Every German regiment carries a number of sharpshooters
whose business is to pick off the officers. However, it was evidently
not my hour."
As we walked out to the gate I asked him if there was anything else I
could do for him.
"Do you think," he replied, "that you could get me a couple of fresh
eggs at half-past seven and let me have a cold wash-up?"
"Well, rather," I answered, and he rode away.
As soon as he was gone one of the picket called from the road to know if
they could have "water and wash."
I told them of course they could--to come right in.
He said that they could not do that, but that if they could have water
at the gate--and I did not mind--they could wash up in relays in the
road. So Pere came and drew buckets and buckets of water, and you never
saw such a stripping and such a slopping, as they washed and shaved--and
with such dispatch. They had just got through, luckily, when, at about
half-past six, the captain rode hurriedly down the hill again. He
carried a slip of white paper in his hand, which he seemed intent on
deciphering.
As I met him at the gate he said:--
"Sorry I shall miss those eggs--I've orders to move east," and he began
to round up his men.
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