Fifty or more raised a white flag and surrendered
without striking a blow, and when, at last, Barney and his little
bodyguard fought their way through those who surrounded them they
found the balance of the field already won.
Upon the slope below the city the loyal troops were advancing upon
the enemy. Old Prince Ludwig paced back and forth behind them,
apparently oblivious to the rain of bullets about him. Every moment
he turned his eyes toward the wooded ridge from which there now
belched an almost continuous fusillade of shells upon the advancing
royalists.
Quite suddenly the cannonading ceased and the old man halted in his
tracks, his gaze riveted upon the wood. For several minutes he saw
no sign of what was transpiring behind that screen of sere and
yellow autumn leaves, and then a man came running out, and after him
another and another.
The prince raised his field glasses to his eyes. He almost cried
aloud in his relief--the uniforms of the fugitives were those of
artillerymen, and only cavalry had accompanied the king. A moment
later there appeared in the center of his lenses a tall figure with
a full beard. He rode, swinging his saber above his head, and behind
him at full gallop came a squadron of the Royal Horse.
Old von der Tann could restrain himself no longer.
"The king! The king!" he cried to those about him, pointing in the
direction of the wood.
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