“Yes; I don’t think His Gracious Majesty would have forgiven such an indignity, even if put upon him for a good purpose.  It is almost treason even to dream of such a thing.”

Desmond laughed.

“It was a purely imaginary case; but you see, not having been accustomed, as you are, to a country where the king is regarded almost as a god, I am afraid I have not that awe of him that is generally entertained here.  I have, naturally, a great respect for the king whom I serve, and whose pay is a matter of the greatest importance to me; but after all, although in his service, he is not my lawful king.”

“Then you would not even imagine such a thing as to take your lawful king, James, prisoner, however much the fate of someone in whom you were interested was concerned?”

Desmond did not answer at once.

“I don’t know,” he said at last, “what I should do, in such a case.  For King James, as lawful king of my country, I have the deepest respect, and would freely venture my life in his service; but for him as a man, irrespective of his crown, I own that my admiration is not extreme, and that I should not hesitate to join in any plan for putting pressure upon him, on behalf of anyone in whom I was extremely interested, as I certainly am now in Mademoiselle de Pointdexter and Monsieur de la Vallee.”

“You are a curious fellow, Kennedy,” O’Neil said, with a smile, “and I should be very much puzzled if I were called upon to predict what your fate is likely to be.  It seems to me that you have an equal chance of becoming a French marshal, or being broken on the wheel.  Here you are, not yet seventeen.  You have, as I doubt not, somewhat interfered with the king’s plans, and caused him the loss of one of his personal friends.  You have twice rescued a noble lady from the hands of her abductors.  You have brought disgrace and death upon a member of one of the most powerful families in France.  You have earned the gratitude and friendship of one of the leading nobles of Southern France, that of the fiance of his daughter, and of the daughter herself.  As soon as this affair spreads abroad, you will be the object of general remark and attention.  You have rendered the regiment to which you belong proud of you, its junior ensign, and made Paris emphatically too hot to hold you.

“If all this is done before you are seventeen, what may we expect when another ten years have passed over your head?”

“You had better wait for the ten years to pass, O’Neil,” Desmond laughed; “by which time, perhaps, you and O’Sullivan will both have learned wisdom, and will see that, because a man happens to have gone through a very exciting adventure without discredit, it by no means proves him to be anything in the smallest degree out of the way.”

Chapter 8:  To Scotland.

Two days later the regiment was paraded, but no order had been received for their start, and their destination was still uncertain.  The officers stood in a group, awaiting the arrival of the colonel, who entered, accompanied by Colonel Wauchop and several other Irish officers.  As there had been no notice of an official inspection, there was a general feeling of surprise at the appearance of the visitors.  The colonel rode up to the group of officers.