’That house, sir, was the inn at which you, too, if I judge aright, were taken.  No sooner was I in the place, than three crimps rushed upon me, told me I was a deserter, and their prisoner, and called upon me to deliver up my money and papers; which I did with a solemn protest as to my sacred character.  They consisted of my sermon in Ms., Prorector Nasenbrumm’s recommendatory letter, proving my identity, and three groschen four pfennigs in bullion.  I had already been in the cart twenty hours when you reached the house.  The French officer, who lay opposite you (he who screamed when you trod on his foot, for he was wounded), was brought in shortly before your arrival.  He had been taken with his epaulets and regimentals, and declared his quality and rank; but he was alone (I believe it was some affair of love with a Hessian lady which caused him to be unattended); and as the persons into whose hands he fell will make more profit of him as a recruit than as a prisoner, he is made to share our fate.  He is not the first by many scores so captured.  One of M. de Soubise’s cooks, and three actors out of a troop in the French camp, several deserters from your English troops (the men are led away by being told that there is no flogging in the Prussian service), and three Dutchmen were taken besides.’

‘And you,’ said I—­’you who were just on the point of getting a valuable living,—­you who have so much learning, are you not indignant at the outrage?’

‘I am a Saxon,’ said the candidate, ’and there is no use in indignation.  Our government is crushed under Frederick’s heel these five years, and I might as well hope for mercy from the Grand Mogul.  Nor am I, in truth, discontented with my lot; I have lived on a penny bread for so many years, that a soldier’s rations will be a luxury to me.  I do not care about more or less blows of a cane; all such evils are passing, and therefore endurable.  I will never, God willing, slay a man in combat; but I am not unanxious to experience on myself the effect of the war-passion, which has had so great an influence on the human race.  It was for the same reason that I determined to marry Amalia, for a man is not a complete Mensch until he is the father of a family; to be which is a condition of his existence, and therefore a duty of his education.  Amalia must wait; she is out of the reach of want, being, indeed, cook to the Frau Prorectorinn Nasenbrumm, my worthy patron’s lady.  I have one or two books with me, which no one is likely to take from me, and one in my heart which is the best of all.  If it shall please Heaven to finish my existence here, before I can prosecute my studies further, what cause have I to repine?  I pray God I may not be mistaken, but I think I have wronged no man, and committed no mortal sin.  If I have, I know where to look for forgiveness; and if I die, as I have said, without knowing all that I would desire to learn, shall I not be in a situation to learn everything, and what can human soul ask for more?