'A despatch for you, M. le Gouverneur, and here it is; but while you con it over, Ruthven, like a good fellow, will assist me to get some of my iron shell off, for I have ridden eight good leagues since I mounted.'
I tore open the letter which he gave me, and found it to run as follows:
'Trenches before Seltz,
10th October, 1637.
'NOBLE COMRADE,
'I have just ascertained that a coach containing certain Imperialists of high rank is proceeding from the neighbourhood of Toul, towards the German frontier; and that, guided by a spy who is in our interest, it will, on the night of the 11th, pass through a defile of the Vosges, two miles north of your garrison. These Imperialists it behoves you to capture, and as you value the service of the most Christian King, to seize at all hazards. They have a slender escort, to avoid notice; but kill or capture them all, and my good Lord Dundrennan will return to me for further orders. Meantime, accept the assurance of my utmost esteem.
'GORDON,
'Captain of the Garde du Corps Ecossais.
'For Blane, of that Ilk,
'Captain of Lutzelstein,
'These.'
'Well, Arthur, what is to be done?' asked Dundrennan, stretching out his legs and draining a long horn of purple Rhenish, after scanning over the Marquis's letter.
'Obey.'
'Of course; I never doubted that: so we shall have a little affair with sword and pistol.'