must console myself with the big game in Wallachia, if I can find time."
"You serve her Majesty?" inquired Vane, who knew it well enough, as he knew all the state messengers in Europe.
"The F. O., rather," laughed Erceldoune.
"Salaried to keep in saddle! Paid to post up and down the world with a state bag honoured with Havannahs, and a despatch-box marked 'Immediate,' and filled with char, chocolate, or caviare!"
"Come, come, Erceldoune, that's too bad!" laughed the Duke.
"Not a whit, sir! I went out to New York last year with royal bags imposing enough to contain the freedom of Canada, or instructions to open an American war, but which had nothing in the world in them save a dinner-service for his Excellency, and some French novels and Paris perfumes for the First Secretary."
The Duke laughed:
"Well, that will hardly be the case now. Matters are getting very serious eastward; everywhere over there the people are ripe for revolt; I expect Venetia, and Galicia, and Croatia, and all the rest of them, are meditating a rising together. I happen to know those bags you take out will contain very
