It was the Emperor, usually in consort with the experienced Maximilian, who formed the general plan of campaign. If the Council's opinion coincided with the Emperor's, as it usually did, on a review of the plan, its execution was left in the hands of the general in command of the army, and the function of the council was then to take all possible steps to provide reinforcements, arms, and officers.
Before this sage professional committee Nigel was summoned.
"You have learned the manège, colonel?" was the abrupt inquiry of the oldest officer.
"What is the complete equipment of a trooper?" was that of the camp-master.
"How many troopers do you require in a regiment of dragoons, and what officers? How many squadrons could you make of it? How many troops go to a squadron?" These were Lothar's.
Nigel, greatly wondering, answered all these readily and satisfactorily.
Then followed a catechism of the tactics of cavalry by the Grand Duke Lothar, who drew lines on a sheet of paper to illustrate his meaning. These also Nigel answered, for in a prolonged period of active service little had escaped his eye or his ear of what happened in any department of arms.
The three military councillors exchanged nods and whispers of approval.
"We are going to recommend his Imperial Majesty to cancel your commission in his musketeers and appoint you to the command of a new regiment of light horse!" said von Falck.
"I am forming the regiment," said the camp-master. "Bohemians, Austrians--all riders from their youth--with a sprinkling of old cavalrymen. They will need some shaping!"
"The other officers are being selected," said the Grand Duke. "You will spend the next week or two getting them equipped, and horsed, and drilled. Then your orders will be given you."
"I am at your Excellencies' service!" said Nigel.
Three days afterwards, spent in wearisome discussions, conducted on the one side in half the patois of Europe, and on the other in tolerably good German and an admixture of plain Scots, the subject being horses, Nigel was wishing devoutly that he had never seen Vienna, never become the favoured child of fortune, never----
"Never saw such a place as Vienna," said Blick. "The beer is too light!"