After a drive of two hours we arrived at Grumitz.
As our carriage drove into the court of the château my sisters ran out to meet me.
“Martha! Martha!” both of them shouted from a distance. “He is there.”
And again at the carriage door: “He is there”.
Yes, so it was. It was the day before, late in the evening, that Frederick had been brought with a consignment of wounded from Bohemia to Vienna and from thence here. He had received a bullet in his leg, a wound which rendered him for the moment unfit for service and in need of nursing, but was entirely free from danger.
But joy is also hard to bear. The news then shouted to me by my sisters, so entirely without preparation, that “Frederick was there,” had just the same effect as the terror of the past days--it deprived me of consciousness.
They were obliged to carry me from the carriage into the château, and put me to bed. Here, whether from the after-effect of the narcotic, or the violence of the shock of joy, I spent several hours in unconsciousness, sometimes slumbering, sometimes delirious. When I came to myself and found myself in my own bed I believed myself to have awoke from a dreadful dream, and thought I had never left Grumitz. Bresser’s letter, my resolution to start for Bohemia, my experiences there, the homeward journey, the news of Frederick’s return home--all was a dream.
I looked up. My _femme de chambre_ was standing at the foot of the bed. “Is my bath ready?” I asked. “I want to get up.”
Now Aunt Mary rushed forward out of a corner of the room.
“Oh Martha! poor dear, are you at last awake and restored to your senses? God be praised. Yes, yes; get up and take your bath. That will do you good, when one is covered, as you are, with the dust of the roads and railways.”
“Quick; get up. Netty, get everything ready. Frederick is almost dying with impatience to see you.”
How often had I during these last days called out this name, and with what pain! But now it was a cry of joy--for now I had comprehended. It was no dream. I had been away and come back again, and was to see my husband.
A quarter of an hour afterwards I went into his room, alone. I had requested that no one should go with me. No third person should be present at our meeting.