Page 129 - A Jacobite Exile

"Kelly tells me that you would not care to change service."

"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. Everyone 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, I am not old enough to be
able to give my opinion on it, though, as far as I am concerned, it seems to

me that it was not a fair thing for Russia to take advantage 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," Doctor 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."

"I 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," Doctor Michaeloff laughed.

"That may, doubtless, be said of a good many among them," Charlie said,
"but, individually, none of the captains could be blamed for the mess they