alf-brothers declared that Lady Hope was
nurturing the young Arthur in Toryism and disaffection, and they made it
a plea for separating him from her, and sending him to an old minister,
who kept a school, and who was very severe and even cruel to the poor
boy. But I am wearying Madame.'

'Oh no, I listen with the deepest interest.'

'Finally, when the King was expected in Scotland, and men's minds were
full of anger and bitterness, as well as hope and spirit, the boy--he was
then only fourteen years of age--boasted of his grandfather's having
fought at Killiecrankie, and used language which the tutor pronounced
treasonable. He was punished and confined to his room; but in the night
he made his escape and joined the royal army. My husband was grieved to
see him, told him he had no right to political opinions, and tried to
send him home in time to make his peace before all was lost. Alas! no.
The little fellow did, indeed, pass out safely from Preston, but only to
join my Lord Mar. He was among the gentlemen who embarked at Banff; and
when my Lord, by Heaven's mercy, had escaped from the Tower of London,
and we arrived at Paris, almost the first person we saw was little
Arthur, whom we thought to have been safe at home. We have kept him with
us, and I contrived to let his mother know that he is living, for she had
mourned him as among the slain.'

'Poor mother.'

'You may well pity her, Madame. She writes to me that if Arthur had
returned at once from Preston, as my Lord advised, all would have been
passed over as a schoolboy frolic; and, indeed, he has never been
attainted; but there is nothing that his eldest brother, Lord Burnside as
they call him, dreads so much as that it should be known that one of his
family was engaged in the campaign, or that he is keeping such ill
company as we are. Therefore, at her request, we have never called him
Hope, but let him go by our name of Maxwell, which is his by baptism; and
now she tells me that if he could make his way to Scotland, not as if
coming from Paris or Bar-le-Duc, but merely as if travelling on the
Continent, his brother would consent to his return.'

'Would she be willing that he should live under the usurper?'

'Madame, to tell you the truth,' said Lady Nithsdale, 'the Lady Hope is
not one to heed the question of usurpers, so long as her son is safe and
a good lad. Nay, for my part, we all lived peaceably and happily enough
under Queen Anne; and by all