AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE 281

then by ship to Revel; mine was one of them, but we
arrived a fortnight too late.”

“Then you were present at Charles’ third victory? How
that young fellow handles his troops, and what wonderful
troops they are! Now we will get into our easy chairs
again, and you shall tell me something about what you have
been doing since we last met.”

Charlie gave a sketch of his adventures,

“So you fought at the Dwina too? You have had luck
in going through three battles without a wound.”

When Charlie stated that he had gone to Warsaw on a
private mission, whose nature was immaterial to the story,
the doctor broke in—“ You need not tell me what it was, it
was of course something to do with Augustus. The way
Charles is hunting down that unfortunate king is shocking,
it is downright malignity. Why, he has wasted fifteen
months over it already, and it has cost him Ingria. He
could have made any terms with Poland he liked after his
victory on the Dwina, and would then have been free to use all
his forces against us. As it is, he has wasted two summers,
and is likely to waste another, and that not for any material
advantage, but simply to gratify his hatred against Augustus;
and he has left us to take Ingria almost without a blow, and
to gain, what Russia has wanted for the last hundred years,
a foothold on the Baltic. He may be a great general, but
he is no politician; no real statesman would throw away
solid advantages in order to gratify personal pique.”

“He considers Augustus the author of this league against
him,” Charlie said. “He and the czar had no grounds at
ail of quarrel against him.”

“We talked over that the last time we met,” the doctor
said with a laugh, “and I told you then that a foothold on
the Baltic was so necessary to Russia, that she would have
accepted the alliance of the Prince of Darkness himself to
getit. As to Augustus, I don’t defend him; he was ambi-