thoughts. He assured me, that when he reflected upon the circumstances of his wound, that a ball should, as he then conceived it, go through his head without killing him, he thought, God had preserved him by miracle; and therefore assuredly concluded that he should live, abandoned and desperate as his state then seemed to be. Yet, which to me seemed very astonishing, he had little thoughts of humbling himself before God, and returning to him after the wanderings of a life so licentiously begun. But expecting to recover, his mind was taken up with contrivances to secure his gold, of which he had a good deal about him; and he had recourse to a very odd expedient, which proved successful. Expecting to be stripped, he first took out a handful of that clotted gore, of which he was frequently obliged to clear his mouth, or he would have been choked; and putting it in his left hand, he took out his money (which I think was about nineteen pistoles), and shutting his hand, and besmearing the back part of it with blood, he kept it in this position till the blood dried in such a manner, that his hand could not easily fall open, though any sudden surprise should happen, in which he might lose the presence of mind, which that concealment otherwise would have required.

$15. In the morning, the French, who were masters of the spot, though their forces were defeated at some distance, came to plunder the slain; and seeing him, to appearance, almost expiring, one of them was just applying a sword to his breast, to destroy the little remainder of life, when, in the critical moment upon which all the extraordinary events of such a life, as his afterwards proved, were suspended, a cordelier, who attended the plunderers, interposed, taking him by his dress for a Frenchman, and said, "Do not kill that poor child." Our young soldier heard all that passed, though he was not able to speak one word; and, opening his eyes, made a sign for something to drink. They gave him a sup of some spirituous liquor which happened to be at hand; by which, he said, he found a more sensible refreshment than he could remember from any thing he had tasted either before or since. Then signifying to the Friar to lean down his ear to his mouth, he employed the first efforts of his feeble breath in telling him, what, alas! was a contrived falsehood, that he was nephew to the governor of Huy, a neutral town in the neighbourhood; and that, if he could take any method of conveying him thither, he did not doubt but his uncle would liberally reward him. He had indeed a friend at Huy (who, I think, was governor, and, if I mistake not, had been acquainted with the captain his father), from whom he expected

a kind reception; but the relation was only pretended. On hearing this, they laid him on a sort of hand-barrow, and sent him by a file of musqueteers toward the place; but the men lost their way, and got into a wood towards the evening, in which they were obliged to continue all night. The poor patient's wound being still undressed, it is not to be wondered that, by this time, it raged violently. The anguish of it engaged him earnestly to beg, that they would either kill him outright, or leave him there to die, without the torture of any farther motion; and indeed, they were obliged to rest for a considerable time, on account of their own weariness. Thus he spent the second night in the open air, without any thing more than a common bandage to staunch the blood. He hath often mentioned it as a most astonishing Providence, that he did not bleed to death; which, under God, he ascribed to the remarkable coldness of these two nights.

§ 16. Judging it quite unsafe to attempt carrying him to Huy, from whence they were now several miles distant, his convoy took him early in the morning to a convent in the neighbourhood, where he was hospitably received, and treated with great kindness and tenderness. But the cure of his wound was committed to an ignorant barber-surgeon, who lived near the house; the best shift that could then be made, at a time, when, it may easily be supposed, persons of ability in their profession had their hands full of employment. The tent which this artist applied, was almost like a peg driven into the wound; and gentlemen of skill and experience, when they came to hear of the manner in which he was treated, wondered, how he could possibly survive such management. But, by the blessing of God on these applications, rough as they were, he recovered in a few months. The lady abbess, who called him her son, treated him with the affection and care of a mother; and he always declared, that every thing, which he saw within these walls, was conducted with the strictest decency and decorum. He received a great many devout admonitions from the ladies there; and they would fain have persuaded him to acknowledge what they thought so miraculous a deliverance, by embracing the catholic faith, as they were pleased to call it. But they could not succeed; for though no religion lay near his heart, yet he had too much the spirit of a gentleman, lightly to change that form of religion, which he wore, as it were, loose about him, as well as too much good sense to swallow those monstrous absurdities of popery, which immediately presented themselves to him, unacquainted as he was with the niceties of the controversy.

§17. When his liberty was regained by an exchange of prisoners, and his health thoroughly established, he was far from rendering unto the Lord, according to that wonderful display of divine mercy which he had experienced. I know very little of the particulars of those wild, thoughtless, and wretched years, which lay between the 19th and the 30th of his life; except it be, that he frequently experienced the divine goodness in renewed instances, particularly in preserving him in several hot military actions, in all which, he never received so much as a wound after this, forward as he was in tempting danger ; and yet, that all these years were spent in an entire alienation from God, and an eager pursuit of animal pleasure, as his supreme good. The series of criminal amours in which he was almost incessantly engaged during this time, must probably have afforded some remarkable adventures and occurrences; but the memory of them is perished. Nor do I think it unworthy notice here, that amidst all the intimacy of this friendship, and the many years of cheerful, as well as serious converse which we spent together, I never remember to have heard him speak of any of these intrigues, otherwise than in the general, with deep and solemn abhorrence. This I the rather mention, as it seemed a most genuine proof of his unfeigned repentance; which, I think, there is great reason to suspect, when people seem to take a pleasure in relating and describing scenes of vicious indulgence, which yet they profess to have disapproved and forsaken.

