enter the realm of the unknown. Nobody can predict what will happen. The one certainty is that a large number of our men will lose their lives or receive hideous wounds. No woman should have to look on such sights.'
'That's exactly what Daniel — Captain Rawson — told me but I am more robust than I look. I won't faint at the sight of blood, Your Grace. In any case, the baggage wagons will be well away from any action, surely. We'll be completely safe.'
'It's not your safety that concerns me, Abigail.'
'What else is there?'
'Your pain,' he said, speaking as softly as he could, 'your grief, your sense of being cheated by Fate. To speak more plainly, I think you should leave the camp before we close with the enemy in order to spare yourself what might — and I put it no higher than that — be a tragedy for you. I feel it would be far better for you to receive news of it at home where you'd have family and friends to comfort you.'
'Why should I need comfort?' said Abigail in bewilderment. 'I came here simply to be close to Captain Rawson. That fact gives me all the comfort I require.'
Marlborough was moved by the love in her eyes and the pride in her voice but he did not feel it right to conceal the truth from her. If she was determined to stay, she had to be prepared for disaster.
'Do you know what a Forlorn Hope is?' he said.
'Yes, of course, Your Grace.'
'Then you know how dangerous it is.'
'Captain Rawson told us about a Forlorn Hope that he once led. It was very successful and it earned him a commendation from you. It may have cost lives but it achieved what it set out to do.'
'Unhappily, that is not always the case.'
'It is whenever Captain Rawson is involved,' she asserted. 'I've never met anyone as daring as him.'
'He's a remarkable soldier, I have to agree. But he is a realist, Abigail. He knows that anyone who takes part in a
Forlorn Hope is going to look into the very jaws of death.'
She became anxious. 'Why are you telling me this?'
'We will shortly be attempting to storm a fortified hill near Donauworth,' he said seriously. 'We believe that there may be as many as 13,000 French and Bavarian soldiers defending it. Heavy casualties are therefore expected. The assault will be led by a Forlorn Hope.' He paused for a moment then broke the news to her. 'Captain Rawson has volunteered to be part of it.'
Abigail was rocked by the news. At the very moment when she had finally been reunited with her beloved, he was about to take the most enormous risk on the battlefield. Having journeyed from England with thoughts of marriage to Daniel Rawson, she now feared that she might instead soon be attending his funeral.
CHAPTER NINE
When they reached the inn, a small but well-kept establishment beside the only road in the area, Charles Catto went in alone to make sure that no Confederate soldiers were there. He had a good command of German and learnt from the landlord that the huge army had marched past that morning. It was therefore safe to take a room there. Catto and Frederic Seurel ate a tasty meal at the inn before setting out to do some reconnaissance. The camp was some distance away and they got within half a mile of it before they dismounted and concealed their horses behind some bushes. They approached on foot. Both having served as soldiers, and often taken part in surprise attacks, they knew how to move with stealth.
Since Catto had already been inside the camp at the earlier site, he was aware of its likely deployment and of the position of its pickets. The landscape favoured them. Though the camp was set on a plain beside a stream, it was surrounded by undulating ground that was generously sprinkled with trees and shrubs. There was thus plenty of cover. Leading the way,
Catto chose to stay on the opposite bank of the stream from the camp. In case they were spotted, he decided, it was wise to have the fast-running waters hampering any pursuit. As they crept furtively on, they eventually found a vantage point.
'What can you see?' asked Seurel.
'Be quiet!'
'Let me have a look, Charles.'
'Wait your turn,' said Catto, lying full length as he trained his telescope on the camp. 'This is no use to us at all,' he soon added. 'We'll have to move go much farther on.'
'Why is that?'
'All I can see are Dutch uniforms, as dull as the people who wear them. The British contingent must be somewhere ahead.'
'How will we pick out Captain Rawson's regiment?'
'It will have pitched its tents close to its colonel — the Duke of Marlborough. If we're lucky, we may get a sighting of his coach. That will tell us that Rawson is not far away.'
'I never travelled in a coach when I was a soldier,' grumbled Seurel, 'or even on horseback. I had to walk every foot of the way.'
'You were never a commander, Frederic.'
'I never wanted to be.'
'Neither did I,' said Catto. 'I work best in the shadows. Instead of moving battalions about like pieces on a chessboard, I'd rather do my killing alone on the fringes of a battle.'
'I always liked a bayonet charge,' said Seurel nostalgically. 'I loved that look of despair in a man's eyes when I stabbed him in the stomach and spilt his guts on the ground.'
'There'll be no bayonet charge this time, Frederic. All we will need is a thrust of a knife or a shot from a pistol. We simply have to contrive a way to get Rawson within range of one or the other.'
'I'll strangle him with my bare hands, if you wish.'
'We have to find him first.'
'See if you can pick out his regiment.'
'I will,' said Catto, moving off. 'Stay low and follow me.'
Edward Marston
Soldier of Fortune
Daniel Rawson could not deny her. Though he had wanted to discuss with his fellow-officers the battle that loomed ahead, he could not ignore Abigail Piper. In response to her entreaty, he agreed to spend some time with her, feeling that it would be better to do so away from the prying eyes and waspish tongues of the soldiers. After conducting Abigail to the edge of the camp, he walked along the bank of the stream with her. The sky was overcast and the grass still damp from an earlier shower but the place seemed idyllic to her. She was alone with the man she idolised, a military hero resplendent in his uniform.
'What did His Grace, the Duke, say to you?' he asked.
'He was very considerate and very charming.'
'He always is, Abigail. He has impeccable manners.'
'I felt so nervous,' she confided, 'being with the captain- general of so large an army. I was flattered that he could even spare a few moments to see me.'
'He and your father have been in correspondence,' said Daniel, 'so he takes an almost parental interest in you. I daresay that he passed on a message from Sir Nicholas.'
'He did more than that, Daniel. Father had enclosed a letter for me, beseeching me to return home as soon as I could. The Duke offered me an escort back to The Hague.'
'In your position, I'd accept that offer gratefully.' 'And I may do so in time,' she said. 'But I'm not going to leave almost as soon as we've met. I'd feel as if I were deserting you.'
'That's a ridiculous idea!'
'I want to be near you, Daniel.'
'I appreciate that,' he said, 'but you must realise how impossible that ambition is. French and Bavarian
