rybody; I was loaded with a thousand compliments and
professions of friendship: the men commended my person and agility, and
the women were loud in the praise of my bonne grace; the sergeant in
particular expressed so much regard for me, and described the pleasures
of a soldier's life to me with so much art, that I began to listen to
his proposal of enlisting me in the service; and the more I considered
my own condition, the more I was convinced of the necessity I was under
to come to a speedy determination.

Having, therefore, maturely weighed the circumstances pro and con I
signified my consent, and was admitted into the regiment of Picardy,
said to be the oldest corps in Europe. The company to which this
commander belonged was quartered at a village not far off, whither we
marched next day, and I was presented to my captain, who seemed very
well pleased with my appearance, gave me a crown to drink, and ordered
me to be accommodated with clothes, arms, and accoutrements. Then I sold
my livery suit, purchased linen, and, as I was at great pains to learn
the exercise, in a very short time became a complete soldier.

It was not long before we received orders to join several more
regiments, and march with all expedition into Germany, in order to
reinforce Mareschal Duc de Noailles, who was then encamped with his army
on the side of the river Mayne, to watch the motions of the English,
Hanoverians, Austrians, and Hessians, under the command of the Earl of
Stair. We began our march accordingly, and then I became acquainted with
that part of a soldier's life to which I had been hitherto a stranger.
It is impossible to describe the hunger and thirst I sustained, and the
fatigue I underwent in a march of so many hundred miles; during which, I
was so much chafed with the heat and motion of my limbs, that in a very
short time the inside of my thighs and legs were deprived of skin, and I
proceeded in the utmost torture. This misfortune I owed to the plumpness
of my constitution, which I cursed, and envied the withered condition
of my comrades, whose bodies could not spare juice enough to supply a
common issue, and were indeed proof against all manner of friction. The
continual pain I felt made me fretful, and my peevishness was increased
by the mortification of my pride in seeing those miserable wretches,
whom a hard gale of wind would have scattered through the air like
chaff, bear those toils with alacrity under which I was rea