152 A JACOBITE EXILE

out here one’s eyes have got opened a bit, and I don’t feel
by any means sanguine that the Stuarts will ever come to
the throne of England again, or that our fathers will recover
their estates. You have seen here what good soldiers can
do, and how powerless men possessing but little discipline,
though perhaps as brave as themselves, are against them.
William of Orange has got good soldiers. His Dutch
troops are probably quite as good as our best Swedish regi-
ments. ‘They have had plenty of fighting in Ireland and
elsewhere, and I doubt whether the Jacobite gentlemen,
however numerous, but without training or discipline, could
any more make head against them than the masses of Mus-
covites could against the Swedish battalions at Narva. All
this means that it is necessary that we should, if possible,
carve out a fortune here. So far I certainly have no reason
to grumble. On the contrary I have had great luck. Iam
a lieutenant at seventeen, and if I am not shot or carried
off by fever, I may, suppose the war goes on and the army
is not reduced, be a colonel at the age of forty. Now you,
on the other hand, have, by that happy suggestion of yours,
attracted the notice of the king, and he is pleased to nomi-
nate you to a mission in which there is a chance of your
distinguishing yourself in another way, and of being em-
ployed in other and more important business. All this
will place you much farther on the road towards making a
fortune than marching and fighting with your company
would be likely to do in the course of twenty years, and I
think it would be foolish in the extreme for you to exhibit
any disinclination to undertake the duty.”

“T suppose you are right, Harry, and I am much obliged
to you for your advice, which certainly puts the matter in a
light in which I had not before seen it. If I thought that
I could do it well I should not so much mind, for, as you
say, there will be some fun to be got out of it, and some
excitement, and there seems little chance of doing any-