d worked
him quite into gentleness and obedience, with the best display of
horsemanship I was master of. Fully to show this to the ladies, and
save them unnecessary trouble, I forced him to leap in at one of the
open windows of the tea room, walk round several times, pace, trot,
and gallop, and at last made him mount the tea table, there to repeat
his lessons in a pretty style of miniature which was exceedingly
pleasing to the ladies, for he performed them amazingly well, and did
not break either cup or saucer. It placed me so high in their opinion,
and so well in that of the noble lord, that, with his usual
politeness, he begged I would accept of this young horse, and ride him
full career to conquest and honor in the campaign against the Turks,
which was soon to be opened, under the command of Count Munich.

I could not indeed have received a more agreeable present, nor a more
ominous one at the opening of that campaign, in which I made my
apprenticeship as a soldier. A horse so gentle, so spirited, and so
fierce--at once a lamb and a Bucephalus--put me always in mind of the
soldier's and the gentleman's duty, of young Alexander, and of the
astonishing things he performed in the field.

We took the field, among several other reasons, it seems, with an
intention to retrieve the character of the Russian arms, which had
been blemished a little by Czar Peter's last campaign on the Pruth;
and this we fully accomplished by several very fatiguing and glorious
campaigns under the command of that great general I mentioned before.

Modesty forbids individuals to arrogate to themselves great successes
or victories, the glory of which is generally engrossed by the
commander--nay, which is rather awkward, by kings and queens who never
smelled gunpowder but at the field days and reviews of their troops;
never saw a field of battle, or an enemy in battle array.

Nor do I claim any particular share of glory in the great engagements
with the enemy. We all did our duty, which, in the patriot's,
soldier's, and gentleman's language, is a very comprehensive word, of
great honor, meaning, and import, and of which the generality of idle
quidnuncs and coffee-house politicians can hardly form any but a very
mean and contemptible idea. However having had the command of a body
of hussars, I went upon several expeditions, with discretionary
powers; and the success I then met with is, I think, fairly and only
to be placed to my account, and to