Since, besides cavalry,
he had only five hundred foot-soldiers, he did not know what to do,
but wandered about at random, and looked for booty. But nothing was
to be found, for Johan Baner had already laid the district waste.
"Then they marched farther," like Xenophon, and found the woods
which bordered the highways' cut down; the fields were covered with
weeds, and in the trees hung corpses; the churches had been burnt,
but watch was kept in the churchyards in order that the corpses
should not be eaten.
One night Konigsmarck himself was leading a small detachment in
search of provisions. They rode into a wood where they saw a light
burning. But it was only a red glow as if from a charcoal pile or a
smithy. They dismounted from their horses, and stole on foot to the
place. When they reached it, they heard voices singing a "Miserere"
in low tones, and they saw men, women, and children sitting round an
oven, the last remains of a village.
Konigsmark went forward alone, and, hidden behind a young fir-tree,
he beheld a spectacle.... He had seen such sights before, but not
under such circumstances. In an iron scoop on the oven some game was
being roasted; it might have been an enormous hare, but was not.
Like a hare, it was very spindle-shanked and lean over back and
breast; only the hinder-parts seemed well developed; the head was
placed, between the two fore-paws.
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