Abstract
Sept cavaliers quittèrent la Ville au crépuscule, face au soleil couchant, par la porte de l'ouest qui n'etait plus guardée. Tête haute, sans se cacher, au contraire de tous ceux qui avaient abandonné la Ville, car ils ne fuyaient pas, ils ne trahissaient rien, espéraient moins encore et se gardaient d'imaginer. Ainsi étaient-ils armés, le coeur et l'âme désencombrés scintillant froidement comme du cristal, pour le voyage qui les attendait. Sur l'ordre du margrave héréditaire, simplement, ils allaient, ils s'étaient mis en mouvement et le plus jeune d'entre eux, qui n'avait pas seize ans, fredonnait une chanson…Seven cavalrymen left the City at dusk, facing the setting sun by the Eastern gate, which was no longer guarded. Head held high, not hiding themselves, contrary to those who had left the City, for they were not escaping, they were not betraying, were hoping even less, and guarded themselves from imagining. Thus they were armed, their unfettered heart and soul sparkling coldly like crystal, for the voyage which awaited them. On the order of the hereditary Margrave, they were simply going, they were setting out, and the youngest of them, who was not yet 16, was humming a song …