lace you coveted, then understand that you are wrong, and that with
all your twenty-six years and your service in two armies, you are
ignorant of the principle on which an army should be regulated. Upon
your way of it, if any young officer, more raw in character than in
years, and not yet able to rule his own spirit, or to keep himself
from quarrelling like a common soldier, should happen to be of use in
a strait--I acknowledge the strait--to a king, his foolishness should
be placed in command of veteran officers and men. It were right to
recompense him at the cost of the Prince, mayhap, but not at the cost
of gallant soldiers whom he was unfit to govern, because he could not
govern himself."

Whether William was angry at Claverhouse's impertinence, or was no
more touched than the cliff by the spray from a wave, only his
intimates could have told, but in this conflict between the two
temperaments, the Prince was in the end an easy victor. If William had
no boiling point, Claverhouse, though as composed in manner as he was
afterwards to be cruel in action, had limits to his self-restraint. As
the Prince suggested that, though two years older than himself, he was
a shallow-pated and self-conceited boy, who was ever looking after his
own ends, and when he was disappointed, kicked and struggled like a
child fighting with its nurse; that, in fact, in spite of thinking
himself a fine gentleman, he ought to know that he had neither sense
nor manners, and was as yet unfit for any high place, Claverhouse's
temper gave way, and he struck with cutting words at the Prince.

"What I intended to have said, but my blundering speech may not have
reached your Highness's mind, is that if a Prince makes a promise of
reward to another man who has saved his life at the risk of his own,
that Prince is bound to keep his word or to make some reparation. And
there is a debt due by your Highness to a certain Scots officer which
has not been paid. Is a Prince alone privileged to break his word?"

"You desire reparation," answered the Prince more swiftly than usual,
and with a certain haughty gesture, "and you shall have it before you
leave my presence. For brawling and striking within our grounds, you
are in danger of losing your right arm, and other men have been so
punished for more excusable doings. You have been complaining in a
public place that you have not obtained a regiment, as if it were your
due, and you have charged your general wit