But since he didn't want to go to Siberia, he agreed to read the fine print. It said that if he did fight against Russia, he agreed to be judged by the Russian articles of war. He immediately agreed to sign that, since he was confident that there wasn't a single article saying a free Englishman couldn't fight who he wanted.
Also, notice how he's a free Englishman, not a Scot. We've talked before in salon about the prejudice against Scots during this period, and when James is trying to quit Russian service, it's ~1747, i.e., just months after the defeat of the biggest (and final) Jacobite rebellion, the '45.
Re: Random escape-related stuff
Hee, I kind of love that.
Re: Random escape-related stuff