78 A JACOBITE EXILE

was out hunting, a sport of which he is passionately fond.
By all accounts he is an extraordinary young fellow. He is
not content with hunting bears and shooting them, but he
and his followers engage them armed only with forked
sticks. With these they attack the bears, pushing and
hustling the great creatures with the forks of their sticks
until they are completely exhausted, when they are bound
and sent away. In this hunt Charles took fourteen alive,
one of which nearly killed him before it was captured. He
did not break up the hunting party, but continued his sport
to the end, sending off, however, orders for the concentra-
tion of all the troops in Livonia and Finland to act against
the Saxons.

“As soon as the King of Denmark heard of the siege
of Riga he ordered the Duke of Wurtemberg-Neustadt,
his commander-in-chief, to enter Holstein with his army,
sixteen thousand strong. All of that country was at once
overrun, the ducal domains seized, and great contributions
exacted from Schleswig and Holstein. Fleming and the
Saxons, after one severe repulse, forced the garrison of the
fort of Dunamund, commanding the mouth of the Duna, to
surrender. ‘Tonningen is the only fortress that now holds
out in Holstein. So you see, lads, there is every chance
of there being brisk fighting, and I warrant the young King
of Sweden will not be backward in the fray. A man who
is fond of engaging with bears, armed with nothing but a
forked stick, is not likely to hang back in the day of battle.
But at present we will say no more on the matter. Now
that we have got beyond the shelter of the island, the waves
are getting up, and the vessel is beginning to toss and roll.
I see that Sir Marmaduke has retired to his cabin. I mean
to remain here as long as I can, and I should advise you
both to do the same. I have always heard that it is better
to fight with this sickness of the sea as long as possible, and
that it is easier to do so in fresh air than ina close cabin.”