Enveloped in their stiff sheepskins, concealed by the high collars which reached to the brim of their hats--showing nothing but eyes where the rime made old faces and young all alike, it was difficult for any to judge of his neighbour--whether he were Pole or Prussian, Dantziger or Swede. The women in thick shawls, with hoods or scarves concealing their faces, stood silently beside their husbands. It was only the children who asked a thousand questions, and got never an answer from the cautious descendants of a Hanseatic people.
“Is it the French or the Russians that are coming?” asked a child near to Desiree.
“Wait and see--silentium,” replied the careful Dantziger, looking over his shoulder.
Desiree had changed her clothes, and wore beneath her furs the dress that had been prepared for the journey to Zoppot so long ago. Mathilde had noticed the dress, which had not been seen for six months. Lisa, more loquacious, nodded to it as to a friend when helping Desiree with her furs.
“You have changed,” she said, “since you last wore it.”
“I have grown older--and fatter,” answered Desiree cheerfully.
And Lisa, who had no imagination, seemed satisfied with the explanation. But the change was in Desiree's eyes.
With Sebastian's permission--almost at his suggestion--they had selected the Grune Brucke as the point from which to see the sight. This bridge spans the Mottlau at the entrance to the Langenmarkt, and the roadway widens before it narrows again to pass beneath the Grunes Thor. There is rising ground where the road spreads like a fan, and here they could see and be seen.
“Let us hope,” said Sebastian, “that two of these gentlemen may perceive you as they pass.”
By half-past eleven the streets were full. The citizens knew their governor, it seemed. He would not keep them waiting. Although Rapp lacked that power of appealing to the imagination which has survived Napoleon's death with such astounding vitality that it moves men's minds to-day as surely as it did a hundred years ago, he was shrewd enough to make use of his master's methods when such would seem to serve his purpose. He was not going to creep into Dantzig like a whipped dog into his kennel.
He had procured a horse at Elbing. Between that town and the Mottlau he had halted to form his army into something like order, to get together a staff with which to surround himself.