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NARRATIVE
OF A
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM
DURING THE
CAMPAIGN OF 1815;
A VISIT
FIELD OF WATERLOO,
BY
AN ENGLISHWOMAN.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1817.
Stack
Annex
PREFACE.
10 '
Tn E " Circumstantial Detail of the Battle
of Waterloo, by a near Observer," has
already reached a tenth edition. That
brief and imperfect account was hastily
composed at a few days' notice, for the
sole purpose of illustrating the panoramic
sketch of the field which accompanies it.
With a deep sense of gratitude for the
favourable reception it experienced, but
with scarcely a hope of again finding the
same indulgence, the Narrative originally
written by the same Author is now laid
before the public. That accidental cir-
cumstances of recent occurrence have
occasioned its late and unintended appear-
a 2
IV PREFACE.
ance, it can avail little to state; since
the merits of a work, not the causes of its
publication, can alone be of importance
to its readers. But after the numerous
works which have already appeared upon
this subject, it may seem superfluous, and
even presumptuous, to obtrude another
on the notice of the public. This little
Narrative has, however, one claim on its
attention which no other possesses, in
being the simple and faithful account of
one who was herself a spectator of the
scenes she describes, and a witness off the
events she relates, during those days of
desperate conflict and unparalleled victory,
which must be for ever memorable in
British history, and for ever interesting to
every British heart. It was written whilst
the impression of those eventful scenes
was yet fresh upon the mind: and the
PREFACE. V
thoughts and feelings which such awful
and affecting circumstances were irresis-
tibly calculated to inspire, were expressed
without restraint, in the full security of
the sympathy and approbation of the
partial friends for whose perusal, alone,
it was intended ; and to whom every little
circumstance was related with all the
freedom and egotism of colloquial inter-
course. In compliance with the judgment
of these friends, it is now published without
any attempt to improve its style, and with
little alteration, except the omission of
some passages of mere personal interest.
The Author must be permitted most ear-
nestly to disclaim all idea of entering into
competition with the writers whose talents
and genius have been so well displayed
in describing the battle and the field of
Waterloo. But they were not, like the
VI PREFACE.
Author of this Narrative, on the spot at
the time these glorious events took place ;
they were pilgrims who afterwards visited
the memorable scenes on which they had
been acted: they related the past, she
describes the present; but she is well
aware the superiority her account possesses,
is that of chance alone, theirs, that of
excellence.
Conscious how inadequate are her
talents to the greatness of a theme which
almost surpasses the powers of human
genius ; and on which all that can be said,
falls so far short of all that must be felt ;
impossible as it is to do justice to the
achievements of that gallant army " who
have been the champions, the conquerors,
and the deliverers of the world, and to
whom, under Heaven, Europe owes her
security, and England her glory," the
PREFACE. Vll
writer yet ventures to indulge the hope,
that the generous indulgence of a British
public will be extended to this humble
attempt to record the proofs that were
there displa} r ed of their heroic valour in
combat, their noble magnanimity in vic-
tory, and their unshaken fortitude in
suffering, faintly and feebly as they are
described by
AN ENGLISHWOMAN.
FEW DAYS RESIDENCE
IN
BELGIUM.
ON Saturday, the 10th of June, 1815, my
brother, my sister, and myself sailed from
the pier of Ramsgate at three in the after-
noon, in company with Sir ,
Major , extra Aide-de-camp to the
Duke of Wellington, a Mr. , an
English merchant ; together with an incon-
gruous assemblage of horses, dogs, and
barouches; Irish servants, French valets,
and steerage passengers, too multifarious
B
2 A FEW DAYS
to mention, all crowded together into a
wretched little packet. On Sunday even-
ing, the llth of June, we found ourselves,
after a passage of thirty-six hours, many
miles distant from Ostend, lying at anchor
in a dead calm, and without a hope of
reaching it till the following morning. To
escape remaining another night amidst the
discomforts of this packet, without food, for
we had eaten up all our provisions; and
without sleep, for we had experimentally
proved that none was to be got, our three
selves, and our three companions in mis-
fortune, the Knight, the Major, and the
Merchant, embarked in a crazy little boat,
about nine o'clock in a beautiful summer's
evening, as the sun was sinking in golden
splendour, and trusted ourselves to the
mercy of the waves. The tide was running
strong against the rowers, and night closed
in long before we approached the shore;
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 3
but though the light of the heavens had
faded, the ocean was illuminated with
that beautiful phosphoric fire, so well
known in warmer latitudes. The most
brilliant magic light played upon the sur-
face of the waters, and marked the path
of our little vessel through the deep, with
the softest, purest radiance; the oars
seemed to be moving through liquid fire,
and every drop, as it dashed from them,
sparkled like the blaze of a diamond : the
little rippling waves, as they curled their
heads, were covered with the same trans-
parent ethereal fire, which would mock the
powers of the poet's fancy, " glancing from
heaven to earth, from earth to heaven," to
embody or describe. It is more like the
pale beam the glow-worm sheds from his
evening lamp than any thing on earth, but
ten thousand times more bright and more
beautiful. By such a light Oberon and
B 2
4 A FEW DAYS
his Queen, attended by their band of tiny
sprites, might have held their midnight
revels, amidst the bowers and halls of
fairy land; and by such a light, en-
chanted spirits in happier worlds might
be supposed to slumber. This soft, trans-
parent, unearthly light gleaming around
us, and kindling at every touch in living
brightness over the waters ; the calm and
glassy stillness of the wide extended ocean ;
the softened glow that lingered in the west-
ern sky ; and the mild breath of evening,
made our passage to the shore, slow as it
was, most delightful. It was a night cal-
culated to soothe every unquiet passion
into rest, and in which the imagination
loved to indulge in dreams of delight and
beauty. The heart must have been cold
that did not feel the harmony of nature,
and the spirit turbulent that did not par-
take of its repose : every thing seemed to
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 5
have been touched by the hand of en-
chantment. But the magic spell was dis-
solved, and the visions of fancy faded
away in a moment ; for we suddenly struck
upon the sands, when we seemed still far
from the shore ; waves of fire dashed into
the boat ; and the sturdy sailors, abandon-
ing their oars, seized upon us without the
smallest ceremony, and carried us literally
through fire and water to the beach.
Thus were we thrown, late at night, and
in the dark, upon a foreign coast, uncer-
tain which way to direct our steps through
the deep, deserted, trackless sands that sur-
rounded us ; forewarned of the rapid ap-
proach of the tides upon this coast, and
wholly at a loss in what direction lay the
town, or how to get admittance through the
sentry posts, at such an hour, if we did
reach it. Yet under these appalling cir-
cumstances, I cannot say that we felt the
B 3
O A FEW DAYS
smallest alarm, or even a momentary un-
comfortable situation : we had no fear of
being drowned, nor the remotest idea that
any more serious mischief could befal us
than spending the night upon the sands,
of which, however, there seemed to be
much probability. Luckily for us, this
Mr. - proved a most able pilot ;
he had frequently been at Ostend before,
and led the way with great sagacity, in
spite of the darkness in which we were in-
volved. We were all loaded with travel-
ling bags, or bundles, or parcels of some
sort, for it was with difficulty the little nut-
shell of a boat contained our six selves,
and all the servants were left in the vessel.
We were each, therefore, obliged to carry
all that we wanted of our travelling equip-
ments; and thus burthened, and sinking
every step ankle deep in the heavy sands,
we reached at last, with considerable toil,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 7
the fortifications, and were immediately
hailed by the soldier on guard. We de-
clared ourselves to be " friends," but in
vain ; friends or foes were all the same to
the sentry ; we might have lain all night in
the ditch, for any thing he cared ; for his
orders were positive, to admit no person
into the garrison, without the express order
of the commandant, after dark. But the
cocked hat, aide-de-camp's uniform, and
authoritative tone of Major , carried
us all through. He declared " that he and
his party were going to join the army with
speed;" and, although some of us must
have struck the sentry as not being likely to
prove a very valuable reinforcement to the
troops, he did not venture to make any
further opposition; and we all entered
Ostend. Although we came " in such a
questionable shape," we obtained admit-
tance into " La Cour Imperiale," where
B4
8 A TEW DAYS
we got an excellent supper, which was par-
ticularly acceptable to some of us, who
had eat nothing all day, excepting a bit of
bread. We then went to bed, where we
enjoyed the sweets of undisturbed repose,
with a zest, which none but those who have
spent a suffocating, sick, and sleepless
night in a wretched little birth, on board a
packet, can understand.
Next day, after viewing the fortifications,
which, although they had been recently
repaired by the English, could no longer
stand the long sieges which have made
Ostend famous in history, we proceeded to
Bruges, walked about in the rain till late
at night, to visit the beautiful Hotel de
Ville, and other public buildings of that
fine old city ; and rose early the next
morning, to see the churches of San Sau-
veur and Notre Dame, and the magnifi-
cent tombs of Charles the Bold and his
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
daughter. Already the churches were
crowded with pious Catholics, whose at-
tention was sadly distracted from their de-
votion by our appearance : sometimes they
whispered an Ave Maria with the utmost
fervency of prayer ; and sometimes an half-
uttered exclamation of wonder burst from
their lips; sometimes they resolutely re-
sumed counting their beads, and sometimes
their eyes involuntarily rested on our fo-
reign figures with the broad stare of cu-
riosity.
We left Bruges in the same bark which
had once conveyed Napoleon Buonaparte
to that city, and which is now used as a
c6che d'eau. It contained 150 people,
of every sort and description, from the
courtiers of Louis XVIII. down to Flemish
peasants; all of whom, however, were
obliging, talkative, attentive, flattering, and
amusing. After dining on board, and
10 A FEW DAYS
spending a most entertaining day, we ar-
rived in the evening at Ghent.
The whole of Wednesday we spent in
this ancient city, and though its extent is
so great as to have been the subject of a
well known imperial quibble,* I believe we
left but little of it unexplored. We visited
its magnificent cathedral, whose walls, pil-
lars, roofs, columns, and pulpits are formed
of the richest polished marble of every va-
rying hue, and carved with exquisite skill ;
and whose sculptured ornaments, the work
of ages when the statuary's art was in
high perfection, seemed almost to start
to life before our eyes. We explored the
deep sepulchral gloom of its subterranean
church ; visited the costly shrines of all the
* The Emperor Charles V., in disparagement of the
capital city of. his rival, used to delight in saying, " Je
peux mettre tout Paris dans mon Gand" Ghent on the
Continent is always spelt and pronounced Gand, the
same as gant, glove. A note in elucidation of a pun !
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 11
saints; contemplated the ancient and de-
caying monasteries, which were formerly
its pride; made a most indefatigable re-
search after cabinets of paintings; and
wandered with the utmost perseverance
through its abominable streets. We saw
the balcony from which the monster Van-
damme, in the bloody times of the Revolu-
tion, used to stand, day after day, to see
victims led out at his bidding to the guil-
lotine. In its altered scenes we now be-
held loyal Bourbon beaux in gold epau-
lettes, and smart Flemish belles in French
fashions, laughing and flirting. We, like
them, paraded in its gay promenade, and
rambled through the perfumed walks and
exotic bowers of its beautiful Botanic Gar-
den. The city of Ghent seemed to be re-
stored to some traces of its ancient grandeur
by the temporary residence of the Bourbon
princes and the little expatriated court of
12 A FEW DAYS
Louis XVIII. I had never been able to
feel any extravagant degree of attachment
to this unfortunate royal family : their re-
storation had not given me any enthusiastic
joy, nor their fall much sorrow ; and even
the honour of paying my devoirs to Louis
le Desire, and exchanging some profound
and reverential bows and courtesies with
His Most Catholic Majesty, failed to inspire
me with much interest or admiration for
this persecuted princely race. These bows,
by the way, cost the good old king con-
siderable time and labour, for he is ex-
tremely unwieldy, and corpulent, and
gouty; and he looks very lethargic and
snuffy; and it is really a thousand pities,
that an exiled and dethroned monarch
should be so remarkably uninteresting a
personage.
Early in the morning of Thursday, the
15th of June, we left the city of Ghent,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 13
passed its ancient walls, and crossed the
" lazy Scheldt/' which is here but a small
stream, and belies the epithet Goldsmith
applies to its more advanced course, for it
runs with considerable rapidity. We pro-
ceeded along the straight, undeviating line
of the broad, flat chaussee, or paved road,
that leads to Brussels. It is bordered on
each side with rows of tall trees, which form
one long interminable avenue, as far as the
eye can reach. We remembered, that it
was down this very road that Napoleon
Buonaparte had made his triumphant pro-
gress through the Netherlands, and we most
devoutly hoped, that neither by this, nor
any other road, he would ever have it in
his power to enter them again.
The country is thickly covered with neat
cottages, scattered hamlets, and small farm-
houses : the fields were waving with tall
luxuriant crops of corn, and far from
14 A FEW DAYS
wearing the appearance of the theatre of
war, it seemed to be the abode of peace
and plenty; and hope, contentment, and
hilarity shone in the countenances of the
people. The peasants almost all wore
sabots; but the cottage children, bare-
footed and bare-headed, frequently pur-
sued the carriage for miles, keeping pace
with the horses, tumbling as they went
along, singing Flemish patriotic songs, the
burden of which was invariably, " Success
to the English, and destruction to the
French ;" and crying with unwearied per-
severance, " Viv^ * les Anglaises !" " Dat
for Napoleon!" expressing at the same
time, by an emphatic gesture, cutting off
his head. They threw bouquets of flowers
into the carriage, twisted their little sun-
burnt faces into the most extraordinary
* I write it not grammatically, but as they pronounced
it, with a strong emphasis on the last letter.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 15
grimaces, and kept whirling round on their
hands and feet, in imitation of the rotatory
motion of a wheel. Dr. Clarke, in his
Travels, mentions that the children of the
Arabs in Egypt performed the same ex-
ploit, and for the same purpose, that of
extorting from the passengers a few sous,
nay, even one they seemed to think a suf-
ficient reward for a laborious chase of more
than a league, and the exhibition of all
these fatiguing antics.
