Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/284

274 raſhneſs. One evening he went cloſe to the walls, near one of the poſts of the town, and threatened the ſoldiers of the garriſon. They aſked who he was? he readily anſwered, the duke of Wharton; and though he appeared there as an enemy, they ſuffered him to return to the trenches without firing one ſhot at him.

This ſiege was ended, and the duke received no other hurt, than a wound in his foot by the burning of a grenade, and when nothing more was to be done in the camp, he went to court, where he was held in the utmoſt reſpect by the principal nobility. The King likewiſe, as a mark of his favour, was pleaſed to give him a commiſſion of Colonel Agregate (that was the term) to one of the Iriſh regiments, called Hibernia, and commanded by the marquis de Caſtelar.

Could the duke have been ſatisfied with that ſtate of life, and regulated his expences according to his income, he had it then in his power to live, if not affluently, at leaſt eaſily. But in a ſhort time he was for changing the ſcene of action; he grew weary of Madrid, and ſet his heart on Rome. In conſequence of this reſolution, he wrote a letter to the Chevalier de St. George, full of reſpect and ſubmiſſion, expreſſing a deſire of viſiting his court; but the Chevalier returned for anſwer, that he thought it more adviſable for his grace to draw near England, than make a tour to Rome, that he might be able to accommodate matters with the government at home, and take ſome care of his perſonal eſtate. The Chevalier very prudently judged, that ſo wretched an oeconomiſt as the duke, would be too great a burden to a perſon, whoſe finances were not in a much better condition than his own. Be that as it may, the duke ſeemed reſolved to follow his advice, and accordingly ſet out for France, in