126 A JACOBITE EXILE

“My friends are in the Swedish army, and I am well
satisfied with the service. I daresay if Russia had been
nearer England than Sweden is, and we had landed there
first, we should have been as glad to enter the service of
the czar as we were to join that of King Charles. Every one
says that the czar makes strangers welcome, and that he is
a liberal master to those who serve him well. As to the
quarrel between them, Iam not old enough to be able to give
my opinion on it, though, as far as 1 am concerned, it seems
to me that it was not a fair thing for Russia to take advan-
tage of Sweden’s being at war with Denmark and Augustus
of Saxony, to fall upon her without any cause of quarrel.”

“Nations move less by morality than interest,” Dr.
Michaeloff said calmly. “Russia wants a way to the sea
—the Turks cut her off to the south, and the Swedes from
the Baltic. She is smothered between them, and when she
saw her chance she took it. ‘That is not good morality, I
admit that it is the excuse of the poor man who robs the
rich, but it is human nature, and nations act in the long
run a good deal like individuals.”

“But you have not told me yet, doctor,” Charlie said,
turning the conversation, ‘whether the proposal for an
exchange was accepted.”

“The general had no power to accept it, Carstairs. It
had to be referred to the czar himself.”

“T wish his majesty could see me then,” Charlie laughed.
“He would see that I am but a lad, and that my release
would not greatly strengthen the Swedish army.”

“But then the czar may be of opinion that none of his
officers who allowed themselves to be captured by a handful
of men at Narva would be of any use to him,” Dr. Michaeloff
laughed. é

“That may, doubtless, be said of a good many among
them,” Charlie said, “but individually none of the cap-
tains could be blamed for the mess they made of it.”