rus. "There HAVE been so many. I also forget.
You were but eight years old when you were last here."

"I think I will go and find the royal palace, and then I will walk
about and learn the names of the streets," Marco said.

"Yes, sir," answered Lazarus, and this time he made his military salute.

Marco lifted his right hand in recognition, as if he had been a young
officer. Most boys might have looked awkward or theatrical in making
the gesture, but he made it with naturalness and ease, because he had
been familiar with the form since his babyhood. He had seen officers
returning the salutes of their men when they encountered each other by
chance in the streets, he had seen princes passing sentries on their
way to their carriages, more august personages raising the quiet,
recognizing hand to their helmets as they rode through applauding
crowds. He had seen many royal persons and many royal pageants, but
always only as an ill-clad boy standing on the edge of the crowd of
common people. An energetic lad, however poor, cannot spend his days in
going from one country to another without, by mere every-day chance,
becoming familiar with the outer life of royalties and courts. Marco
had stood in continental thoroughfares when visiting emperors rode by
with glittering soldiery before and behind them, and a populace
shouting courteous welcomes. He knew where in various great capitals
the sentries stood before kingly or princely palaces. He had seen
certain royal faces often enough to know them well, and to be ready to
make his salute when particular quiet and unattended carriages passed
him by.

"It is well to know them. It is well to observe everything and to
train one's self to remember faces and circumstances," his father had
said. "If you were a young prince or a young man training for a
diplomatic career, you would be taught to notice and remember people
and things as you would be taught to speak your own language with
elegance. Such observation would be your most practical accomplishment
and greatest power. It is as practical for one man as another--for a
poor lad in a patched coat as for one whose place is to be in courts.
As you cannot be educated in the ordinary way, you must learn from
travel and the world. You must lose nothing--forget nothing."

It was his father who had taught him everything, and he had learned a
great deal. Loristan had the power of making all things interesting to
fascination. To