amusements of the soldier's life. It is lest any young gentleman like
myself should take a fancy to a military career, and fancy that of a
private soldier a tolerable one, that I am giving these, I hope, moral
descriptions of what we poor fellows in the ranks really suffered.

As soon as we recovered, we were dismissed from the nuns and the
hospital to the town prison of Fulda, where we were kept like slaves and
criminals, with artillerymen with lighted matches at the doors of the
courtyards and the huge black dormitory where some hundreds of us lay;
until we were despatched to our different destinations. It was soon seen
by the exercise which were the old soldiers amongst us, and which the
recruits; and for the former, while we lay in prison, there was a little
more leisure: though, if possible, a still more strict watch kept than
over the broken-spirited yokels who had been forced or coaxed into the
service. To describe the characters here assembled would require Mr.
Gilray's own pencil. There were men of all nations and callings. The
Englishmen boxed and bullied; the Frenchmen played cards, and danced,
and fenced; the heavy Germans smoked their pipes and drank beer, if they
could manage to purchase it. Those who had anything to risk gambled, and
at this sport I was pretty lucky, for, not having a penny when I entered
the depot (having been robbed of every farthing of my property by the
rascally crimps), I won near a dollar in my very first game at cards
with one of the Frenchmen; who did not think of asking whether I could
pay or not upon losing. Such, at least, is the advantage of having a
gentlemanlike appearance; it has saved me many a time since by procuring
me credit when my fortunes were at their lowest ebb.

Among the Frenchmen there was a splendid man and soldier, whose
real name we never knew, but whose ultimate history created no small
sensation, when it came to be known in the Prussian army. If beauty and
courage are proofs of nobility, as (although I have seen some of the
ugliest dogs and the greatest cowards in the world in the noblesse) I
have no doubt courage and beauty are, this Frenchman must have been of
the highest families in France, so grand and noble was his manner, so
superb his person. He was not quite so tall as myself, fair, while I am
dark, and, if possible, rather broader in the shoulders. He was the only
man I ever met who could master me with the small-sword; with which he
would pink m