Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/92

356 that he once wished he were a man six feet high, but now he was reconciled to his size, since he had seen the wonders performed by the little mountaineers."

Soon* after, Keith's military career terminated, for the Highland corps was disbanded in 1763. After a year spent in Paris, where his manners and accomplishments made him a universal favourite, he returned to London, and was promoted to the rank of colonel. Four years were spent in the metropolis, when, in 1769, Colonel Murray Keith, whose high civil capacities and aptitude for business had been discerned by Mr. Pitt, was appointed British envoy to the court of Saxony. To Dresden he accordingly repaired, where he appears to have had little occupation besides that of keeping open the friendly relationship between that country and Great Britain, and playing a conciliatory part with all the gay assemblies in which Dresden abounded. His letters at this period give an amusing sketch of the nature of his duties, and the manner in which they were performed:—"I'll give you a little sketch of my way of living.—Morning, eight o'clock: Dish of coffee, half a basin of tea, billets-doux, embroiderers, toymen, and tailors. Ten: Business of Europe, with a little music now and then, pour tgayer les affaires. Twelve: Devoirs at one or other of the courts (for we have three or four), from thence to fine ladies, toilettes, and tender things. Two: dine in public—three courses and a dessert; venture upon half a glass of pure wine, to exhilarate the spirits without hurting the complexion, Four: Rendezvous, sly visits, declarations, ecclarissemens, &c., &c. Six: Politics, philosophy, and whist. Seven: Opera, appartement, or private party; a world of business, jealousies, fears, poutings, &c. After settling all these jarring interests, play a single rubber of whist, ''en attendant le souper. Ten: Pick the wing of a partridge, propos galans, scandal, and petites chanson''. Crown the feast with a bumper of Burgundy from the fairest hand, and at twelve steal away mysteriously home to bed." "And is this the way a kingdom may be ruled?" exclaims the disappointed reader. But why not, if peace instead of war is to be the order of the day? From this drolling sketch it will be evident that Colonel Keith always kept his head cool for action, whatever might occur, and that, too, in a country where dissipation and deep drinking, even in courtly halls, made the latter half of the day little better than a nullity.

If Keith secretly felt that he occupied an unworthy position, from having so little to do, he was soon cured of this uneasiness by being transferred to the court of Denmark. At Copenhagen the whole scene was changed. There, foreign influence was jealously watched, and the diplomatists of Europe held at a wary distance. The gay parties, in which public measures could be openly and frankly discussed, were discountenanced; and so completely was the society of the court broken into circles, that even at the theatre they were obliged to confine themselves to their separate places. "Those who sit two boxes from me," he writes, "might as well be in Norway, for any manner of communication I can have with them. It is really ridiculous to see how the world is parcelled out here into no less than nine classes, six of whom I must never encounter without horror." All this, however, he endured and surmounted with his usual tact, and performed the duties of his mission to the satisfaction of his own court, but without exciting the suspicion of the Danish government. It was much, indeed, that a heart so open and a disposition so buoyant should have maintained this tranquillity in such a freezing atmosphere; and, therefore, while he waited for orders, and fulfilled them punctually when sent,