The time had now come for Vivian to choose a profession; and in this important matter one hardly knows whether to admire more the liberality of the father, or the instinctive sagacity of the son. Mr. Vivian wished his heir to follow a pursuit in which distinction had been gained both by himself and by other members of the family, and an attempt was made in this direction. Our hero was accordingly articled to a Mr. Jonathan Elford, a solicitor, of Devonport, with a view to Vivian's becoming a 'counsellor, learned in the law;' but the attractions presented by the lives and the uniforms of the officers of a garrison town were an all-powerful opposing force; and, besides, Vivian could urge family precedents for a military career; for was not his great-uncle, Colonel Hussey, amongst the heroes who fell with Wolfe on the heights of Abraham?[158] Accordingly, an ensign's commission in the 20th Regiment of Infantry was procured for him on 31st July, 1793. In the following year he got a captaincy in the 28th, and was present in all the affairs of that time between the French and British armies in the Low Countries; his regiment suffering severe losses at Geldermalsem. In 1795 he returned to England; and shortly afterwards made an attempt--the second unsuccessful one--to get with his regiment to the West Indies. But the war god had other and higher services in store for Vivian; and the winds and the waves drove back the transports to the British shore. For the next two years (1796-98) Vivian was doing garrison duty at Gibraltar. This sort of pursuit must have fretted so high a spirit as his, and probably led to his exchanging into a cavalry regiment, the 7th Light Dragoons, or 'Queen's Own' Hussars;--now, at least, he thought he should be sure to see service. Nor was he disappointed; for in 1799 he took part in the unfortunate Texel Expedition, under Sir Ralph Abercombie, one result of which, however, was the capture of Helder on the 28th August in that year. To Vivian the piping times of peace during the next four or five years gave an opportunity for turning his thoughts from war to love; and in 1804 he married his first wife, Eliza, daughter of Philip Champion De Crespigny, of Aldborough (with whom, so the story goes, he ran off from a boarding-school). She was descended from an old French family, refugees from the Edict of Nantes; and the fruit of this marriage was two sons and three daughters.