I might have been detained for a very long time, until
there was an opportunity of crossing the defiles. It would have
been difficult, indeed, for me to have earned my living there; and
what was left of the money I had, after paying for the landlord's
suit, would scarce have lasted, with the closest pinching, till
spring."

"You would have managed it somehow, I am sure," Thirza said
confidently. "After getting out of that strong fortress, it would
be nothing to get out of Bohemia into Saxony."

"We have not congratulated you yet," the countess said, "upon your
last promotion. Lieutenant Lindsay came over to tell us about it,
and how you had gained it. Of course we were greatly pleased,
although grieved to hear that you had been made prisoner. We
wondered whether, at the time you were captured, you had any of the
letters I had written with you, and whether they would come in
useful.

"It did not even occur to me that you would have called upon Count
Platurn, my cousin. I thought that you might be detained at Prague,
but Vienna is the last place where we should have pictured you. Had
we known that you had been sent to Spielberg, I think we should
have given up all hope of seeing you again, until you were
exchanged; for I have heard that it is one of the strongest of the
Austrian fortresses.

"I do hope, Captain Drummond, we shall see a great deal of you this
winter. There will not be many gaieties, though no doubt there will
be some state balls; but there will be many little gatherings, as
usual, among ourselves, and we shall count upon you to attend them
always, unless you are detained on service. We learn that it is
probable your king will pass the whole of the winter here."

"We will send your horse down to you today," the count said. "You
will find him in good condition. He has been regularly exercised."

"Thank you very much, count. I wrote to you before I started, but I
have had no opportunity of thanking you, personally, for those
splendid animals. Sorry as I was to lose the horse I rode at
Lobositz, I congratulated myself that I was not riding one of
yours."

"I should have had no difficulty in replacing him, Captain
Drummond," the count said with a smile. "The least we can do is to
keep you in horse flesh while the war lasts; which I hope will not
be very long, for surely your king can never hope to make head
against the forces that will assail him in the spring, but will be
glad to make peace on any t