t marts of commerce in the
world.

Very many young men, in being thus restrained by their fathers from
pursuing the profession which they themselves chose, and placed, instead,
in a situation which they did not like, would have gone to their duty in
a discontented and sullen manner, and would have made no effort to
succeed in the business or to please their employers; but Le Fort, it
seems, was a boy of a different mould from this. He went to his work in
the counting-house at Amsterdam with a good heart, and devoted himself to
his business with so much industry and steadiness, and evinced withal so
much amiableness of disposition in his intercourse with all around him,
that before long, as the accounts say, the merchant "loved him as his own
child." After some considerable time had elapsed, the merchant, who was
constantly sending vessels to different parts of the world, was on one
occasion about dispatching a ship to Copenhagen, and Le Fort asked
permission to go in her. The merchant was not only willing that he
should go, but also gave him the whole charge of the cargo, with
instructions to attend to the sale of it, and the remittance of the
proceeds on the arrival of the ship in port. Le Fort accordingly sailed
in the ship, and on his arrival at Copenhagen he transacted the business
of selling the cargo and sending back the money so skillfully and well
that the merchant was very well pleased with him.

Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, and the Danes were at that time
quite a powerful and warlike nation. Le Fort, in walking about the
streets of the town while his ship was lying there, often saw the Danish
soldiers marching to and fro, and performing their evolutions, and the
sight revived in his mind his former interest in being a soldier. He
soon made acquaintance with some of the officers, and, in hearing them
talk of their various adventures, and of the details of their mode of
life, he became very eager to join them. They liked him, too, very much.
He had made great progress in learning the different languages spoken in
that part of the world, and the officers found, moreover, that he was
very quick in understanding the military principles which they explained
to him, and in learning evolutions of all kinds.

About this time it happened that an embassador was to be sent from
Denmark to Russia, and Le Fort, who had a great inclination to see the
world as well as to be a soldier, was seized with a stron