The Tangled Web(141)

He sighed. "Order my horse saddled. Tell Shea to order his company mounted. I'll go after him."



"There's some guy cantering down the middle of the road down there around the bend, singing," Theo Pistor reported.

"So the local farmers are happy," Simrock said.

"He on a really expensive horse and he's not singing in German."

"Let's go see." Simrock shook his horse into a trot.

"Come back here, you two idiots." Lieutenant Friedrich Württemberger admitted to himself that he had just issued an order that was not in the official book.

Either they didn't hear him, or . . .

Chaplain Pistor suddenly showed up next to him. "What do those two young idiots think they are doing?"

For the first time since they met, Friedrich and his father-in-law were in harmony. Unfortunately, that was not enough to make Theo and Simrock rein in their mounts.

Pistor rode after them, screaming fatherly admonitions.

Friedrich looked at Hartke. "Move out. Catch up with them."

By the time they came around the bend, Theo and Simrock had stopped the singing man. Theo had hold of the horse's head.

A group of mounted dragoons appeared from around the next bend.

From that point, it was hack and slash, with a counterpoint of pistol shots.



"We won," Hartke pointed out a couple of hours later. "It wasn't exactly a by-the-book fracas, but we won. Sometimes these spontaneous skirmishes are the nastiest. In a set battle, the plan may not survive contact with the enemy, but at least you start with some kind of a plan. Sometimes you even have, 'if X, then Y, but if Q, then P and run like hell out."

"All logic would have indicated that the dragoons should have been moving in the other direction out of Waiblingen. East, not west." Simrock frowned.

"Human nature interfered with logic," Theo said. "The singing colonel was as drunk as a skunk."

"If Captain Duke Eberhard loses another brother," Hertling said. "If he does . . ."

"We were supposed to be watching out for them," Merckel said. "Two of us aren't even here. You left Bauer up at Euskirchen. I guess Heisel is still in the Irishmen's camp."



"We won," Brahe said. "Lieutenant Württemberger's small detachment delivered two of the four Irish colonels to you, too. I understand that to mean that you are halfway to your goal."

"You are perfectly correct," Derek Utt said. "We won."



"Who is on the next cot?" Chaplain Pistor asked. "Who is on the other side of you?"

Theo didn't have to twist around on his stool in the lazarette tent. He knew. "It's Friedrich."

Pistor didn't reply.

"Forgive them, Papa. Margarethe is expecting your first grandchild. 'Children's children are a crown to the aged.' Let me write and say that you forgive her, before it is too late. Remember, 'The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.' "

Pistor snorted. "I am not so close to dead yet that you can get away with quoting scripture at me selectively. I taught you better than that, I hope, whether you learned the lesson or not. The next line from your first quotation is, 'And parents are the pride of their children.' Of your other one, the remainder of the verse reads, 'Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.' Nor should you try to bludgeon my tired mind with the parable of the wastrel son. The point of that is that the son repented. He realized he would be better off as the lowliest of his father's hired men. Can you tell me that Margarethe has repented this rebellious marriage? Can you assure me that she realizes she would be better off as a scullery maid in my kitchen than as the wife of that . . . ?"

He found no word adequate to describe his opinion of Friedrich Württemberger.

"Give her peace of heart, Papa. Please. 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.' and 'First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.' "

Pistor shook his head. "No, the Word of God is not soft. Jesus said, 'All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.' Matthew reads also, 'I did not come to bring peace, but a sword . . . a man's enemies will be the members of his own household . . . anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me . . ."

"Papa . . ."

" 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.' Do not plague me further, Theo. The daughter I love chose a worldly treasure and until she repents, she has stored up for herself 'treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.' "