At the little town of Alost, half way to
Brussels, we stopped to dine. It was the
head-quarters of the Due de Berri, and
the streets, the promenades, and the cafes
looked gay. There is a pleasant walk,
shaded by trees, round the ramparts ; for
this little town, like every other in the Ne-
therlands, was formerly fortified ; although
its dismantled walls no longer afford any
means of defence. A violent shower of
16 A FEW DAYS
rain obliged us to take refuge, in rather an
unceremonious manner, in a small house,
the mistress of which, who was preparing
to take her afternoon's coffee, (though it
was only one o'clock,) received us with the
utmost courtesy and kindness. Short as
our stay was beneath her roof, it was long
enough for her to express with great energy
her detestation of Napoleon and of the
French ; which she said was universal
throughout Belgium. We had a good deal
of conversation with her upon this subject,
and upon the past and the present state of
Belgium. " Ah, madame ! before they
came among us," she said, " this was a
very different country. Then we were
rich, and good, and happy." She la-
mented over the trade, the manufactories,
the commerce they had destroyed ; the
contributions they had exacted; the fine
young men they had seized as conscripts ;
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 17
the convents they had ruined ; the priests
and " les bonnes religieuses" they had
turned to the door. Wherever we had
gone before, and wherever we afterwards
went, we heard the same sentiments from
every tongue, and we saw the most une-
quivocal signs of the inveterate hatred of
the whole Belgic people towards their
former rulers. It bursts out spontaneously
as if they could not suppress it ; their whole
countenances change; their eyes sparkle
with indignation ; their very gestures are
eloquent, and they seem at a loss for words
strong enough to express the bitterness of
their detestation. This surprised us not a
little, as in England we had been taught
to believe, that the French were popular in
this country ; but we were at length con-
vinced of our mistake. It is the English,
not the French, who are popular, in Bel-
gium ; and it was far more gratifying than
c
18 A FEW DAYS
any individual distinction could have been,
to find that we were every where received
with marked attention and respect for the
sake of our country, and that the name of
England is every where beloved and ho-
noured.
At the village of Ashe, half way between
Alost and Brussels, while I was buying in
a little shop, a basket of " gateaux sucres,"
for which the place is famous, two Belgic
ladies, who happened to be there, entered
into conversation with me, with all the
ease of foreign manners, and uttered the
same energetic invective against their late
French government, and animated praise
of the English, which we heard from every
tongue during our stay in Belgium. These
people evidently speak from their hearts :
and yet in manners, in customs, in ancient
ties, in modem predilections, and even in
language, they are French. Their deep-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 19
rooted hatred, therefore, of the people to
whom they were so firmly attached, must
have sprung from very flagrant wrongs,
and very galling oppression.
Alost is situated on the little river Den-
der, and from the road we caught a
glimpse of the spire of Dendermond so
famous for its siege by the Allies. We
were now in a country which had repeat-
edly been, in every age, the seat of war,
and in which England had already gained
immortal glory. In retracing the proud
history of her past triumphs, and her recent,
and not less brilliant, conquests, we felt
the firm assurance, that in those scenes
where the British under the Duke of Marl-
borough had, in the 18th century, won the
glorious victories of Oudenarde, Ramillies,
and Malplaquet, the British under the
Duke of Wellington, in the 19th century,
would gain fresh laurels and immortal re-
c 2
20 A FEW DAYS
nown, and raise still higher the glory of
their country's arms.
After leaving Alost, the country became
more rich and undulating. Instead of a
dull, dead flat, which we had before tra-
versed, sloping grounds, and distant hills,
and sheltered vallies diversified the pro-
spect. The woods rose in prouder beauty,
and the fields were dressed in brighter ver-
dure and richer luxuriance ; and as we
passed through those smiling scenes, and
saw the husbandman pursuing his peaceful
labours, the cottage wife busy with her
household cares, and the merry groups of
haymakers spread over the fragrant mea-
dows, we rejoiced in the hope, that the
hand of the spoiler would never lay waste
these fruitful fields, nor burn these peaceful
hamlets, and that these contented peasants
would never again be torn from their
homes to fight in the cause of unprincipled
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 21
ambition, and become in turn the instru-
ments of that oppression of which they had
been the victims. It was with a feeling
of pride for our country we indulged the
thought that it was to England they owed
their security ; that it was her protecting
arm which interposed the impenetrable
shield of her armies between them and the
tyranny and usurpation of France. We
could not but rejoice, that since the awful
struggle must be made, its horrors if in-
evitable would, at least, be distant ; that
since the awful thunderbolt of war must
fall, it would descend, in all human pro-
bability, upon that country which had
raised the storm ; and that France herself
would at length be visited by some part
of the dreadful calamities which she had
so long and so mercilessly inflicted upon
other nations.
Short sighted mortals ! while we fondly
c 3
22 A FEW DAYS
indulged these hopes, and exulted in the
blessings of security and peace, how little
did we suspect that the most aggravated
horrors of war were ready to burst over our
heads ; how little did we foresee the rapid
changes and alarming events which even
this very day was destined to produce ; and
while we watched the sun sinking in glory
in the western sky, how little did we dream
of the scenes that were to pass before the
dawn of morning ! In all the bliss of ig-
norance, however, we journeyed along, ad-
miring from afar the lofty towers and spires
of Brussels, and its crowded roofs clustering
round the steep sides of a hill, in the midst
of a rich and cheerful country, and think-
ing with joyful and impatient anticipation
of the well-known faces of the beloved
friends whom we were to meet within its
walls.
Near Brussels we passed a body of
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 23
Brunswick troops, (called Black Bruns-
wickers.) They were dressed in black,
and mounted upon black horses, and their
helmets were surmounted with tall nodding
plumes of black horse hair, which gave
them a most sombre and funereal appear-
ance. As they slowly moved along the
road before us in a long regular procession,
they looked exactly like an immense mov-
ing hearse. I laughed, and observed to
S , " that one might take this for a
bad omen, and that it reminded me of
the mourning wedding-ring in the Simple
Story/' Some of these black, ominous look-
ing men kept before us, and entered Brussels
along with us. At first we passed through
some mean, dirty streets, but the appear-
ance of the town soon improved. The
houses are large, ancient, and highly orna-
mented. There is an air of grandeur and
of architectural design in the towns of
c 4
24 A FEW DAYS
Flanders, which is peculiarly striking, on
first coming from the plain, diminutive,
shop-keeper looking, red brick rows of
houses in England. The streets of Brussels
are narrow, but they have that air of bustle,
opulence, and animation, which charac-
terises a metropolis. To us every thing
was new and amusing : the people, the
dresses, the houses, the shops, the very
signs diverted us. Every notice was stuck
up in the French language, and quite in the
French style : the poorest and most paltry
shop called itself a Magazine. Here were
Magasins de Modes, Magasins de Souliers,
Magasins de every thing, in short : it
was amusing to see the names of people
and trades, that we had only been accus-
tomed to meet with in French books and
plays, stuck up in gilt letters above every
shop-door.
Every thing wore a military aspect;
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 25
and the number of troops, of different
nations, descriptions, and dresses, which
filled the town, made it look very gay.
Soldiers faces, or at least their white belts
and red coats, were to be seen at every
window ; and in our slow progress through
the streets, we were delighted to see the
British soldiers, and particularly the High-
landers, laughing and joking, with much
apparent glee, with the inhabitants. On
our right we caught a glimpse of the mag-
nificent spire of the Hotel de Ville, far ex-
ceeding, in architectural beauty, any thing
I remember to have seen. We slowly con-
tinued to ascend the windings of the long
and steep hill, which leads from the low to
the high town of Brussels, and the upper
part of which is called La Montagne du
Pare. Passing on our left the venerable
towers of the Cathedral, we reached, at
last, the summit of this huge mountain ; and
26 A FEW DAYS
the Pare of Brussels, of which we had
heard, read, and talked so much, unexpect-
edly opened upon us. What a transition
from the dark, narrow, gloomy streets of
the low town to the lightness, gaiety, and
beauty of the Pare, crowded with officers
in every variety of military uniform, with
elegant women, and with lively parties and
gay groups of British and Belgic people,
loitering, walking, talking, and sitting under
the trees ! There could not be a more
animated, a more holiday scene; every
thing looked gay and festive, and every
thing spoke of hope, confidence, and busy
expectation.
The Pare of Brussels does not bear the
smallest resemblance to what in England
we denominate a Park. It is a large square
piece of ground inclosed with iron rails,
the interior of which is laid out with gravel
walks, grass plots, and parterres* shaded
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 2?
with trees, and ornamented with fountains*
and statues. It is quite a promenade, and
is exclusively devoted to pedestrians. The
walks are formal, but kept with great ex-
actness, and the tout ensemble looks gay,
inviting, and pleasant. It is surrounded
by a wide street, inclosed by a square of
magnificent houses built of the finest free-
stone -f: in which are the palace of the
Prince of Orange, and many beautiful
public buildings. Compared to this grand
square, the finest squares of London,
Edinburgh, and Dublin, are small and
paltry. Adjoining the Pare is the Place
Roy ale, and so strikingly grand and im-
* Afterwards, on our return to Brussels, I observed an
inscription on one of these fountains, purporting, that the
Czar Peter the Great, having drunk too freely of wine,
fell into its waters. The day and year are mentioned.
It \vas, I think, about a century ago.
f Such it appeared to me to be. I was afterwards
told, that both the Pare and the Place Royale are built
of brick the colour of free-stone.
28 A FEW DAYS
posing is its architecture, that we all ut-
tered an involuntary exclamation of sur-
prise and admiration as we drove into it.
The doors and windows of the H6tel
Bellevue, and of the H6tel de Flandre, ad-
joining to it, were crowded with British
officers. We took possession of two plea-
sant rooms in the latter, which had been
secured for us by the kind attention of
Sir . They were in the
troisieme etage, and we had a hundred
steps to ascend ; but we were fortunate in
procuring such good accommodation, as
Brussels was extremely crowded. We had
not entered the hotel many minutes, and
had not once sat down, when we recog-
nised our pleasant compagnon de voyage,
Major , standing in the Place
Royale below, encompassed with officers.
He saw us, took off his hat, and, breaking
from the people that surrounded him,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 29
darted in at the door of the hotel, and was
with us in a minute. Breathless with
haste, he could scarcely articulate that hos-
tilities had commenced ! Our amazement
may be conceived : at first we could
scarcely believe him to be in earnest.
" Upon my honour," exclaimed Major
, still panting, and scarcely able to
speak, from the haste with which he had
flown up the hundred steps, " it is quite
true ; and the troops are ordered to be in
readiness to march at a moment's notice ;
and we shall probably leave Brussels to-
morrow morning." In answer to our eager
inquiries, he then told us, that this unex-
pected intelligence had only just arrived ;
that he had that moment left the Duke of
Wellington's table, where he had been
dining with a party of officers ; and, that,
just as the dessert had been set upon the
table, a courier had arrived, bringing dis-
30 A FEW DAYS
patches from Marshal Blucher, announc-
ing, that he had been attacked by the
French : but although the fighting was hot,
it seemed to be Blucher's opinion, that it
would most probably prove nothing more
than a mere skirmish. While the Duke
was reading the dispatches, the Prince of
Orange, General Mufflin, and some other
foreign officers had come in. After a short
debate, the Duke, expecting that the blow
would be followed up, and believing that
it was the enemy's plan to crush the Eng-
lish army and take Brussels, immediately
ordered the troops to be in readiness to
take the field at a moment's notice. " And
when did all this happen ? When was this
attack made?" we anxiously inquired.
" It took place this afternoon." " This
afternoon !" I exclaimed, in astonishment,
and, I suppose, with looks of consterna-
tion, which drew a good natured smile
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 31
from Major , for we had not been
used to hear of battles so near, or fought the
same afternoon. "Yes, it happened this
very afternoon," said Major ; " and
when the express came away, they were
fighting as hard as ever : but after all, it
may prove a mere trifling affair of out-
posts nothing at all/' " But are the
French in great force ? Where are they ?
Where are the Prussians ? How far off do
you suppose all this fighting is?" were
some of the many questions we asked.
The fighting was in the neighbourhood of
Charleroi, about half a day's march from
Brussels : nothing certainly was known of
the force of the French. In fact, nothing at
all was known, except that the French had
this very day attacked the Prussians, when
they were totally unprepared, at a short
distance from us. " However, after all, this
may end in nothing," said Major ,
32 A FEW DAYS
after a pause; "we may have to march to-
morrow morning, or we may not march these
three weeks : but the Duke expects another
dispatch from Blucher, and that will settle
the business :" and so saying, Major -
went away to dress for a ball. Yes, a ball !
for the Duke of Wellington, and his aides-
de-camp, and half of the British officers,
though they expected to go to a battle
to-morrow, were going to a ball to-night,
at the Duchess of Richmond's ; and to the
ball they did accordingly go. They
seemed to say, or to feel, with the Scottish
Chief in Douglas,
" This night once more
Within these walls we rest : our tents we pitch
To-morrow in the field. Prepare the feast !
Free is his heart who for his country lights :
He on the eve of battle may resign
Himself to social pleasure : sweetest then,
When danger to a Soldier's soul endears
The human joy that never may return."
