fit himself for a throne, or to cultivate qualities that would
render himself popular among a high-spirited people. And, as he
came to understand James more thoroughly, he had found his visits
increasingly irksome, all the more so, as he felt their inutility.

"Thank goodness," he said, to his two friends, when he went home
that day, "I have done with Saint Germain. I am as warm an
adherent as ever of the cause of the Stuarts, and should be
perfectly ready, when the time comes, to fight my hardest for
them; but I would vastly rather fight for the king, than converse
with him."

"I suppose, by what I have seen of him, that he must be somewhat
wearisome," Phelim O'Sullivan said, with a laugh. "Fortunately,
wit and gaiety are not essential qualities on the part of a
monarch; but I must own that, treasonable as it may sound, I fear
His Majesty is lacking in other qualities, far more essential in a
monarch. I should say that he is kindly and well disposed, he
wishes to be fair and just, and may turn out a wise ruler; but he
is altogether deficient in energy. I suppose there is no occasion
for a king, safely seated upon a throne, to be energetic; but a
prince in exile should possess the qualities that excite
enthusiasm, and bind men to him. Possibly, the qualities King
James possesses would be highly valued by the Scotch, but they
would certainly fail to inspire our people."

"Yes," Patrick O'Neil agreed. "His father did more to ruin his
cause, in Ireland, than all William's Dutch generals and troops,
together. It was disheartening to be risking life and possessions
for a man who would do nothing for himself, whose indecision