Page 153 - A Jacobite Exile

"Well, I don't know that I should wish that if I were in your place, Charlie.
Undoubtedly, it is an honour being chosen for such a mission, and it is

possible you may get a great deal of credit for it, as the king is always ready
to push forward those who do good service. Look how much he thinks of

you, because you made that suggestion about getting up a smoke to cover
our passage."

"I wish I had never made it," Charlie said heartily.

"Well, in that case, Charlie, it is likely enough we should not be talking
together here, for our loss in crossing the river under fire would have been
terrible."

"Well, perhaps it is as well as it is," Charlie agreed. "But I did not want to

attract his attention. I was very happy as I was, with you all. As for my
suggestion about the straw, anyone might have thought of it. I should never
have given the matter another moment's consideration, and I should be

much better pleased if the king had not done so, either, instead of telling the
colonel about it, and the colonel speaking to the officers, and such a

ridiculous fuss being made about nothing."

"My dear Charlie," Harry said seriously, "you seem to be forgetting that we

all came out here, together, to make our fortune, or at any rate to do as well
as we could till the Stuarts come to the throne again, and our fathers regain

their estates, a matter concerning which, let me tell you, I do not feel by
any means so certain as I did in the old days. Then, you know, all our
friends were of our way of thinking, and the faith that the Stuarts would

return was like a matter of religion, which it was heresy to doubt for an
instant. Well, you see, in the year that we have been 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