"My old friend Middleton must have changed sorely to have become the Tartar and martinet you describe him," said Warriston; "if so, he would have suited old Frederick of Prussia to a hair."
"You told us to remind you of a story which was worth telling."
"About Frederick and my father?"
"Exactly," said Quentin.
"And how he and I came to be in the Dutch service. Well, the story has something droll in it, and though some may have heard the affair, as it found its way into the newspapers, I shall give you the version which I gave to Mr. Thomas Holcroft, when he was preparing that very light and most readable work on the Life, Times, and Works of the Great Frederick, in thirteen huge royal octavo volumes."
"Then it is to be found there?"
"On the contrary, he omitted it, not considering it quite a feather in his hero's cap."
"And the story——"
"Occurred in this way."
But the story with which Warriston beguiled a few miles of the morning march deserves, perhaps, a chapter to itself.