Page 249 - A Jacobite Exile

Chapter 14

: The Battle Of Clissow.

Charlie sent in his name, and was shown in at once.

"I glad, indeed, to see you, Captain Carstairs," the minister said, as he
entered. "We had given you up for lost. We heard first that you had been

murdered in the streets of Warsaw. A month later, a man brought a letter to
me from your Scotch friend Ramsay, to say that you were accused of the
murder of a Jew trader, a man, it seems, of some importance in Warsaw.

Ramsay said that you were in the company of a band of brigands, and that
the man who went with you as your servant had joined you, and had taken

you some money. He forwarded the letter you had sent him explaining your
position, and said he thought that, upon the whole, it was the best thing you
could have done, as a vigorous search had been set on foot, at the instance

of the Jews, and there would have been but little chance of your making
your way through the country alone. He added that he felt confident that, if

alive, you would manage somehow to rejoin us before the campaign
opened in the spring.

"I am glad that you have been able to do so, but your appearance, at
present, is rather that of a wealthy Polish noble, than of a companion of

brigands."

"I was able to do some service to Count Staroski, as, when travelling with

his wife and child, and his brother, Count John, he was attacked by a pack
of wolves. I have been staying with him for some weeks, and his brother

has now had the kindness to accompany me here. He has thereby made my
passage through the country easy, as we have travelled with fast horses in
his sledge, and have always put up at the chateaux of nobles of his

acquaintance. I have, therefore, avoided all risk of arrest at towns. In the
letter forwarded to you I explained the real circumstances of the death of

the Jew."