Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/242

 no impression on his discordant mind, and white I delighted in all the charms of her gay conversation, my friend sunk into a sort of gloomy reverie, from which he with difficulty roused himself at intervals. Down we sat at last to an elegant supper, during which harmony and good humour returned. The conversation fell on the siege of Gibraltar, and some of the company seeming eager to learn its particulars, appealed to the count, who discreetly and wittily waving the subject, referred the enquirers to the baron, who, said he, had given so many signal proofs of this talents and bravery on that occasion. The baron, who never suspected, that all the world knew of his indifferent character as a military man, accepted the task of displaying his eloquence with a proud simper as the just tribute of his merits, and began the story.

It was astonishing, how adroitly this man wrought out a long account of lyeing adventures; there was no engagement, no skirmish, in which by his own account, he had not been the hero of the day; he made the whole assembly shudder at the horrors and hardships