The Poor Man of Toggenburg - Autobiography of Ulrich Bräker

part I did not understand, yet I was glad to listen, for now and then some excellent reasoning came to the fore. What seemed to trouble him the most, as far as I could discover, was that he had been of good family and had come to this situation merely from spite, but now he was suffering pitiably from remorse and homesickness.

I revealed to him, as it were in a roundabout fashion, my own state of mind, my principal intention being to hear what he might have to say concerning my escape, for indeed the man seemed to me to have a spirit of prophecy

. "Little brother!" said he to me on the occasion of one such discourse: "little brother, hold your peace! It is surely through your own fault that you are suffering, and what you suffer is a chastisement that you have more or less deserved. By rebelling against it you will only make matters worse. Times will change and go on changing. The King alone is King, his generals, colonels, majors are themselves his servants, and we, alas, we - poor dogs that have been cast away or sold, fit only to be despised in time of peace and in war to be stabbed or shot. But nevertheless, little brother! Perhaps you are going towards a door, if it opens for you, do what you will. But hold your peace, little brother! No fretting or striving, or you're done for!" This and much else he often said to me. All the priests and Levites

upon earth could not have admonished and yet at the same time comforted me, as well as he.

Meanwhile rumours of war were growing ever stronger. From time to time new regiments arrived in Berlin, we recruits too were enrolled in one. Then every day we went outside the city gates and fell to manoeuvring, advancing on the left and right, attacking, retiring, charging by platoons and by divisions, and whatever else that the god Mars teaches. At last we were ready for a general review, and then there was such a coming and going that the whole of this little book could not compass its description, and even if I wished, it would be beyond my powers to describe it. Firstly because of the vast mass of military apparatus which for the most part I was seeing for the first time. In the second place, my ears and brain were always so full of the terrible noise of the discharging of the guns, the drums and the martial music, and the shouts of the officers, that they were often near to bursting. In the third place, the drilling had some time ago become so hateful to me, that I just did not care to observe the millions of doings of soldiers on horseback and on foot. Indeed, later on I was sometimes very sorry that I had not paid more attention to these matters, for I wished that all my friends, and all my countrymen here, could observe them, were it only for the space of one day, for it would give them occasion for hundreds, yes, hundreds of profitable reflections.

So this much only: immense stretches of country were thickly strewn with men of war, and many thousands of onlookers filled every hole and corner. Here stand two armies in mock battle array, already the heavy artillery roars from their flanks. They advance and fire, making such a horrible noise of thunder that each man cannot hear his neighbour nor see him for the smoke. Here some battalions attempt firing by alternate files, here they fall upon the enemy's flank, here they blockade the batteries, here they form a double phalanx. Here they march over a pontoon bridge, there cuirassiers and dragoons join in the battle, and some squadrons of hussars in every colour of uniform rush upon each other, so that clouds of dust roll up over horses and men. Here a surprise attack is made upon a camp; the vanguard, in which I have the honour to serve, strike tents and flee. But once more, I should be a fool did I think to have described a Prussian general review. Therefore I hope people will be content with this much, or rather be ready to pardon me, now that they no longer have to listen to this rubbish.

The belief that insane people could possess divinely inspired knowledge was widespread before modern times. Bräker seems to have taken this man's words very seriously; some of his musings on military life written in his diary many years later are expressed in very similar terms.