SCHWEITZER. A hundred and sixty huzzars, ninety-three dragoons, some forty chasseurs--in all about three hundred. CHARLES. Three hundred for one! Every one of you has a claim upon this head. (He bares his head.) By this uplifted dagger! As my Soul liveth, I will never forsake you! SCHWEITZER. Swear not! You do not know but you may yet be happy, and repent your oath. CHARLES. By the ashes of my Roller! I will never forsake you. Enter KOSINSKY. KOSINSKY (aside). Hereabouts, they say, I shall find him. Ha! What faces are these? Should they be--if these--they must be the men! Yes, 'tis they,'tis they! I will accost them. SCHWARZ. Take heed! Who goes there? KOSINSKY. Pardon, sirs. I know not whether I am going right or wrong. CHARLES. Suppose right, whom do you take us to be? KOSINSKY. Men! SCHWEITZER. I wonder, captain, whether we have given any proof of that? KOSINSKY. I am in search of men who can look death in the face, and let danger play around then like a tamed snake; who prize liberty above life or honor; whose very names, hailed by the poor and the oppressed, appal the boldest, and make tyrants tremble. SCHWEITZER (to the Captain). I like that fellow. Hark ye, friend! You have found your men. KOSINSKY. So I should think, and I hope soon to find them brothers. You can direct me to the man I am looking for. 'Tis your captain, the great Count von Moor. SCHWEITZER (taking him warmly by the hand). There's a good lad. You and I must be chums. CHARLES (coming nearer). Do you know the captain? KOSINSKY. Thou art he!--in those features--that air--who can look at thee, and doubt it? (Looks earnestly at him for some time). I have always wished to see the man with the annihilating look, as he sat on the ruins of Carthage.* That wish is realized. *[Alluding to Caius Marius. See Plutarch's Lives.] SCHWEITZER. A mettlesome fellow!-- CHARLES. And what brings you to me? KOSINSKY. Oh, captain! my more than cruel fate. I have suffered shipwrecked on the stormy ocean of the world; I have seen all my fondest hopes perish; and nought remains to me but a remembrance of the bitter past, which would drive me to madness, were I not to drown it by directing my energies to new objects. CHARLES. Another arraignment of the ways of Providence! Proceed. KOSINSKY. I became a soldier. Misfortune still followed me in the army. I made a venture to the Indies, and my ship was shivered on the rocks--nothing but frustrated hopes! At last, I heard tell far and wide of your valiant deeds, incendiarisms, as they called them, and I came straightway hither, a distance of thirty leagues, firmly resolved to serve under you, if you will deign to accept my services. I entreat thee, noble captain, refuse me not! SCHWEITZER (with a leap into the air). Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Roller replaced ten hundred-fold! An out-and-out brother cut-throat for our troop. CHARLES. What is your name? KOSINSKY. Kosinsky.