ho spoke Swedish.

"What were the party you were with doing in the wood?"

"We were hunting wolves and bears."

"Where did you come from?"

"From Marienburg."

"How strong were you?"

"Fifty horse and a hundred and forty foot," Charlie replied,
knowing there could be no harm in stating the truth.

"But it was a long way to march, merely to hunt, and your officers
must have been mad to come out, with so small a party, to a point
where they were likely to meet with us."

"It was not too small a party, sir, as they managed to beat off the
attack made upon them."

The Russian was silent for a moment, then he asked:

"Who was the officer in command?"

"The officer in command was the King of Sweden," Charlie replied.

An exclamation of surprise and anger broke from the Russian
general, when the answer was translated to him.

"You missed a good chance of distinguishing yourself," he said to
the officer in command of the troops. "Here has this mad King of
Sweden been actually putting himself in your hands, and you have
let him slip through your fingers. It would have got you two steps
in rank, and the favour of the czar, had you captured him, and now
he will be in a rage, indeed, when he hears that five hundred
cavalry could do nothing against a force only a third of their
number."

"I had no idea that the King of Sweden was there himself," the
officer said humbly.

"Bah, that is no excuse. There were officers, and you ought to have
captured them, instead of allowing yourself to be put to flight by
a hundred and fifty men."

"We must have killed half the horsemen before the infantry came
up."

"All the worse, colonel, that you did not complete the business.
The infantry would not have been formidable, after they discharged
their pieces. However, it is your own affair, and I wash my hands
of it. What the czar will say when he hears of it, I know not, but
I would not be in your shoes for all my estates."

As Charlie learned afterwards, the colonel was degraded from his
rank by the angry czar, and ordered to serve as a private in the
regiment he commanded. The officer who acted as translator said
something in his own tongue to the general, who then, through him,
said:

"This officer tells me that by your language you are not a Swede."

"I am not. I am English, and I am an ensign in the Malmoe
Regiment."

"All the worse for you," the general said. "The czar has declared
that he will exchange no foreig