a smile; were you to see him at home, you would find him gloomy, austere, terrible in his anger, irritated with trifles, dissatisfied without cause, suspicious of all around him, and loving only himself, to which domineering passion every duty and moral obligation must give place.”

204. ANECDOTE OF FOUR PIEDMONTESE GRENADIERS.

At the time that I passed through Turin, the general attention was engaged by a circumstance that had just happened, and which I deem to be worthy of relating. The last day of the Carnival, in 1783, a lady of Vigevanoin Piedmont, on the borders of the Tésin, intending to give a ball on Shrove Tuesday, requested the Governor to send her some soldiers for the maintenance of good order. The Governor accordingly sent four Grenadiers of the Queen's regiment, to whom the lady presented a crown each, having plentifully regaled them with wine and provisions during the night.

The grenadiers elevated with the liquor they had drank, and being furnished with

money, instead of returning to their quarters, took the resolution of proceeding immediately to Milan to spend the rest of the Carnival, which, in that city, lasts till the following Saturday; without reflecting that such a step amounted to nothing less than desertion. They passed the Tésin, and entered the Milanese territory, at that time much infested with troops of banditti. They travelled onward, and about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, coming to a farm-house, they requested to be admitted there for the night. The farmer's wife received them kindly, but requested them to remain in the barn till her husband and son returned from a neighbouring market, whither they were gone to sell some corn, whom she doubted not would entertain them with a hearty welcome. The soldiers readily complied with her proposal, and when the farmer came home, he hastened to invite his guests to come into the house, and treated them with great cordiality. Towards the end of sup per a great noise was heard in the court-yard of the house, and the farmer's wife having gone up stairs to see what was the cause,

descended in great alarm, crying out, that they were ruined, for the house was surrounded by a troop of robbers, who were loud in their demands to have the door opened to them, or they would force admittance The grenadiers instantly bid the farmer fear nothing; as he had kindly received them, they would protect him. They then demanded if he had any fire-arms, and finding he had two fusees in the house, they desired him and his son to take each one, and to fire as they should direct. Meanwhile the blows and menaces at the door redoubled, and on the woman's opening the door on a signal from the grenadiers, who stood ready armed, a crowd of robbers rushed in, and the six guns were instantly discharged. Five or six of the robbers instantly fell, and the grenadiers quickly dispatched some others with their bayonets, and made the rest prisoners. These they conducted in triumph to Milan. The Archduke Ferdinand demanded to see these brave soldiers, and rewarded their valour with a purse of fifty sequins. A subscription, likewise, was made for them through