Excerpt from The Chess Machine by Robert Lohr, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

 

 

Even in the war Tibor had remained free of that sin. At the age of fourteen, when he had been chased away from his parents' farm, his native village of Provesano, and the Republic of Venice because the neighbors made out that the little goblin was molesting village girls, he was picked up near Udine by a regiment of Austrian dragoons passing through. The soldiers were on their way north to take Silesia back from the thieving Prussians, and they recruited Tibor as boot-boy and lucky mascot.

So in the spring of 1759 Tibor found himself in the middle of the Seven Years' War, which at this point had been raging for three years. The boot-boy accompanied his regiment to Silesia by way of Vienna and Prague, and the dragoons ascribed the defeat of the Prussian troops at Kunersdorf to his influence as a lucky charm. Tibor was present during the occupation of Berlin and led a reasonably good life in the army camps and occupied cities. He learned German, had a little uniform made to fit his small body, was well fed, and sometimes joined the soldiers in their drinking sprees.

But luck deserted the Austrians in November 1760. At the battle of Torgau, Tibor's regiment was wiped out by the Prussians. Although he had not been involved in the fighting, he took a musket ball in his thigh, so he didn't get far during the retreat by night. Mounted soldiers took him prisoner. Since the Prussian cuirassiers had lost more than half of their own men on the battlefield, they were bent on vengeance. The dwarf was an unusual item of loot, too good to be wasted in a quick execution. So the Prussians emptied a provisions barrel of the salt fish it had contained, stuffed Tibor inside it instead, nailed the lid back on the barrel, and threw the unfortunate dwarf into the river Elbe.

Tibor was imprisoned there for two days and two nights. He couldn't move, let alone free himself. The wound in his thigh had been only sketchily bandaged, and the icy waters of the Elbe seeped through a crack between the staves of the barrel. Tibor either had to caulk the leaky place or get it up above his head to keep from drowning. The barrel was both a prison and a lifeboat to him, for he couldn't swim. At first the overpowering smell of fish made him vomit, but two days later, starving, he was licking the salt from inside the staves. The exhausted dwarf shouted for help until his voice failed him. Then he remembered the medallion of the Virgin around his neck, and he sought salvation in prayer, promising Mother Mary never to touch a drop of drink again if she would free him from this floating dungeon. Six hours later he also promised her his virginity, and three hours later still he vowed to go into a monastery.

If he had waited one more hour he would have been saved anyway, even without that oath, for by now the barrel had reached Wittenberg. It was here, of all places, that some ferrymen fished Tibor out of the Elbe and freed him, and here of all places, in Luther's own city, he fell to the ground, covered it with kisses, and stammered Catholic prayers of gratitude—as if a salted dwarf stinking of fish and wearing a bloodstained dragoon's uniform weren't a strange enough sight in itself.

Tibor was taken into custody, his wound was tended, and his evil-smelling uniform burned. He quickly recovered and equally quickly grew impatient: he had given the Virgin Mary his word, and he wanted to put his vow into practice as soon as possible. But he had to wait three months before he was released. Then, although the war was still in full swing, keeping Tibor a prisoner was costing the Prussians more than anything he could be worth to the Austrians.

A free man again, Tibor joined a group of traveling showmen on their  way to Poland. That was the quickest way back to Roman Catholic soil.

Excerpted from The Chess Machine by Robert Loer. Copyright © 2007 by Robert Loer. Excerpted by permission of Penguin Group. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.