Page 245 - A Jacobite Exile

we shall have a fresh king, and shall no doubt choose one upon the
recommendation of Charles, who will then march away again, leaving us to

manage our own affairs. Therefore, we have no animosity whatever against
you as a Swedish officer, but for comfort's sake it is better that nothing

should be said of this, and that I should introduce you to my friends simply
as an English gentleman, who has rendered me the greatest possible
service."

The countess retired to bed, a short time after they had finished their meal,

and the others sat up talking until late in the evening. Charlie learnt that the
country was still in a greatly disturbed state. Parties of disbanded soldiers
and others, rendered desperate by cold and hardship, were everywhere

plundering the peasantry, and many encounters had taken place between
them and the nobles, who, with their retainers, had marched against them.

Travel would be dangerous for a long time to come.

"Therefore, until the spring, you must not think of moving," the count said.

"Indeed, I think that your best plan, when you start, will be to work due
north, and join the Swedish forces near Narva. It will be shorter as well as

less dangerous. Still, we can talk of that later on."

The next morning they started early, and arrived in the afternoon at the

chateau of the count. It was not a fortified building, for the Poles differed
from the western nations, abstaining from fortifying their towns and

residences, upon the ground that they were a free people, capable of
defending their country from foreign invasion, and therefore requiring no
fortified towns, and that such places added to the risks of civil war, and

enabled factions to set the will of the nation at defiance.

The building was a large one, but it struck Charlie as being singularly plain
and barn-like in comparison with the residences of country gentlemen in
England. A number of retainers ran out as they drove up into the courtyard,

and exclamations of surprise and dismay rose, as the wounds on the horses'
flanks and legs were visible; and when, in a few words, the count told them

that they had been attacked by wolves, and had been saved principally by
the English gentleman and his follower, the men crowded round Charlie,