vacancy
which had just occurred there,--whither the Prince was just bound, on
some ceremonial visit of a high nature. The glad Quintus, at that time
Guichard and little thinking of such an alias, hastened to set off in
the Prince's train; but could get no conveyance, such was the press of
people all for Utrecht. And did not arrive till next day,--and found
quarter, with difficulty, in the garret of some overflowing Inn.

"In the lower stories of his Inn, solitary Guichard, when night fell,
heard a specific GAUDEAMUS going on; and inquired what it was.
'A company of Professors, handselling a newly appointed
Professor;'--appointed, as the next question taught, to the very Chair
poor Quintus had come for! Serene Highness could not help himself; the
Utrechters were so bent on the thing. Quintus lay awake, all night, in
his truckle-bed; and gloomily resolved to have done with Professorships,
and become a soldier. 'If your Serene Highness do still favor me,'
said Quintus next day, 'I solicit, as the one help for me, an ensign's
commission!'--And persisted rigorously, in spite of all counsellings,
promises and outlooks on the professorial side of things. So that Serene
Highness had to grant him his commission; and Quintus was a soldier
thenceforth. Fought, more or less, in the sad remainder of that
Cumberland-Saxe War; and after the Peace of 1748 continued in the Dutch
service. Where, loath to be idle, he got his learned Books out again,
and took to studying thoroughly the Ancient Art of War. After years of
this, it had grown so hopeful that he proceeded to a Book upon it; and,
by degrees, determined that he must get to certain Libraries in
England, before finishing. In 1754, on furlough, graciously allowed and
continued, he came to London accordingly; finished his manuscript there
(printed at the Hague 1757 [_Memoires Militaires sur les &c._ (a La
Haye, 1757: 2 vols. 4to);--was in the 5th edition when I last heard of
it.]): and new War having now begun, went over (probably with English
introductions) as volunteer to Duke Ferdinand. By Duke Ferdinand he
was recommended to Friedrich, the goal of all his efforts, as of every
vagrant soldier's in those times:--and here at last, as Quintus
Icilius, he has found permanent billet, a Battalion and gradually three
Battalions, and will not need to roam any farther.

"They say, what is very credible, that Quintus proved an active, stout
and effectual soldier, in his kind; and perhaps