iumphs a career of arms
would bring to him.

"Twenty years hence, Roxholm," he said, watching him with his keen
glance as he ever did, "you might take my place, had England such
questions to settle as she has to-day. In twenty years I shall be
seventy-four. You were hammered from the metal nature cast me in, and
you could take any man's place if 'twas your will. I could have taken
any man's place I had chosen to take, by God, and so can you. If a
man's brain and body are built in a certain way he can be soldier,
bishop, physician, financier, statesman, King; and he will have like
power in whatsoever he chooses to be, or Fate chooses that he shall be.
As statesman, King, or soldier, the world will think him greatest
because such things glitter in the eye and make more sound; but the
strong man will be strong if Fortune makes him a huckster, and none can
hide him. If Louis XV is as great a schemer as the fourteenth Louis has
been, you may lead armies if you choose; but you will not choose, I
think. You do not love it, Roxholm--you do not love it."

"No," answered Roxholm; "I do not love it. I can fight--any man can
fight who has not white blood--and ours has been a fighting house; but
mowing men down by thousands, cutting their throats, burning towns, and
desolating villages filled with maddened men and shrieking women and
children, does not set my blood in a flame as it does the blood of a
man who is born for victorious slaughter. I loathe so the slaughter
that I hate the victory. No; there are other things I can do better for
England, and be happier in doing them."

"I have known that," said the Captain-General, "even when I have seen
you sweep by, followed by your men, at your most splendid moment. I
have known it most when we have sate together and talked--as 'tis not
my way to talk to much older men."

They had so talked together, and upon matters much more important than
the world knew. His Grace of Marlborough's years had been given to
other things than letters. He could win a great victory with far
greater ease than he could pen the dispatch announcing it when 'twas
gained. "Of all things," he once said to his Duchess, "I do not love
writing." He possessed the faculty of using all men and things that
came into his way, and there were times when he found of value the
services of a young nobleman whose education and abilities were of the
highest, and who felt deeply honoured by his unusual confidence, and
was a