Page 118 - A Jacobite Exile

"What were the party you were with doing in the wood?"

"We were hunting wolves and bears."

"Where did you come from?"

"From Marienburg."

"How strong were you?"

"Fifty horse and a hundred and forty foot," Charlie replied, knowing there
could be no harm in stating the truth.

"But it was a long way to march, merely to hunt, and your officers must

have been mad to come out, with so small a party, to a point where they
were likely to meet with us."

"It was not too small a party, sir, as they managed to beat off the attack
made upon them."

The Russian was silent for a moment, then he asked:

"Who was the officer in command?"

"The officer in command was the King of Sweden," Charlie replied.

An exclamation of surprise and anger broke from the Russian general,

when the answer was translated to him.

"You missed a good chance of distinguishing yourself," he said to the
officer in command of the troops. "Here has this mad King of Sweden been
actually putting himself in your hands, and you have let him slip through

your fingers. It would have got you two steps in rank, and the favour of the
czar, had you captured him, and now he will be in a rage, indeed, when he

hears that five hundred cavalry could do nothing against a force only a third
of their number."