remain before the place. The Spaniard was as good
as his word; and as soon as we heard, 'Alerte on the walls,' we were sure
of a sally, that cleared our trenches, destroyed our works, and killed
the best of our officers and soldiers. The prince was so piqued at it,
that, contrary to the opinion of the general officers, he obstinately
persisted in carrying on a siege which was like to ruin his army, and
which he was at last forced to quit in a hurry.

"As our troops were retiring, Don Gregorio, far from giving himself those
airs which governors generally do on such occasions, made no other sally,
than sending a respectful compliment to the prince. Signor Brice set out
not long after for Madrid, to give an account of his conduct, and to
receive the recompense he had merited. Your majesty perhaps will be
desirous to know what reception poor Brice met with, after having
performed the most brilliant action the Spaniards could boast of in all
the war--he was confined by the inquisition."

"How!" said the Queen Dowager, "confined by the inquisition for his
services!" "Not altogether for his services," said the Chevalier; "but
without any regard to his services, he was treated in the manner I have
mentioned for a little affair of gallantry, which I shall relate to the
King presently.

"The campaign of Catalonia being thus ended, we were returning home, not
overloaded with laurels; but as the Prince de Conde had laid up a great
store on former occasions, and as he had still great projects in his
head, he soon forgot this trifling misfortune: we did nothing but joke
with one another during the march, and the prince was the first to
ridicule the siege. We made some of those rhymes on Lerida, which were
sung all over France, in order to prevent others more severe; however, we
gained nothing by it, for notwithstanding we treated ourselves freely in
our own ballads, others were composed in Paris in which we were ten times
more severely handled. At last we arrived at Perpignan upon a holy-day:
a company of Catalans, who were dancing in the middle of the street, out
of respect to the prince came to dance under his windows: Monsieur
Poussatin, in a little black jacket, danced in the middle of this
company, as if he was really mad. I immediately recognized him for my
countryman, from his manner of skipping and frisking about: the prince
was charmed with his humour and activity. After the dance, I sent for
him, and inquired who he was: