“The envoy will start at six tomorrow morning.  I do not know that there are any further instructions to give you.  You will find details, in these written instructions, as to the manner in which you are to communicate, from time to time, the result of your mission, and you will receive orders when to return.”

Outside the house, Charlie saw his new servant waiting him.

“You have a horse, Stanislas?”

“Yes, sir, I have been provided with one.  I have also a brace of pistols, and a sword.”

“I hope you will not have to use them, but in these disturbed times they are necessaries.”

“I have better clothes than these, sir, if you wish me to look gay.”

“By no means,” Charlie replied.  “I am going in the character of a young Scotchman, on my way to join a relative in business in Warsaw, and you accompany me in the capacity of guide and servant.  As I should not be in a position to pay high wages, the more humble your appearance, the better.  We start at six in the morning.  The envoy will leave the royal quarters at that hour, and we travel with his escort.  Join me a quarter of an hour before that at my hut.  You had better accompany me there now, so that you may know the spot.  I shall not require your services before we start, as my soldier servant will saddle my horse, and have all in readiness.”

Harry came to the door of the hut, as he saw his friend approaching.

“Well, Charlie, is all satisfactorily settled?

“Yes, quite satisfactorily, I think.  That is my new servant.  Count Piper has appointed him.  He speaks Swedish and Polish.”

“That will be a great comfort to you, Charlie.  Jock Armstrong, who has not picked up ten words of Swedish since he joined, would have been worse than useless.”

“I have another piece of news, Harry, that I am in one way very glad of, and in another sorry for.  I had always hoped that we should keep together, and that, just as we joined together, and were made lieutenants at the same time, it would always be so.”

“You have got another step?” Harry exclaimed.  “I am heartily glad of it.  I thought very likely you might get it.  Indeed, I was surprised that you did not get it, at once, after our fight with the Saxons.  I am sure you deserved it, if ever a fellow did, considering what it saved us all.”

“Of course it is for that,” Charlie replied, “though I think it is very absurd.  Count Piper said the king would have given it to me at once, only it would have taken me over the heads of so many men older than myself; but he considered that, now I am going on a sort of staff work, away from the regiment, I could be promoted, and he thought, too, that the title of Captain would assist me in my mission.”