It is true that we have no longer to count France as formidable, but Russia has turned out far more so than we expected; and having once taken the matter up, the empress, if she is half as obstinate as her soldiers, is likely to go on at it for a long time.

And we are using up our army very fast, and cannot replace our losses as Austria and Russia can do." "I hope they are not going to make another twenty years' war of it," Lindsay said.

"If you go on in the way that you are doing, Drummond, you will be a field marshal in a third of that time; but you must remember about the proverb of the pitcher and the well." "Yes, Lindsay, but you must remember that I am having a share of hard knocks.

I have been wounded twice now, to say nothing of being stunned and taken prisoner; so you see I am having my share of bad luck, as well as good.

Now at present you have never had as much as a scratch, and when your bad luck comes, it may come all in a lump." "There is something in that, Fergus, though I own that I had not thought of it.