Charlie was perusing this for the third time, Heinrich was lolling beside him on the grass, humming '_Du du_,' and idly playing with his silver sword-knot, while watching the bright morning sunshine stealing along the wooded hills and winding river, when suddenly there was the report of a needle-gun in front. Another, another, and a third followed, as the whole line of advanced sentinels opened fire, and the out-picket rushed to their arms and fell in their ranks. 'Sapperment!' exclaimed young Frankenburg, springing to his feet; 'it has come at last! This is war! The French are in motion in front; there will soon be work for the grave-digger corps!' So opened the day on which the young Napoleon was to receive his 'baptism of fire.' CHAPTER XI. SEPARATED. For a time the preparations for her marriage had gone on openly--though Ernestine, in her tenderness of heart and reluctance to wound one she loved so well, made no reference to this in her short letter--so openly that there were times when she contemplated flight; but whither could she fly? and then she shrunk from the dreadful _esclandre_ of such a proceeding; so settlements were made and deeds signed, and from time to time she found beautiful ornaments and jewels, the gifts of the Baron, on her toilette tables; but she never wore them, and the morocco cases remained unopened; till at last a serious illness, or sickness of the heart, in fact, supervened, and the espousals were delayed, and the Count cursed the hour that his thoughtless son had brought his troublesome English comrade to Frankenburg. She was no longer _espiègle_, as of old; the piano remained unopened now, and no entreaties on the part of her father could lure her into playing 'Die Wacht am Rhein,' the war-song of Arndt, or any of those stirring and patriotic airs with which all Germany was resounding now. The very sound of the instrument fretted her. Times there had been when she had tried over some of those songs she had loved to sing to Charlie Pierrepont--the same that she had been rehearsing on the evening of his arrival (how much had happened since then!)--but she fairly broke down and made the attempt no more. A summons from Prince Bismarck, for the Baron Grünthal to attend at Berlin, in consequence of some affairs connected with the Oberconsistory Court at Aix, gave poor Ernestine a temporary respite from the annoyance of his presence and clumsy attentions; and as she was at times easier in mind, and more content to wait the issue of events, after that remarkable and somewhat solemn interchange of promises at Burtscheid Church, her parents began to hope that all was at an end between her and the Herr Lieutenant of Infantry, and that she would be content to receive the Baron as her husband in time, perhaps when Heinrich returned, if God spared him ever to return.