather a straggling procession that set out from Hochst.

“Perhaps,” began Roland, as he strode along beside Greusel, “I should make some excuse for not following the advice you so strenuously urged upon me this morning regarding the appointment of a lieutenant.  The truth is I wished to teach you a lesson, and could not resist the temptation of proving that a crisis firmly and promptly met disappears, whereas if you compromise with it there is a danger of being overwhelmed.”

“I admit.  Commander, that you were successful just now, and the reason is that most of our brigade are sane and sober this morning.  But wait until to-night, when the wine passes round several times, and if you try conclusions with them then you are likely to fail.”

“But the wine won’t pass round to-night.”

“How can you prevent it?”

“Wait, and you will see,” said Roland, with a laugh.

By this time they arrived at a fork in the road, one section going southwest and the other straight west.  The left branch was infinitely the better thoroughfare, for the most part following the Main until it reached the Rhine.  Roland, however, chose the right-hand road.

“I thought you were going along by the river,” said his lieutenant.

“I have changed my mind,” replied Roland, without further explanation.

At first Kurzbold determined to set the pace.  He would show the company he was not drunk, and tax them to follow him, but, his stout legs proving unable to carry out this excellent resolution, he gradually fell to the rear.  As the sun rose higher, and grew hotter, the pace began to tell on him, and he accepted without protest the support of two comrades who had been drinking with him at Hochst.  He retrograded into a condition of pessimistic dejection as the enthusiasm of the wine evaporated.  A little later he wished to lie down by the roadside and allow a cruel and unappreciative world to pass on its own way, but his comrades encouraged him to further efforts, and in some manner they succeeded in dragging him along at the tail of the procession.

As they approached the village of Zeilsheim, Roland requested his lieutenant to inform the marchers that there would be no halt until mittagessen.