Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/65

Rh 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. He was afterwards carried by the French to a convent in the neighbourhood, and cured by the benevolent lady-abbess in the course of a few months. His protectress called him her son, and treated him with all 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 Avould 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 of the spirit of a gentleman lightly to change that form of religion which he wore, as it were, loose about him.

He served with distinction in all the other glorious actions fought by the duke of Marlborough, and rose through a course of rapid and deserved promotion. In 1706, he was made a lieutenant, and very quickly after he received a cornet's commission in the Scots Greys, then commanded by the earl of Stair. On the 31st of January, 1714-15, he was made captain-lieutenant in colonel Ker's regiment of dragoons. At the taking of Preston in Lancashire, 1715, he headed a party of twelve, and, advancing to the barricades of the insurgents, set them on fire, notwithstanding a furious storm of musketry, by which eight of his men were killed. A long peace ensued after this action, and Gardiner being favourably known to the earl of Stair, was made his aid-de-camp, and accompanied his lordship on his celebrated embassy to Paris. When lord Stair made his splendid entrance into Paris, captain Gardiner was his master of the horse; and 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 22, 1715, in the regiment of dragoons commanded by colonel Stanhope, then earl of Harrington; and in 1717, he was advanced to the majority of that regiment; in which office he continued till it was reduced, November 10, 1718, when he was put out of commission. But 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 June 1st, 1724; and on the 20th of July, the same year, he was made major of an older regiment, commanded by the earl of Stair.

The remainder of his military appointments may be here summed up. On the 24th 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 new regiment of dragoons, at the head of which he was destined to fall, about two years and a half after he had received it

Captain Gardiner lived for several years a very gay and dissolute life, insomuch as even to distinguish himself at the dissolute court of the regent Orleans. His conduct was characterized by every species of vice, and his constitution enabled him to pursue his courses with such insouciance of manner, that he acquired the name of "the happy rake."