o certain as I
did in the old days. Then, you know, all our friends were of our
way of thinking, and the faith that the Stuarts would return was
like a matter of religion, which it was heresy to doubt for an
instant. Well, you see, in the year that we have been out here
one's eyes have got opened a bit, and I don't feel by any means
sanguine that the Stuarts will ever come to the throne of England
again, or that our fathers will recover their estates.

"You have seen here what good soldiers can do, and how powerless
men possessing but little discipline, though perhaps as brave as
themselves, are against them. William of Orange has got good
soldiers. His Dutch troops are probably quite as good as our best
Swedish regiments. They have had plenty of fighting in Ireland and
elsewhere, and I doubt whether the Jacobite gentlemen, however
numerous, but without training or discipline, could any more make
head against them than the masses of Muscovites could against the
Swedish battalions at Narva. All this means that it is necessary
that we should, if possible, carve out a fortune here. So far, I
certainly have no reason to grumble. On the contrary, I have had
great luck. I am a lieutenant at seventeen, and, if I am not shot
or carried off by fever, I may, suppose the war goes on and the
army is not reduced, be a colonel at the age of forty.

"Now you, on the other hand, have, by that happy suggestion of
yours, attracted the notice of the king, and he is pleased to
nominate you to a mission in which there is a chance of your
distinguishing yourself in another way, and of being employed in
other and more important business. All this will place you much
farther on the road towards making a fortune, than marching and
fighting with your company would be likely to do in the course of
twenty years, and I think it would be foolish in the extreme for
you to exhibit any disinclination to undertake the duty."

"I suppose you are right, Harry, and I am much obliged to you for
your advice, which certainly puts the matter in a light in which I
had not before seen it. If I thought that I could do it well, I
should not so much mind, for, as you say, there will be some fun to
be got out of it, and some excitement, and there seems little
chance of doing anything here for a long time. But what am I to say
to the fellows? How can I argue with them? Besides, I don't talk
Polish."

"I don't suppose there are ten men in the army who do so, pro