thing more than a common bandage to stanch the blood. He hath often mentioned it as a most astonishing providence, that he did not bleed to death; which, under God, he ascribed to the remarkable coldness of these two nights.

SECT. 16. Judging it quite unsafe to attempt carrying him to Huy, from whence they were now several miles distant, his convoy took him early in the morning to a convent in the neighbourhood; where he was hospitably received, and treated with great kindness and tenderness. But the cure of his wound was committed to an ignorant barber-surgeon, who lived near the house; the best shift that could then be made; at a time when it may easily be supposed persons of ability in their profession had their hands full of employment. The tent which this artist applied, was almost like a peg driven into the wound; and gentlemen of skill and experience, when they came to hear of the manner in which he was treated, wondered how he could possibly survive such management. But by the blessing of God on these applications, rough as they were, he recovered in a few months. The lady abbess, who called him her son, treated him with the affection and care of a mother; and he always declared, that every thing which he saw within these

walls, was conducted with the strictest decency and decorum. He received a great many devout admonitions from the ladies there; and they would fain have persuaded him to acknowledge what they thought so miraculous a deliverance, by embracing the catholic faith, as they were pleased to call it. But they could not succeed for though no religion lay near his heart, yet he had too much of the spirit of a gentleman lightly to change that form of religion, which he wore (as it were) loose about him; as well as too much good sense, to swallow those monstrous absurdities of popery, which immediately presented themselves to him, unacquainted as he was with the niceties of the controversy.

SECT. 17. When his liberty was regained by an exchange of prisoners, and his health thoroughly established, he was far from rendering unto the Lord according to that wonderful display of divine mercy which he had experienced. I know very little of the particulars of those wild, thoughtless, and wretched years, which lay between the 19th and the 30th of his life; except it be, that he frequently experienced the divine goodness in renewed instances, particularly in preserving him in several hot military actions, in all which he never received so much as a wound after this, forward as he was

in tempting danger; and yet, that all these years were spent in an entire alienation from God, and an eager pursuit of animal pleasure, as his supreme good. The series of criminal amours in which he was almost incessantly engaged during this time, must probably have afforded some remarkable adventures and occurrences; but the memory of them is perished. Nor do I think it unworthy notice here, that amidst all the intimacy of our friendship, and the many hours of cheerful as well as serious converse which we spent together, I never remember to have heard him speak of any of these intrigues, otherwise than in the general with deep and solemn abhorrence. This I the rather mention, as it seemed a most genuine proof of his unfeigned repentance; which, I think, there is great reason to suspect, when people seem to take a pleasure in relating and describing scenes of vicious indulgence, which yet they profess to have disapproved and for

saken.

SECT. 18. Amidst all these pernicious wanderings from the paths of religion, virtue, and happiness, he approved himself so well in his military character, that he was made a lieutenant in that year, viz. 1706; and I am told, he was very quickly after promoted to a cornet's commission in Lord Stair's regiment of the

Scotch Greys; and on the 31st of January, in the year 1714-15, was made captain-lieutenant in Colonel Ker's regiment of dragoons. He had the honour of being known to the Earl of Stair some time before, and was made his aidde-camp; and when, upon his lordship's being appointed ambassador from his late majesty to the court of France, he made so splendid an entrance into Paris, Captain Gardiner was his master of the horse; and I have been told, that a great deal of the care of that admirably welladjusted ceremony fell upon him; so that he gained great credit by the manner in which he conducted it. Under the benign influences of his lordship's favour (which to the last day of his life he retained), a captain's commission was procured for him (dated July 22, in the year 1715,) in the regiment of dragoons commanded by Colonel Stanhope (then Earl of Harrington;) and, in the year 1717, he was advanced to the majority of that regiment; in which office he continued till it. was reduced, on November the 10th, 1718; when he was put out of commission. But then his majesty King George I. was so thoroughly apprised of his faithful and important services, that he gave him his sign manual, entitling him to the first majority that should become vacant, in any regiment of horse or dragoons; which happen

ed, about five years after, to be in Croft's regiment of dragoons, in which he received a commission, dated June the 1st, 1724; and on the 20th of July, the same year, he was made major of an older regiment, commanded by the Earl of Stair.

SECT. 19. As I am now speaking of so many of his military preferments, I will dispatch the account of them by observing, that on the 24th of January, 1729-30, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the same regiment, long under the command of Lord Cadogan; with whose friendship this brave and vigilant officer was also honoured for many years. And he continued in this rank, and regiment, till the 19th of April, 1743, when he received a colonel's commission over a

regiment of dragoons, lately commanded by Brigadier Bland; at the head of which he valiantly fell, in the defence of his sovereign and his country, about two years and an half after he received it.

SECT. 20. We will now return to that period of his life which passed at Paris, the scene of such remarkable and important events. He continued (if I remember right) several years under the roof of the brave and generous Earl of Stair; to whom he endeavoured to approve himself by every instance of diligent and faithful