have set my
face against foreign service. Still, I was bred to the sword,
and so must bide by it. As I have neither the means nor the
inclination for an idle existence, and it has pleased the King
to grant me my pardon without exacting any terms, I am resolved
to offer him my sword and duty without reserve.

"Let no one persuade you into thinking that I am playing a part,
or have been won over by new friends or promises. I have won
myself over from empty plots and idle dreams to an honourable
career, and I have put the past from me without a regret, save
that my decision will cause you pain, my dear and only sister.

"Whether you write me in anger or write not at all, you cannot
in any way lessen the affection in which I will always cherish
you.

"Your loving brother,

"Archd. Nairn."

"A most sensible determination," I thought, "and does much credit
both to his sense of honour and his judgment," but I need hardly
say I took care not to air my appreciations of his course before
Lady Jane, and still less before Mistress Margaret, who was little
short of distracted.

The poor girl had swooned on receiving the news, and for two days
was utterly overwhelmed by what she held to be the disgrace of his
desertion.

The Vicomte was singularly unfortunate in his attempt at consolation.

"Marguerite, mon amie," he said one evening, before us all, "your
brother should lose no claim to your esteem. Remember, the cause
of the Prince Charles is lost beyond all redemption. Your brother
is under the greatest of all obligations to his legal King; he owes
him his life. If my humble opinion be of value, I conceive he has
acted strictly within the laws which govern the conscience of a
gentleman and a man of honour."

"Gaston! How dare you? I am not a child; I am a woman loyal to my
heart's core! I know nothing of your fine distinctions which
constitute 'a gentleman and a man of honour,' But I do know the
feeling which made men charge almost single-handed on the English
line at Culloden. I know, too, the feeling which made the humblest
Highland mother give up the child of her heart, and wish she had
twenty more, to die for her King and her Prince. Better--far, far
better that my brother had died unpardoned but loyal! He died for
me the day his hand signed that traitorous compact. God pity me!
I have neither father, mother, nor brother left. I have naught but
you," she cried, as she