Page 278 - A Jacobite Exile

cannot be trusted to do what they are told. It is not that they are not willing,
but that they are stupid. No one would believe that people could be so

stupid. They drive me well nigh to madness sometimes, and it is the more
irritating because, against stupidity, one is powerless. Beating a man or

knocking him down may do him good if he is obstinate, or if he is careless,
but when he is simply stupid it only makes him more stupid than before.
You might as well batter a stone wall.

"You slept well and breakfasted well, Captain Carstairs?"

"Excellently well, thank you. What superb horses you have, doctor."

"Yes. I like travelling fast. Life is too short to throw away time in
travelling. A busy man should always keep good horses."

"If he can afford to do so," Charlie said with a laugh. "I should say that
every one, busy or not, would like to sit behind such horses as these, and, as

you say, it would save a good deal of time to one who travelled much. But
three such horses as these would only be in the reach of one with a very

long purse."

"They were bred here. Their sire was one of three given by the king of

England to the czar. The dams were from the imperial stables at Vienna. So
they ought to be good."

Charlie guessed that the team must have been a present from the czar, and,
remembering what Doctor Kelly had said of the czar's personal

communications with him, he thought that the ruler of Russia must have a
particular liking for doctors, and that the medical profession must be a more

honoured and profitable one in Russia than elsewhere.

After driving with great rapidity for upwards of an hour along the banks of

the Neva, Charlie saw a great number of people at work on an island in the
middle of the river, some distance ahead, and soon afterwards, to his

surprise, observed a multitude on the flat, low ground ahead.