a certain majesty in the lost cause.

"I am Whig in blood and Whig in principle," I said,--"but I have never
denied that those Scots who followed the Chevalier were too good to
waste on so trumpery a leader."

I had no sooner spoken the words than I felt that somehow I had been
guilty of a betise.

"It may be so," said the Count. "I did not bid you here, sir, to argue
on politics, on which I am assured we should differ. But I will ask
you one question. The King of England is a stout upholder of the right
of kings. How does he face the defection of his American possessions?"

"The nation takes it well enough, and as for his Majesty's feelings,
there is small inclination to inquire into them. I conceive of the
whole war as a blunder out of which we have come as we deserved. The
day is gone by for the assertion of monarchic rights against the will
of a people."

"May be. But take note that the King of England is suffering to-day
as--how do you call him?--the Chevalier suffered forty years ago. 'The
wheel has come full circle,' as your Shakespeare says. Time has
wrought his revenge."

He was staring into a fire, which burned small and smokily.

"You think the day for kings is ended. I read it differently. The
world will ever have need of kings. If a nation cast out one it will
have to find another. And mark you, those later kings, created by the
people, will bear a harsher hand than the old race who ruled as of
right. Some day the world will regret having destroyed the kindly and
legitimate line of monarchs and put in their place tyrants who govern
by the sword or by flattering an idle mob."

This belated dogma would at other times have set me laughing, but the
strange figure before me gave no impulse to merriment. I glanced at
Madame, and saw her face grave and perplexed, and I thought I read a
warning gleam in her eye. There was a mystery about the party which
irritated me, but good breeding forbade me to seek a clue.

"You will permit me to retire, sir," I said. "I have but this morning
come down from a long march among the mountains east of this valley.
Sleeping in wayside huts and tramping those sultry paths make a man
think pleasantly of bed."

The Count seemed to brighten at my words. "You are a marcher, sir, and
love the mountains! Once I would gladly have joined you, for in my
youth I was a great walker in hilly places. Tell me, now, how many
miles will you cover in a day?"

I told