’Madame is right.  The mother of the boy is a Maxwell, a cousin not far removed from my Lord, but he could not hinder her from being given in marriage as second wife to Sir David Hope, already an old man.  He was good to her, but when he died, the sons by the first wife were harsh and unkind to her and to her son, of whom they had always been jealous.  The eldest was a creature of my Lord Stair, and altogether a Whig; indeed, he now holds an office at the Court of the Elector of Hanover, and has been created one of his peers. (The scorn with which the gentle Winifred uttered those words was worth seeing, and the other noble lady gave a little derisive laugh.) ’These half-brothers declared that Lady Hope was nurturing the young Arthur in Toryism and disaffection, and they made it a plea for separating him from her, and sending him to an old minister, who kept a school, and who was very severe and even cruel to the poor boy.  But I am wearying Madame.’

‘Oh no, I listen with the deepest interest.’

’Finally, when the King was expected in Scotland, and men’s minds were full of anger and bitterness, as well as hope and spirit, the boy—­he was then only fourteen years of age—­boasted of his grandfather’s having fought at Killiecrankie, and used language which the tutor pronounced treasonable.  He was punished and confined to his room; but in the night he made his escape and joined the royal army.  My husband was grieved to see him, told him he had no right to political opinions, and tried to send him home in time to make his peace before all was lost.  Alas! no.  The little fellow did, indeed, pass out safely from Preston, but only to join my Lord Mar.  He was among the gentlemen who embarked at Banff; and when my Lord, by Heaven’s mercy, had escaped from the Tower of London, and we arrived at Paris, almost the first person we saw was little Arthur, whom we thought to have been safe at home.  We have kept him with us, and I contrived to let his mother know that he is living, for she had mourned him as among the slain.’

‘Poor mother.’

’You may well pity her, Madame.  She writes to me that if Arthur had returned at once from Preston, as my Lord advised, all would have been passed over as a schoolboy frolic; and, indeed, he has never been attainted; but there is nothing that his eldest brother, Lord Burnside as they call him, dreads so much as that it should be known that one of his family was engaged in the campaign, or that he is keeping such ill company as we are.  Therefore, at her request, we have never called him Hope, but let him go by our name of Maxwell, which is his by baptism; and now she tells me that if he could make his way to Scotland, not as if coming from Paris or Bar-le-Duc, but merely as if travelling on the Continent, his brother would consent to his return.’

‘Would she be willing that he should live under the usurper?’

‘Madame, to tell you the truth,’ said Lady Nithsdale, ’the Lady Hope is not one to heed the question of usurpers, so long as her son is safe and a good lad.  Nay, for my part, we all lived peaceably and happily enough under Queen Anne; and by all I hear, so they still do at home under the Elector of Hanover.’