“To be sure, it would have been a great pleasure to me; but we poor mortals form projects, and the Almighty ruler of the universe disposes of all as he pleases.  A great many of us were getting ready for our return to England, when we received an order to march towards Frankfort, to the great surprise of the whole army, neither can any of us comprehend what we are to do there; for there is no enemy in that country, the French army being marched into Bavaria, where I am sure we cannot follow them.  But it is the will of the Lord, and his will be done!  I desire to bless and praise my Heavenly Father that I am entirely resigned to it.  It is no matter where I go, or what becomes of me, so that God may be glorified in my life, or my death, I should rejoice much to hear that all my friends were equally resigned.”

The mention of this article reminds me of another relating to the views which he had of obtaining a regiment for himself.  He endeavoured to deserve it by the most faithful services; some of them, indeed beyond what the strength of his constitution could well bear—­for the weather in some of these marches proved exceedingly bad, and yet he would be always at the head of his people, that he might look, with the exactest care, to every thing that concerned them.  This obliged him to neglect the beginnings of a feverish illness, the natural consequence of which was that it grew very formidable, forced a long confinement upon him, and gave animal nature a shock which it never recovered.

In the mean time, as he had the promise of a regiment before he quitted England, his friends were continually expecting an occasion of congratulating him on having received the command of one.  Still they were disappointed, and on some of them the disappointment seemed to sit heavy.  As for the colonel himself, he seemed quite easy about it, and appeared much greater in that easy situation of mind than the highest military honours and preferments could have made him.  With great pleasure do I at this moment recollect the unaffected serenity, and even indifference, with which he expresses himself upon this occasion, in a letter to me, dated about the beginning of April, 1743.

“The disappointment of a regiment is nothing to me, for I am satisfied that, had it been for God’s glory, I should have had it, and I should have been sorry to have had it on any other terms.  My Heavenly Father has bestowed upon me infinitely more than if he had made me emperor of the whole world.”

I find several parallel expressions in other letters, and those to his lady about the same time were just in the same strain.  In an extract from one which was written from Aix-la-Chapelle, April 21, the same year, I meet with these words: