desert, thieving about his court, or poaching; but his
military executions were barbarous. The Margrave
was regular in his attendance at church, and given to
endowing churches, schools, and hospitals. He might,
therefore, have been beloved of his subjects, but for
his ungoverned temper, and for the excesses into
which it led him. Thus, having heard that his dogs
were not well fed, he rode to the house of the man
who had them in charge, called him to the door, and
shot him on his own threshold. An inn-keeper, having
complained of some petty theft, the Margrave had
the thief hanged before mine host's door. In 1747 a
servant-girl was hanged without trial for having helped
a soldier to desert. As the Margrave was riding out
of his castle one day, he stopped and asked the sentinel
on guard, who happened to be one of the city watch,
and not a regular soldier, for his musket. The poor
fellow, unsuspectingly, gave it up; whereupon the
Margrave called him a coward and a scoundrel, and had
two hussars drag him through the mill-pond at their
horses' tails, of which treatment he died. One of his
equerries, Von Reitzenstein by name, although avaricious
and corruptible, was a favorite with the people
for sometimes moderating these excesses. On one
occasion a shepherd with a flock of sheep did not clear
the road for the Margrave quickly enough, and made
his Most Serene Highness's horse shy. The Margrave
asked the equerry for his pistols to shoot the fellow.
“They are not loaded,” answered Von Reitzenstein.
When the party got near home, however, the equerry
took out both pistols and fired them into the air.
Bang! bang! “What's the matter?” cried the startled
Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/22
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10
THE HESSIANS.