fencers of men who cannot be relied upon to keep their heads cool,
and to fight with pointed weapons as calmly as they might fence
with a friend in a saloon."

"Well, I shall work hard to become a fair swordsman," Desmond
said, with a laugh. "I suppose there is plenty of time to spare."

"Plenty. We have a couple of hours' drill in the morning, and
after that, except when you are officer of the day, you can spend
your time as you like. The colonel and two of his officers attend
at the king's levees, when he is in Paris, but, as he spends the
greater portion of his time at Versailles, we are seldom called
upon for that duty."

A few days after Desmond's arrival, the colonel took him with him
to Saint Germain, where James the 3rd, as his supporters called
him, held a miniature court. The colonel presented Desmond as a
loyal subject of His Majesty, and a newly-joined cornet in his
regiment.

The young prince was a lad of eighteen. He was surrounded by a
group of courtiers, who had accompanied or followed his father
into exile, and whose insistence upon treating him with the
respect due to a monarch was in no slight degree galling to him,
for, as he often declared to the few friends he had about his own
age, he had all the disadvantages of being a king, without any of
the advantages.

He was at once taken with the appearance of Desmond Kennedy.