and a dollar or two, in order that I might
give him some information regarding the liaison between my captain and
his lady. But though I was not such a fool as not to take his money, you
may be sure I was not dishonourable enough to betray my benefactor; and
he got very little out of ME. When the Captain and the lady fell out,
and he began to pay his addresses to the rich daughter of the Dutch
Minister, I don't know how many more letters and guineas the unfortunate
Tabaks Rathinn handed over to me, that I might get her lover back again.
But such returns are rare in love, and the Captain used only to laugh at
her stale sighs and entreaties. In the house of Mynheer Van Guldensack
I made myself so pleasant to high and low, that I came to be quite
intimate there: and got the knowledge of a state secret or two, which
surprised and pleased my captain very much. These little hints he
carried to his uncle, the Minister of Police, who, no doubt, made
his advantage of them; and thus I began to be received quite in a
confidential light by the Potzdorff family, and became a mere nominal
soldier, being allowed to appear in plain clothes (which were, I warrant
you, of a neat fashion), and to enjoy myself in a hundred ways, which
the poor fellows my comrades envied. As for the sergeants, they were as
civil to me as to an officer: it was as much as their stripes were worth
to offend a person who had the ear of the Minister's nephew. There was
in my company a young fellow by the name of Kurz, who was six feet high
in spite of his name, and whose life I had saved in some affair of
the war. What does this lad do, after I had recounted to him one of my
adventures, but call me a spy and informer, and beg me not to call
him DU any more, as is the fashion with young men when they are very
intimate. I had nothing for it but to call him out; but I owed him no
grudge. I disarmed him in a twinkling; and as I sent his sword flying
over his head, said to him, 'Kurz, did ever you know a man guilty of
a mean action who can do as I do now?' This silenced the rest of the
grumblers; and no man ever sneered at me after that.

No man can suppose that to a person of my fashion the waiting in
antechambers, the conversation of footmen and hangers-on, was pleasant.
But it was not more degrading than the barrack-room, of which I need not
say I was heartily sick. My protestations of liking for the army were
all intended to throw dust into the eyes of my employer