had disobeyed orders, and sent me home. Have they forgotten
Nelson in the Baltic? Has any British battle ever been won except
by a bold initiative? I say nothing of professional jealousy, it
exists in the army as elsewhere; but it is a bitter thought to me
that the recognition denied me by my country--or rather by the
Radical cabal in the Cabinet which pursues my family with
rancorous class hatred--that this recognition, I say, came to me
at the hands of an enemy--of a rank Prussian.

THE LADY. You don't say so!

AUGUSTUS. How else should I be here instead of starving to death
in Ruhleben? Yes, madam: the Colonel of the Pomeranian regiment
which captured me, after learning what I had done, and conversing
for an hour with me on European politics and military strategy,
declared that nothing would induce him to deprive my country of
my services, and set me free. I offered, of course, to procure
the release in exchange of a German officer of equal quality; but
he would not hear of it. He was kind enough to say he could not
believe that a German officer answering to that description
existed. [With emotion.] I had my first taste of the ingratitude
of my own country as I made my way back to our lines. A shot from
our front trench struck me in the head. I still carry the
flattened projectile as a trophy [he throws it on the table; the
noise it makes testifies to its weight]. Had it penetrated to the
brain I might never have sat on another Royal Commission.
Fortunately we have strong heads, we Highcastles. Nothing has
ever penetrated to our brains.

THE LADY. How thrilling! How simple! And how tragic! But you will