Page 270 - A Jacobite Exile

"Well, if it is Michaeloff who has done this," Charlie grumbled; "no doubt
he meant it kindly, but I would much rather that he left me here. A ride of

two hundred and fifty miles, in August, is not pleasant to begin with, and
the thought of winter in those swamps is enough to make one shiver."

"With a comfortable room and a warm stove, you will not find much to
complain of, Captain Carstairs," the governor said with a smile; "and, no

doubt, Michaeloff may be enabled to obtain leave for you to go out with
him on parole. I was about myself to ask you, now that you are strong and

well again, whether you would like to give your parole, and offer you the
use of my horse for a ride, when inclined for it."

"Thank you, governor. If Michaeloff can do that, it will certainly be a boon,
but I am not disposed to agree that the change can be his work. In the first

place, we don't know that he is there. In the second, I can hardly think that
he could have managed it; and, most of all, I do not see he could possibly
have had a hand in the matter, for, even supposing the officer had found

him directly he arrived, and then given him the message, and he had acted
upon it at once, there would have been no time for the order to get here. It

would have needed a messenger riding night and day, with frequent relays
of horses, to have got to Notteburg and back since the day I spoke to you
about the matter.

"When am I to start?"

"As soon as you have eaten your breakfast. The order says 'send at once,'
and field marshals expect their orders to be attended to promptly."

On descending to the courtyard after breakfast, Charlie was surprised to see

that, instead of a horse as he had expected, a well-appointed carriage, with
an ample supply of rugs, was standing there. The governor was there to see
him off.

"Well, sir," Charlie said. "If this is the way in which you convey prisoners

from one place to another in Russia, I shall certainly be able, when I meet
King Charles, to report to him most favourably as to the treatment of his