elders. It is true the girl seemed in no wise 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 roisters 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 churchyard.
The general, in fact, is a veteran in the service of Cupid rather than
of Mars, having signalised 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 words may be
taken in a matter wherein no man is apt to be over veracious, it is
incredible what 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 service on the continent has had a sad effect upon
the young men; they have been ruined by light wines and French
quadrilles. "They've nothing," he says, "of the spirit of the old
service. There are none of your six-bottle men left, that were the souls
of a mess-dinner, and used to play the very deuce among the women."