The officer enquiredenquirefor Captain Eldridge : a person ledleadthem up several pair of dirty stairs , and pointingpointto a door which led to a miserable , small apartment , saidsaythat was the Captain ’s room , and retiredretire.
When his dominions were half depopulated , he summonedsummonto his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court , and with these retiredretireto the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys .
The late Monsieur St. Aubert 's liberality , or extravagance , had so much involved his affairs , that his son found it necessary to dispose of a part of the family domain , and , some years after his marriagemarriage, he soldsellit to Monsieur Quesnel , the brother of his wife , and retiredretireto a small estate in Gascony , where conjugal felicity , and parental duties , divided his attention with the treasures of knowledge and the illuminations of genius .