Incensed at this audacious application, the whole company charged
the detachment sword in hand and, after an obstinate engagement,
in which divers wounds were given and received, every soul of them
was taken, and conveyed to the main-guard. The commanding officer
being made acquainted with the circumstances of the quarrel, in
consideration of their youth and national ferocity, for which the
French make large allowances, set them all at liberty, after having
gently rebuked them for the irregularity and insolence of their
conduct; so that all our hero acquired by his gallantry and courage,
was a number of scandalous marks upon his visage that confined him
a whole week to his chamber. It was impossible to conceal this
disaster from Mr. Jolter, who, having obtained intelligence of the
particulars, did not fail to remonstrate against the rashness of
the adventure, which, he observed, must have been fatal to them,
had their enemies been other than Frenchmen, who, of all people
under the sun, most rigorously observe the laws of hospitality.
As the governor's acquaintance lay chiefly among Irish and English
priests, and a set of low people who live by making themselves
necessary to strangers, either in teaching the French language, or
executing small commissions with which they are intrusted, he was
not the most proper person in the world for regulating the taste
of a young gentleman who travelled for improvement, in expectation
of making a figure one day in his own country.
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