Late as it was, J and S went to
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 33
call upon the , whom they were im-
patient to see. They had not been gone
many minutes when Sir
sent up to ask if I would admit him. I
made no objection : so in he came, looking
magnificently, in a full dress uniform,
covered with crosses, clasps, orders, and
medals. Behold me, then, tete-a-tete with
this splendid beau, in my own room, be-
tween ten and eleven o'clock at night ! In
England it would have been extraordinary
enough, to be sure ; but in Brussels it was
nothing. It was impossible to receive him,
or any body else, in any other place than
a bed-room, for the Hotel de Flandre was
entirely composed of bed-rooms, all of
which were occupied. Without discom-
posing myself about the matter, therefore,
I gave Sir some tea, and we had a
long chat together. He, too, had been
dining with the Duke of Wellington, and
D
34 A FEW DAYS
had been present when these important
dispatches arrived, and from him I heard
a repetition of all that Major had
told us, with the alarming addition, that
the French were said to be upwards of
100,000 strong, and that Napoleon himself
was at the head of the army. It was gene-
rally thought, that this attack upon the
Prussians was a stratagem to conceal more
effectually his real designs, of surprizing
Brussels, and destroying, if possible, at one
blow, the English army. It was well
known that the Russians had crossed the
Rhine ; and Sir - - said he had
no doubt that Buonaparte would push for*
ward at all hazards, and give battle before
they could arrive. As Sir -
had certainly reason to know something of
Buonaparte, and as these rapid, unexpected
movements were in perfect uniformity with
his general policy, this conjecture seemed
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 35
but too probable ; but we concluded, that
the numbers of the French must be pro-
digiously exaggerated. It seemed quite in-
credible that so large an army could have
formed, advanced, and even attacked
Marshal Blucher, Avithout his having any
knowledge of their movements ; and even
if their force was very superior to ours, I
felt confident that they would meet with a
very different reception from that which
they expected; and that Napoleon, with
every advantage on his side, would not
find the defeat of an English army quite so
easy a thing in practice, as he had always
seemed to consider it in theory. Having
settled this point much to our mutual satis-
faction, Sir went away : J
and S returned, and we went to bed.
But we were not destined long to enjoy
the sweets of repose. Scarcely had I laid
my weary head upon the pillow, when the
36 A FEW DAYS
bugle's loud and commanding call sounded
from the Place Roy ale. " Is that the call
to arms V I exclaimed, starting up in the
bed. S - laughed at the idea; but I
heard it again, and we listened with eager
and anxious suspense. For a few moments
a pause of doubt ensued. Hark ! again !
it sounded through the silence of the night,
and from every quarter of the town it was
now repeated, at short and regular inter-
vals. " It is the call to arms !" I exclaim-
ed. Instantly the drums beat ; the High-
land pibroch sounded It was the call
to arms ! Oh ! never, never shall I forget
the feelings of that moment ! Immediately
the utmost tumult and confusion succeeded
to the silence in which the city had pre-
viously been buried. At half past two we
were roused by a loud knocking at our
room door, and J 's voice calling to us
to get up instantly, not to lose a moment
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 37
that tlio troops were under arms were
marching out against the French and that
Major - - was waiting to see us before
he left Brussels. 'Inexpressibly relieved to
find, that this nocturnal alarm was occa-
sioned by the departure of Major -
not by the arrival of the French, which, in
the first startling confusion of my thoughts,
and trepidation of my mind, had actually
entered my head ; and much better pleased
to meet an old and kind friend, than to run
away from a furious enemy, we got up with
the greatest alacrity, and hastily throwing
some clothes about us, flew to see ,
who was waiting on the stairs. Short and
agitated indeed was our meeting under such
circumstances. By the light of a candle
in J 's room, we sat ' down for a few
minutes on some boxes, scarcely able to
believe our senses, that all this was real,
D3
38 A TEW DAYS
and almost inclined to doubt whether it
was not a dream : but the dreadful din of
war which resounded in our ears, too pain-
fully convinced us that it was no illusion
of phantasy : we could scarcely even
" snatch a fearful joy/' for not for a single
moment could we banish from our minds
the impression, that in a few moments we
must part, perhaps for ever, and that this
hurried interview might prove our last.
We could only gaze intently upon each
other, as if to retain a lasting remembrance
of the well known countenance, should we
indeed be destined to meet no more : we
could only utter incoherent words or dis-
jointed speeches. While he still lingered,
we heard his charger, which his servant
held in the court-yard below, neighing and
pawing the ground, as if impatient of his
master's delay, and eager to bear him to
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 39
the field. Our greetings and adieus were
equally hurried. We bade him farewell,
and saw him go to battle.
It was nearly two years since we had
met; and little did we think, when we
parted in the peaceful vallies of Rox-
burghshire, that our next, and perhaps our
last, meeting would be in Brussels, in the
dead of the night, and on the very eve of
battle. He left us then, as now, to fight
the battles of his country ; and we trusted,
that victory and glory would still follow the
British arms, and that he would once more
return in honour and safety.
Just as he left us the dawn appeared,
and, by the faint twilight of morning, we
saw the Place Royale filled with armed
men, and with all the tumult and confusion
of martial preparation. All was " hurry
skurry for the field." Officers were look-
ing in vain for their servants servants
D 4
40 A FEW DAYS
running in pursuit of their masters bag-
gage waggons were loading bat horses
preparing trains of artillery harnessing.
And, amidst the clanking of horses' hoofs,
the rolling of heavy carriages, the clang of
arms, the sounding of bugles, and the
neighing of chargers, we distinctly heard,
from time to time, the loud deep-toned
word of command, while the incessant din
of hammers nailing " gave dreadful note
of preparation."
A second express -had arrived from
Blucher, bringing intelligence that the
French were in much more formidable
force than he had imagined ; that the at-
tack was become serious ; they had taken
Charleroi, and driven back the Prussians.
It was therefore necessary for the British
to inarch immediately to support them.
The Duke had received the dispatches
containing this important news in the ball-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 41
room. We were afterwards told, that upon
perusing them he seemed for a few mi-
nutes to be absolutely absorbed in a pro-
found reverie, and completely abstracted
from every surrounding object; and that
he was even heard to utter indistinctly a
few words to himself. After a pause he
folded up the dispatches, called one of his
staff officers to him, gave the necessary
orders with the utmost coolness and
promptitude; and, having directed the
army to be put in motion immediately, he
himself staid at the ball till past two in the
morning. The cavalry officers, whose re-
giments, for the most part, were quartered
in villages about the frontier, ten, fifteen,
and even twenty miles off, flew from the
ball-room in dismay, in search of their
horses, and galloped off in the dark, with-
out baffsacre or attendants, in the utmost
oo o
perplexity which way to go, or where to
42 A FEW DAYS
join their regiments, which might have
marched before they could arrive. Num-
bers of the officers had been out, when the
first order, to be in readiness to march, was
issued, and remained in perfect ignorance
of the commencement of hostilities, until
the alarm sounded, and called them from
scenes of festivity and mirth to scenes of
war and bloodshed. As the dawn broke,
the soldiers were seen assembling from all
parts of the town, in marching order, with
their knapsacks on their backs, loaded with
three days provision. Unconcerned in the
midst of the din of war, many a soldier
laid himself down on a truss of straw, and
soundly slept, with his hands still grasp-
ing his firelock; others were sitting con-
tentedly on the pavement, waiting the ar-
rival of their comrades. Numbers were
taking leave of their wives and children,
perhaps for the last time, and many a ve-
RESIDENCE IX BELGIUM. 43
teran's rough cheek was wet with the tears
of sorrow. One poor fellow, immediately
under our windows, turned back again and
again to bid his wife farewell, and take his
baby once more in his arms ; and I saw
him hastily brush away a tear with the
sleeve of his coat, as he gave her back the
child for the last time, wrung her hand,
and ran off to join his company, which was
drawn up on the other side of the Place
Royale.
Who that saw a scene so mournful
Could without a tear depart?
He must own a savage nature,
Pity never warmed his heart !
Many of the soldiers' wives marched out
with their husbands to the field, and I saw
one young English lady mounted on horse-
back, slowly riding out of town along with
an officer, who, no doubt, was her hus-
band. But even at this interesting mo-
ment, when thousands were parting with
44 A FEW DAYS
those nearest and dearest to their hearts,
my gravity was suddenly overset, and my
sorrow turned into mirth, by the unex-
pected appearance of a long train of mar-
ket carts, loaded with cabbages, green
peas, cauliflowers, early potatoes, old wo-
men, and strawberries, peaceably jogging
along, one after another, to market. These
good people, who had never heard of
battles, and who were perfectly at a loss to
comprehend what could be the meaning of
all this uproar, stared with astonishment at
' the spectacle before them, and actually
gaped with wonder, as they slowly made
their way in their long carts through the
crowds of soldiers which filled the Place
Roy ale. There was something inexpres-
sibly ludicrous in the contrast which the
grotesque figures and rustic dresses of these
old women presented to this martial hurry
and confusion, that really " not to laugh
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 45
surpassed all powers of face/' and that I
did laugh I must -acknowledge, though it
was perhaps very ill-timed levity. Soon
afterwards the 42d and 92d Highland regi-
ments marched through the Place Royale
and the Pare, with their bagpipes playing
before them, while the bright beams of the
rising sun shone full on their polished mus-
kets, and on the dark waving plumes of
their tartan bonnets. We admired their
fine athletic forms, their firm erect military
demeanour and undaunted mien. We felt
proud that they were our countrymen : in
their gallant bearing we recognised the true
hardy sons of Caledon, men who would
conquer or die ; and we could not restrain
a tear at the reflexion, how few of that
warlike band who now marched out so
proudly to battle might ever live to return.
Alas ! we little thought that even before the
fall of night these brave men, whom we
46 A FEW DAYS
now gazed at with so much interest and
admiration, would be laid low !
During the whole night, or rather morn-
ing, we stood at the open window, unable
to leave these sights and sounds of war, or
to desist for a moment from contemplating
a scene so new, so affecting, and so deeply
interesting to us. Regiment after regiment
formed and marched out of Brussels ; we
heard the last word of command March !
the heavy measured uniform tread of the
soldiers' feet upon the pavement, and the
last expiring note of the bugles, as they
sounded from afar.
We saw our gallant anny leave Brussels
with emotions which may be better ima-*
gined than described. They went again to
meet that enemy whom they had so often
encountered, and so invariably vanquished ;
to follow that general, who, in a long
course of years of command devoted to
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 47
the service and glory of his country, had
never experienced a single defeat ; who had
so lately led them from victory to victory*
crossed, in his triumphant inarch, the
plains of Spain, fought his way over the
frozen heights of the Pyrenees, carried
conquest and dismay in the very heart of
France, and whose rapid and unparalleled
career of conquest had only been checked
by the angel of peace. As we saw the last
of our brave troops march out of Brussels,
the recollection of their past glory, the
proud hopes of their present triumph, the
greatness of the contest, upon the issue of
which the fate of Europe and the security
of the world depended ; the dread of their
encounter with the numerous and formi-
dable hosts of that man, whom no treaties
could bind, no adversity could amend, no
considerations of justice or humanity could
soften, no laws, divine or human, could re-
48 A TEW DAYS
strain, swelled our hearts with feelings
which language is too feeble to express :
and our brave countrymen were followed
by our tears, our warmest wishes, and our
most fervent prayers for their safety and
success.
Before seven in the morning, the streets,
which had been so lately thronged with
armed men and with busy crowds, were
empty and silent. The great square of the
Place Royale no longer resounded with the
tumult and preparations for war. The
army were gone, and Brussels seemed a
perfect desert. The mourners they had
left behind were shut up in their solitary
chambers, and the faces of the few who
were slowly wandering about the streets
were marked with the deepest anxiety and
melancholy. The heavy military waggons,
ranged in order, and ready to move as
occasion might require, were, standing
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 49
under the silent guard of a few sentinels.
The Flemish drivers were sleeping in the
long tilted carts destined to convey the
wounded ; and the horses, ready to harness
at a moment's notice, were quietly feeding
on fresh-cut grass by their side : the
whole live-long day and night did these
Flemish men and horses pass in the Place
Royale. A few officers were still to be
seen, slowly riding out of town to join the
army. The Duke of Wellington set off
about eight o'clock, in great spirits, de-
claring he expected to be back by dinner-
time; and dinner was accordingly prepared
for him. Sir Thomas Picton, who, like
ourselves, had only arrived in Brussels the
day before, rode through the streets in true
soldier-like style, with his reconnoitring
glass slung across his shoulders, and, rein-
ing in his charger as he passed, to ex-
50 A FEW DAYS
change salutations with his friends, left
Brussels never to return.
We had a most agreeable surprise at our
breakfast table in the sight of Major
. He had rid a few miles out of
Brussels with the regiment, and then gal-
loped back with Sir , who also
wished to return. We spent a few hours
together; and, embittered as they were
with the prospect of so near and dreadful
a separation, there was much consolation
in thus meeting. No expectation was
entertained of any engagement taking
place to-day. Sir and
Major , therefore, felt quite at
their ease; " being certain/' they said,
" of overtaking the regiment at a place
called Waterloo, where the men were to
stop to cook." Little did any of us then
suspect how remarkable to future ages
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 51
" that place called Waterloo" was destined
to become ! We denied ourselves to se-
veral idlers, but Sir and Mr.
and Mrs. succeeded in gaining
admittance.
At last the dreadful moment arrived :
Sir called for Major ;
and, after sitting a few moments, they got
up to go away ; and we bade farewell to
one who from childhood had been our
friend and companion, and whom we loved
as another brother. We could not but feel
how probable it was that we might never
see him more : and, under this impression,
some minutes after he had left us, which
he had spent in bidding farewell to J
below, we ran to the window, saw Sir
and he mount their horses, and
ride away, and caught the last glimpse of
them as they passed under the gateway of
E2
52 A FEW DAYS
the Place Royale. Two hours afterwards
they were in the thickest of the battle !
