46 Life of Count Rumford. 



nearer the close of that year. At that time Thompson 

 would have been but four or five months short of 

 twenty years of age, while his wife would have been 

 thirty-three. This disproportion of years might have 

 proved infelicitous in itself, had not a more serious 

 misfortune soon resulted in a separation between them. 

 Whether we are to recognize in this disparity of the 

 parties one reason for the seeming indifference of the 

 husband when in exile to tire wife whom he had left 

 at home, must be referred to the judgment of the reader. 

 Mrs. Thompson, through her former husband, had 

 made acquaintance at Portsmouth with Governor Went- 

 worth and others in prominent society there. Thither 

 she took her new husband on their marriage tour, and 

 he soon became known to the Governor. The proba- 

 ble date of this bridal tour furnishes another reason for 

 believing that the marriage of Mr. Thompson took 

 place in November, 1772. On the i3th of the 

 month there was a grand military muster and review 

 at Dover, ten miles from Portsmouth, of the officers 

 and soldiers of the Second Provincial Regiment of New 

 Hampshire. Governor Wentworth and some of his 

 Council, with many gentlemen and ladies from Ports- 

 mouth, attended it with considerable display and cere- 

 mony. The Rev. Dr. Belknap, the admirable historian 

 of New Hampshire, and then the minister of Dover, 

 preached on the occasion a sermon which was thought 

 by the officers worthy of the press, and it was published 

 at their request. The festivities, which began in Dover, 

 were transferred for their continuance to Portsmouth. 

 The tradition has always been that Mr. Thompson here 

 attracted the attention of the Governor at the review, 

 was introduced to him, and was on the day following a 



