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 VANITY

competitors were M. St. George, M. Fabian, M. Mogé, and Mr. H. Angelo. The assault between M. St. George and M. Fabian had every claim to admiration; the quickness of the ﬁrst-mentioned gentlemen was incredible; to the praise of M. Fabian, we must also add that he discovered very consider- able skill. The Prince did M. St. George the honour to thrust with him, in carte, and in caa‘te and «fierce, and astonished every beholder with his amazing grace; whenever his Royal Highness put himself on his guard, his attitudes were highly elegant and easy. From the sanction of the Prince to this polite exercise, many of our young nobility have begun to apply with uncommon attention to the practice of defence. The Prince avowed himself highly diverted with the various encounters, which continued between the different parties, from two o’clock till past four.

VANITY.

St. George having made me a present of his portrait, painted by Mather Brown, I was proud to place it over my chimney- piece in my fencing room ; and as many of my scholars solicited me to permit them to have a copy, which I refused, I employed Ward, a famous mezzotinto scraper, to make a print. When ﬁnished, previous to its being made public, the ﬁrst proof I sent to St. George, who was then at Paris, when I received, by return of post, a letter to delay its appearance till he sent me some lines to put under. A few days after I received the following poetical effusions of his friend the fencing master, M. De la Boussiere, not a little ﬂattering, to please the vanity of his scholar.

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