untry.'

'Our army,' suggested Madame de Bourke.

'Ah! but he is Protestant.'

'A heretic!' exclaimed the lady, drawing herself up. 'But--'

'Oh, do not refuse me on that account. He is a good lad, and has lived
enough among Catholics to keep his opinions in the background. But you
understand that it is another reason for wishing to convey him, if not to
Scotland, to some land like Sweden or Prussia, where his faith would not
be a bar to his promotion.'

'What is it you would have me do?' said Madame de Bourke, more coldly.

'If Madame would permit him to be included in her passport, as about to
join the Ambassador's suite, and thus conduct him to Sweden; Lady Hope
would find means to communicate with him from thence, the poor young man
would be saved from a ruined career, and the heart of the widow and
mother would bless you for ever.

Madame de Bourke was touched, but she was a prudent woman, and paused to
ask whether the youth had shown any tendency to run into temptation, from
which Lady Nithsdale wished to remove him.

'Oh no,' she answered; 'he was a perfectly good docile lad, though high-
spirited, submissive to the Earl, and a kind playfellow to her little
girls; it was his very excellence that made it so unfortunate that he
should thus be stranded in early youth in consequence of one boyish
folly.'

The Countess began to yield. She thought he might go as secretary to her
Lord, and she owned that if he was a brave young man, he would be an
addition to her little escort, which only numbered two men besides her
brother-in-law, the Abbe, who was of almost as little account as his
young nephew. 'But I should warn you, Madame,' added Madame de Bourke,
'that it may be a very dangerous journey. I own to you, though I would
not tell my poor mother, that my heart fails me when I think of it, and
were it not for the express commands of their father, I would not risk my
poor children on it.'

'I do not think you will find Sweden otherwise than a cheerful and
pleasant abode,' said Lady Nithsdale.

'Ah! if we were only in Sweden, or with my husband, all would be well!'
replied the other lady; 'but we have to pass through the mountains, and
the Catalans are always ill-affected to us French.'

'Nay; but you are a party of women, and belong to an ambassador!' was the
answer.

'What do those robbers care for that? We are all the better prey for
them! I have heard histories of Spanish cruelty and lawlessne