Won by the Sword | Page 8

this gentleman is Colonel d'Estampes, who is the head of my
staff; this Major Mutton, who will have the control of all matters
connected with the artillery; these are Messieurs de Lisle and Emile de
Chavigny, who are my aides-de-camp. Now, gentlemen, let us mount."
As the Scottish regiment was a mounted one, Hector had had ample
opportunities to learn to ride well, and he now fell in with the two
aides-de-camp, who were both young men of eighteen or nineteen years
of age, members of good families, and together they followed the
Viscount Turenne, who rode on ahead with the two staff officers. While
they were making their way through the narrow streets of Paris they
rode but slowly, but as soon as they passed through the gates they went

on at a brisk pace.
"You are fortunate," de Lisle said, "in having obtained a commission so
young, although I do not say that there are not many of similar age in
the army."
"I am fortunate indeed," Hector replied, "fortunate beyond anything
that I could have believed possible, thanks to the goodness of Viscount
Turenne."
"You could not enter the army under better patronage," de Chavigny
said. "We have both served under him for two years on the Rhine, and
had we been his brothers he could not have been more kind; but the
work, ma foi, was tremendous. The soldiers may well say that the
general is sleepless. Happily he does not expect us to go altogether
without rest. Frequently he is away all night by himself in the saddle,
sometimes he takes one or other of us with him, but at any rate we get a
night's sleep by turns. Much as he has to worry him -- what with the
ignorance of some and the carelessness of others -- I have never seen
him out of temper; but then a reproof, however mildly spoken, by him,
is more dreaded than a volley of abuse from any other general. He was
telling us before he came out that you are already well up in drill, and
in the use of arms."
"Yes; I have been brought up, I may say, in the Scottish regiment, and
after my father's death the officers and men were all very kind to me,
and I learnt my drill both as a soldier and an officer, to fence, use my
pistols, and ride. The officers lent me books on military history and
tactics."
"The viscount said you were wonderfully well read in such matters," de
Lisle said. "I own that beyond the campaigns that I have taken part in I
have a very vague idea of such things. My time before I joined was
taken up with learning the use of arms, equitation, and certain dry
studies under an abbe. I wish now that instead of Latin I had learned
something of military history; it seems to me that when one is intended
for the army it is a good deal more important than Latin or theology."

"I fancy, de Lisle," his companion said laughing, "that from what I
know of you your objection was not so much to the course of study as
to study altogether. I know that that was my case."
"Well, perhaps so; still, I might as well have been whipped into
learning something useful, instead of something that, so far as I can see,
will never be of any value whatever. Were you born over here,
lieutenant?"
"No, I was born in Scotland; but my father, who was a younger son,
saw no chance of making his way by his sword at home. It was certain
that James would never go to war, and as there was no regular army,
there seemed no opening for a penniless cadet in England or Scotland,
so he came over here and obtained a commission, and as soon as he did
so sent for my mother and myself. She died two years later; he kept me
with him. When he went on service I was left in the charge of a
Huguenot family, and it was well that it was so, for otherwise I might
have grown up unable to read or write. The last time that I saw him was
before he rode to La Rochelle. After his death I was adopted by the
regiment, for the good people I was with left Paris to join their friends
in the south. Had it been otherwise I should have stayed with them. The
good man would probably have brought me up to be, like himself, a
minister, and I am afraid I should have made a very poor one."
The two young men laughed. "Just at present," de Lisle said, "the two
religions get on quietly together. The cardinal, churchman as he