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(12) parliament, which as he had no proſpect of being returned again, would have left him at the mercy of creditors, whom it was not in his power to pay.

Though I was ſoon ſenſible that my beſt hopes died with him, I was ſo infatuated to a profeſſion, the moſt pleaſing to youthful idleneſs and vanity, that I laid out the little fortune of this beſt of women, whom I had married in my days of better hope, in the purchaſe of a company, in a marching regiment; at the head of which I flattered myſelf, that I ſhould meet ſome opportunity, in the war juſt then broke out, of meriting further promotion. But I found the vanity of ſuch a thought, when it was unhappily too late.

After ſeveral years careful ſervice, in the courſe of which I had ſealed some degree of reputation with my blood, in several warm actions, without advantage to myself, or prospect of any to my family, who now multiplied the cares of life ten thousand fold upon my head, I was driven by dispair to exchange my company, which I had bought, and therefore could have ſold again, the price of which would at leaſt have kept us from absolute ſtarving, for an higher rank in a younger regiment, juſt then ordered upon an expedition, the object of which raised, what was thought rational expectation of such profit, as ſhould ease me from the anxieties that made life a burden.