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Lord North. The friendship of Viscount Sackville secured for Thompson a commission of lieutenant colonel in the British army, and he sailed for New York to command a regiment of cavalry, but contrary winds compelled the ship to enter the harbor of Charleston. S. C, where he remained for several weeks, finally reaching New York in January, 1782. The war soon being at an end, he left for England in the following April, after seeing but little actual service in America.

Having been advanced to the full rank of colonel, and there being no activity in the British army, he determined to add to his fame by volunteering in the service of Austria against the Turks. On receiving permission from the King to visit the continent, he left England, still holding his commission and drawing the half pay of a colonel.

He was now thirty years of age, strikingly handsome, with bright blue eyes, dark auburn hair, nearly six feet in height, athletic, a