" Sometimes the count's chaplain
would be present and would gravely discuss theological questions
with the count, wearying Malcolm and Thekla so excessively, that
they would slip away from the others and play checkers or cards
on a little table in a deep oriel window where their low talk and
laughter did not disturb the discussions of their elders.
Once Malcolm was absent for two days on a visit to the village
in the mountains he had so much aided in defending. Here he was
joyfully received, and was glad to find that war had not penetrated
to the quiet valley, and that prosperity still reigned there.
Malcolm lingered at Mansfeld for some time after he felt that his
strength was sufficiently restored to enable him to rejoin his
regiment; but he knew that until the spring commenced no great
movement of troops would take place, and he was so happy with his
kind friends, who treated him completely as one of the family, that
he was loath indeed to tear himself away. At last he felt that he
could no longer delay, and neither the assurances of the count that
the Protestant cause could dispense with his doughty services for
a few weeks longer, or the tears of Thekla and her insistance that
he could not care for them or he would not be in such a hurry to
leave, could detain him longer, and mounting a horse with which
the count had presented him he rode away to rejoin his regiment.
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