You will
please to remember that the brain does a great deal more than the
sword, in enabling a man to rise above his fellows. You are a brave
young officer, but I have many a score of brave young officers, and
it was your quick wit, in suggesting the strategy by which we
crossed the Dwina without loss, that has marked you out from among
others, and made me see that you are fit for something better than
getting your throat cut."
The king then changed the subject with his usual abruptness, and
dismissed Charlie, at the end of his ride, without any further
allusion to the subject. The young fellow, however, knew enough of
the king's headstrong disposition to be aware that the matter was
settled, and that he could not, without incurring the king's
serious displeasure, decline to accept the commission. He walked
back, with a serious face, to the hut that the officers of the
company occupied, and asked Harry Jervoise to come out to him.
"What is it, Charlie?" his friend said. "Has his gracious majesty
been blowing you up, or has your horse broken its knees?"
"A much worse thing than either, Harry. The king appears to have
taken into his head that I am cut out for a diplomatist;" and he
then repeated to his friend the conversation the king had had with
him.
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