Although we had not the smallest sus-
picion that any engagement could take
place to-day, our anxiety for news, both of
the French and Prussians, was extreme;
but we could hear nothing but vague, un-
authenticated reports, upon which no re-
liance could be placed.
We dined, or rather sat down to dinner,
at the table d'hote, and afterwards wan-
dered restlessly about the streets, our minds
too much absorbed in interest respecting
the approaching contest, to see, hear, un-
derstand, think, or talk about any thing
but what related to public events.
Our consternation may be imagined
when we were told that a dreadful can-
nonade had been heard from the Pare, in
the very direction which our army had
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 53
taken ; and that it was supposed they must
have been attacked by the French within a
few miles of Brussels. At first I was utterly
incredulous ; I could not, would not believe
it : but hurrying to the Pare, we were too
soon, too incontestably convinced of the
dreadful truth, by ourselves hearing the
awful and almost incessant thunder of the
guns apparently very near to us. For
many hours this tremendous cannonade
continued ; while, unable to gain any intel-
ligence of what was passing, ignorant of
every thing, except of the fact, proclaimed
by the loud and repeated voice of war, that
there was a battle, we listened in a state of
terrible uncertainty and suspense ; and
thought with horror, in the roar of every
cannon, that our brave countrymen were
every moment falling in agony and death.
Unable to rest, we wandered about, and
lingered till a late hour in the Pare. The
E3
54 A FEW DAYS
Pare ! what a different scene did its green
alleys present this evening from that which
they exhibited at the same hour last night !
Then it was crowded with the young and
the gay, and the gallant of the British
army, with the very men who were now
engaged in deadly strife, and perhaps
bleeding on the ground. Then it was
filled with female faces sparkling with
mirth and gaiety ; now terror, and anxiety,
and grief were marked upon every coun-
tenance we met.
In addition to the general alarm and
anxiety, which surpassed any thing it is in
my power to describe, we had a particular
subject of solicitude. We had but too
much reason to fear, that it would be im-
possible for Sir and Major
to join their regiment in time for
the action. The idea, the very doubt was
dreadful. If we listened to the cannonade
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 55
with such heart-sinking apprehensions for
them, what must have been their feelings,
if, at a distance from the army, absent
without leave, they heard its sounds ! After
years of service in various climates and
countries, after six long and glorious cam-
paigns in the Peninsula, would they forfeit,
by one act of imprudence, all the distinc-
tion they had obtained by a life devoted to
their country, and be found absent from
their post in the hour of danger ! Dear to
us as was the life of our friend, his honour
was still dearer ; and while every one else
was anxiously dreading lest the battle
should be near, and trembling at the re-
ports that prevailed of its vicinity, I was
secretly praying that it might not be dis-
tant, and would have felt inexpressibly re-
lieved to have been assured that it was
within a few miles of Brussels.
But it was in vain we attempted to dis-
56' A FEW DAYS
cover where it really was. Some people
said it was only six, some that it was ten,
and some that it was twenty miles off.
Numbers of people in carriages and on
horseback had gone out several miles on the
road which the army had taken, and all of
them had come back in perfect ignorance
of the real circumstances of the case, and
with some ridiculous report, which, for a
time, was circulated as the truth. No au-
thentic intelligence could be gained ; and
every minute we were assailed with the
most absurd and contradictory stories.
One moment we heard that the allied
army had obtained a complete victory ;
that the French had been completely re-
pulsed, and had left twenty thousand dead
upon the field of battle. Gladly would I
have believed the first part of this story,
but the twenty thousand dead I could
not swallow. Then again we were told,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 57
that the French, 180,000 strong, had at-
tacked the British ; that the Belgians had
abandoned their arms and fled ; that our
troops were literally cut to pieces ; and that
the French were advancing to Brussels.
Then an English gentleman stopped his
carriage to tell us, that he had been out
farther than any body, and that he had
actually seen the engagement, which was
between the French and the Prussians;
and that old Blucher had given the rascals
a complete beating. We had not gone
ten paces farther, before another man, in
a great hurry, advised us to set off in-
stantly, if we wished to make our escape ;
that he was on the point of going, for
that certain intelligence had been received,
" that the French had won the battle, and
that our army was retreating in the utmost
confusion/' I never remember to have felt
so angry in my life: and I indignantly
58 A FEW DAYS
exclaimed, that such a report deserved only
to be treated with contempt; and that it
must be false, for that the English would
never retreat in confusion. The man seemed
a little ashamed of himself; and Mr.
advised him, " by all means, to take care of
himself, and set off directly :" we hastened
on. Presently we met another of Mr. 's
wise friends, who assured us, with a face
of the greatest solemnity, " that the day
was going against us ; that the battle was
as good as lost ; that our troops had been
driven back from one position after another;
and that the artillery and baggage had
commenced the retreat : that all the horses
would be seized for the service of the
army ; and that in two hours it would be
impossible to get away." All this time we
could hear nothing of what was really pass-
ing; for these idle tales and unfounded
rumours were unworthy of a moment's at-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 5Q
tention, and did not give us a moment's
alarm : but the poor Belgians, not know-
ing what to make of all this, and nearly
frightened out of their senses, firmly ex-
pected the French in Brussels before the
morning ; for their terror of them was so
great and so deeply rooted, that they be-
lieved nothing on earth could stop their
advance.
This dreadful uncertainty and ignorance
of the truth made us truly wretched. No-
body knew any thing of the actual state of
affairs. Nobody could tell where our
army was engaged, nor under what cir-
cumstances, nor against what force, nor
whether separately or conjointly with the
Prussians, nor which side was gaining the
advantage. We knew nothing, except that
there was a battle, and that at no great
distance from us ; for that the unceasing
cannonade too certainly proved. Anxi-
60 A FEW DAYS
ously and vainly we looked for news from
the army none arrived. The consterna-
tion of the people was not to be described.
" The cannonade is approaching nearer !"
they exclaimed. " Hark ! how loud was
that peal! There, again! Our army
must be retreating. Good heavens ! what
will become of us \" On every side, in the
tones of terror and despondency, we heard
these exclamations repeated. Heard
through the density and stillness of the
evening air, the cannonade did, in fact, seem
to approach nearer, and become more
tremendous. During the whole evening
we wandered about the Pare, or stood in
silence on the ramparts, listening to the
dreadful thunder of the battle. At length
it became less frequent. How often did
we hope it had ceased, and vainly flatter
ourselves that each peal was the last!
when, again, after an awful paus% a louder*
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 6l
a longer roar burst on our ears, and it
raged more tremendously than ever. To
our great relief, about half past nine, it
became fainter and fainter, and at last en-
tirely died away.
After we had returned to the hotel, Sir
, who, in our absence, had
been twice at our rooms and in the Pare
in search of us, good naturedly came again,
to tell us that he had met Sir ,
who had left the field about half past five,
and that so far " all was well." The
French army had encountered our troops
on their march, upon the high road, about
fifteen miles from Brussels. The 92d and
42d Highland regiments were the first in
order of march. These brave men imme-
diately made a stand, formed into squares,
received the furious onset of the French
with undaunted intrepidity, and alone sus-
tained the fight, until the Royal Scots, the
28th, and some other regiments, came up
62 A FEW DAYS
to support them. Every regiment, as it
arrived, instantly formed and fought ; and
though the English had been taken by
surprize, unprepared, unconcentrated ;
without cavalry, and with scarcely any
artillery ; and, though the enemy outnum-
bered them far beyond all computation,
they had not yielded an inch of ground,
and they were- still fighting in the fullest
confidence of success. " There can be no
doubt of their repulsing the French/' said
Colonel , " but nothing of any im-
portance can be done till the cavalry come
up, which it is expected they will do this
evening. To-morrow the engagement will
most probably be renewed, and I hope it
will prove decisive/' The Duke, he said,
who was in excellent spirits, was to sleep
to-night at Genappe.
Certainly no other troops but the Eng-
lish, without any cavalry, and with very
little artillery, would have thought them-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 63
selves sure of repulsing an enemy with
both, and with an almost countless supe-
riority of numbers: and most certainly
none but the English could have achieved
it. It is a perversion of words to call the
troops engaged in the battle of Quatre
Bras the English army. During the
greater part of the day a few regiments
only, a mere handful of men, were op-
posed to the immense masses the French
*
continually poured down against them:
but they formed impenetrable squares,
which were in vain attacked by the French
cavalry, " steel clad cuirassiers," and in-
fantry; and against which tremendous
showers of shot and shell descended in
vain.
The 92d, 42d, 79th, the 28th, the 95th,
and the Royal Scots, were the first and
most hotly engaged. For several hours
these brave troops alone maintained the
O4 A FEW DAYS
tremendous onset and the shock of the
whole French army, and to their determined
valour, Belgium owes her independence,
and England her glory. I do not, how-
ever, mean to give them exclusive praise.
I do not doubt, that had the post of honour
fallen upon other British regiments they
would have acquitted themselves equally
well : but let honour be paid where it is so
justly due. Let England be sensible of
the vast debt of gratitude she owes them ;
and let the names of those who perished
there be enrolled in the long list of her
noblest heroes ! The 92d, 42d, and 79th
Highland regiments, had suffered most
severely. They had received the furious
and combined attack of the French cavalry
and infantry, from first to last, with un-
daunted firmness, till, after supporting this
unequal contest the whole day, after making
immense havoc among their columns, and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 65
repeatedly charging and driving them back
in confusion, they had themselves fallen
overpowered by numbers, and among
heaps of the slaughtered enemy, on the
very spot where they first stood to arms ;
and we were told that they were almost
to a man cut to pieces. With grief and
horror, not to be described, we thought
of these gallant soldiers, whom in the
morning we had seen march out so proudly
to battle, and who were now lying insen-
sible in death on the plains of Quatre
Bras. They had fought, and they had
fallen, as became the same noble spirits
who had wrested, from the same vaunting
foe, the standard of the Invincibles on the
sands of Egypt. They were gallantly sup-
ported by the 28th, who, on the same soil,
as well as in the long campaigns of Spain,
had gained immortal honour, and who
particularly distinguished themselves in this
66 A FEW DAYS
day's battle, by their complete repulse of
the French cuirassiers, who, though clad in
mail, and " armed at all points precisely
cap-a-pie," were driven back with immense
loss from every attack, and uniformly gave
way before the dreaded British charge with
the bayonet. One regiment of raw Belgic
troops had turned and fled where they had
the finest opportunity of charging. I con-
fess I was not sorry to hear that these re-
creant Belgians had almost to a man been
cut to pieces by the very French troops
they had not courage to face. The fate of
cowards is unpitied. The consequences of
their misconduct had, however, been re-
trieved by part of Sir Thomas Picton's
division,* which regained the post they had
lost, though with considerable slaughter.
* Consisting of the 28th, 32d, 79th, 95th, a battalion
of the 1st, or Royal Scots, the 42d, 92d, and the Cd bat-
talion of the 44th, and a battalion of Hanoverians. It
was the first division which arrived, and, during the prin-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 6?
After hearing this account our spirits
completely revived, I scarcely know why ;
for, except in the new proof we had just
had of invincible British valour and firm-
ness, there was nothing to inspire satisfac-
tion or confidence. We had just learned,
beyond all doubt, the truth of the alarming
report that the Prussians were separately
engaged with another division of the ene-
my, which completely outnumbered them.
Thus the allied armies seemed to be effec-
tually cut off and prevented from assisting
each other, or acting in concert. The
French then, whose combined numbers re-
port magnified to 180,000, were on two sides
of us, at the distance of only three hours
march from Brussels. Their army was col-
lected, combined, concentrated, and well-
appointed. The Prussians and the English
cipal part of the day, it was the only part of the British
army engaged.
F 2
68 A FEW DAYS
were surprized, separated, dispersed, and
unprepared : the latter were destitute of
cavalry, ill-supported by artillery, and with
an appalling inferiority even of infantry;
and these too partly composed of Belgians,
who seemed to make a practice of running
away. Yet in spite of all these disadvan-
tages, they had bravely stood the first brunt
of the battle, and we felt the firm assurance
that they would eventually triumph.
Colonel - - had left the army at half
past five, the battle, or at least the cannon-
ading, had lasted till about ten, and our
anxiety to know its results, our impatience
for further news from the army, may be
imagined : but no later intelligence ar-
rived; we could hear nothing but vague
reports of defeat, disaster, and dismay, to
which, as they were founded upon no au-
thority, we paid no attention. Sir -
- was going to join the army, like
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 69
many others who had no business there :
he was to set off at one in the morning, so
that we should see him no more, and, what
was infinitely worse, receive no more,
through him, immediate and authentic in-
telligence of all that was known. In this
respect he was a great loss to us, for he
was indefatigable in bringing us news, and
took unwearied pains to be of use to us in
every possible way.
Late as it was we went to see Mrs. '- ,
whom we knew to be in great alarm. We
found her sitting surrounded by plate, which
she was vainly trying to acquire sufficient
composure to pack up, with a face pale
with consternation, and quite overcome
with agitation and distress. We did all we
could to assist, .and said all we could
to console and reassure her. Mr.
had gone out towards the army, and,
late as it was, had not yet returned.
F3
70 A FEW DAYS
We staid with her some time, and had the
satisfaction of leaving her in much better
spirits than we found her.
