 with great civility, in consequence of letters of
recommendation, with which he was provided from the Hague, and the old general
assured him of his protection and interest for a pair of colours, if he was
disposed to enter into the Dutch Service.
    Tho' he was by that time pretty well cured of his military Don Quixotism, he
would not totally decline the generous proffer, for which he thanked him in the
most grateful terms, telling the general that he would pay his duty to him on
his return from France, and then, if he could determine upon returning to the
army, should think himself highly honoured in being under his command.
    After a stay of two months in Flanders, he proceeded to Paris, and far from
taking up his habitation in the suburbs of St. Germain, according to the custom
of English travellers, he hired a private lodging on the other side of the
river, and associated chiefly with French officers, who (their youthful sallies
being over) are allowed to be the politest gentlemen of that kingdom. In this
scheme he found his account so much, that he could not but wonder at the folly
of his countrymen, who lose the main scope of their going abroad, by spending
their time and fortune idly with one another.
    During his residence in Holland, he had made himself acquainted with the
best authors in the French language, so that he was able to share in their
conversation; a circumstance from which he found great benefit; for, it not only
improved him in his knowledge of that tongue, but also tended to the enlargement
of his acquaintance, in the course of which, he contracted intimacies in some
families of good fashion, especially those of the long robe, which would have
enabled him to pass his time very agreeably, had he been a little easier in
point of fortune: but his finances, notwithstanding the most rigid oeconomy,
being, in a few months, reduced to a very low ebb, the prospect of indigence
threw a damp upon all his pleasures, tho' he never suffered himself to be
thereby, in any degree, dispirited; being in that respect, of so happy a
disposition, that conscious poverty or abundance made very slight impressions
upon his mind.
    This consumption of his cash, however, involved him in some perplexity; and
he deliberated with himself whether he should return to general Collier, or
repair to London, where he might possibly fall into some business not unbecoming
a gentleman; tho' he was very much mortified to find himself incapable of
gratifying an inordinate desire which possessed him of making the grand tour
