The cardinal would not have chosen him had he not considered that no one could do better than he." The officer laughed.

"Well, young sir, I see that you are so well acquainted with the sieges and battles of our time that I cannot argue with you." "I did not mean that, sir," the boy said in some confusion.

"I was only saying what our soldiers think, and it is natural that I, being only a boy, should make him my hero, for he went to the wars when he was a year younger than I am, and at fourteen carried a musket as a volunteer under Maurice of Nassau, and for five years he was in all the battles in Holland, and raised the first battery that opened on Bois-le-duc." "And do you receive no pension as the son of an officer killed in battle ?" "No, sir.

When the living soldiers often have to go months without their pay, the sons of dead ones can hardly expect to be thought of.

But I don't care; in two years I shall be old enough to enlist, and I shall go to the frontier and join Hepburn's Scottish brigade, who are now, they say, in the French service." "They are fine soldiers--none better," the officer said.