Dumouriez, with a weak and ailing constitution in his childhood, enured his body for war.

The stirring ambition of his soul required that the frame which encased it should be of endurance.
III.
Opposing the desires of his father, who destined him for the war office, the pen was his abhorrence, and he obtained a sub-lieutenancy in the cavalry.

As aide-de-camp of marshal d'Armentieres, he made the campaign of Hanover.

In a retreat he seized the standard from the hands of a fugitive, rallied two hundred troopers round him, saved a battery of five pieces of cannon, and covered the passage of the army.

Remaining almost alone in the rear, he made himself a rampart of his dead horse, and wounded three of the enemy's hussars.