J had engaged, and made an agree-
ment to pay for, horses, upon the condition
of their being in readiness to convey us to
Antwerp, at a moment's warning, by day
or night, if required. We had not, how-
ever, the smallest intention of leaving Brus-
sels for some days to come, unless some
sudden and unexpected change in public
events should render it absolutely neces-
sary. Thinking it, however, prudent to be
prepared, we had sent our valet de place to
la blanchisseuse, to desire her to send home
every thing belonging to us, early in the
morning. La blanchisseuse sent back a
message, literally to this effect, " Ma-
dame," said the valet, addressing himself to
me in French, " the blanchisseuse says,
that if the English should beat the French,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. ?1
she will iron and plait your clothes, and
finish them for you ; but if, au contraire,
these vile French should get the better, then
she will assuredly send you them all back
quite wet tout mouille early to-morrow
morning." At this speech, which the valet
delivered with immoveable gravity, we all,
with one accord, burst out a laughing, irre-
sistibly amused to find, that amongst the
important consequences of Buonaparte's
gaining the victory, would be our clothes
remaining unplaited and unironed; and
that the British were, in a manner, fighting,
in order that the getting up of our fine
linen might be properly performed. The
valet, as soon as he could obtain an hear-
ing, went on to say, that he sincerely
hoped we should get our clothes dried and
finished, and that the English would beat
ces diables de Francais; but this seemed
quite a secondary consideration with the
p 4
7 A FEW DAYS
valet, compared with ironing our clothes,
and we were again seized with an uncon-
troulable fit of laughter. Even the valet's
long face of dismay relaxed into some-
thing like a smile, and, as he left the room,
he said to himself, " Mais ces demoiselles
sont bien enjouees."
It was half past twelve; and hopeless
now of hearing any further news from the
army, we were preparing to retire to rest r
but rest was a blessing we were not destined
to enjoy in Brussels. We were suddenly
startled by the sound of the rapid rolling of
heavy military carriages, passing at full
speed through the Place Royale : a great
tumult instantly took place among the
people below ; the baggage waggons, which
we knew were not to set off, except in a
case of emergency, were harnessed in an
instant, and the noise and tumult became
every instant more alarming. For some
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 73'
minutes we listened in silence : faster and
faster, and louder and louder, the long
train of artillery continued to roll through
the town : the cries of the affrighted
people increased. I hastily flew out to
inquire the cause of this violent commo-
tion. The first person I encountered was
a poor, scared fille de chambre, nearly
frightened out of her wits. " Ah, ma-
dame I" she exclaimed, " les Francois sont
tout pres ; dans une petite demi-heure ils
seront ici Ah, grand Dieu ! Ah, Jesus !
Jesus ! que ferons-nous ! que ferons-nous \"
In vain I eagerly asked how she knew, or
why she believed, or from whence this
news came, that the French were near?
She could only reiterate, again and again,
", Les Francois sont tout pres les Fran-
ois sont tout pres:" my questions were
unanswered and unheard ; but suddenly
recollecting herself, she earnestly besought
74 A FEW DAYS
us to set off instantly, exclaiming, " Mais,,
mesdames, vous etes Anglaises il faut
partir tout de suite, tout dc suite," she re-
peated with great emphasis and gesticula-
tion, and then resumed her exclamations
and lamentations.
As I flew down stairs the house seemed
deserted. The doors of the rooms (which
in foreign hotels are not only shut, but
locked) were all wide open; the candles
were burning upon the tables, and the so-
litude and silence which reigned in the
house formed a fearful contrast to the in-
creasing tumult without. At the bottom
of the staircase a group of affrighted Bel-
gians were assembled, all crowding and
talking together with Belgic volubility.
They cried out that news had arrived of
the battle having terminated in the defeat
of the 'British ; that all the artillery and
baggage of the army were retreating ; and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 75
that a party of Belgians had just entered
the town, bringing intelligence that a large
body of French had been seen, advancing
through the woods to take Brussels, and
that they were only two leagues off. In
answer to my doubts and my questions,
they all exclaimed, " Ah ! c'est trop vrai ;
c'est trop vrai. Ne restez pas ici, made-
moiselle, ne restez pas ici ; partez, eloignez
vous vite : c'est affreux !"
" Mais demain matin " I began
" Ah ! demain matin," eagerly inter-
rupted a little good-humoured Belgic wo-
man, belonging to the hotel " demain
matin il n'y aura pas plus le terns une
autre heure peut-tre, et il ne sera pas plus
possible de partir." " Ecoutez, mademoi-
selle, ecoutez I" they cried, turning paler
and paler as the thundering noise of the
artillery increased. At this moment seve-
ral people, among whom were some English
76 A FEW DAYS
gentlemen and servants, rushed past us to
the stables, calling for their carriages to be
got ready instantly. " Appretez les che-
vaux tout de suite Vite ! vite ! il n'y a
pas im moment!" was loudly repeated in
all the hurry of fear. These people con-
firmed the alarm. I sent for our cocher,
and most reluctantly we began to think
that we must set off; when we found to our
inexpressible joy that the long trains of
artillery, which still continued to roll past
with the noise of thunder, were not flying
from the army, but advancing to join it.
It is impossible to conceive the blessed
relief this intelligence gave us. From that
moment we felt assured that the army was
safe, and our fears for ourselves were at an
end. My brother, who had been roused
from his sleep, and who, like many other
people, had been running about half-
dressed, and was still standing in his night-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 77
cap, in much perplexity what to do, now
went to bed again with great joy, declaring
he was resolved to disturb himself no more
about these foolish alarms.
We were now perfectly incredulous as
to the whole story of the French having
been seen advancing through the woods to
take Brussels; but the Belgians still re-
mained convinced of it ; and though they
differed about how it would be done, they
all agreed that Brussels would be taken.
Some of them thought that the British, and
some that the Prussians, had been de-
feated, and some that both of them had
been defeated, and that the French, having
broken through their lines, were advancing
to take Brussels; others believed that
Buonaparte, while he kept the allies em-
ployed, had sent round a detachment,
under cover of night, by a circuitous route
to surprize the town : but it seemed to be
78 A FEW DAYS
the general opinion, that before morning
the French would be here. The town was
wholly undefended, either by troops or for-
tifications : it was well known to be Na-
poleon's great object to get possession of it,
and that he would leave no means untried
to effect it. The battle had been fought
against the most fearful disparity of num-
bers, and under the most disadvantageous
circumstances to the British. Its event
still remained unknown ; above all, no in-
telligence from our army had arrived:
under such circumstances it was not sur-
prizing that the general despondency
should be so great; while continual ru-
mours of defeat, disaster, and dismay,
and incessant alarms, only served to con-
firm their worst fears. As the French,
however, had not yet come, this panic in
some degree subsided, and comparative
quietness seemed to be restored. Great
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 79
alarm, however, continued to prevail
through the whole night, and the baggage
waggons stood ready harnessed to set oft'
at a moment's notice. Several persons
took their departure, but we quietly went
to bed. S , however, only lay down
in her clothes, observing, half in jest and
half in earnest, that we might, perhaps, be
awakened by the entrance of the French ;
and overcome with fatigue, we both fell
fast asleep. Her prediction seemed to be
actually verified, for at six o'clock we were
roused by a violent knocking at the room-
door, accompanied by the cries of " Les
Francois sont ici ! les Francois sont ici I"
Starting out of bed, the first sight we be-
held from the window was a troop of
Belgic cavalry, galloping from the army,
at the most furious rate, through the Place
Royale, as if the French were at their
heels; and instantly the whole train of
80 A FEW DAYS
baggage waggons and empty carts, which
had stood before our eyes so long, set off,
full speed, by the Montague de la Cour,
and through every street by which it was
possible to effect their escape. In an in-
stant the whole great square of the Place
Royale, which had been crowded with
men, horses, carts, and carriages, was com-
pletely cleared, as if by magic, and entirely
deserted. The terrified people fled in every
direction, as if for their lives. While S ,
who had never undressed, flew to rouse
J , and I threw on my clothes I scarcely
knew how; I heard again the dreadful
cries of " Les Francois sont ici ! Us s'em-
parent de la porte de la ville !" My toilet,
I am quite certain, did not occupy one
minute ; and as I flew down stairs, in the
hope that it might yet be possible to effect
our escape, I met numbers of bewildercd-
looking people, running about half-dressed,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 81
in every direction, in all the distraction of
fear. The men with their night-caps on,
and half their clothes under their arms ;
the women with their dishevelled hair
hanging about their shoulders, and all of
them pale as death, and trembling in every
limb. Some were flying down stairs
loaded with all sorts of packages ; others
running up to the garrets sinking under
the accumulated weight of the most
heterogeneous articles. The poor fille
de chain bre, nearly frightened out of
her senses, was standing half-way down
the stairs, wringing her hands, and Un-
able to articulate any thing but " Les
Francois ! les Francois !" A little lower,
another woman was crying bitterly, and
exclaimed, as I passed her, " Nous
sommes tous perdus !" But no language
can do justice to the scene of confusion
which the court below exhibited : masters
82 A FEW DAYS
and servants, ladies and stable-boys, valets
and soldiers, lords and beggars; Dutch-
men, Belgians, and Britons; bewildered
garcons and scared filles de chambre ;
enraged gentlemen and clamorous coach-
men ; all crowded together, jostling, cry-
ing, scolding, squabbling, lamenting, ex-
claiming, imploring, swearing, and vocife-
rating, in French, English, and Flemish,
all at the same time. Nor was it only a
war of words ; the disputants had speedily
recourse to blows, and those who could
not get horses by fair means endeavoured
to obtain them by foul. The unresisting
animals were dragged away half-harnessed.
The carriages were seized by force and
jammed against each other. Amidst the
crash of wheels, the volley of oaths, and
the confusion of tongues, the mistress of
the hotel, with a countenance dressed in
woe, was carrying off her most valuable
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 83
plate in order to secure it, ejaculating, as
she went, the name of Jesus incessantly
and, I believe, unconsciously ; while the
master, with a red night-cap on his head,
and the eternal pipe sticking mecha-
nically out of 1 one corner of his mouth,
was standing with his hands in his pockets,
a silent statue of despair.
Amidst this uproar I soon found out our
cdcher, but, to my utter consternation, he
vehemently swore, " that he would neither
go himself, nor let his horses go ; no, not
to save the King of Holland himself; for
that the French were just at hand, and that
they would take his horses, and murder
him :" and neither entreaties, nor bribes,
nor arguments, nor persuasions, had the
smallest effect upon him ; he remained
inexorable, and so did numbers of the
fraternity. While J , who had now
come down stairs, was vainly and angrily
G 2
84 A FEW DAYS
expostulating with him, I inquired on all
sides, and of all people, if there was no
possibility of procuring other horses. The
good-natured garcon of the house ex-
claimed, " that if there were horses to be
had in Brussels, I should have them ;" and
away he ran in quest of them, while I con-
tinued my fruitless inquiries. In a little
while he returned disappointed and un-
successful, exclaiming, with a face of
horror that I shall never forget, " II n'y a
pas un seul cheval, et les Francois sont
tout pres de la ville." At this moment in
rushed Mr. , in an agony of terror,
panting, breathless, and exhausted, crying
to us, " that his carriage was ready, that
they could carry one of us, and that we
must come away instantly." It was to no
purpose both he and I implored S to
go with him. S - was inflexible. No-
thing could induce her to go without us,
RESIDENCE IX BELGIUM. 85
and, finding she was immovable, Mr.
ran off with the good natured inten-
tion of taking Lady , since we
refused to go singly. With incredible ex-
pedition, one English carriage after another
drove off at full speed, and we were left
to our fate. Of the rapid approach of the
enemy we could not entertain the smallest
doubt. To say I was frightened is nothing :
I honestly confess I never knew what terror
was before. Never shall I forget the horror'
of those moments. Our own immediate
danger, and all the dreadful list of uncer-
tain, undefined evils to which we might be
exposed, in the power of those merciless
savages ; the anxiety, the distress, and de-
spair of our friends at home, joined to the
dreadful idea, that the English army had
been overwhelmed by numbers, defeated,
perhaps cut to pieces, agonized my mind
with feelings which it is impossible to de-
G3
86
A FEW DAYS
scribe. Escape seemed, however, impos-
sible : like Richard, I would have gladly
given my kingdom (if I had had one)
for a horse, or at least for a pair ; but no
horses were to be had, neither for love,
money, nor kingdoms.
In the midst of this state of terror and
suspense, I suddenly beheld Major .
If an angel had descended from heaven 1
could not have welcomed him with more
transport. Hope revived : and, springing
forward to meet him, I exclaimed, " Oh !
Major is it true!" His counte-
nance inspired little comfort; he looked
pale, and struck with horror and conster-
nation. " God forbid!" he exclaimed: " I
hope not. I do not believe it ; but I am
going to inquire, and I will come back to
you immediately." He wrung my hand,
and hurried away. In the mean time I
flew up stairs to collect all our things and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 8?
bundle them together, to be ready for
instant departure, if we should be able
to procure horses. Never was packing
more expeditiously performed : I am cer-
tain it did not occupy any thing like three
minutes. With the help of the valet de
place, I crammed them all together, wet
and dry, into the travelling-bags and port-
manteaus, without the smallest ceremony.
Every minute seemed to be an age, till
at last Major returned with the
blessed assurance, that it was a false alarm ;
" that for the present, at least, we were in
no danger/' It is quite impossible to give
the smallest idea of the transport we felt,
when we found that the enemy were not
at hand, that our army was not defeated,
and that we ourselves were not in the
power of the French. I never can forget
the extasy of that moment; the bliss of
that deliverance ; and the inexpressible
G 4
88 A FEW DAYS
comfort of those feelings of safety which we
now enjoyed. No fabled spirit, emerging
from the dark and dismal regions of Pluto
to the brightness and beauty of the Elysian
Fields, could feel more transporting joy,
than we did when " the spectre forms of
terror" fled, and we felt secure from every
danger. From two English gentlemen,
and lastly from Lord , we received
a confirmation of these happy tidings.
