I could not, of course, say to Max, "You shall remain in Peronne," or "You shall leave Peronne at once;" but my influence over him was great, and he trusted my fidelity, my love, and my ability to advise him rightly.

I had always given my advice carefully, but, above all, I had given him the only pleasurable moments he had ever known.

That, by the way, may have been the greatest good I could have offered him.
When Max was a child, the pleasure of his amusements was smothered by officialism.

My old Lord Aurbach, though gouty and stiff of joint, was eager to "run" his balls or his arrows, and old Sir Giles Butch could be caught so easily at tag or blind man's buff that there was no sport for Max in doing it.

Everything the boy did was done by the heir of Styria, except on rare occasions when he and I stole away from the castle.