"I should like nothing so much, count; but might I not get you into trouble, if it were known that you had one of the king's officers at your house?"
"In the first place no one would know it, and in the second place I don't think that I should get into any trouble, were it found out. It is not a Prussian officer that I shall be entertaining, still less a spy, but a dear friend who is an invalid and needs care. As everyone knows what you did for me, the excuse would be ample.
"Moreover, it happens that Governor Maguire is a personal friend of mine, and I shall call upon him and tell him that I have a sick friend staying with me and, without letting him know who you are, say that I give him my word of honour that you will, while with me, remain in the grounds, and will make no inquiries concerning his fortifications and plans of defence. He will understand what I mean, and if anyone should make a report to him it will, at any rate, cause no trouble; though I do not say that he might not feel obliged to give me notice that you had best go.
"Well, for today I will remain here and rest my horses; and tomorrow morning we will start, early.
"Ah! I see you have your henchman still with you. He, like yourself, has escaped both Austrian and French bullets.
"Well, Karl," he went on as the soldier came up, "you don't seem to have managed to keep your master out of mischief."
"No, count; but it was not my fault. It was the fault of those horses you gave him."
"Why, how was that, Karl?"
"Well, sir, the colonel was the best mounted man on the king's staff and, however hard he worked the horses, they always seemed to keep in good condition. So that whenever there was anything to be done, it was sure to be, 'Colonel Drummond, please go here or go there.' He was always on horseback, and so at last he broke down. Anyone else would have broken down months before, but he never seemed to know what it was to be tired."
"What, have you got another step, Drummond?" the count said, smiling at the soldier's tone of discontent.