‘The Regent has acknowledged him,’ put in the French lady.

‘Well,’ said the poor exile, ’I know my Lord felt that it was his duty to obey the summons of his lawful sovereign, and that, as he said when he took up arms, one can only do one’s duty and take the consequences; but oh! when I look at the misery and desolation that has come of it, when I think of the wives not so happy as I am, when I see my dear Lord wearing out his life in banishment, and think of our dear home and our poor people, I am tempted to wonder whether it were indeed a duty, or whether there were any right to call on brave men without a more steadfast purpose not to abandon them!’

’It would have been very different if the Duke of Berwick had led the way,’ observed Madame de Bourke.  ’Then my husband would have gone, but, being French subjects, honour stayed both him and the Duke as long as the Regent made no move.’  The good lady, of course, thought that the Marshal Duke and her own Count must secure victory; but Lady Nithsdale was intent on her own branch of the subject, and did not pursue ‘what might have been.’

‘After all,’ she said, ’poor Arthur, at fourteen, could have no true political convictions.  He merely fled because he was harshly treated, heard his grandfather branded as a traitor, and had an enthusiasm for my husband, who had been kind to him.  It was a mere boy’s escapade, and if he had returned home when my Lord bade him, it would only have been remembered as such.  He knows it now, and I frankly tell you, Madame, that what he has seen of our exiled court has not increased his ardour in the cause.’

‘Alas, no,’ said Madame de Bourke.  ’If the Chevalier de St. George were other than he is, it would be easier to act in his behalf.’

‘And you agree with me, Madame,’ continued the visitor, ’that nothing can be worse or more hopeless for a youth than the life to which we are constrained here, with our whole shadow of hope in intrigue; and for our men, no occupation worthy of their sex.  We women are not so ill off, with our children and domestic affairs; but it breaks my heart to see brave gentlemen’s lives thus wasted.  We have done our best for Arthur.  He has studied with one of our good clergy, and my Lord himself has taught him to fence; but we cannot treat him any longer as a boy, and I know not what is to be his future, unless we can return him to his own country.’

‘Our army,’ suggested Madame de Bourke.

‘Ah! but he is Protestant.’

‘A heretic!’ exclaimed the lady, drawing herself up.  ‘But—­’

’Oh, do not refuse me on that account.  He is a good lad, and has lived enough among Catholics to keep his opinions in the background.  But you understand that it is another reason for wishing to convey him, if not to Scotland, to some land like Sweden or Prussia, where his faith would not be a bar to his promotion.’

‘What is it you would have me do?’ said Madame de Bourke, more coldly.