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but he nevertheless spent the whole evening with us gambling and carousing, so that I thought his brother the sergeant was more pious than he. By this time my money was at an end, so that Hevel had to make over another ten florins to me.

From the twentieth to the twenty-fourth day we went through Zerbst, Dessau, Görz, Ustermark, Spandau and Charlottenburg, forty-four hours in all, and reached Berlin. The three last-named places were everywhere swarming with soldiers of all ranks and uniforms, so that I could not get my fill of staring. The towers of Berlin were pointed out to us even before we reached Spandau. I thought we should have reached it in an hour, how amazed I was to hear that we should not arrive there till the next day. And then how heartily glad I was, when at last we reached the great and splendid city. We went in by the Spandau Gate, then through the pleasant though melancholy Lindenstrasse

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, and along several more streets. There, thought I (ninny that I was) nothing will make you leave this place in all your days. Here you'll make your fortune. Then you'll send a fellow with letters to the Tockenburg, to bring your parents and Ännchen here, they'll have cause to open their eyes wide. Whereupon I asked my guides to take me to my master. "Why", replied Krüger to me, "we don't know if he has yet arrived, nor yet where he is lodging!" - "Damn it", said I, "has he not a house of his own here?" This question made them laugh fit to split their sides. Let them laugh, thought I, Markoni will have a house of his own here, God willing!


45. Times have changed indeed:


It was the 8th of April (1756) when we marched into Berlin, and I enquired in vain for my master, who, however, as I afterwards learnt, had already arrived a week ahead of us; then Labrot (the others frequented my company less and less, and I did not know where they had gone) conducted me to the Krausenstrasse in Friedrichstadt, pointed out my lodgings, and left me with the words: "There you are, sir! Stay there until further orders". The devil, thought I, what can this mean? This place is not an inn. While I stood thus amazed, a soldier, Christian Zittemann by name, came up and took me to a room, which was already occupied by two other sons of Mars

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. In some astonishment they began to question me as to who I was, where I came from, and so forth. I could not yet rightly understand their speech

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. I answered in a few words that I was from Switzerland, and that I was manservant to His Excellency Lieutenant Markoni, that the sergeants had brought me hither, but I wished rather to know whether my master was arrived in Berlin, and where he was lodged. Here the three of them began to laugh so heartily that I could have wept, and none of them would admit to having heard of such a person as His Excellency. At this moment one brought in a lumpy mess of pease-pudding, which I ate with little appetite.

We had scarcely finished, when there came into the room a lanky old fellow, whom I soon perceived to be more than the lowest rank. He was a sergeant-major. Over his arm he carried a soldier's uniform, which he spread out on the table, and laying a six-groschen piece beside it, said: "That's for you, my son! I'll bring you your bread-ration directly." "What, for me?" I rejoined, "What for, who sent it?" - "Why, it's your uniform and your pay, boy! That's a foolish question for a recruit." - "What, how, a recruit?" I replied, "God forbid! I never thought of any such thing, no not in all my life. I am Markoni's servant, that's what I was hired for, nothing else. And no-one need tell me otherwise!" He: "And I tell you, fellow, that you are a soldier! I'll vouch for that, and there's no more to be said". I: "O, if only my master Markoni were here." He: "You won't get to see him in a hurry. And you'll like better to be servant to our King, than to his lieutenant". And with that he went away.

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This was, and is still, one of the main streets of the city. "Melancholy" might refer to its having a walk down the centre, shaded by a double avenue of lime-trees.


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Soldiers.


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Bräker and his new acquaintances were, of course, all speaking German, but the differences of accent and dialect may well have confused them at first, as would be the case even today. One might compare Bräker's situation to that of a Highland Scot in London.



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