write to
your colonel saying that it will be some months before you are fit for
duty, and that he has therefore ordered you change and quiet.

"You need not be afraid of neglecting your duty or of getting out of the
way of risking your life in harebrained ventures, for there will be no
fighting till the spring. Everyone is negotiating at present, and you
will be back with your regiment before fighting begins again. Well, what
do you say?"

"I thank you, indeed," Malcolm replied. "It will of all things be the
most pleasant; the doctor has told me that I shall not be fit for duty
until the spring, and I have been wondering how ever I should be able to
pass the time until then."

"Then we will be off without a minute's delay," the count said. "I sent
off the litter last night and started myself at daybreak, promising the
countess to be back with you ere nightfall, so we have no time to lose."

The news soon spread that Malcolm Graheme was about to leave the camp,
and many of the Scottish officers came in to say adieu to him; but time
pressed, and half an hour after the arrival of the count he started
for Leipzig with Malcolm in a litter swung between two horses. As they
travelled at a foot pace Malcolm did not find the journey uneasy, but
the fresh air and motion soon made him drowsy, and he was fast asleep
before he had left the camp an hour, and did not awake until the sound
of the horses' hoofs on stone pavements told him that they were entering
the town of Leipzig.

A few minutes later he was lying on a couch in the comfortable
apartments occupied by the count, while the countess with her own hands
was administering refreshments to him, and Thekla was looking timidly
on, scarce able to believe that this pale and helpless invalid was the
stalwart young Scottish soldier of whose adventures she was never weary
of talking.

CHAPTER XIX A PAUSE IN HOSTILITIES

Never had Malcolm Graheme spent a more pleasant time than the two months
which he passed at Mansfeld. Travelling by very easy stages there he
was so far convalescent upon his arrival that he was able to move about
freely and could soon ride on horseback. For the time the neighbourhood
of Mansfeld was undisturbed by the peasants or combatants on either
side, and the count had acted with such vigour against any parties of
brigands and marauders who might approach the vicinity of Mansfeld,
or the country under his control, that a greater security of life a