Lela was standing in front of the station in Mühlberg. Her right hand held Mum tightly. But Mum talked to Dad, and they didn't care about her. She looked around. How messy it was here. And how many soldiers. Dad couldn't speak two words without saluting. Soldiers came and went. If they were ordinary soldiers, they stopped in front of Dad with a jerk and held their hands firmly pressed to their left and right sides. They could go only when Dad waved his hand. If it was officers passing by, they raised their hand to their cap. This also seemed to make mother nervous. She was pale and exhausted.
"What's going on here today?" She asked.
"Nothing," Meinhardis said. "But here are
twenty-four cavalry regiments, not counting the Bavarians, infantry, artillery and sappers."
Dad wasn't really Dad because of the different uniform. Certainly, Lela tried to look away and felt that she was supposed not to talk about it, but again and again her eyes kept fly over to his white collar.
Now a Landau drove up, with a soldier sitting on a box and holding the reins. He was also in light blue and white. The suitcases were loaded up, the horses moved up straight towards a wall. A high wall with grass growing on top. The entrance to the wall looked like a tunnel. Lela was scared. "What is it, Dad?"
"That's the fortress wall! Mühlberg is a fortress after all."
"And why is the tunnel so bent; why doesn't it go ahead, and why is it so dark that lights are burning during the day?"
"So that nothing happens when the French come and shoot cannons into it."
Lela's eyes widened. There was so much noise in the tunnel that she wasn't able to speak anymore.
Mum put her hand on Lela's lap,
"It's all right, sweetheart, the French won't come."
Had Mum said that to comfort her? Was she serious? When the adults spoke to one in that childish tone, one became so insecure. But not to believe what one was told would again have been "naughty." But eventually, the child calmed herself, in the end dad is there so that the French won't come.