FRANCE. 237 



tune of my commifiion, and about 2oooL 

 which, by all who knew the eftate, was 

 confidered as .a very considerable legacy : 

 indeed it was fo confiderable, that my bro- 

 ther would not forgive me the temporary 

 diftrefs he was in to pay me, thinking, at 

 the fame time, that I had no pretentious to 

 any thing but my rank and pay in the 

 army. 



" Upon the eonclufion of the peace of 

 Aix-la-Chapelle, my regiment was disbanded f< 

 and I had then only the fmall half-pay of 

 a captain of foot to fupport me, except my 

 patrimony of 2000! . 5 yet, with this bare 

 fubfiftence, I entered into all the pleafures 

 of Paris with a vivacity that might have 

 told me the confequence. Yet a natural 

 chearfulnefs, which I ever poiTefled, conti- 

 nued to me the company of men of the 

 higheft rank and fortune, that I had been 

 acquainted with in Flanders. There is no- 

 thing fo flattering to a young man, jufi on 

 the entrance of life, as being carrefied and 

 well received by good company. Jt has a 

 ^harrn too feducing for any thing but the 

 higheft prudence to withftand; and I had 

 nothing in my competition that had the 



Ic.ift 



