Category: Historical Novels

'Jena' or 'Sedan'?

Franz Vogt was on his way home. He carried a neatly tied-up parcel containing the under-linen and the boots that he had been buying in the town. He had trodden this same road a countless number of times during his life; but now that he must bid good-bye to it so soon, the old...

Chapters

16. Chapter 16

There was, in fact, nothing to hide. The thoughtless behaviour which had had such serious consequences was in itself one of those offences which society looks upon as venial. Bu...

13. Chapter 13

New brooms sweep clean, and Güntz set to work with ardour at the difficult task of bringing order and efficiency into the neglected troop. By means of stringent discipline, and...

3. Chapter 3

Major Schrader, who never let pass an opportunity of making a joke, received his report at first in a very stiff official manner, assuring him with a frown that he was very loth...

9. Chapter 9

Kläre Güntz was nursing her child. Through the thick drooping branches of the pear-tree the sun shone on the mother's breast and on the infant's little round head. She bent over...

6. Chapter 6

Towards the end of March Reimers was turning over the pages of the _Weekly Military Gazette_ before dinner, when he saw the announcement that his dear friend Senior-lieutenant G...

14. Chapter 14

Sergeant Wiegandt had gone away on April 1: Wegstetten's best non-com., and now the blissful husband of the beaming Frieda. He would have been made deputy sergeant-major very sh...

12. Chapter 12

The terrible death of his wife had somewhat chastened the coarse recklessness of the man's bearing. Throughout the autumn and far into the winter he seemed entirely changed. He...

5. Chapter 5

Sergeant Schumann looked once more round the two rooms and the kitchen; no, nothing had been left behind. Only his overcoat and hat hung on the window-bolt, and his stick stood...

10. Chapter 10

Room IX. was still to remain "aristocratic"--as Weise satirically remarked--even after Baron Walther von Frielinghausen had moved over to the non-commissioned officers' quarters...

8. Chapter 8

He had now got his foot on the ladder of military distinction, but he felt no special elation at the fact. What signified this little piece of promotion in a career which had no...

11. Chapter 11

Thursday, September 19th, four P.M., was fixed for the funeral of Gunner Heinrich Karl Klitzing, "accidentally killed on September 16th, and to be buried in the nearest convenie...

7. Chapter 7

"On June 3, at 6.30 A.M., the regiment will be ready in the Waisenhaus Strasse to march to the practice-camp in the following order: Batteries 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Corps of trumpet...

2. Chapter 2

There was a good deal to do in the orderly-room. This new batch of sixty recruits meant a large amount of work that must be seen to at once, if the wilderness of papers were eve...

1. Chapter 1

Franz Vogt was on his way home. He carried a neatly tied-up parcel containing the under-linen and the boots that he had been buying in the town. He had trodden this same road a...

4. Chapter 4

During the first days of December Corporal Wiegandt would sometimes observe, in a pause of the drill, that the recruits were beginning to look a little like soldiers; and in the...

15. Chapter 15

In August Corporal von Frielinghausen was ordered to the Fire-workers' College in Berlin. The young fellow made a good appearance in his neat uniform; his figure had filled out...

17. Chapter 17

Franz Vogt had calculated that his release from prison would take place at the beginning of February. He had hoped for a clear sunshiny day, a blue winter sky, a hard frost, and...