“Well,” said Ebearhard, “what do you think of it all?”

“I don’t know what to think,” replied Greusel.  “If the Barons of the Rhine could see us, and knew that we intended to attack them, I imagine there would be a great roar of laughter.”

Ebearhard emulated the Barons, and laughed.  He was a cheerful person.

“I don’t doubt it,” he said; “and talking of prospects, what’s your opinion of the Commander?”

“I am quite adrift on that score also.  This morning I endeavored to give him some good advice.  I asked him not to appoint me lieutenant, but to choose Kurzbold or Gensbein from among the malcontents, for I thought if responsibility were placed on their shoulders we should be favored with less criticism.”

“A very good idea it seems to me,” remarked Ebearhard.

“Well, you saw how promptly he ignored it, yet after all there may be more wisdom in that head of his than I suspected.  Look you how he has made a buffer of me.  He gives no commands to the men himself, but merely orders me to pass along the word for this or that.  He appears determined to have his own way, and yet not to bring about a personal conflict between himself and his following.”

“Do you suppose that to be cowardice on his part?”

“No; he is not a coward.  He doubtless intends that I shall stand the brunt of any ill-temper on the part of the men.  Should disobedience arise, it will be my orders that are disobeyed, not his.  If the matter is of no importance one way or the other, I take it he will say nothing, but I surmise that when it comes to the vital point, he will brush me aside as though I were a feather, and himself confront the men regardless of consequences.  This morning I thought they would win in such a case, but, by the iron Cross, I am not so confident now.  Remember how he sprung my appointment on the crowd, counting, I am sure, on your help.  He said to me, when we were alone by the tower, that you were the most fair-minded man among the lot, and he evidently played on that, giving them not a moment to think, and you backed him up.  He carried his point, and since then has not said a word to them, all orders going through me, but I know he intended, as he told you, to take the river road, instead of which he has led us over this hilly district until every man is ready to drop.  He is himself very sparing of wine, and is in fit condition.  I understand he has tramped both banks of the Rhine, from Ehrenfels to Bonn, so this walk is nothing to him.  At the end of it he was off for a stroll, and here are these men lying above the sod like the dead underneath it.”