66 CHARLES LEE 



that he was not properly appreciated in England, and 

 early in 1 765 he made his way to that home of turbu- 

 lent spirits, Poland, where he received an appointment 

 on the staff of the new king, Stanislaus Augustus. 

 Next year, in accompanying the Polish embassy to 

 Turkey, he narrowly escaped freezing to death on the 

 Balkan Mountains, and again, while in Constantinople, 

 came near being buried in the ruins of his house, 

 which was destroyed by an earthquake. In 1766 he 

 returned to England and spent two years in a fruitless 

 attempt to obtain promotion. Having at length quite 

 established his reputation as a disappointed and vin- 

 dictive place-hunter, he tried Poland again. In 1769 

 he was commissioned major-general in the Polish 

 army, but did not relinquish his half-pay as a British 

 major, because it was " too considerable a sum to 

 throw away wantonly." 1 Early in the winter he 

 served in a campaign against the Turks, and was 

 present in a battle at Chotzim on the Moldavian 

 frontier. Here, as usual, he declared that the com- 

 manders under whom he served were fools. 2 His 

 brief service was ended by a fever from which he 

 barely escaped with his life. The rest of the winter 

 was spent in Vienna, and in the spring of 1770 he pro- 

 ceeded to Italy, where he lost two fingers in an affair 

 of honour in which an Italian officer crossed swords 

 with him. His earliest biographer, Edward Lang- 

 worthy, observes that " his warmth of temper drew 

 him into many rencounters of this kind ; in all which 

 he acquitted himself with singular courage, sprightli- 

 ness of imagination, and great presence of mind." c 



1 Moore, p. 15. 2 Lee Papers, I. 89. 



3 Langworthy, "Memoirs of Charles Lee," London, 1792, p. 8. 



