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company after the battle of Minden. This act of injustice rendered
my service very disagreeable to me; and, instead of seeking to
conquer the dislike of my superiors, and win their goodwill by good
behaviour, I only sought for means to make my situation easier to
me, and grasped at all the amusements in my power. In a foreign
country, with the enemy before us, and the people continually under
contribution from one side or the other, numberless irregularities
were permitted to the troops which would not have been allowed in
more peaceable times. I descended gradually to mix with the
sergeants, and to share their amusements: drinking and gambling
were, I am sorry to say, our principal pastimes; and I fell so
readily into their ways, that though only a young lad of seventeen,
I was the master of them all in daring wickedness; though there were
some among them who, I promise you, were far advanced in the science
of every kind of profligacy. I should have been under the provost-
marshal's hands, for a dead certainty, had I continued much longer
in the army: but an accident occurred which took me out of the
English service in rather a singular manner.
The year in which George II died, our regiment had the honour to be
present at the battle of Warburg (where the Marquis of Granby and
his horse fully retrieved the discredit which had fallen upon the
cavalry since Lord George Sackville's defalcation at Minden), and
where Prince Ferdinand once more completely defeated the Frenchmen.
During the action, my lieutenant, Mr. Fakenham, of Fakenham, the
gentleman who had threatened me, it may be remembered, with the
caning, was struck by a musket-ball in the side. He had shown no
want of courage in this or any other occasion where he had been
called upon to act against the French; but this was his first wound,
and the young gentleman was exceedingly frightened by it. He offered
five guineas to be carried into the town, which was hard by; and I
and another man, taking him up in a cloak, managed to transport him
into a place of decent appearance, where we put him to bed, and
where a young surgeon (who desired nothing better than to take
himself out of the fire of the musketry) went presently to dress his
wound.
In order to get into the house, we had been obliged, it must be
confessed, to fire into the locks with our pieces; which summons
brought an inhabitant of the house to the door, a very pretty and
black-eyed young woman, who lived there with her old half-blind
father, a retired Jagdmeister of the Duke of Cassel, hard by. When
the French were in the town, Meinherr's house had suffered like
those of his neighbours; and he was at first exceedingly unwilling
to accommodate his guests. But the first knocking at the door had
the effect of bringing a speedy answer; and Mr. Fakenham, taking a
couple of guineas out of a very full purse, speedily convinced the
people that they had only to deal with a person of honour.
Leaving the doctor (who was very glad to stop) with his patient, who
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