CHAPTER XX: AN OLD SCORE


Hector was not present with the army during the last three campaigns
of the war. He had joined Turenne in April, 1646, and shared in
the general disappointment when the order was received that the
army was not to cross the Rhine, because Bavaria had promised to
remain neutral if it did not do so.

"I cannot think," the marshal said to him a day or two after
he received the order -- for he had always maintained the same
pleasant relations with Hector that had subsisted between them in
Italy, and placed the most entire confidence in the discretion of
the young colonel -- "how Mazarin can allow Bavaria to hoodwink
him. Indeed, I cannot believe that he is really deceived; he must
know that that crafty old fox the duke is not to be relied upon in
any way, and that he is merely trying to save time. 'Tis hard indeed
to see us powerless to move, now that the season for campaigning
is just opening, and when by advancing we could cut the Bavarians
off from Austria. As to besieging Luxembourg, it would be but a
waste of time, for before we could open a trench we should hear
that the duke has again declared against us, and we should have
to hurry back with all speed."

It was, indeed, but a fortnight later that the news came that the
Bavarians were on the move to join the Imperialists, and a fortnight
later it was known that the two armies had effected their junction.