'Where--where?' asked all his listeners, while the three ladies grew very pale indeed. 'At Saarbrück.' 'The devil!' exclaimed the Count; 'that is actually on our Prussian ground.' 'Saarbrück?' re-echoed the Countess and Herminia, in faint voices, for they both knew that Heinrich was with the advanced column there. Ernestine knew that her Carl was there too; but no sound left her white and quivering lips. 'And what were the results of the conflict--the casualties, and so forth?' asked the old Count, his mind flashing back to the days of Ligny, Wavre, and Waterloo. 'Unknown as yet. The first man killed is said to be an _Englishman_.' 'Gott in Himmel!' cried the Count, 'my girl has fainted!' So at Frankenburg, as at many other places, where the hearts of the people were with the flower of Germany, they could but wait and pray--pray and be patient till true tidings came. CHAPTER XII. THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. It was no false alarm that, as related in a preceding chapter, made the advanced sentinels of the 95th, all hardy fellows from the Thuringerwald, open fire in quick succession. The Emperor Napoleon, who had recently arrived at Metz, looking old and ill, with his head sunk on his breast, and who, on the 28th of July, had issued that famous bulletin, 'Soldiers, the eyes of the world are upon you! The fate of civilization depends upon our success. Soldiers, let each one do his duty, and the God of armies will be with us!'--the Emperor, we say, finding that the time had come when something must be done to stimulate the spirit of those troops whom he had massed in and about Metz, as well as to appease the fiery impatience of the French people, being aware that Saarbrück was of importance to the Prussians, who there had command of three lines of railway for the conveyance of troops and stores, resolved to carry the place by storm. Hence, about nine o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of August, the gleam of bayonets was seen on some heights that overlook the town, and the dark columns of the French, in their long blue coats, and red or madder-coloured breeches, became visible, and by that time the whole Prussian force in and about Saarbrück was under arms, and their cannon went thundering to the front.