have as little stomach for fighting as the soldier of Lucullus had after
having enriched himself; but the officers of the army of the Loire are,
poor fellows, in a very different predicament; they have not even been paid
what is due to them, and they, having none of those nice felicities (to use
an expression of Charlotte Smith's)[41] which make life agreeable, are
ready for any combat, to set their life on any cast, "to mend it, or to be
rid of 't." The Prussians indulge in every sort of dissipation, which they
are enabled to do by the plunder which they have accumulated, and of which
they have formed, I understand, a _depot_ at St Germain. They send these
articles of plunder to town every day to be sold, and then divide the
profits, which are sure to be spent in the Palais Royal, and other places
of revel and debauchery.

They sometimes affect a fastidiousness of stomach which is quite laughable,
and not at all peculiar to the Germans, who are in general blessed by
nature with especial good appetites; and they spend so much money that the
English officers who have not had the advantages of plunder that these
Prussians have had must appear by the side of them stingy and niggardly.

I was witness one day to a whimsical scene, which will serve to give you an
idea of the airs of importance these gentlemen give themselves. I was one
day at Versailles and after having visited the palace and gardens I entered
the Salon of a restaurateur and called for a veal cutlet and _vin
ordinaire_. There was a fat Prussian Major with two or three of his
companions at one of the tables, who had been making copious libations to
Bacchus in Burgundy and Champaign. He heard me call for _vin ordinaire_,
and whether it was to show his own magnificence I know not, but he called
out to the _cafetiere_: "Madame, votre vin ordinaire est il buvable? car
j'en veux donner a mon trompette, et s'il n'est pas bon, il n'en boira pas.
Faites venir mon trompette." Now I dare say in his own country this Major
would not have disdained even the "schwarze Bier" of Brandenburgh.

Scarcely any quarrels, I believe, take place between the English and
French, nor did I hear of any violent fracas but one. In this instance, the
English officers concerned must have been sad, brutal, vulgar fellows.
They, however, after behaving in a most gross insulting manner, were
compelled by some Frenchmen not to eat but to drink their words, and that
out of a vessel not usually em