.

"I think he has learnt more than any of the rest," the boy said boldly;
"and all the soldiers love him more than any of the other generals, for
he takes such care of them, and does not treat them as if they were dirt
under his feet, only meant to obey orders, and go and get killed when
told."

"You have heard him very much over praised," the officer said quietly.
"I think that he does his best; but he is a young man yet, not older
than I am. His advance has been due to fortune rather than to his own
merits."

"I don't think so," the boy said sturdily. "Do you think that he would
be a lieutenant general at twenty-eight, and that all the soldiers would
speak of him as they do, if it were only fortune? Look how he captured
Landrecies and Solre, and drove the Austrians back from Maubeurge, and
aided the Duke of Weimar to thrash them at Weilenweir, and stormed the
main fort of Breisach! He has been successful in all his enterprises,
and now it is said he is to command in Italy, where things have been
going on badly. The cardinal would not have chosen him had he not
considered that no one could do better than he."

The officer laughed. "Well, young sir, I see that you are so well
acquainted with the sieges and battles of our time that I cannot argue
with you."

"I did not mean that, sir," the boy said in some confusion. "I was only
saying what our soldiers think, and it is natural that I, being only a
boy, should make him my hero, for he went to the wars when he was a year
younger than I am, and at fourteen carried a musket as a volunteer
under Maurice of Nassau, and for five years he was in all the battles in
Holland, and raised the first battery that opened on Bois-le-duc."

"And do you receive no pension as the son of an officer killed in
battle?"

"No, sir. When the living soldiers often have to go months without their
pay, the sons of dead ones can hardly expect to be thought of. But I
don't care; in two years I shall be old enough to enlist, and I shall go
to the frontier and join Hepburn's Scottish brigade, who are now, they
say, in the French service."

"They are fine soldiers--none better," the officer said. "But why does
not the colonel of your father's regiment ask for a commission for you?"

"The regiment is not in favour with the cardinal," the boy replied with
a smile. "They are too Protestant for his eminence, and the colonel is
not a man to ask favours if he is likely to be refused."

"Well," t