INTRODUCTION. xvli 
was occupied only with warlike preparations, 
and though an attack from the Englifli fleet 
was every moment expeded, the French 
officers had already introduced a tafte for 
pleafure. Employed in the morning at their 
exercife, the French foldiers in the evening 
aded plays. A part of the barracks was 
transformed into a theatre; and as women 
capable of performing female charaders could 
not be found in the town, they afligned thefe 
parts to fome of their comrades, whofe youth, 
delicate features, and frefhnefs of complexionj 
feemed beft calculated to favour the decep- 
tion. Thefe heroines, of a new kind, height- 
ened the curiofity of the fpedators, and ren- 
dered the entertainment ftill more lively and 
Interefting. With regard to the adors, fome 
of them had adually very confiderable talents 
for comedy ; and I recoiled that one of them 
aded the part of Figaro, in the Barber of 
Seville, in fo fuperior a ftyle, that, at the Cape, 
and 
