iled as she
said to herself, 'A great raw Scot! What can be done with him?

Lord Nithsdale spoke for him, thinking he had better go as secretary, and
showing some handwriting of good quality. 'Did he know any languages?'
'French, English, Latin, and some Greek.' 'And, Madame,' added Lord
Nithsdale, 'not only is his French much better than mine, as you would
hear if the boy durst open his mouth, but our broad Scotch is so like
Swedish that he will almost be an interpreter there.'

However hopeless Madame de Bourke felt, she smiled and professed herself
rejoiced to hear it, and it was further decided that Arthur Maxwell Hope,
aged eighteen, Scot by birth, should be mentioned among those of the
Ambassador's household for whom she demanded passports. Her position
rendered this no matter of difficulty, and it was wiser to give the full
truth to the home authorities; but as it was desirable that it should not
be reported to the English Government that Lord Burnside's brother was in
the suite of the Jacobite Comte de Bourke, he was only to be known to the
public by his first name, which was not much harder to French lips than
Maxwell or Hope.

'Tall and black and awkward,' said Estelle, describing him to her
brother. 'I shall not like him--I shall call him Phalante instead of
Arthur.'

'Arthur,' said Ulysse; 'King Arthur was turned into a crow!'

'Well, this Arthur is like a crow--a great black skinny crow with torn
feathers.'

CHAPTER III--ON THE RHONE

'Fairer scenes the opening eye
Of the day can scarce descry,
Fairer sight he looks not on
Than the pleasant banks of Rhone.'

ARCHBISHOP TRENCH.

Long legs may be in the abstract an advantage, but scarcely so in what
was called in France _une grande Berline_. This was the favourite
travelling carriage of the eighteenth century, and consisted of a close
carriage or coach proper, with arrangements on the top for luggage, and
behind it another seat open, but provided with a large leathern hood, and
in front another place for the coachman and his companions. Each seat
was wide enough to hold three persons, and thus within sat Madame de
Bourke, her brother-in-law, the two children, Arthur Hope, and
Mademoiselle Julienne, an elderly woman of the artisan class, _femme de
chambre_ to the Countess. Victorine, who was attendant on the children,
would travel under the hood with two more maids; and the front seat would
be occupied by the coachma