scribed as a side-work composed of earth, gabions, or fascines; but
I was very much surprised when I afterwards understood that his reserve
proceeded from his ignorance.

Having paid our bill, we adjourned to the coffee-room, where my
fellow-labourer insisted on treating me with a dish, giving me to
understand, at the same time, that I had acquired his good opinion, both
with respect to my principles and understanding. I thanked him for his
compliment, and, professing myself an utter stranger in this part of the
world, begged he would have the goodness to inform me of the quality and
characters of the people who dined above. This request was a real favour
to one of his disposition, which was no less communicative than curious;
he therefore complied with great satisfaction, and told me, to my
extreme astonishment, that the supposed young prince was a dancer at one
of the theatres, and the ambassador no other than a fiddler belonging
to the opera. "The doctor," said he "is a Roman Catholic priest, who
sometimes appears in the character of an officer, and assumes the name
of captain; but more generally takes the garb, title, and behaviour of a
physician, in which capacity he wheedles himself into the confidence
of weak-minded people, and by arguments no less specious than false,
converts them from their religion and allegiance. He has been in the
hands of justice more than once for such practices, but he is a sly dog,
and manages matters with so much craft, that hitherto he has escaped for
a short imprisonment. As for the general, you may see he has owed his
promotion more to his interest than his capacity; and, now that the eyes
of the ministry are opened, his friends dead or become inconsiderable,
he is struck off the list, and obliged to put up with a yearly pension.
In consequence of this reduction, he is become malcontent, and inveighs
against the government in all companies, with so little discretion, that
I am surprised at the lenity of the administration, in overlooking his
insolence, but the truth of the matter is, he owes his safety to his
weakness and want of importance. He has seen a little, and but a little,
service, and yet, if you will take his word to it, there has not been
a great action performed in the field since the Revolution, in which
he was not principally concerned. When a story is told of any great
general, he immediately matches it with one of himself, though he is
often unhappy in his invention,