"
"So be it," Wallenstein said, "and the sooner the better. Now I
will leave you to your studies, and will ride out to inspect the
troops, and to see that they have all that they need, for they must
be kept in the best of humours at present."
CHAPTER XXII THE CONSPIRACY
The next day Wallenstein again entered Malcolm's workroom and said
abruptly to him: "What deeds of bravery have you performed?"
Malcolm looked astonished.
"In an idle moment," the duke said, "having an interest in
nativities and seeing that you were born between two years, I asked
my astrologer to work out the calculations. He tells me that it
was fated that you should perform deeds of notable bravery while
still young. It seemed the horoscope of a soldier rather than of
a craftsman, and so I told the sage; but he will have it that he
has made no mistake."
Malcolm hesitated for a moment; the blind faith which the otherwise
intelligent and capable general placed in the science of astrology
was well known to the world. Should he deny that he had accomplished
any feats, the duke, believing implicitly the statement which his
astrologer had made him, would suspect that he was not what he
seemed; he therefore replied modestly, "I have done no deeds worthy
relating to your excellency, but I once swam across a swollen river
to direct some travellers who would otherwise have perished, and
my neighbours were good enough to say that none in those parts save
myself would have attempted such a feat.
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