The alarm had been raised by those das-
tardly Belgians whom we had seen scam-
pering through the town, and who had
most probably been terrified by the same
foraging party of the enemy which had
afterwards, we were told, come up even to
the gates of the city, insolently summoning
it to surrender. They were supposed to
have come from the side of the Prussians ;
and, knowing the defenceless state of
Brussels, amused themselves with this
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 89
bravado. Their appearance had con-
firmed the alarm beyond all doubt, and
given rise to the dreadful cry, that the
French were seizing on the gates of the
town. The panic had indeed been dread-
ful, but it was now happily over.
Major again attempted to go
to the Place Roy ale, but he was instantly
surrounded by a clamorous multitude, who,
knowing him by his dress to be an aide-de-
camp of the Duke, angrily exclaimed,
" What is the reason that nothing is done
for our security ?. Are we to be left here
abandoned to the enemy ? Are we to be
given up to the French in this way ? Why
is not the City Guard ordered out to defend
the town ?" (The City Guard to defend the
town from the French !) We could not
help laughing at the idea of the excellent
defence the City Guard of Brussels would
make against the French army. But the
90 A FEW DAYS
frightened and enraged Belgians could not
be pacified, and they beset poor Major
so unmercifully that he was fain to
retreat again within the H6tel de Flandre.
He told us, that the battle of yesterday
had been severe, and most obstinately con-
tested. The French, whose superiority of
force was so great as to surpass all com-
putation, had borne down with dreadful
impetuosity upon our little army. " Du-
ring all his campaigns, and all the bloody
battles of the Peninsula/' Major
said, " he had never seen so terrible an
onset, nor so desperate an engagement.
The British, formed into impenetrable
squares, received the French cavalry with
their bayonets ; drove them back again
and again ; stood firm beneath the fire of
their tremendous artillery ; and, after many
hours hard fighting, completely repulsed
the enemy, and remained masters of the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 91
field of battle." Our. cavalry had come
up in the evening, but too late to take any
part in the action. A French General and
Colonel had come over to the British
during the battle, crying " Vive le Roi !"
Their names I heard, but they have since
escaped my memory :* indeed, the names
of men who were base enough treacherously
to desert the cause even of a rebel and a
tyrant, in the hour of danger, which they
had openly espoused, ought only to be
stamped with everlasting infamy. These
men must have been doubly traitors, -first
to Louis XVIII. and then to Napoleon
Buonaparte.
The French were commanded by Mar-
shal Ney,-f- who, with three divisions of
* Since writing the above, I have found that the names
of these officers were Lieutenant General Beurmout, and
Colonel Clouet.
f Ney, in his own account of this battle, says, " in
92 A TEW DAYS
infantry, a strong corps of cavalry, (under
the command of General Kellerman,) and
a powerful artillery, could make no im-
pression on one division of British infantry,
without any cavalry, and with very little
artillery. It was but too true, that the
greatest part of the brave Highlanders,
both men and officers, were amongst the
killed and wounded. They fought like
heroes, and like heroes they fell an honour
to their country: and on many a High-
land hill, and through many a Lowland
valley, long will the deeds of these brave
men be fondly remembered, and their fate
deeply deplored ! The 28th had particu-
spite of my exertions, in spite of the intrepidity and
devotion of my troops, my utmost exertions could only
maintain me in my position till the close of the day."
He then complains grievously of having had ow/y three
divisions to fight against the British, and boasts of xvhat
he would have done, if he had had five. Vide Marshal
Key's Letter.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 93
larly distinguished themselves, and gal-
lantly repulsed the French in every attack.
Our friend Major was safe ; and I
scarcely know whether the assurance of
his safety, or that he and Sir
had been in time for the battle, gave me
the most heartfelt pleasure. Our loss had
been severe, but that of the enemy much
greater; but though our loss was less in
actual numbers, it was much more impor-
tant to us than that which the enemy had
sustained was to them. From their great
superiority of force, the killed and wounded
fell proportionably heavier on our small
army ; while theirs was scarcely felt among
their tremendous hosts.
When Major came away, about
half past four in the morning, the Duke
had made every disposition for battle, in
the full expectation that a general engage-
ment would take place this day. " The
94 A FEW DAYS
Prussians had fought like lions," Major
said; not, however, like British
lions, for it was but too true that they had
been defeated and repulsed; though we
would not at the time give entire credit to
this disagreeable news. Waggon loads of
Prussians now began to arrive. Belgic
soldiers, covered with dust and blood, and
faint with fatigue and pain, came on foot
into the town. The moment in which I
first saw some of these unfortunate people
was, I think, one of the most painful I ever
experienced ; and soon, very soon, they
arrived in numbers. At every jolt of the
slow waggons upon the rough pavement, we
seemed to feel the excruciating pain which
they must suffer. Sick to the very heart
with horror, I re-entered the hotel, and, in
answer to something Major said to
me, I could only exclaim that the wounded
were coming in. " Good God ! how pale
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 95
you look ! For God's sake do not be so
alarmed," said the good natured Major
, compassionately laying his hand
upon my arm ; " I do assure you there is
nothing to fear. The wounded must come
here at any rate : it has nothing to do with
a defeat." Long familiarised himself to
such scenes, they now made no impression
upon him, and it never occurred to him
to imagine, that we could be shocked
by seeing any thing so common as wag-
gons filled with wounded soldiers. He
thought it was the victory or the approach
of the French that I feared.
Again, however, he strongly recom-
mended us to set off immediately. If the
army should have to retreat and fall back
upon Brussels, which, considering the im-
mense force of the enemy, he said, was not
improbable, the confusion in Brussels
would be dreadful, and escape impossible.
96 A FEW DAYS
The French might even take the town, and
then our situation would be horrible in-
deed. Of the prudence and wisdom of
this advice there could be no doubt. We
had experienced the utter impracticability
of getting away in the moment of danger ;
we knew not how soon that moment might
return. Had we ourselves possessed the
means of escape, like the and
others, who had horses of their own, no-
thing could have induced us to have left
Brussels, to the last ; but to remain exposed
to incessant alarm and to imminent danger,
in an open town, which before night might
be in the possession of a merciless enemy,
whose formidable armies were threatening
it in two separate divisions, at the distance
of a very few leagues, seemed certainly
little less than madness. With extreme
reluctance, we at last determined to set
out for Antwerp. The , though they
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 97
had carriage-horses, were on the point of
setting off; the carriages of Lady
and were also at
their doors, the trunks and imperiales were
tying on with the utmost dispatch, though
they had at all times the means of escape
within their power.
Our faithless cocher now declared he
was willing to go with us, as the French,
he said, were not yet come and to
Antwerp accordingly we consented to
repair. We had had no breakfast all this
time, nor would it ever have occurred to
us to procure any, had not the sight of
Major 's breakfast-tray reminded us
of our own famishing state. We swallowed
some coffee and bread, sitting on one of
the window-seats of the staircase of the
H6tel de Flandre, and then with great
regret set off, casting " many a longing,
lingering look behind," with feelings of
H
f)8 A FEW DAYS
anxiety so deep and overwhelming for the
fate and success of our army, that it en-
grossed all our faculties. Upon the event
of the impending battle, which we fully
believed this very day was to decide,
depended not only the present as well as
the future peace and security of Belgium
and of Europe ; but, what I confess was to
us even yet more dear, the safety and the
glory of our gallant army. Absorbed in
these reflections, as we slowly made our way
out of the town, we witnessed many a me-
lancholy sight ; crowds of afflicted people
were assembled round their poor wounded
countrymen who had been brought in from
the field. One soldier was dying at the
door of his own house : the sobs and la-
mentations of some of the crowd who were
collected round him, and the grief marked
on their countenances, proclaimed them to
be near relations of the unfortunate sufferer.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 99
Quite in the suburbs, some poor people
were hanging over the insensible corpses of
two soldiers who had died of their wounds.
The streets were crowded so as to be
scarcely passable: carriages were driving
past each other as fast as the horses could
go. All Brussels seemed to be running
away ; and the only competition appeared
to be who should run the fastest. The road
was thronged with people on horseback
and on foot, flying from the battle, while
scattered parties of troops, British, Belgic,
Hanoverian, Nassau, and Prussian, were
hurrying to the scene of action. A great
number of Prussian Lancers, with their
black mustachios, high caps, long pikes,
and little horses, were pushing forwards to
the field. Long trains of commissariat-
waggons were rolling along with a deafen-
ing clatter ; overturned carts and the re*-
H 2
100 A FEW DAYS
mains of broken wheels were lying in the
ditches. By the way side, and beneath the
shade of some tall trees, there was a large
rude sort of encampment, consisting of
nien and women, horses and waggons,
amongst which universal uproar seemed to
prevail. I could have fancied them a
Tartar settlement in the act of suddenly
decamping at the approach of some horde
of savage enemies. Farther on, parks of
artillery were drawn up in the peaceful
verdant meadows. Droves of oxen were
going up to be slaughtered for the army,
and the poor beasts, amazed at the horrid
objects and noises which they encountered,
took fright and ran about in every direction
except the right one, entirely blocking
up the road, where confusion reigned un-
bounded : while the barking of the dogs,
the blows and halloos of the drivers, the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 101
curses of the soldiers, and the vexation of
the passengers, only served to increase the
turbulence of the unruly cattle. The canal,
by the side of which the road is carried,
was covered with boats and trackschuyts
and coches d'eau and vessels of every de-
scription, and presented a scene of tumult
and confusion scarcely inferior to that upon
land.
About three miles from Brussels, situated
upon an eminence above the road, we
passed the magnificent palace of Lacken.
I shuddered as I looked up to its lofty
dome, and recollected that Napoleon had
made the boast that this very night he
would sleep beneath its roof. Uncertain
as we then were, how the day that had
risen might terminate, believing as we did
that the eventful battle was even now be-
gun which was to decide the fate of Europe,
my heart swelled with the proud confidence,
nS
A TEW DAYS
that unprepared, unconcentrated, outnum-
bered as they were ; leagued with foreign-
ers who could not be depended upon, and
with allies who had been defeated, J et that
under every disadvantage British valour
would still be triumphant, as it had .ever
been in every contest and at every period.
Great numbers of wounded stragglers from
the field were slowly and painfully wander-
ing along the road, pale and faint from
loss of blood, and with their heads, arms,
and legs bound up with bloody bandages.
We spoke to several of them, but they were
all either Belgic or Prussian, and did not
understand a word of French. Two of
the most severely wounded we took up
upon our carriage and carried into Malines,
where they told the c6cher their friends
.Jived. From him we learnt, that they had
been wounded in the battle yesterday
.morning. I saw one young English gen-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 103
tlcman, who was travelling quite alone in
his own carriage, sternly order down two
of these unfortunate wounded men from
his carriage.
The wounded, however, whom we saw
were able to move. In time they would
reach a place of safety and shelter ; but, if
even their sufferings were so great that the
very sight of them was painful, what must
be the state of those who were left bleeding
on the field of the lost battle, deserted by
the retreating Prussians, passed by, un-
pitied and unaided, by the advancing
French, and abandoned to perish in suf-
ferings from the bare idea of which huma-
nity recoils!* The day was unusually
* Not even imagination could form an idea of the
dreadful sufferings that the unfortunate soldiers of the
French and Prussian armies, who were wounded in the
battles of the 15th and 16th June, were condemned to
endure. It was not until nearly a week afterwards that
surgical aid, or assistance of any kind, was given to
u 4
104 A FEW DAYS
sultry : but if we felt the rays of the sun
beneath which we journeyed to be so op-
pressive, what must be the situation of
the poor unsheltered wounded, exposed
to its fervid blaze in the open field, with-
out even a drop of water to cool their
thirst? What must be the sufferings of
our own unfortunate men, above all, of
those who were not only wounded but pri-
soners, and at the mercy of the merciless
French? Never never till this moment
them. During all this time they remained exposed to
the burning heat of the noon-day sun, the heavy rains,
and the chilling dews of midnight, without any sustenance
except what their importunity extorted from the country
people, and without any protection even from the flies
that tormented them. Numbers had expired; the most
trifling wounds had festered, and amputation in almost
every instance had become necessary. This, and every
other necessary operation, was most unskilfully and negli-
gently performed by the Prussian surgeons. The descrip-
tion I heard of this scene of horror, from some respecta-
ble Belgic gentlemen who were spectators of it on the
Wednesday following, is too dreadful to repeat.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 105
had I any conception of the horrors of
war ! and they have left an impression
6n my mind which no time can efface.
Dreadful indeed is the sight of pain and
misery we have no power to relieve, but
far more dreadful are the horrors imagina-
tion pictures of the scene of carnage ; the
agonies of the wounded and the dying on
the field of battle, where even the dead
who had fallen by the sword, in the prime
of youth and health, are to be envied !
the thought was agony, and yet I could
not banish it from my mind.
At a little inn, half way to Malines, we
got out of the carriage while the horses
were eating their rye-bread, and the poor
people of the village crowded around us
with faces of the greatest consternation and
distress, to inquire what had happened.
