After a moment's silence, he said: "Many such messengers have been passing in recent months.

The air has been full of them.

If you don't like battles, Castel, I don't blame you for traveling in the direction you take." John, who had turned his face away for precautionary measures, looked him full in the eyes again, and he found in his heart a little liking for the Prussian.

Von Boehlen seemed to have lost something of his haughtiness and confidence since those swaggering days in Dresden, and the loss had improved him.

John saw some signs of a civilian's sense of justice and reason beneath the military gloss.
"May I pass on, sir ?" he asked.