r majesty's army who have defeated the Imperialists at
Mansfeld."

"Say you so?" exclaimed the king. "Then, though I understand you not,
we shall hear a solution of the mystery which has been puzzling us. Sit
down, young sir; fill yourself a flagon of wine, and expound this riddle
to us."

Malcolm repeated the narrative as he had told it to his colonel, and the
king expressed his warm satisfaction.

"You will make a great leader some day if you do not get killed in one
of these adventures, young sir. Bravery seems to be a common gift of the
men of your nation; but you seem to unite with it a surprising prudence
and sagacity, and, moreover, this march of yours to Mansfeld shows that
you do not fear taking responsibility, which is a high and rare quality.
You have done good service to the cause, and I thank you, and shall keep
my eye upon you in the future."

The next day Malcolm went round the camp, and was surprised at the
extensive works which had been erected. Strong ramparts and redoubts had
been thrown up round it, faced with stone, and mounted with 150 pieces
of cannon. In the centre stood an inner entrenchment with earthworks
and a deep fosse. In this stood the tents of the king and those of his
principal officers. The Marquis of Hamilton had, Malcolm heard, arrived
and gone. He had lost on the march many of the soldiers he had enlisted
in England, who had died from eating German bread, which was heavier,
darker coloured, and more sour than that of their own country. This,
however, did not disagree with the Scotch, who were accustomed to black
bread.

"I wonder," Malcolm said to Nigel Graheme, "that when the king has in
face of him a force so superior to his own he should have sent away on
detached service the four splendid regiments which they say the marquis
brought."

"Well, the fact was," Nigel said laughing, "Hamilton was altogether too
grand for us here. We all felt small and mean so long as he remained.
Gustavus himself, who is as simple in his tastes as any officer in the
army, and who keeps up no ostentatious show, was thrown into the shade
by his visitor. Why, had he been the Emperor of Germany or the King of
France he could not have made a braver show. His table was equipped
and furnished with magnificence; his carriages would have created a
sensation in Paris; the liveries of his attendants were more splendid
than the uniforms of generals; he had forty gentlemen as esquires and
pages, and 200 y