§ 18. Amidst all these pernicious wanderings from the paths of religion, virtue, and happiness, he approved himself so well in his military character, that he was made a Lieutenant in that year, viz. 1706 : and I am told, he was very quickly promoted to a Cornet's commission in Lord Stair's regiment of Scotch Greys; and on the 31st of January, 1714-15, was made Captain-Lieutenant in Colonel Ker's regiment of dragoons. He had the honour of being known to the Earl of Stair some time before, and was made his Aid-de camp; and when, upon his lordship's being appointed ambassador from his late majesty to the court of France, he made so splendid an entrance into Paris, Captain Gardiner was his master of the horse; and I have been told, that a great deal of the care of that admirably well adjusted ceremony fell upon him; so that he gained great credit by the manner, in which he conducted it. Under the benign influences of his lordship's favour (which to the last day of his life he retained) a Captain's commission was procured for him (dated July 22d, in the year 1715) in the regiment of dragoons,

commanded by Colonel Stanhope (now Earl of Harrington); and, in the year 1717, he was advanced to the Majority of that regiment; in which office he continued, till it was reduced on November 10, 1718, when he was put out of commission. But then his Majesty King George I. was so thoroughly apprised of his faithful and important services, that he gave him his sign manual, entitling him to the first Majority, that should become vacant in any regiment of horse or dragoons, which happened about five years after to be in Croft's regiment of dragoons, in which he received a commission, dated 1st of June 1724; and on the 20th of July, the same year, he was made Major of an older regiment, commanded by the Earl of Stair.

$ 19. As I am now speaking of so many of his military preferments, I will dispatch the account of them, by observing, that on the 24th of January, 1729-30, he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the same regiment, long under the command of Lord Cadogan; with whose friendship this brave and vigilant officer was also honoured for many years. And he continued in this rank and regiment till the 19th of April 1743, when he received a Colonel's commission over a regiment of dragoons, lately commanded by Brigadier Bland; at the head of which he valiantly fell, in the defence of his sovereign and his country, about two years and a half after he received it.

§ 20. We will now return to that period of his life which passed at Paris, the scene of such remarkable and important events. He continued (if I remember right), several years under the roof of the brave and generous Earl of Stair: to whom he endeavoured to approve himself by every instance of diligent and faithful service. And his lordship gave no inconsiderable proof of the dependence which he had upon him, when, in the beginning of the year 1715, he intrusted him with the important dispatches relating to a discovery, which, by a series of admirable policy, he had made of a design which the French King was then forming for invading Great Britain, in favour of the Pretender; in which the French apprehended they were so sure of success, that it seemed a point of friendship in one of the chief counsellors of that court to dissuade a dependent of his from accepting some employment under his Britannic Majesty, when proposed by his envoy there; because, it was said, that, in less than six weeks, there would be a revolution in favour of, what they called, the family of the Stuarts. The captain dispatched his journey with the utmost speed; a variety of circumstances happily occurred to accelerate it; and they, who remember, how soon the regiments which that emergency requir

ed were raised and armed, will, I doubt not, esteem it a memorable instance, both of the most cordial zeal in the friends of the government, and of the gracious care of Divine Providence over the house of Hanover, and the British liberties, so incomparably connected with its interest.

§ 21. While Captain Gardiner was at London, in one of the journeys he made upon this occasion, he, with that frankness which was natural to him, and which in those days was not always under the most prudent restraint, ventured to predict, from what he knew of the bad state of the French King's health, that he would not live six weeks. This was made known by some spies who were at St. James's, and came to be reported at the court of Versailles; for he received letters from some friends at Paris, advising him not to return thither, unless he could reconcile himself to a lodging in the Bastile. But he was soon free from that apprehension; for, if I mistake not, before half that time was accomplished, Lewis the XIV. died*; and, it is generally thought, his death was hastened by a very accidental circumstance, which had some reference to the Captain's prophecy For the last time he ever dined in public, which was a very little while after the report of it had been made there, he happened to discover our British envoy among the spectators. The penetration of this illustrious person was too great, and his attachment to the interest of his royal master too well known, not to render him very disagreeable to that crafty and tyrannical prince, whom God had so long suffered to be the disgrace of monarchy and the scourge of Europe. He at first appeared very languid, as indeed he was; but on casting his eye upon the Earl of Stair, he affected to appear before him in a much better state of health than he really was; and therefore, as if he had been awakened on a sudden from some deep reverie, immediately put himself into an erect posture, called up a laboured vivacity into his countenance, and ate much more heartily than was by any means advisable, repeating it two or three times to a nobleman (I think the Duke of Bourbon), then in waiting, "Methinks I eat very well for a sick man who is to die so soon +." But this inroad upon that regularity of living which he had for some time observed, agreed so ill with him, that he never recovered this meal, but died in less than a fortnight. This gave occasion for some humourous people to say, that old Lewis, after all, was killed by a Briton. But if this

*September 1, 1715.

Il me semble, que je ne mange pas mal pour un homme qui devoit mourir si tot.