"Well, sir, it will do you no harm with us, for personally we are entirely opposed to Augustus of Saxony.

But you have not yet explained how you, an officer in the Swedish service, came to be here." "I was sent by King Charles to Warsaw, to ascertain the feeling of the trading classes there.

I had an introduction to a Scottish merchant, and I passed as a countryman of his, who had come out to enter his business.

One of the objects of my mission was to endeavour to induce the foreign merchants in Warsaw to do what they could to promote a feeling in favour of peace with the Swedes, and the substitution of another king in place of Augustus." "It is not very clear, Captain Carstairs, how you can be fulfilling that object by passing your winter with a party of robbers--for I suppose your disbanded soldiers were little better--in a forest on the confines of Russia." Charlie laughed.
"It is rather a long story, count.

Perhaps you will kindly tell me the news about public affairs, first." "By no means," the count said.