FIRST YAGER. 'Tis liberty makes him! Here's a fuss! That I should such twaddle as this discuss. Was it for this that I left the school? That the scribbling desk, and the slavish rule, And the narrow walls, that our spirits cramp, Should be met with again in the midst of the camp? No! Idle and heedless, I'll take my way, Hunting for novelty every day; Trust to the moment with dauntless mind, And give not a glance or before or behind. For this to the emperor I sold my hide, That no other care I might have to bide. Through the foe's fierce firing bid me ride, Through fathomless Rhine, in his roaring flow, Where ev'ry third man to the devil may go, At no bar will you find me boggling there; But, farther than this, 'tis my special prayer, That I may not be bothered with aught like care. SERGEANT. If this be your wish, you needn't lack it, 'Tis granted to all with the soldier's jacket. FIRST YAGER. What a fuss and a bother, forsooth, was made By that man-tormentor, Gustavus, the Swede, Whose camp was a church, where prayers were said At morning reveille and evening tattoo; And, whenever it chanced that we frisky grew, A sermon himself from the saddle he'd read. SERGEANT. Ay, that was a man with the fear of God. FIRST YAGER. Girls he detested; and what's rather odd, If caught with a wench you in wedlock were tacked,-- I could stand it no longer, so off I packed. SERGEANT. Their discipline now has a trifle slacked. FIRST YAGER. Well, next to the League I rode over; their men Were mustering in haste against Magdeburg then. Ha! that was another guess sort of a thing! In frolic and fun we'd a glorious swing; With gaming, and drinking, and girls at call, I'faith, sirs, our sport was by no means small. For Tilly knew how to command, that's plain; He held himself in but gave us the rein; And, long as he hadn't the bother of paying, "Live and let live!" was the general's saying. But fortune soon gave him the slip; and ne'er Since the day of that villanous Leipzig affair Would aught go aright. 'Twas of little avail That we tried, for our plans were sure to fail. If now we drew nigh and rapped at the door, No greeting awaited, 'twas opened no more; From place to place we went sneaking about, And found that their stock of respect was out; Then touched I the Saxon bounty, and thought Their service with fortune must needs be fraught. SERGEANT. You joined them then just in the nick to share Bohemia's plunder? FIRST YAGER. I'd small luck there. Strict discipline sternly ruled the day, Nor dared we a foeman's force display; They set us to guard the imperial forts, And plagued us all with the farce of the courts. War they waged as a jest 'twere thought-- And but half a heart to the business brought, They would break with none; and thus 'twas plain Small honor among them could a soldier gain. So heartily sick in the end grew I That my mind was the desk again to try; When suddenly, rattling near and far, The Friedlander's drum was heard to war.