Page 93 - A Jacobite Exile

enemy and Wesenberg, where a large amount of provisions and stores for
the use of the army had been collected.

The two lieutenants, in the company of Captain Jervoise, were young

Scotchmen of good family, who had three months before come over and
obtained commissions, and both had, at the colonel's request, been
transferred to his regiment, and promoted to the rank of lieutenants. Captain

Jervoise and his four officers messed together, and were a very cheerful
party; indeed, their commander, to the surprise both of his son and Charlie,

had quite shaken off his quiet and somewhat gloomy manner, and seemed
to have become quite another man, in the active and bracing life in which
he was now embarked. Cunningham and Forbes were both active young

men, full of life and energy, while the boys thoroughly enjoyed roughing it,
and the excitement and animation of their daily work.

Sometimes they slept in the open air, sometimes on the floor of a cottage.
Their meals were rough but plentiful. The king's orders against plundering

were very severe, and, even when in Denmark, the country people, having
nothing to complain of, had brought in supplies regularly. Here in Linovia

they were in Swedish dominions, but there was little to be purchased, for
the peasantry had been brought to ruin by the foraging parties of the
Russians and Poles.

There was some disappointment, that the enemy had fallen back at the

approach of Welling's force, but all felt sure that it would not be long
before they met them, for the king would assuredly lose no time in
advancing against them, as soon as his army could be brought over. They

were not, however, to wait for the arrival of the main force, although the
cavalry only took part in the first affair. General Welling heard that a force

of three thousand Circassians had taken up their quarters in a village, some
fifteen miles away, and sent six hundred horse, under Majors Patkul and
Tisenbausen, to surprise them. They were, at first, successful and, attacking

the Circassians, set fire to the village, and were engaged in slaughtering the
defenders, when twenty-one squadrons of Russian cavalry came up and fell

upon them, attacking them on all sides, and posting themselves so as to cut
off their retreat. The Swedes, however, gathered in a body, and charged the