company were desirous to know the particulars of it. The Count was requested to favour us with a circumstantial relation of that remarkable siege; but declined it with a great deal of politeness and modesty, directing the company to beg that favour of Baron de H******, who had given many proofs of his courage and superior talents on that occasion. The Baron, having not the least suspicion that his conduct on that occasion was notorious, accepted the challenge, with a presumptuous smile, as a just tribute of his merits, and began his narrative. I was astonished to hear with how much barefacedness that fellow interlarded his relation with a number of various adventures in which he pretended to have been engaged. There was no rencounter in which he had not acted a principal part: he made the whole company shudder at the dangers which he pretended to have experienced during the war; and it was merely owing to his modesty and delicacy that he forbore to speakalso
