LOVES ME--LOVES ME NOT Now how this plan of my Lord Prince's worked in the Palace of Plassenburg I find it difficult to tell without writing myself down a "painted flittermouse," as the Prince expressed it.

I was in high favor with my master; well liked also by most of the hard-driving, rough-riding young soldiers whom the miller's son had made out of the sons of dead and damned Ritterdom.

I got my share of honor and good service, too, in going to different courts and bringing back all that Prince Karl needed.

To exercise myself in the art of war, I hunted the border thieves and gave them short enough shrift.

In a year I had made such an assault as that of the inn at Erdberg an impossibility all along the marches of our provinces.
The crusty old councillor, Leopold Dessauer, who had held office under the last Prince of the legitimate line, was ever ready to assist me with the kindest of deeds and the bitterest and saltest of words.
"What did I tell you about being Field-Marshal ?" said he one day--"in Karl's kingdom the shorter the service, the higher the distinction.
If you and the Prince live long enough, I shall see you carry a musketoon yet, and not one of the latest pattern, either.