Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/38

 26 “Chamberlain. Yes, madam! Why did you ride out to the bear-hunt with our master, just as the signal was given to march away? You should not have missed that imposing spectacle, when the loud drums told us the time was come, and shrieking orphans here followed a living father, and there a raving mother ran to impale her sucking babe on the bayonets. You should have seen how lovers were torn asunder with sabre strokes, and old graybeards stood still in their despair, and at last threw their very crutches after the young fellows who were starting for the New World. Oh! and through it all, the noisy rolling of the drums, so that the Almighty might not hear us pray! “Lady. Be quiet, poor old man! They will come back. They will see their home again.

“Chamberlain. Heaven knows it! So they will! Even at the city gates they turned and cried, ‘God help you, wife and children! Long live our father the duke! We shall be back for the Day of Judgment!’”