me after they had finished
their meal, and the others sat up talking until late in the
evening. Charlie learnt that the country was still in a greatly
disturbed state. Parties of disbanded soldiers and others, rendered
desperate by cold and hardship, were everywhere plundering the
peasantry, and many encounters had taken place between them and the
nobles, who, with their retainers, had marched against them. Travel
would be dangerous for a long time to come.

"Therefore, until the spring, you must not think of moving," the
count said. "Indeed, I think that your best plan, when you start,
will be to work due north, and join the Swedish forces near Narva.
It will be shorter as well as less dangerous. Still, we can talk of
that later on."

The next morning they started early, and arrived in the afternoon
at the chateau of the count. It was not a fortified building, for
the Poles differed from the western nations, abstaining from
fortifying their towns and residences, upon the ground that they
were a free people, capable of defending their country from foreign
invasion, and therefore requiring no fortified towns, and that such
places added to the risks of civil war, and enabled factions to set
the will of the nation at defiance.

The building was a large one, but it struck Charlie as being
singularly plain and barn-like in comparison with the residences of
country gentlemen in England. A number of retainers ran out as they
drove up into the courtyard, and exclamations of surprise and
dismay rose, as the wounds on the horses' flanks and legs were
visible; and when, in a few words, the count told them that they
had been attacked by wolves, and had been saved principally by the
English gentleman and his follower, the men crowded round Charlie,
kissed his hands, and in other ways tried to show their gratitude
for his rescue of their master and mistress.

"Come along," the count said, taking his arm and leading him into
the house. "The poor fellows mean well, and you must not be vexed
with them."

The countess's first question had been for her child, and with an
exclamation of thankfulness, when she heard that it was better, she
had at once hurried into the house. As soon as they had entered,
the count left Charlie in charge of his brother, and also hurried
away. He was not long before he returned.

"The child is doing well," he said, "and now that it has got its
mother again, it will, I think, improve rapidly. The docto