Recruitment

In the Austria of 1838, a man taken into the army owed it 14 years. The upper classes were largely exempt, and anyone with money could pay a substitute. So the scene is set where the burden fell, in a village.

The recruitment is done in a farmhouse parlour, with a church tower and mountains outside the window. A clerk sits at a table with pen and papers, an officer lounging beside him. The recruit, in a green waistcoat, stands with a hand on his chest and a beribboned hat in the other, while soldiers in uniform wait. Near the door a young woman sits bent over, crying into a cloth, as a shaggy dog presses against her.

The Belvedere notes a second fear in the family. A son going off to the army was also one worker fewer on the farm.