He laughed aloud, and gave me his hand to help me to rise. "Father Moses," said he, "I was frightened about you. Wipe your back; people might think you were not brave." I laughed too, and thought: "People may think what they please! The great thing is to live in good health as long as possible." We had only one wounded, Corporal Duhem, an old man, who bandaged his own leg, and tried to walk. He had had a blow from a lance in the right calf. He was placed on the first wagon, and Lehnel, Heitz's granddaughter, came and gave him a drop of cherry-brandy, which at once restored his strength and even his good spirits. "It is the fifteenth," he exclaimed. "I am in for a week at the hospital; but leave me the bottle for the compresses." I was delighted to see my twelve pipes on the wagons, for Schweyer and his two boys had run away, and without their help we could hardly have reloaded. I tapped at once at the bung-hole of the hindmost cask to find out how much was missing. These scamps of Cossacks had already drunk nearly half a measure of spirits; Father Heitz told me that some of them scarcely added a drop of water. Such creatures must have throats of tin; the oldest topers among us could not bear a glass of three-six without being upset. At last all was ready and we had only to return to the city. When I think of it, it all seems before me now: Heitz's large dapple-gray horses going out of the stable one by one; the sergeant standing by the dark door with his lantern in his hand, and calling out, "Come, hurry up! The rascals may come back!" On the road in front of the inn, the veterans surrounded the wagons; farther on the right some peasants, who had hastened to the scene with pitchforks and mattocks, were looking at the dead Cossacks, and myself, standing on the stairs above, singing praises to God in my heart as I thought how glad Sorlé and Zeffen and little Sâfel would be to see me come back with our goods. And then when all is ready, when the little bells jingle, when the whip snaps, and we start on the way--what delight! Ah Fritz! everything looks bright after thirty years; we forget fears, anxieties, and fatigues; but the memory of good men and happy hours remains with us forever! The veterans, on both sides of the wagons, with their muskets under their arms, escorted my twelve pipes as if they were the tabernacle; Heitz led the horses, and the sergeant and I walked behind. "Well, Father Moses!" said he laughing, "it has all gone off well; are you satisfied?" "More than I can possibly tell, sergeant! What would have been my ruin will make the fortune of my family, and we owe it all to you." "Go along," said he, "you are joking." He laughed, but I felt deeply; to have been in danger of losing everything, and then to regain it all and make profit out of it--it makes one feel deeply. I exclaimed inwardly: "I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.