The two St. Valiers rode one of Tom's horses, which were both stronger and fresher than the animal on which Gerard had come out of Frankfort. The latter beast now carried MacAlister, who had nothing to fear from being overtaken, and whose second horse was ridden by Wetheral. The piper's son had not expressed any great surprise at seeing Dick, a fact explained by him in the words already quoted. "I mak' nae doot your ain presence in these parts was brought aboot in the most likely way," he continued; "and, sure, there's devil a bit extraordinary in my being here." He then gave account of his movements since the attack on Quebec. Exchanged, with Morgan and the other prisoners, he served under that gallant commander in the glorious campaign of Saratoga. His term of enlistment expiring on the very day of Burgoyne's surrender, he voluntarily accompanied the troops that escorted the defeated British and Hessian army to Boston. In that town he met a Virginia Scotchman, whose people he had known in Scotland. This man, who had added the name of Jones to that of John Paul, held the rank of captain in the newly projected navy of the United States of America, and was on the very eve of sailing from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in a vessel called the _Ranger_. Love of diversity impelled Tom to ship for the cruise across the Atlantic. Sailing November 1, 1777, the _Ranger_ captured two prizes, sent them to the port of Malaga, and arrived on the second of December at Nantes, in the harbor of which Captain Jones caused the new flag of the United States to receive its first salute in European waters, as its white stars set in blue and its red and white stripes fluttered high above the _Ranger's_ deck. MacAlister accompanied Jones to Paris, where he grew weary of inaction while the captain was trying, with the aid of the American commissioners, to obtain a certain fine frigate for the new navy. So Tom, in whom a returning inclination for some more European service had begun to assert itself, started for Germany, with a thought of finding employment in the war that Frederick of Prussia had been conducting against Austria, since the first of the present year of 1778, over the Bavarian succession. "But now that I've met you," MacAlister said to Dick, "it's devil an inch further I'll gang eastward. Sure, 'tis nae self-sacrifice to turn aboot and trot back to Paris, for that war has been plodding along sin' 'most a year agone, and never a battle yet, for whilk I should think the King of Prussia, auld as he is, would be ashamed,--as nae doot he is. Weel, weel, so 'tis the young lady of Quebec ye are, miss! Sure, Dickie, lad, do ye mind what I tauld ye once, aboot the wind of circumstance?" "Ay, Tom, but if we had left all to the wind of circumstance, we should not be this moment riding free towards Paris." "No more ye should, lad. 'Tis one part circumstance, and three parts wark and fight, that lands a man safe and sound in the snug harbors of this warld."