under the Elector of Hanover.'

'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.'