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took fome food, but not, as one would fuppofe, what was very light and eafy of digeftion, but fome good fubftantial meat, and in no fmall quantity. This, however, affected neither his health ror his ftomach, fo as to prevent him from purfuing his ordinary courfe of living.

Whenever he played at Chefs, as he frequently did to pafs away the time at Bender, he always moved the king towards the front as foon as poffible. To cover himfelf was entirely out of the question; and if ever a pawn hap pened to be in his way, he did not puzzle himself long about the method of moving him, but knocked him at once off the board. Such influence has that genius, or natural difpofition, that is born along with us, which in Charles fhewed its prevalence to the laft: for, after receiving his fatal blow at Frederick ftadt, he was found with his hand upon the hilt of his fword.

Thus you have a flight fketch, but an original one at leaft, of the rival of Peter the Great, to whofe great qualities he was at length obliged to give way. Guftavus Adolphus, who attended the lectures of our Galileo at Padua, and united the characters of the foldier and the politician, was, doubtless, a much greater man; notwithstanding Guftavas mitted an overfight, in neglecting to follow up his victory of Leip:

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fic. Having completely routed his enemies in that battle, instead of marching straight into Bohe. mia, he was content with detaching there his ally the elector of Saxony, who carried on the war

without fpirit, and was foon gain. ed over by the Auftrians. Guftavus divided and diffipated his force, like a great river that overflows its banks, and went here and there throughout Germany, befieging towns, and laying countries under contribution; but knew not how to contract and abridge the war, according to the Roman and Turkish method. He gave time to the enemy to recover himfelf, and loft all his former advantages: fo that he was oblig ed at Lutzen to recommence that game which he had before won, and which then terminated with his life.

It appears to me, beyond all difpute, that the greatest man among the Swedish monarchs was Guftavus Vafa. He found the means of well regulating and directing the natural strength of his country; and did not attempt to pufh it beyond its proper bounds; but made fo judicious a use of it within the kingdom, that without him it could neither have been extended fo far beyond the limits of the realm by Gustavus Adolphus, nor fo gloriously misguided, as it was afterwards, by Charles the Tweifth.

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the Arno to overflow it. He fhewed prodigious ingenuity in the fiege of Piltoja, a little before his death; having made ufe of feveral curious machines, particularly the wooden tower of the antients, and fortified his camp in a moft admirable manner against the town, and still more fo against the Florentines, who attempted in vain to relieve it; fo that nothing can be richer than this piece of embroidery, as we may call it, wrought by the fe cretary.

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Three battles were given by Caftruccio, which were embellifhed, if not entirely planned, by Machiavel; who feems in his relation of them to be fond of fhewing his military knowledge. The firft was at Mount Carlo, not far from Peícia, when Castruccio ferved under Uguccione della Faggiuola, who commanded the combined forces of the Pifans and Lucchefe against the Florentines. Illness having obliged Uguccione to leave the camp, the enemy took courage, thinking they could eafily beat an army without a commander. They accordingly marched out, and offered battle every day, eager to come to action, and

gave a new life to poetry, fo did Castruccio to the military art. Of the lowest extraction, he raifed himself by his perfonal merit alone to the dominion of Lucca, of Lunigiana, of part of the Riviere of Genoa, and afterwards of Pifa and Piftoja; and, if death had not put a stop to his career, after he had juft brought to a fuccefsful iffue a most important enterprise against the Florentines, he would in the end have made himfelf master of all Tufcany. Critics will have it, that he took the thread only from real history, the texture being entirely his own; and that, in imitation of Xenophon's Cyropædia, he wished to exhibit Caftruccio to the world as a model of civil and military conduct. That this was really the, cafe, may be inferred from fome expreffions of the antients, which he puts into the mouth of Caftruccio; and in particular from the variation that is obfervable between the facts he lays down in the Life, and thofe which he has related of him in the Hiftory of Florence. In the former he gives free fcope to his imagination; whereas in the latter he follows the authority of Villani, a contemporary author; who nevertheless in their own minds fure of gainreprefents Caftruccio to have been magnanimous, prudent, dexterous, diligent, indefatigable, brave, and at the fame time cool in battle, and extremely fortunate in his enterprises. Such in fact does he hew himself in all his actions. That might be truly called a defign worthy of a Cæfar, which he had formed, of throwing a dam across the ftreights of the Golfo line Rock, that he might make himself mafter of the city of Floence, by cauling the waters of

