them at Weilenweir, and stormed the main fort of Breisach! He has
been successful in all his enterprises, and now it is said he is
to command in Italy, where things have been going on badly. The
cardinal would not have chosen him had he not considered that no
one could do better than he."

The officer laughed. "Well, young sir, I see that you are so well
acquainted with the sieges and battles of our time that I cannot
argue with you."

"I did not mean that, sir," the boy said in some confusion. "I was
only saying what our soldiers think, and it is natural that I,
being only a boy, should make him my hero, for he went to the wars
when he was a year younger than I am, and at fourteen carried a
musket as a volunteer under Maurice of Nassau, and for five years
he was in all the battles in Holland, and raised the first battery
that opened on Bois-le-duc."

"And do you receive no pension as the son of an officer killed in
battle?"

"No, sir. When the living soldiers often have to go months without
their pay, the sons of dead ones can hardly expect to be thought
of. But I don't care; in two years I shall be old enough to enlist,
and I shall go to the frontier and join Hepburn's Scottish brigade,
who are now, they say, in the French service."

"They are fine soldiers -- none better," the officer said. "But
why does not the colonel of your father's regiment ask for a
commission for you?"