e up, and when his
company was called in he went to his colonel and asked for leave of
absence, stating his reasons for wishing to absent himself from the
regiment.

"It is a perilous business, Malcolm," Colonel Munro said. "I have scarce
a handful of the friends with whom I joined Gustavus but three years and
a half ago remaining, and I can ill spare another; nevertheless I will
not stay you in your enterprise. The Count of Mansfeld has been a steady
ally of ours, and is one of the few who has appeared to have at heart
the cause of Protestantism rather than of personal gain.

"Moreover, he is as you say a friend of yours, and has shown you real
kindness in time of need. Therefore go, my boy, and Heaven be with you!
It is not likely that there will be any more serious fighting this
year. Wallenstein lies inactive, negotiating now with Saxony, now with
Oxenstiern. What are his aims and plans Heaven only knows; but at any
rate we have no right to grumble at the great schemer, for ever since
Lutzen he has kept the emperor's best army inactive. Make it a point,
Malcolm, to find out, so far as you can, what is the public opinion in
Bohemia as to his real intentions. If you can bring back any information
as to his plans you will have done good service to the cause, however
long your absence from the camp may be."

That evening Malcolm packed up his armour, arms, court suits, and
valuables, and sent them away to the care of his friend the syndic of
the clockmakers of Nuremberg, with a letter requesting him to keep them
in trust for him until he returned; and in the event of his not arriving
to claim them in the course of six months, to sell them, and to devote
the proceeds to the assistance of sick or wounded Scottish soldiers.
Then he purchased garments suitable for a respectable craftsman, and
having attired himself in these, with a stout sword banging from his
leathern belt, a wallet containing a change of garments and a number
of light tools used in clockmaking, with a long staff in his hand, and
fifty ducats sewed in the lining of the doublet, he set out on foot on
his journey.

It was nigh three weeks from the time when he started before he arrived
at Prague, for not only had he to make a very long detour to avoid the
contending armies, but he was forced to wait at each considerable town
until he could join a company of travellers going in the same direction,
for the whole country so swarmed with disbanded soldiers,