I bowed and muttered that to succeed in my career was my one desire, and that if I could win success I would spare no effort. Then he went on:
"You speak French. That is good. Also Spanish. That, too, is good. Likewise, I hear, can disguise your identity as an Englishman if necessary. That is well, also. Mr. ----" and he took up a piece of paper lying before him, on which I supposed my name was written, "Mr. Crespin, I--we--are going to employ you on secret service. Are you willing to undertake it?"
"I am willing, my Lord, to do anything that may advance my career. Anything that may become a soldier."
"That is as it should be. The light in which to regard matters--anything that may become a soldier. That before all. Well, to be short, we are going to send you to Cadiz."
"To Cadiz, my Lord!" I said, unable to repress some slight feeling of astonishment.
"Yes. To Cadiz, where you will not find another English soldier. Still that will, perhaps, not matter very much, since we do not desire you when there to appear as a soldier yourself. You are granted leave from your regiment indefinitely while on this mission, and, at the first at least, you will be a private gentleman. Also, when at Cadiz, you will please to be anything but an English gentleman."
"Or a Dutch one," put in the other earl with a guttural laugh. "Therefore, assume not the Dutch accent."
Evidently my Lord Marlborough did not know of the joke underlying this remark, since he went on:
"As a Frenchman you will have the best chance. Or, perhaps, as a Swiss merchant. But that we leave to you. What you have to do is to get to Cadiz, and, when there, to pass as some one, neither English nor Dutch, who is engaged in ordinary mercantile pursuits. Then when the fleet comes in----"
"The fleet, my Lord!"