s to be quite true; and there can be no
real question as to the true interest of Poland, and especially of
the trading classes in the great towns, from whom heavy
contributions towards the expenses of war are always exacted by
their own rulers, and who have to pay a ruinous ransom in case of
their city being captured by the enemy. The traders of Warsaw will
need no reminder of such well-known facts, and will be only too
glad to be assured that, unless as a last resource, our king has no
intention of making war upon Poland, and they will certainly be
inclined to bestir themselves to avert such a possibility. You
have, I suppose, a list of names of the people with whom you had
best put yourself into communication?"

"Yes, sir. Here is a list. There are, I see, ten Scotchmen, fifteen
Frenchmen, and about as many Jews."

"I know nothing of the Frenchmen, and less of the Jews," the
colonel said, taking the list; "but I ought to know some of the
Scotchmen. They will hail from Dundee and Glasgow, and, it may be,
Dumfries."

He ran his eye down the list.

"Aha! Here is one, and we need go no further. Allan Ramsay; we were
lads together at the High School of Glasgow, and were classmates at
the College. His father was a member of the city council, and was
one of the leading traders in the city. Allan was a wild lad, as I
was myself, and many a scrape did we get into together, and had
many a skirmish with the watch. Allan had two or three half
brothers, men from ten to twenty years older than himself, and, a
year or two after I came out to Sweden and entered the army as an
ensign, who should I meet in the streets of Gottenburg, but Allan
Ramsay.

"We were delighted to see each other, and he stopped with me nearly
a week. He had, after leaving the College, gone into his father's
business, but when the old man died he could not get on with his
half brothers, who were dour men, and had little patience with
Allan's restlessness and love of pleasure. So, after a final
quarrel, they had given him so much money for his share of the
business, and a letter of introduction to a trader in Poland, who
had written to them saying that he wanted a partner with some
capital; and Allan was willing enough to try the life in a strange
country, for he was a shrewd fellow, with all his love of fun.

"Five years afterwards, he came through Gottenburg again. I did not
see him, for my regiment was at Stockholm at the time, but he wrote
me a let