236 TRAVELS THROUGH 

 confiderafcle fortune at Caen in Normandy ; 

 he fpent much time at Paris every year, 

 and fpent it as men of fortune ufually do ; 

 yet he had fo far a juftnefs in his ideas of 

 life, that he could not bring himfelf to live 

 totally in the capital. He did not neglect 

 his eftate ; but reiided fome months at his 

 hotife not far from Caen ; and it was in 

 thefc- refidences that I firft caught the idea 

 of receiving pleafure in the country. 



" My father defigned me for the army, 

 yet gave me a pretty good education, indeed 

 as good a one as could be commanded, in a 

 fyftem that was to end by the time I was 

 fixteen. In the year 1746, he procured 

 me a pair of colours in the regiment of 

 Pkardie, and that year I made my firft 

 campaign in Flanders. In 1747? I made a 

 fbcond, and was advanced. In 1748, Count 

 Lkmendalh himfelf gave me a company in a 

 .ew regiment, and I made the career of 

 trhofe three hot campaigns with that eclat 

 which every young man of fpirit, who is 

 arnm-ated in the fervice, is fure to gain in 

 France. About this time my father died; 

 the nobility and the eflate defcended to my 

 elder brother, and I was left with the for- 

 tune 



