"You have no heartier well-wisher than Colour-Sergeant Hyde.
Our relative positions have changed--"
"Nothing can change them, or me, Hyde. You have always been my best
and staunchest friend. It is to your advice and teachings that I owe
all this."
"Go on as you have begun, my boy; the road is open before you. Who
knows? That field-marshal's baton may have been in your pack after
all!"
While they still talked a message was brought to McKay from General
Wilders; the brigadier wished to see him at once.
"How is this, Mr. McKay?" said the general. "So you pretend to be a
cousin of mine? Sir Colin Campbell has told me of his meeting with
you, and now I find your name in full in the _Gazette_."
"It is no pretence, sir," replied Stanislas, with dignity.
"What! You call yourself a Wilders! By what right?"
"My mother is first cousin to the present Lord Essendine."
"Through whom?"
"Her father, Anastasius Wilders."
"I know--my father's brother. Then you belong to the elder branch. But
I never heard that he married."
"He married Priscilla Coxon in 1805."
"Privately?"
"I believe not. But it was much against his father's wish, and his
wife was never recognised by the family. His widow--you know my
grandfather died early--married a second time, and thus increased the
breach between the families.
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