himself to me, and
giving a most gracious personal opinion of what my "services had merited
from the English minister," said that, "limited as his own means of
rewarding zeal and ability might be, he begged of me to retain a slight
memorial of his friendship, and of our day together on the heights of
Argonne." Taking from the hand of Guiscard the riband and star of the
"Order of Merit," the famous order instituted by the Great Frederic, he
placed it round my neck, and proposed my health to the table as a "Knight
of Prussia."

This was a flattering distinction, and, if I could have had entire faith
in all the complimentary language addressed to me by the sitters at that
stately table, I should have had visions of very magnificent things. But
there is no antidote to vanity equal to an empty purse. If I had been born
to one of the leviathan fortunes of our peerage, I might possibly have
imagined myself possessed of all the talents of mankind, and with all its
distinctions waiting for my acceptance; but I never could forget the grave
lesson that I was a younger son. I sat, like the Roman in his triumph,
with the slave, to lecture him, behind. However, I had a more ample
evidence of the sincerity with which those compliments were paid, in the
higher degree of trust reposed in me from day to day.

After the repast was ended, and the principal part of the guests had
withdrawn, I was desired to wait for the communication of important
intelligence--Guiscard and Varnhorst being the only officers of the staff
who remained. A variety of papers, taken in the portfolio of one of the
French generals who had fallen in the engagement of the day, were laid
before us, and our little council proceeded to examine them. They were of
a very various kind, and no bad epitome of the mind of a gallant and
crackbrained coxcomb. Reflections on the conduct of the Allied armies, and
conjectures on their future proceedings--both of so fantastic a kind, that
the duke's gravity often gave way, and even the grim Guiscard sometimes
wore a smile. Then came in a letter from some "_confrere_" in Paris, a
tissue of gossip and grumbling, anecdotes of the irregularities of private
life, and merciless abuse of the leaders of party. Interspersed with those
were epistles of a more tender description; from which it appeared that
the general's heart was as capacious as his ambition, and that he
contrived to give his admiration to half a dozen of the _elite_ of
Pari