being a festival: the peasants Schell had sent were obliged to call
aid out of church. It was but nine in the morning; and had the
peasants been at home, we had been lost past redemption.

We were obliged to take the road to Wunshelburg, and pass through
the town where Schell had been quartered a month before, and in
which he was known by everybody. Our dress, without hats or
saddles, sufficiently proclaimed we were deserters: our horses,
however, continued to go tolerably well, and we had the good luck to
get through the town, although there was a garrison of one hundred
and eighty infantry, and twelve horse, purposely to arrest
deserters. Schell knew the road to Brummem, where we arrived at
eleven o'clock, after having met, as I before mentioned, Captain
Zerbst.

He who has been in the same situation only can imagine, though he
never can describe, all the joy we felt. An innocent man,
languishing in a dungeon, who by his own endeavours, has broken his
chains, and regained his liberty, in despite of all the arbitrary
power of princes, who vainly would oppose him, conceives in moments
like these such an abhorrence of despotism, that I could not well
comprehend how I ever could resolve to live under governments where
wealth, content, honour, liberty, and life all depend upon a
master's will, and who, were his intentions the most pure, could not
be able, singly, to do justice to a whole nation.

Never did I, during life, feel pleasure more exquisite than at this
moment. My friend for me had risked a shameful death, and now,
after having carried him at least twelve hours on my shoulders, I
had saved both him and myself. We certainly should not have