He is a mere youth; I think hardly your age. I understand
that he is of rank; and having undertaken a tour in whatever part of
Europe is now open to travellers, under the direction of an
experienced tutor, they took Russia in their route. At St. Petersburg
he became intimate with many of the nobility, particularly with Count
Brinicki, at whose house he resided; and when the count was named to
the command of the army in Poland, Mr. Somerset (for that is your
prisoner's name), instigated by his own volatility and the arguments
of his host, volunteered with him, and so followed his friend to
oppose that freedom here which he would have asserted in his own
nation."
Thaddeus thanked his grandfather for this information; and pleased
that the young man, who had so much interested him, was a brave
Briton, not in heart an enemy, he gayly and instantly repaired to his
tent.
A generous spirit is as eloquent in acknowledging benefits as it is
bounteous in bestowing them; and Mr. Somerset received his preserver
with the warmest demonstrations of gratitude. Thaddeus begged him not
to consider himself as particularly obliged by a conduct which every
soldier of honor has a right to expect from another. The Englishman
bowed his head, and Thaddeus took a seat by his bedside.
Whilst he gathered from his own lips a corroboration of the narrative
of the palatine, he could not forbear inquiring how a person of his
apparent candor, and who was also the native of a soil where national
liberty had so long been the palladium of its happiness, could
volunteer in a cause the object of which was to make a brave people
slaves?
Somerset listened to these questions with blushes; and they did not
leave his face when he confessed that all he could say in extenuation
of what he had done was to plead his youth, and having thought little
on the subject.
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