150 A JACOBITE EXILE

are a brave young officer, but I have many a score of brave
young officers, and it was your quick wit in suggesting the
strategy by which we crossed the Dwina without loss that
has marked you out from among others, and made me see
that you are fit for something better than getting your
throat cut.”

‘The king then changed the subject with his usual abrupt-
ness, and dismissed Charlie at the end of his ride without
any further allusion to the subject. The young fellow,
however, knew enough of the king’s headstrong dispo-
sition to be aware that the matter was settled, and that
he could not, without incurring the king’s serious dis-
pleasure, decline to accept the commission. He walked
back with a serious face to the hut that the officers of
the company occupied, and asked Harry Jervoise to come
out to him.

“What is it, Charlie?” his friend said. ‘Has his
gracious majesty been blowing you up, or has your horse
broken its knees?”

“A much worse thing than either, Harry. The king
appears to have taken into his head that I am cut out fora
diplomatist;” and he then repeated to his friend the con-
versation the king had had with him.

Harry burst into a shout of laughter.

“Don’t be angry, Charlie, but I cannot help it. The
idea of your going, in disguise, I suppose, and trying to
talk over the Jewish clothiers and cannie Scotch traders, is
one of the funniest things I ever heard. And do you think
the king was really in earnest?”

“The king is always in earnest,” Charlie said in a vexed
tone; “and when he once takes a thing into his head
there is no gainsaying him.”

“That is true enough, Charlie,” Harry said, becoming
serious. “Well, I have no doubt you will do it just as well
as another, and after all there will be some fun in it, and