se, backed up by the English and Dutch."

"I have not seen them fighting yet, sir, but to my mind people so
fond of using their knives are not likely to be of much account,
when it comes to manly, straightforward fighting.

"Well, your honour, if you are to go as a major, you will need
some slight alterations in your uniform--more gold lace, and such
like. So I had best see about it, at once."

"I did not think of that, Mike; but you are right. I don't know
whether, as I only hold temporary rank, I have a right to wear the
uniform of a field officer; but, as the duke wishes me to be able
to speak with some authority, there can be no harm in making the
change, and the additions can easily be taken off, upon my
return."

"The duke ought to have given you the full rank, instead of the
temporary one, sir. You have done more work, since you came here,
than all the colonels and majors on his staff."

"As far as work goes that may be so, Mike; but as the work
consisted in carrying despatches about on horseback, it certainly
affords no claim for promotion. And, indeed, I have no wish
whatever for it. I am already the youngest captain in the service,
except the young nobles who got their commissions as colonels,
without even serving a day in inferior rank. I feel uncomfortable
now when I go to our regiments, to see men who have been years in
the service, and gone through many a desperate action, still
lieutenants; while I, after two years' service, and still under
nineteen, am a captain."

"Yes, sir; but you know that you saved eight or ten thousand men
to France at Oudenarde, and you lost a hand in the service of the
country. That would count for a great deal."

"It counts for something, no doubt, Mike, but many of these
officers have risked their lives a score of times, and been
wounded frequently, though they may not have lost a limb."

"Ah well, sir!" Mike said, philosophically, "Luck is everything.
And who would go soldiering, if it was not so? When going into
battle, everyone knows that a lot of his comrades will be killed,
but he trusts to his luck to get through safely. One man gets
promoted and another doesn't, and he hopes that luck will come his
way next time. I don't say that your honour's promotion has been
luck, but you have had luck in being on the staff of the Duke of
Berwick, and everyone knows that it is the staff officers who get
the credit and promotion, while the men who do most of the
fighting g