"
"We talked over that, the last time we met," the doctor said with a
laugh, "and I told you then that a foothold on the Baltic was so
necessary to Russia, that she would have accepted the alliance of
the Prince of Darkness himself to get it. As to Augustus, I don't
defend him. He was ambitious, as I suppose most of us are. He
thought he saw an opportunity of gaining territory. He has found
that he has made a mistake, and will of course lose a province. But
Charles' persecution of him goes beyond all bounds. Never before
did a sovereign insist upon a nation consenting to dethrone its
king at his dictation.
"But go on with your story."
He listened without remark, until Charlie concluded.
"I wish you had been in our service," he said, "instead of that of
Sweden. You would have mounted fast. You have all the requisites
for success, above all, promptitude of decision and quickness of
invention. You did well in getting away from that Jewish scoundrel
in the hut, and in killing his master, but it was your adventure
with the wolves that showed your quality. That idea of setting fire
to the tree in which you were sitting, in order at once to warm
yourself and to frighten away the wolves, would never have occurred
to a Russian, and the quickness with which you formed, with three
logs, a redoubt against the wolves, showed a quick military eye,
and the ability to think and act in a moment of danger.
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