They had heard such varying and contra-
dictory reports that they knew not what to
106 A FEW DAYS
believe, but terror was the predominant
feeling ; and their horror of the approach
of the French, which they were convinced
would happen sooner or later, surpassed
every thing I could have imagined. In
spite of all we could say to inspire confi-
dence, and to convince them that the
English had been, and would still be, vic-
torious, and that the French would never
again be masters of Belgium, their appre-
hensions completely overpowered their
hopes ; and their alarm and consternation
were truly pitiable. I asked them why
they feared the French so much? With
one accord they immediately burst out into
exclamations, that they would plunder and
destroy every thing, and rob and murder
them ; that they were monsters who had
no pity and would shew no mercy : " Oh !
what will become of us ! what will become
of us !" was the universal cry of these poor
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 107
affrighted peasants. They were anxious
about the Duke of Brunswick, and when
they heard that he had really fallen, (which
we had learnt from Major ,) their
lamentations were great, and the certainty
of his fate seemed to increase their despon-
dency. He must have been a good prince
whose fate could at such a moment be
deplored. He had a country seat in the
neighbourhood of Lacken, and he was
consequently well known and much be- '
loved in this part of the country. An
officer in a dark military great coat, whom
I took for a German, hearing me talk to
some poor affrighted women with babies
in their arms, whom I was endeavouring
to reassure, asked me in French if I had
<g>me from Brussels, and what was the
issue of yesterday's battle ? I told him all
the particulars I knew, and after some
.minutes' conversation he said at last, with
108 A FEW DAYS
the air of a person paying a compliment,
that he understood some of my countrymen
had behaved most gallantly : " comme
braves hommes" was his expression.
" Some of my countrymen !" I indignantly
exclaimed, feeling myself turn as red as
fire at this foreigner's degrading and par-
tial praise of the British army " they all
behaved most gallantly, they fought like
heroes ; how else should the French have
been repulsed : and when did the English
behave otherwise V " The English ! but
you are not English surely, Madame?"
said the officer. " Oui, Monsieur," said I
proudly, " je suis Anglaise." " Et moi
aussi," said he, half laughing ; and during
the short time our conversation lasted, we
condescended to make use of our mother-
tongue. He proved to be an English
officer going from Antwerp to join the
army, and I 'took him for a German,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 109
chiefly I think because he accosted me in
French, and because he did not look much
like an Englishman. Why he took me for
a Belgian, heaven only knows ; it was not
likely that a Belgic lady should be speak-
ing in French to the Belgic people, rather
than in the common language of the
country.
A party of Nassau troops, in their way
to the army, were sitting drinking in some
long Flemish waggons at the door of the
inn. A Prussian hussar, whom we had
passed on the road, arrived while we were
there. The moment he dismounted from
his horse he was assailed by the Nassau
soldiers for news of the battle. While he
was telling them his story, anxiety for intelli-
gence made me draw as near as I durst.
The loud voices of the soldiers, however,
drowned the greater part of his recital,
and their language was so barbarous that
110 A FEW DAYS
I could only make out that they were
making a joke of Louis XVIII., and
laughing at the idea of the fright he would
be in, and saying, that he was so fat and
unwieldy, he would never be able to run
away before Napoleon's long legs overtook
him. Such at least seemed to me to be
the subject of their mirth. The hussar,
seeing me, I suppose, gazing at him very
wistfully, respectfully took off his cap,
which encouraged me to ask him if I had
not misunderstood him, that I thought I
had heard him say the French had beaten
the Prussians. " No, Madame/' said he,
with an air of great concern, " it is really
so; the French did beat the Prussians."
" The French beat the Prussians !" I ex-
claimed : " Did you say, Sir, that the
French had beat the Prussians? are you
sure of it ?" " Too sure, Madame : I was
in the battle/' I now perceived for the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. Ill
first time that he was slightly wounded :
his long blue cloak, which nearly descended
to his feet, had concealed it. He told us
that, after a very desperate engagement,
the Prussians had been repulsed, and that
the French were in great force. We had
repeatedly heard this at Brussels, but,
unwilling to believe bad news, we had
hoped it would prove false, and even yet
we would gladly have taken refuge in
incredulity.
The garcon of this inn, a fine youth
with a most engaging countenance, was
in great anxiety and alarm at the approach
of the French, and he implored us to tell
him the whole truth, for if they should
come it would cost him his life, and he
would fly to the end of the w r orld to
avoid them. We assured him that the
French had been repulsed yesterday, when
our force was not half collected, and that,
112 A PEW DAYS
now that the cavalry and all the troops
had joined the army, there could be no
doubt that the English would be victo-
rious. " Ah ! je Fespere !" said the garcon ;
" mais ils sont terribles, ces Francois."
We assured him that terrible as they were,
they would never conquer the British and
Belgic army, nor regain possession of Bel-
gium. The garcon fervently prayed they
never might : " Mais, je ne sais quoi
faire, moi," said this poor youth in his
Belgic French, with a face of extreme
perplexity, as we drove off.
Of the town of Malines (Mechlin) I do
not retain the smallest remembrance ; but
the consternation of the people with whom
it was crowded, and their faces of terror
and distress I shall never forget. They
were struck with universal dismay, and so
thoroughly convinced that Napoleon would
be victorious, that we might as well have
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 113
talked to the winds as have told them that
he would be defeated. They only shook
their heads and despondingly said, " Ah !
he has so many soldiers, and he is so
desperate and he cares not how many
thousands he sacrifices; he cares for no-
thing but his ambition : Oh ! he will be
here, that is too certain/' The garcon
of this inn had been a conscript and
served two years in the French army. At
the expiration of that period he had pro-
cured a substitute for one thousand florins,
which money, I suspect, he had amassed
by plunder. He was, however, a most
intelligent man, and his hatred of the
French, and of Napoleon in particular,
was so strong, that he could not refrain
from pouring out a most eloquent torrent
of invective against him : " and throughout
the whole of Belgium he is equally dreaded
and detested in every place except at
1.14 A FEW DA.YS
Antwerp," added he, correcting himself;
" there he has some adherents, for many
people grew rich by the public works,
and by making the docks, and building
the ships, and supplying the arsenal ; and
many grew rich upon the distresses of the
people and therefore they wish for him
back again." My brother observed that
he had certainly done a great deal for
Antwerp, and made great improvements,
and he particularly mentioned the docks
and the quays.
" Yes ! he did a great many fine things
to be sure at Antwerp, but he took care to
make us pay for them. Au reste," con-
tinued he, " the people of Antwerp, that
is, the merchants and the manufacturers
and all the decent industrious people,
hate him, with their whole hearts." " And
why do the Belgians all hate him so
much ?" I asked. " Why ! because he,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 115
stopped our trade ; he ruined our manu-
factures and commerce ; he took our men
to fight his battles, and our money to fill
his pockets and he took from us the
means to get money : here in this very
town the lace manufacturers were starved ;
the work-women had no employment ; our
streets were filled with beggars our priests
were insulted he destroyed, he consumed
every thing." " II a mange tout," was the
phrase he frequently repeated, with an ex-
pression of voice and gesture so strong that
I can give no idea of it. " But he cannot
live without war, nor can the French ; it is
their trade they live by it they make their
fortunes by it they place all their hopes
in it ; they are wolves that prey upon other
nations ; they live by blood and plunder :
They are true banditti, (vrais brigands,)
and they are so cruel, so wicked ils
sont si mechans" It is impossible to give
i2
116 A FEW DAYS
the force of this expression in a literal
translation. When we asked him if the
Belgians did not dislike the Dutch, and
if the government of the House of Orange
was not unpopular ? he said, " Je vous
dirai, Monsieur Les Hollandais et les
Beiges never liked each other, and one
great reason is the difference of our reli-
gion. They think us Papists and bigots,
and we think them Puritans and Calvinists ;
besides we were always rivals and always
jealous of each other, and we think (c'est
a dire les Beiges) that their king becoming
our king, is as if we had fallen under their
dominion. If we may not be an indepen-
dent nation, we would, perhaps, rather
belong to the English or to the Austrians*
but we would rather belong to any thing
to the devil himself than to Napoleon
Buonaparte/'
The poor lace-makers whom we saw
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 117
were in nervous alarm and trepidation at
the expected approach of the dreaded
French, whom they reviled with all the
bitterness and volubility of female elo-
quence. The same sentiments were writ-
ten upon every countenance, and uttered
by every tongue. In every village and
every hamlet through which we passed,
the utmost consternation seemed to reign.
We met officers on horseback and detach-
ments of troops marching to join the army.
It was with difficulty I refrained from be-
seeching them to hasten forwards : it
seemed to me that every man was of im-
portance. At another time I might have
been interested with seeing the country ;
but now I could not look at it I could
not think of it ; and as my eye rested with
a vacant gaze upon the waving fields of
luxuriant corn through which we passed,
I could only feel the heart-sickening dread,
i3
118 A FEW DAYS
that the harvests of Belgium, though they
had been sown in peace, would be reaped
iii blood. We had every reason to think
that the mortal struggle had been renewed ;
Lord Wellington himself, the whole army
expected it. How then was it possible,
believing as we did, that within a few
leagues of us, the battle was at that time
raging that was to decide the fate of
Europe, and give or take from our gallant
countrymen the palm of victory and of
glory that we could for a single instant
feel the smallest interest about any thing
else?
At a distance, we saw the lofty spire of
the cathedral of Antwerp, without then
admiring its beauty, or even being con-
scious that it was beautiful. We looked,
we felt, indeed, like moving automatons.
Our persons were there, but our minds
were absent. Every step we took only
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 119
seemed to increase our solicitude for all
we left behind. Our thoughts still to the
battle
" turned with ceaseless pain,
And dragged at each remove a lengthening chain."
A tremendous storm of thunder and
lightning and rain burst over our heads.
It was peculiarly aAvful. But what are the
thunder and lightnings of heaven to the
thunder and lightnings of war which, per-
haps, at this very moment, were sweeping
away thousands ! The thunderbolts of
God are merciful and harmless ; those of
man deadly and destructive. We thought
of this storm, as of every thing else, only
with reference to our army to those who
were fighting, and those who were bleeding
pn the field of battle, and who were ex-
posed unsheltered to its rage.
We gazed with admiration at the
threatening walls and ancient battlements
i4
120 A FEW DAYS
of Antwerp, which are encircled with a
wooden palisade. This seemed a com-
plete work of supererogation, and struck
me as being something like putting a
strong box of iron into a band-box of
pasteboard for further security.* Three
walls of immense strength and thickness,
surrounded by three broad deep ditches
or moats, lay one behind another. To
an ignorant, unpractised eye like mine, its
fortifications seemed to be impregnable ;
and as we passed under its gloomy gates,
and slowly crossed its sounding draw-
bridges, I heartily wished that the whole
British army were safe within its walls.
This was certainly more " a woman's than
a warrior's wish/' Antwerp was already
crowded with fugitives from Brussels ; and
* This was, I find, only a proof of my ignorance ; I
afterwards learnt that wooden palisades add greatly to
the strength of fortifications.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 121
with considerable difficulty we got the ac-
commodation of two very small rooms in
the hotel of Le Grand Labourer, in the
Place de Maire.
No later authentic intelligence than that
which we had heard previously to leaving
Brussels had been received here; reports
of all kinds assailed us, as quick and
varying as the tints of the evening clouds,
but we could learn nothing; the com-
mandant knew nothing ; we could not even
ascertain whether another engagement had
taken place to-day, and in miserable sus-
pense we passed the remainder of the
evening.
One of the apartments in our hotel was
occupied by the corpse of the Duke of
Brunswick, which had arrived about two
o'clock. It had been already embalmed,
and was now placed in its first coffin. My
brother went to see it : but the room was
122 A TEW DAYS
so crowded with guards and soldiers, British
and foreign military, and with people of
every description, that neither my sister
nor I chose to go. My brother described
the countenance as remarkably placid and
noble ; serene even in death. It was past
midnight : J and S had gone to
rest, and I was sitting alone, listening to
the incessant torrents of rain which drove
furiously against the windows, and think-
ing of our army, who were lying on the
cold, wet ground, overcome with toil, and
exposed to all " the pelting of the pitiless
storm." Every thing was silent, when I
heard, all at once, the dismal sounds of
nailing down the coffin of the Duke of
Brunswick. It was a solemn and affecting
sound ; it was the last knell of the departed
princely warrior : when at length it ceased,
and all again was silent, I went down
with the young woman of the house, to look
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 123
at the last narrow mansion of this brave
and unfortunate prince. Tapers were
burning at the head and foot of the coffin.
The room was now cleared of all, except-
ing two Brunswick officers who were
watching over it, and whose pale, mournful
countenances, sable uniforms, and black
nodding plumes, well accorded with this
gloomy chamber of death. It was but
yesterday that this prince, in the flower of
life and fortune, went out to the field full of
military ardour, and gloriously fell leading
on his soldiers to battle. But he has lived
long enough who has lived to acquire
glory : he dies a noble death who dies for
his country. The Duke of Brunswick
lived and died like a hero, and he has left
his monument in the hearts of his people,
by whom his fate will be long and deeply
lamented ; and by future times his memory
will be honoured.
124 A FEW DAYS
It seemed to be my invariable lot at the
dead hour of the night to be disturbed with
some new and terrible alarm. I had not
returned many minutes to my room, after
this visit to the remains of departed great-
ness, and I was just preparing to go to bed,
when I suddenly heard the well known
hateful sounds of the rolling of heavy mili-
tary carriages, passing rapidly through the
streets, which were instantly succeeded by
the trampling of horses' feet, the clamour
of voices, and all the hurry of alarm. The
streets seemed thronged with people.
