London. He also
repeats the fat jokes of old Major Pendergast, the wit of the club,
and which, though the general can hardly repeat them for laughing,
always make Mr. Bracebridge look grave, he having a great antipathy to
an indecent jest. In a word, the general is a complete instance of the
declension in gay life, by which a young man of pleasure is apt to
cool down into an obscene old gentleman.

I saw him and Master Simon, an evening or two since, conversing with a
buxom milkmaid in a meadow; and from their elbowing each other now and
then, and the general's shaking his shoulders, blowing up his cheeks,
and breaking out into a short fit of irrepressible laughter, I had no
doubt they were playing the mischief with the girl.

As I looked at them through a hedge, I could not but think they would
have made a tolerable group for a modern picture of Susannah and the
two elders. It is true, the girl seemed in nowise alarmed at the force
of the enemy; and I question, had either of them been alone, whether
she would not have been more than they would have ventured to
encounter. Such veteran roysters are daring wags when together, and
will put any female to the blush with their jokes; but they are as
quiet as lambs when they fall singly into the clutches of a fine
woman.

In spite of the general's years, he evidently is a little vain of his
person, and ambitious of conquests. I have observed him on Sunday in
church, eyeing the country girls most suspiciously; and have seen him
leer upon them with a downright amorous look, even when he has been
gallanting Lady Lillycraft, with great ceremony, through the
church-yard. The general, in fact, is a veteran in the service of
Cupid, rather than of Mars, having signalized himself in all the
garrison towns and country quarters, and seen service in every
ball-room of England. Not a celebrated beauty but he has laid siege
to; and if his word may be taken in a matter wherein no man is apt to
be over-veracious, it is incredible the success he has had with the
fair. At present he is like a worn-out warrior, retired from service;
but who still cocks his beaver with a military air, and talks stoutly
of fighting whenever he comes within the smell of gunpowder.

I have heard him speak his mind very freely over his bottle, about the
folly of the captain in taking a wife; as he thinks a young soldier
should care for nothing but his "bottle and kind landlady." But, in
fact, he says the servic