“On his staff?”
“As an aide—yes.”
“What uniform is that you wear? I know none such among the rebel ragamuffins.”
“It is the uniform of the Zieten regiment of hussars, in the Prussian service.”
Butler looked at the other with more respect. At that time, the name of Frederic of Prussia was as famous as that of Napoleon, twenty-five years later, and the Tories, while despising the “rebels,” held a great reverence for the few foreign officers who had found their way into the American service.
“Have you, indeed, served in the Zieten Hussars?” be asked.
“Seven years,” said young Schuyler, proudly.
“You must have been a boy when you entered.”
“I was—a cadet.”
“And what brought you back here to link your fortunes with these rebels, sir?”