A PRISONER 115

“The officer in command was the King of Sweden,”
Charlie replied. An exclamation of surprise and anger
broke from the Russian general when the answer was trans-
latedtohim. “You missed a good chance of distinguishing
yourself,” he said to the officer in command of the troops.
“Here has this mad King of Sweden been actually putting
himself in your hands, and you have let him slip through
your fingers. It would have got you two steps in rank and
the favour of the czar had you captured him, and now he
will be in a rage indeed when he hears that five hundred
cavalry could do nothing against a force only a third of
their number.”

“T had no idea that the King of Sweden was there him-
self,” the officer said humbly.

“Bah, that is no excuse. There were officers, and you
ought to have captured them instead of allowing yourself
to be put to flight by a hundred and fifty men.”

“We must have killed half the horsemen before the
infantry came up.”

“All the worse, colonel, that you did not complete the
business. The infantry would not have been formidable
after they discharged their pieces. However, it is your
own affair, and I wash my hands of it. What the czar will
say when he hears of it I know not, but I would not be in
your shoes for all my estates.” As Charlie learned after-
wards, the colonel was degraded from his rank by the angry
czar, and ordered to serve as a private in the regiment he
commanded. The officer who acted as translator said
something in his own tongue to the general, who then,
through him, said—“'This officer tells me that by your
language you are not a Swede.”

“Tam not. Iam English, and I am an ensign in the
Malmoe Regiment.”

“All the worse for you,” the general said. “The czar
has declared that he will exchange no foreign officers who
may be taken prisoneys,”’