to Viney, before he set out—first indeed giving him some other instructions—he should try what mettle the youngster was made of.
Charles was at this time something more than seventeen, so that he took the field young, as did his namesake of Sweden. He was not, however, at all like that great man in any respect, except indeed that no Charles the Twelfth upon earth could be a more rigid observer of his word; for, as the Swedish Charles could never be perswaded by any body, the English Charles placed an implicit faith in every body, and as the fighting hero hated the sight of a woman, the scientific hero was charmed with every woman he saw.

Charles—for there is no hiding it—was very amorous, and very credulous. His credulity, however, was not of that kind begot by adulation upon impudence; he was too modest to be vain; but when a plausible appeal was made to the softness of his manners, the strength of his sensibility, or the excellence of his heart, his expanded soul cherished the fiction because it wore the garb of truth; therefore, in him, credulity was a virtue: and yet virtue would be in much less repute than it is—for which there is little necessity—if it met with no better reward. His propensity to the softer passions were, though so young, of a pretty robust kind, for he had already attacked, and that very briskly, fat Betty, who, by force of arms, or rather fists, defended her virtue. Nor was he less solicitous with Lady Hazard's woman, before whom, about a week previous to his journey, his father found him on his knees, which accident produced the following short lecture.
My lord having pretty well shamed him, said—
'Charles, I am glad to see this grace in you; I never before spoke to you with the harshness of a father; hitherto you have had nothing from me but the mildness of that character. I am scarcely sorry for what has happened, because it gives me an opportunity of speaking on a subject which I

could not otherwise so well have introduced.—You have heard of my excesses in my youth; they have cost me reflections bitterer than I would wish my worst enemy. I am not hurt at seeing you susceptible, nor do I expect, as you grow up, to keep you entirely continent. You are informed, your opinions are decided ones, and you have an understanding far beyond your years, or I should not be so explicit. You have conferred on me one great blessing, which I know you will never