A PRISONER 119

“TJ wished myself back a hundred times before I reached
Moscow, but when I did everything was easy for me. Le
Ford introduced me to the czar, and I was appointed sur-
geon of a newly-raised regiment, of which Le Ford was
colonel. ‘That was eight years ago, and I am now a sort of
surgeon-general of a division, and am at the head of the
hospitals about here. ‘Till the war began I had not for
five years done any military work, but had been at the head
of a college the czar has established for training surgeons
for the army. I was only sent down here after that busi-
ness at Narva. So you see I have fallen on my feet. ‘The
czar’s is a good service, and we employ a score or two of
Scotchmen, most of them in good posts. He took to them
because a Scotchman, General Gordon, and other foreign
officers, rescued him from his sister Sophia, who intended
to assassinate him, and established him firmly on the
throne of his father. It is a pity you are not on this side.
Perhaps it isn’t too late to change, eh?”

Charlie laughed. “My father is in Sweden, and my
company is commanded by a man who is as good as a
father to me, and his son is like my brother. If there
were no other reason I could not change. Why, it was
only yesterday I was sitting round a bivouac fire with King
Charles, and nothing would induce me to fight against
him.”

“T am not going to try to persuade you. ‘The czar has
treated me well, and I love him. By the way, I have not
given you my name after all. It’s Terence Kelly.”

“Ts not the czar very fierce and cruel?”

“‘Bedad, I would be much more cruel and fierce if I were
in his place. Just think of one man with all Russia on his
shoulders. ‘There is he trying to improve the country,
working like a horse himself, knowing that, like every
other Russian, he is as ignorant as a pig, and setting to
improve himself—working in the dockyards of Holland