very near the truth."

"You understand horses?"

"I do, sir."

"And you can ride?"

"Yes, sir, I can ride and run too. In a long day's journey I should
get to the end on foot nearly as fast as you would on horseback."

"He can make himself useful on a campaign," the brother said. "He
has been with my master and myself in the field for the last three
years, and knows his work well if he chooses to do it."

"The principal point with me is that which I first asked him about,
can he be faithful? I may have to ride on dangerous missions for the
general. I may have to enter an enemy's town to obtain information.
There is another thing, being of the general's staff, and sometimes
quartered in the same house with him and chatting freely with his
other aides-de-camp, secrets might be picked up by a sharp pair of
ears that if repeated would do grievous harm to the cause of the
duchess, as you can well understand. Now, the question, Paolo,
is, can you be absolutely trusted; can you, as to all matters you
may hear, be as one who is deaf and dumb?"

"I could, sir," the boy said earnestly. "I am all for the duchess,
and I hate the Spaniards. I once was found out in a bit of mischief
in the palace, and should have been whipped for it and turned out
of the town, but the duchess herself said that I was only a boy