ing the victory. Caftruccio did all in his power to confirm them in this opinion, fhewing every fign of fear, and not fuffering any one to go without the entrenchments. At length, having learnt the difpofition of the Florentines, who placed the flower of their troops in the center, and the weaker upon the flanks, he fallied out, forming his army in an oppofite order; and having ordered his center to move flow, whil the wings advanced rapidly, the

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best of his troops came to engage the worst of the enemy's: by which manœuvre he obtained the victory.

The next battle was fought upon the hill of Serravalle, which lies at the end of the vale of Nievole, between Pescia and Pistoja. The Lucchefe were encamped on one fide of the hill, and the Florentines on the other. It was Caftruccio's intention to engage the enemy in this narrow pafs; where his troops could not, before the action fhould begin, difcover their number, and would have the advantage of the ground. The night before the battle he took the precaution of occupying fecretly the caftle of Serravalle, which was fituated at the top of the hill, at a little distance from the road; and in that war obferved a perfect neutrality. This done, he puts his army in motion betimes in the morning; and about break of day, his infantry falls in with the cavalry of the advanced guard of the Florentine army, who were afcending the hill on the other fide, with little expectation of meeting Caftruccio. The advantage he had of attacking the Florentines unexpectedly, and of flanking them from the caftle, gained him the battle.

The third victory which he obtained over the fame enemy, was no lefs fignal. They were encamped at St. Miniato, on the left fide of the Arno, about thirty miles from Pifa. Having fecured Pifa with a strong garrifon, Caftruccia pitched his camp at Fucecchio, on the other fide of the river : a ftrong and commodious pofition. He kept at a little diftance from the Arno, in order to

encourge the Florentines to país it. His defign fucceeded; and no fooner had they begun one morning to ford it with a part of their army, than Caftruccio, having divided his forces into two lines, fell upon them with the first. The fight was obftinate; Caf truccio being inferior in force, but with the advantage of engaging troops who were in diforder; for the Florentines, not having all croffed the river, had not time to form their line of battle. Meanwhile he detaches two corps of infantry, one higher up, and the other lower down the river, to prevent the enemy from paffing it, in order to take him in flank. The fortune of the day still remained in fufpenfe, the Florentines making a vigorous defence against the troops of Caftruccio, as faft as they gained the bank. Caf truccio then ordered his fecond line to relieve the firft; which, being compofed of fresh troops, foon broke the Florentines, who were nearly exhausted, and drove them into the river. That part of the Florentine cavalry which had hitherto remained unbroken, was obliged to give way, when attacked at once by Caftruccio's cavalry, and by his infantry, which had no longer any of the Florentine infantry to oppole them.

With fuch kill and dexterity does Caftruccio fight his battles, according to the fecretary's ac count of them. If his relations are not true, we must allow them at least to be plaufible; and they may perhaps induce us to think with Ariftotle, that fiction is more inftructive than history.

Extract from the Confeffions of J. Rouleau. Tranflated from the French of J. J. Rouffean.

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TOW much did the first fight of Paris belie the idea I had of it! The external decoration I had feen at Turin, the beauty of the streets, the 1ymmetry and fquarenefs of the houfes, induced me to feek at Paris ftill more. I had figured to myfelf a city as beautiful as large, of the most impofing afpect, where nothing was feen but fuperb ftreets, and marble or golden palaces. Coming in at the fuburbs St. Marceau, I faw none but little, dirty, ftinking ftreets, ugly black houfes, the appearance of naftiness, poverty, beggars, carters, old cloth-botchers, criers of ptifan and old hats. All these things ftruck me at first to fuch a degree, that all I have feen at Paris really magnificent, has not been able to deftroy this first impreffion, and that there ftill remains a fecret difguft to the refidence of this capital. I can fay the whole time I afterwards remained there was employed in feeking resources which might enable me to live far from it. Such is the fruit of a too active imagination, which exaggerates beyond the exaggerations of mankind, and always fees more in a thing than has been heard. I had heard Paris fo much boasted of, I looked on it like ancient Babylon, from which I fhould, perhaps, have found full as much to deduct, had I feen it, from the picture I had drawn of it. The fame thing happened to me at the opera, where I hastened to go the mor row of my arrival: the fame afterwards happened at Versailles;

after that, likewife, on feeing the fea; and the fame thing will always happen to me, on feeing any thing too much extolled; for it is impoffible to mankind, and difficult to Nature itself, to furpafs the richnefs of my imagination.

