when he gives his royal master a high-flown account of
his American exploits, must report me wounded, he may report me killed;
it would cost nothing; but I hope you won't put any faith in such
reports. As to the wound, the surgeons are astonished at the promptness
of its healing. They fall into ecstasies whenever they dress it, and
protest that it's the most beautiful thing in the world. As for me, I
find it a very disgusting thing, wearisome and quite painful. That
depends on tastes. But, after all, if a man wanted to wound himself for
fun, he ought to come and see how much I enjoy it."

He was very grateful for the attention he received. "All the doctors in
America," he writes, "are in motion for me. I have a friend who has
spoken in such a way that I am well nursed--General Washington. This
worthy man, whose talents and virtues I admire, whom I venerate more the
more I know him, has kindly become my intimate friend.... I am
established in his family; we live like two brothers closely united, in
reciprocal intimacy and confidence. When he sent me his chief surgeon,
he told him to care for me as if I were his son, for he loved me as
such." This friendship between the great commander, in the prime of
life, and the French boy of twenty, is one of the most touching
incidents of our history.

* * * * *

=The Rock of Gibraltar.=--This great natural fortification, which among
military men is regarded as the key to the Mediterranean Sea, abounds in
caverns, many of which are natural, while others have been made by the
explosion of gunpowder in the centre of the mountain, forming great
vaults of such height and extent that in case of a siege they would
contain the whole garrison. The caverns (the most considerable is the
hall of St. George) communicate with the batteries established all along
the mountain by a winding road, passable throughout on horseback.

The extreme singularity of the place has given rise to many
superstitious stories, not only amongst the ancients, but even those of
our own times. As it has been penetrated by the hardy and enterprising
to a great distance (on one occasion by an American, who descended by
ropes to a depth of 500 feet), a wild story is current that the cave
communicates by a submarine passage with Africa. The sailors who had
visited the rock, and seen the monkeys, which are seen in no other part
of Europe, and are only there occasionally and at intervals