"The other officers are being selected," said the Grand Duke. "You will spend the next week or two getting them equipped, and horsed, and drilled. Then your orders will be given you."
"I am at your Excellencies' service!" said Nigel.
Three days afterwards, spent in wearisome discussions, conducted on the one side in half the patois of Europe, and on the other in tolerably good German and an admixture of plain Scots, the subject being horses, Nigel was wishing devoutly that he had never seen Vienna, never become the favoured child of fortune, never——
"Well, Blick, what is it now?"
"Magdeburg's wellnigh spent, colonel!"
"Is that so?" was Nigel's rejoinder.
"Never saw such a place as Vienna," said Blick. "The beer is too light!"
"Well!" said Nigel, "you must drink more of it, or less of it."
"Yes, colonel! And the stagshorn dice are too light above and too heavy below!"