Summon the Margraf home:--it is not doubted he will cut himself through, he and his 12,000; but such is the swarm of Pandours hovering between him and us, no estafette, or cleverest letter-bearer, can hope to get across to him.

Ziethen with 500 Hussars, he must take the Letter; there is no other way.

Ziethen mounts; fares swiftly forth, towards Neustadt, with his Letter; lodges in woods; dodges the thick-crowding Tolpatcheries (passes himself off for a Tolpatchery, say some, and captures Hungarian Staff-Officers who come to give him orders [Frau van Blumenthal, _Life of De Ziethen,_ pp.

171-181 (extremely romantic; now given up as mythical, for most part): see Orlich (ii.

150); but also Ranke (iii.