probity, and their bravery, experience and knowledge in the art of
war, were both of them, on their arrival in France, broken as
commanders of a battalion--a grade which was abolished in the French
service, in order to make the Major, as in the British service,
command the regiment in absence of the Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel.
Belcomb, Poularies' Adjt. of Royal Roussillon, and Montgnary, Captain
in the Regiment of Bearn which Dalquier commanded--(two very handsome
men, capable to attract the attention of the ladies of any court in
Europe)--were made Colonels of Foot, without possessing any remarkable
military talent or capacity.

Fortune manifested most cruelly her almighty power in the military
state, where justice, punishments and rewards alone ought to be the
base of it. Men conduct themselves from the view either of honor or
interest; and there can be no emulation in a service where mediocrity
of talents, intrigues, favor, and credit, override merit.

Greatness of soul, joined to superiority of talent, ignores the art of
cringing; it is even impossible that merit can lead to fortune in a
corrupted and venal country: on the contrary, it becomes a cause of
exclusion. Virtue elevates the soul, and can neither fawn nor buy
credit, nor flatter vice and incapacity. "If such is the military
constitution of a State," says M. Gaubert, in his Treatise of
Tactics, "of which the Sovereign (the King of Prussia) is one of the
greatest men of the age, who instructs and commands his armies, and
whose armies form all the pomp of the court, what ought it to be in
those States where the Sovereign is not at all a military man; where
he does not see his troops; where he seems to disdain or be ignorant
of all that regards them; where the Court, who always obey the
impression of the Sovereign, is consequently not military; where