resden (having been an intimate
acquaintance of the late monarch, the Elector, King of Poland, the most
dissolute and agreeable of European princes), I was speedily in the very
best society of the Saxon capital: where I may say that my own person
and manners, and the singularity of the adventures in which I had been a
hero, made me especially welcome. There was not a party of the nobility
to which the two gentlemen of Balibari were not invited. I had the
honour of kissing hands and being graciously received at Court by the
Elector, and I wrote home to my mother such a flaming description of my
prosperity, that the good soul very nearly forgot her celestial welfare
and her confessor, the Reverend Joshua Jowls, in order to come after me
to Germany; but travelling was very difficult in those days, and so we
were spared the arrival of the good lady.

I think the soul of Harry Barry, my father, who was always so genteel
in his turn of mind, must have rejoiced to see the position which I now
occupied; all the women anxious to receive me, all the men in a fury;
hobnobbing with dukes and counts at supper, dancing minuets with
high-well-born baronesses (as they absurdly call themselves in Germany),
with lovely excellencies, nay, with highnesses and transparencies
themselves: who could compete with the gallant young Irish noble? who
would suppose that seven weeks before I had been a common--bah! I am
ashamed to think of it! One of the pleasantest moments of my life was at
a grand gala at the Electoral Palace, where I had the honour of walking
a polonaise with no other than the Margravine of Bayreuth, old Fritz's
own sister: old Fritz's, whose hateful blue-baize livery I had worn,
whose belts I had pipeclayed, and whose abominable rations of small beer
and sauerkraut I had swallowed for five years.

Having won an English chariot from an Italian gentleman at play, my
uncle had our arms painted on the panels in a more splendid way than
ever, surmounted (as we were descended from the ancient kings) with an
Irish crown of the most splendid size and gilding. I had this crown in
lieu of a coronet engraved on a large amethyst signet-ring worn on my
forefinger; and I don't mind confessing that I used to say the jewel had
been in my family for several thousand years, having originally belonged
to my direct ancestor, his late Majesty King Brian Boru, or Barry. I
warrant the legends of the Heralds' College are not more authentic than
mine w