From the manner I was received by all thofe for whom I had letters, I thought my fortune made. Him I was most recomiended to, and least careffed by, was M. de Surbeck, retired from the service, and living philofophically at Bagneux, where I went feveral times to fee him, without his once offering me even a glafs of water. I was better received by Madam de Merveilleux, fifter-in-law to the interpreter, and by his nephew, an officer in the guards. The mother and fon not only received me well, but offered me their table, of which I often benefited during my ftay at Paris. Madam de Merveilleux appeared to me to have been handfome; her hair was a beautiful black, and formed in (the old fashion) ringlets on her forehead. That which does not perifh with beauty ftill remained, an agreeable mind. She feemed pleafed with mine, and did all in her power to ferve me; but no one feconded her, and I was foon undeceived in all this great interest they appeared to take in my behalf. I muft, however, do the French juftice; they do not fmother you with proteftations, as is faid of them; and thofe they make are almost always fincere; but they have a manner of interefting themselves in your favour, which deceives you more than words. The coarfe compliments of the Swifs can impofe on fools only. The French manners are

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more feducing, only becaufe they are more fimple; you think they don't tell you all they intend to do for you, to furprise you more agreeably. I shall go farther: they are not falfe in their demonftrations: they are naturally officious, humane, benevolent, and even, whatever may be faid of it, more downright than any other nation; but they are light and airy. They have, in effect, the fentiment they exprefs; but this fentiment goes off as it came. While fpeaking to you, they are full of you: go out of their fight, they have forgot you. Nothing is permanent in them; every thing with them lafts but a moment.

I was therefore flattered much, ferved little. The Colonel Godard, whofe nephew I was to be with, feeing my diftrefs, and although rolling in riches, wanted me for nothing! He pretended I fhould be with his nephew a kind of valet, without wages, rather than as a real tutor. Continually engaged with him, and by that difpenfed from duty, I must live on my cadet's pay, that is a foldier's. It was with trouble he confented to give me an uniform; he had been glad to put me off with that of the regiment. Madam de Merveilleux, enraged at his propofals, advised me herielf not to accept them : her fon was of the fame opinion. Other things were fought, but nothing found. I began, however, to be in want; an hundred livres, on which I had made my journey, could not carry me far. Happily, I received from the ambaflador a trifling remittance, which was very ufeful; and I believe he had not difcarded me, had I had more patience:

but to languish, wait, folicit, are to me impoffibilities. I was difcouraged, appeared no more, and all was at an end. I had not forgot my poor mamma: but how to find her? where to feek het? Madam de Merveilleux, who knew my story, affifted me in the research, but long to no purpose. At last he told me that Madam de Warens had been gone more than two months, but it was not known whether to Savoy or Turin; and that fome faid he was returned to Switzerland. Nothing more was neceffary to determine me to follow her, certain that wherever the might be, I thould find her in the country much easier than I could have done at Paris.

Before my departure, I exercifed my new poetical talent in an epifle to Colonel,Godard, in which I bantered him as well as I could. I fhewed this fcrawl to Madam de Merveilleux, who, in-ftead of cenfuring me, as the ought, laughed heartily at my farcatms, and her fon likewife, who, I believe, did not love Mr. Godard: it must be owned he was not amiable. I was tempted to fend him my verfes; they encouraged me: I made a parcel of them, directed to him; and, as there was no penny-post then at Paris, I fent it from Auxerre in paffing through that place. I laugh yet, fometimes, on think ing of the grimaces he must have made on reading his panegyric, where he was painted ftroke by ftroke. It began thus:

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