return to my
country with honour.

The time I had to spare was not spent in idleness; I attacked, in my
weekly writings, those sharpers who attend at Aix-la-Chapelle and Spa to
plunder both inhabitants and visitants, under the connivance of the
magistracy; nor are there wanting foreign noblemen who become the
associates of these pests of society. The publication of such truths
endangered my life from the desperadoes, who, when detected, had nothing
more to lose. How powerful is an innocent life, nothing can more fully
prove than that I still exist, in despite of all the attempts of wicked
monks and despicable sharpers.

Though my life was much disturbed, yet I do not repent of my manner of
acting; many a youth, many a brave man, have I detained from the gaming-
table, and pointed out to them the most notorious sharpers.

This was so injurious to Spa, that the Bishop of Liege himself, who
enjoys a tax on all their winnings, and therefore protects such villains,
offered me an annual pension of five hundred guineas if I would not come
to Spa; or three per cent. on the winnings, would I but associate myself
with Colonel N---t, and raise recruits for the gaming-table. My answer
may easily be imagined; yet for this was I threatened to be
excommunicated by the Holy Catholic Church!

I and my family passed sixteen summers in Spa. My house became the
rendezvous of the most respectable part of the company, and I was known
to some of the most respectable characters in Europe.

A contest arose between the town of Aix-la-Chapelle and Baron Blankart,
the master of the hounds to the Elector Palatine: it originated in a
dispute concerning precedence between the before-mentioned wife of the
Recorder Geyer and the sister of the Burgomaster of Aix-la-Chapelle,
Kahr, who governed that town with despotism.

This quarrel was detrimental to the town and to the Elector Palatine, but
profitable to Kahr, whose office it was to protect the rights of the
town, and those persons who defended the claims of the Elector; the
latter kept a faro bank, the plunder of which had enriched the town; and
the former Kahr, under pretence of defending their cause, embezzled the
money of the people; so that both parties endeavoured with all their
power to prolong the litigation.

It vexed me to see their proceedings. Those who suffered on each side
were deceived; and I conceived the project of exposing the truth. For
this purpose I journeyed to the