“And now, pray tell us how you came to be there so opportunely, and how it was that you had that great fire blazing.”

Charlie gave the full history of the previous night’s adventure.

“Wonderful!” the count and his brother exclaimed; and the former went on:  “I have heard many stories of escapes from wolves, but never one like yours.  It was an admirable thought, indeed, that of at once obtaining heat and frightening the wolves away, by setting the tree on fire.  That thought saved our lives as well as your own, for our fate would have been the same as those unfortunate travellers, whose horses you saw, and who brought the wolves upon you.

“And now, sir, would it be impertinent to ask for what purpose you have come to Poland?  Believe me, I only put the question in order to see if I can in any way be of assistance to you.”

“I do not know, count, whether my avowal will affect you unfavourably, but I know that it will make no difference in your conduct towards me.  I am, as my servant told you, an Englishman by birth; but I and my father were obliged, in consequence of political opinions, to leave the country, and I am now a captain in the service of Charles of Sweden.”

Exclamations of surprise broke from his hearers.

“Well, sir,” the count said, smiling, “as his majesty King Charles, although not yet one-and-twenty, is one of the greatest generals in Europe, I cannot consider it strange that you, who appear to me to be no older, should be a captain in his service.  But I own that I pictured, to myself, that the officers of these wonderful soldiers were fierce-looking men, regular iron veterans.”

“I am but eighteen,” Charlie said, “and I myself feel it absurd that I should be a captain.  It is but two years since I was appointed an ensign, and the king happening to be with my company, when we had a sharp fight with the Russians, he rewarded us by having us made into a regiment; so each of us got promotion.  I was appointed captain last May, as a reward for a suggestion that turned out useful.”

“May I ask what it was, Captain Carstairs, for it seems to me that you are full of happy ideas?”

“King Charles, as you may have heard, speaks freely to officers and soldiers as he moves about the camp.  I was standing on the edge of the river, looking across at the Saxons, on the day before we made the passage, when the king came up and spoke to me.  He said there was no hope of our passage being covered—­as our advance against the Russians at Narva had been—­by a snowstorm; and I said that, as the wind was at our backs, if we were to set fire to the great straw stacks the smoke would hide our movements from the Saxons.  The idea was a very simple one, and would no doubt have occurred to the king himself; however, he put it into execution with success, and was good enough, afterwards, to promote me to the rank of captain.”

“So it was owing to you that our army—­or rather the Saxon army, for but few Poles were engaged in the battle—­was defeated,” the count said, smiling.  “Well, sir, it will do you no harm with us, for personally we are entirely opposed to Augustus of Saxony.  But you have not yet explained how you, an officer in the Swedish service, came to be here.”