Page 236 - A Jacobite Exile

of them. We set up a yell, and went at them with our axes, yet I did not feel
by any means sure that they would not be too many for us.

"But what on earth does it all mean? And how is it that you have lived

through the night? We had no expectation of finding you alive. However,
that fire tells its own tale, as though nothing less than burning up a big tree
would content you."

"I will tell you all, presently. It is too long a story now. Let us help these

travellers to go their way, before the wolves rally again."

"They will not do that," the captain said confidently. "If it was night, they

might hang about the neighbourhood, but they are cowardly beasts in the
daytime, and easily scared. They are still going away at their best pace, I

will be bound."

While Charlie was speaking to Ladislas, one of the travellers had been

talking to Stanislas, who, in answer to his question, had informed him that
he was in Charlie's service, and that the latter was an English gentleman,

who had, from a variety of circumstances, especially the suspicion with
which all strangers were regarded, been unable to travel through the
country, and had therefore been passing the winter hunting, with this

company of disbanded soldiers who had so opportunely arrived to their
assistance.

The other traveller had, by this time, carried his wife beyond the heat of the
fire, and had applied some snow to her forehead, pouring a little brandy

from the flask between her lips. She had now begun to revive, and, leaving
her, he approached the party. His brother met him, and in a few words told

him what he had learned from Stanislas.

"My friends," he said, "my brother tells me that you are a party of

discharged soldiers, who are passing the winter in a hut here in the forest,
supporting yourselves by shooting and fishing. I have to thank Providence

for the thought that sent you here. I have to thank you for your prompt
assistance, to which we are indebted for our lives.