Concluding that some news must have ar-
rived, I hastily went out to the little apart-
ment which the young woman of the house
occupied, and where she told me at any
hour she was to be found but she was
gone, and the noise below was so great,
and the men's voices so loud, that I durst
not venture down stairs. I wandered
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 125
along the passages, and hung over the ba-
lustrades of the staircase, listening to this
increasing noise in a state of the most pain-
ful suspense. At last the girl returned with
a countenance of consternation, and pale
as death. I eagerly inquired, if there was
any news. She said that there was ; the
very worst ! that all was lost ; that our
army had been compelled to retreat, and
were falling back upon Brussels : the
French pursuing them. All the English
had left Brussels. People in carriages, on
horseback, and on foot, were flying into
Antwerp in the greatest dismay. Baggage
waggons, ammunition, and artillery, were
pouring into the town on all sides : and
" enfin, Madame/' said she, " tout est per-
du r
For a few minutes, consternation over-
powered all my faculties. The English
retreating, pursued by the French, over-
126 A FEW DAYS
whelmed by a tremendous superiority of
numbers our gallant countrymen vainly
sacrificed the flower of our army laid
low Buonaparte and the French triumph-
ant ! the thought was not to be borne :
till this moment I never knew the bitter-
ness, the extent of my hatred to them. It
never occurred to me to doubt that there
had been a battle, and it seemed too pro-
bable that its result had been unfavourable
to the British. I hoped, however, that
they were only retreating in consequence
of their extreme inferiority of force to the
enemy, to wait until they were joined
either by the fresh reinforcements of our
own troops which were expected, or by
the Russians. Some experienced officers
had thought this might probably happen,
even when the troops first marched out of
Brussels. I recollected Lord Wellington
entrenching himself in the lines of Torres
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 127
Vedras. I recalled with proud confidence
the multiplied triumphs of my countrymen
in arms, and I firmly believed that, what-
ever might be the temporary reverses, or
appearance of reverse, they would even-
tually prove victorious.
But in vain I endeavoured to reassure
this poor terrified girl, or inspire her with
the conviction I felt myself, that though
the English might retreat before an over-
powering force, against which it would be
madness to keep the field, they only re-
treated to advance with more strength;
and that when joined by fresh reinforce-
ments they would give battle and beat the
French ; and that with such a general and
such an army they never had been, and
they never could be, defeated.
I succeeded much better in inspiring
myself with hope and confidence than this
poor young woman ; but all that I my-
128 A FEW DAYS
self endured during this long night of
misery is not to be imagined or described.
The uncertain fate of our army, their cri-
tical situation, and the dread that some
serious reverse had befallen them, filled
my mind with the most dreadful apprehen-
sions. Worn out as I had been with two
successive nights of sleepless alarm, this
news had effectually murdered sleep ; and
even when fatigue for a few minutes over-
powered my senses, I started up again
with a sense of horror, to listen to the beat-
ing of the heavy torrents of rain, and the
dismal sounds of alarm which filled the
streets ; the rattle of carriages continually
driving to the door, crowded with fugitives
who vainly solicited to be taken in, and
drove away utterly at a loss where to find
a place of shelter ; and the deafening noise
of the rolling of heavy military waggons
which, during the whole night, never ceased
11ESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 129
a single moment. So deep was the im-
pression these sounds had made upon my
senses, so associated had they now become
with feelings of dismay and alarm, that
long after every terror was ended in the
glorious certainty of victory, 1 never could
hear the rattling of these carriages, and
the thundering of their wheels, without a
sensation of horror that went to my very
heart.
The morning, the eventful morning of
Sunday the 18th of June rose, darkened
by clouds and mists and driving rain.
Amongst the rest of the fugitives, our friends
the arrived about seven o'clock,
and, after considerable difficulty and delay,
succeeded in obtaining a wretched little
hole in a private house, with a miserable
pallet bed, and destitute of all other
furniture ; but they were too glad to find
shelter, and too thankful to get into a
place of safety, to complain of these incon-
130 A FEW DAYS
veniences ; and overcome with fatigue they
went immediately to bed. It was not with-
out considerable difficulty and danger that
their carriage had got out of the choked
up streets of Brussels, and made its way to
Malines, where they had been for a time
refused shelter. At length the golden ar-
guments Mr. used, obtained for
them admittance into a room, filled with
people of all sexes, ages, countries, and
ranks French Princes and foreign Counts,
and English Barons, and Right Honourable
ladies and gentlemen, together with a con-
siderable mixture of less dignified beings,
were all lying together outstretched upon
the tables, the chairs, and the floor ; some
groaning, and some complaining, and
many snoring, and almost all of them com-
pletely drenched with rain. The water
streamed from Mr. - -'s clothes, who
had driven his own carriage. In this si-
tuation they, too, lay down and slept
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 131
while their horses rested ; and then at break
of day pursued their flight. A hundred
Napoleons had been vainly offered for a
pair of horses but a few hours after we
left Brussels, and the scene of panic and
confusion which it presented on Saturday
evening surpassed all conception. The
certainty of the defeat of the Prussians ; of
their retreat ; and of the retreat of the Bri-
tish army, prepared the people to expect
the worst. Aggravated reports of disaster
and dismay continually succeeded to each
other : the despair and lamentations of the
Belgians ; the anxiety of the English to
learn the fate of their friends who had been
in the battle the preceding day ; the dread-
ful spectacle of the waggon loads of
wounded coming in, and the terrified fu-
gitives flying out in momentary expecta-
tion of the arrival of the French : the
streets, the roads, the canals covered with
K2
132 A PEW DAYS
boats, carriages, waggons, horses, and
crowds of unfortunate people, flying from
this scene of horror and danger, formed
altogether a combination of tumult, terror,
and misery, which cannot be described.
Numbers, even of ladies, unable to procure
any means of conveyance, set off on foot,
and walked in the dark, beneath the pelt-
ing storm, to Malines : and the distress of
the crowds who now filled Antwerp, it is
utterly impossible to conceive. We were,
however, soon inexpressibly relieved, by
hearing that there had been no engagement
of any consequence the preceding day ;
that the British army had fallen back seven
miles in order to take up a position more
favourable for the cavalry ; that they were
now about nine miles from Brussels ; and
that a general, and, most probably, a de-
cisive action would inevitably take place
to-day.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 153
Although it continued to rain, we set out,
for to sit still in the house was impossible,
and after passing through several streets, we
went into the cathedral where high mass
was performing, and where
" Through the long drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swell'd the note of praise-"
For a while its solemn harmony seemed
to calm the fever of my mind ; 4t elevated
my thoughts to that God, in whose uner-
ring wisdom and divine mercy I could
alone at this awful moment put my trust,
and to Him " who is the only giver of vic-
tory," and at whose command empires rise
and fall, flourish and decay, to Him who
alone has power to save and to destroy, I
breathed a silent prayer to bless the British
arms, to shield my brave and heroic coun-
trymen in the hour of danger, and give to
them the success and glory of the battle.
Intelligence arrived that the action had
K3
134 A FEW DAYS
commenced. We were told that the
French had attacked the British this
morning at day-break : the contending
armies were actually engaged, and .the
last, the dreadful battle was at this very
moment deciding.
It is impossible for any but those who
have actually experienced it to conceive
the dreadful, the overwhelming anxiety of
being so near such eventful scenes, without
being actually engaged in them ; to know
that within a few leagues, the dreadful
storm of war is raging in all its horrors,
and the mortal conflict going forward
'which is to decide the glory of your coun-
try, and the security of the world : to
think that while you are sitting in passive
inactivity, or engaged in the most trilling
occupations, your brave countrymen are
fighting and falling in the uncertain battle,
and your friends and those whose fate you
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
may deplore through life, perhaps at that
very moment breathing their last : to be
surrounded by misery that you cannot
console, and sufferings that you cannot
relieve : to wait, to look, to long in vain
for intelligence : to be distracted Avith a
thousand confused and contradictory ac-
counts without being able to ascertain the
truth : to be at one moment elevated with
hope, and the next depressed with fear :
to endure the long-protracted suspense
the deep- wrought feelings of expectation
the incessant alarms the ever-varying
reports the dreadful rumours of evil
Oh ! it was a state of misery almost too
great, too agonizing for human endurance !
Never never shall I forget the torturing
suspense, the intense anxiety of mind, and
agitation of spirit in which this day was
passed. In the midst of all that could
interest the mind and charm the fancy,
K4
136 A FEW DAYS
and surrounded by all that, at any other
time, would have afforded me the highest
gratification, I could neither see, hear,
observe, admire, nor understand any thing ;
I could think of nothing but the battle.
In vain I tried to distract my thoughts, or
to force my attention even for a moment to
other things : the situation of our army,
their danger, their success, their sufferings,
and their glory, were for ever present to
me. Unable to rest, we wandered me-
chanically about the town, regardless of
the frequent showers of rain, and of the
deep and dirty streets, anxiously awaiting
the arrival of news from the army though
well aware that for many hours nothing
could be known of the event of the battle.
With a view to dissipate our fruitless an-
xiety, and as a shelter from the rain, we
visited several cabinets of paintings : but I
beheld the noblest works of art, and the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 13?
finest monuments of departed genius, with
indifference. Not even the sublime touches,
the affecting images, and the unrivalled
productions of Guido, and Raphael, and
Rubens; not all the force, the pathos, and
the expression of their powerful genius,
could at this moment charm or even interest
me ; for I had no power to feel their
beauties.
Every faculty of our minds was absorbed
in one feeling, one thought, one interest ;
we seemed like bodies without souls.
Our persons and our outward senses were
indeed present in Antwerp, but our whole
hearts and souls were with the army.
In the course of our wanderings we met
many people whom we knew, and had
much conversation with many whom we
did not know. At this momentous crisis,
one feeling actuated every heart one
thought engaged every tongue one com-
138 A FEW DAYS
mon interest bound together every human
being. All ranks were confounded ; all
distinctions levelled ; all common forms
neglected. Gentlemen and servants ; lords
and common soldiers; British and fo-
reigners, were all upon an equality,
elbowing each other without ceremony,
and addressing each other without apology.
Ladies accosted men they had never before
seen with eager questions without hesita-
tion ; strangers conversed together like
friends, and English reserve seemed no
longer to exist. From morning till night
the great Place de Maire was completely
filled with people, standing under umbrel-
las and eagerly watching for news of the
battle ; so closely packed was this anxious
crowd, that, when viewed from the hotel
windows, nothing could be seen but one
compact mass of umbrellas. As the day
advanced the consternation became greater.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 139
The number of terrified fugitives from
Brussels, upon whose faces were marked
the deepest anxiety and distress, and who
thronged into the town on horseback and
on foot, increased the general dismay,
while long rows of carriages lined the
streets, filled with people who could find
no place of shelter.
Troops from the Hanseatic towns
inarched in to strengthen the garrison of
the city in case of a siege. Long trains
of artillery, ammunition, military stores
and supplies of all sorts incessantly poured
in, and there seemed to be no end of the
heavy waggons that rolled through the
streets. Reports more and more gloomy
reached our ears ; every hour only served
to add to the general despondency. On
every side we heard that the battle was
fought under circumstances so disadvanta-
geous to the British, and against a prepon-
140 A FEW DAYS
derance of force so overpowering, that it
was impossible it could be won. Long
did we resist the depressing impression
these alarming accounts were calculated
to make upon our minds; long did we
believe, in spite of every unfavourable ap-
pearance, thati the British would be vic-
torious. Towards evening a wounded
officer arrived, bringing intelligence that
the onset had been most terrible, and so
- immense were the numbers of the enemy,
that he " did not believe it was in the
power of man to save the battle." To
record the innumerable false reports we
heard spread by the terrified fugitives,
who continually poured into the town
from Brussels, would be endless. At
length, after an interval of the most tor-
turing suspense, a wounded British officer
of hussars, scarcely able to sit his horse,
and faint from loss of blood, rode up to
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 141
the door of the hotel, and told us the disas-
trous tidings, that the battle was lost, and
that Brussels, by this time, was in the pos-
session of the enemy. He said, that in
all the battles he had ever been engaged
in, he had never witnessed any thing at all
equal to the horrors of this. The French
had fought with the most desperate valour,
but, when he left the field, they had been
repulsed by the British at every point with
immense slaughter : the news of the defeat
had, however, overtaken him on the road ;
all the baggage belonging to the army was
taken or destroyed, and the confusion
among the French at Vittoria, he said,
was nothing to this. He had himself been
passed by panic-struck fugitives from the
field, flying for their lives, and he had been
obliged to hurry forward, notwithstanding
his wounds, in order to effect his escape.
Two gentlemen from Brussels corroborated
A FEW DAYS
this dreadful account : in an agitation that
almost deprived them of the power of ut-
terance, they declared that when they
came away, Brussels presented the most
dreadful scene of tumult, horror, and con-
fusion ; that intelligence had been received
of the complete defeat of the British, and
that the French were every moment ex-
pected. The carnage had been most
tremendous. The Duke of Wellington,
they said, was severely wounded ; Sir
Dennis Pack killed ; and all our bravest
officers killed, wounded, or prisoners. In
vain we inquired, where, if the battle was
lost, where was now, and what had become.
of the British army? " God alone knows,"
was the answer. The next moment we
heard from a gentleman who had just ar-
rived, that before he left Brussels, the
French had actually entered it; that he
had himself seen a party of them ; and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 143
another gentleman (an officer, I believe)
declared he had been pursued by them
more than half way to Malines.
Dreadful was the panic and dismay
that now seized the unfortunate Belgians,
and in the most piercing tones of horror
and despair they cried out, that the French
would be at the gates before morning.
Some English people, thinking Antwerp
no longer safe, set off for Breda, late as it
was. Later still, accounts were brought
(as we afterwards understood) by three
British officers of the Guards, confirming
the dreadful tidings of defeat ; it was even
said that the French were already at
Malines. We believed, we trusted that
these reports of evil were greatly exagge-
rated ; we did not credit their dreadful
extent, but that some terrible reverse had
befallen the British army it was no longer
possible to doubt. During the whole of
144 A FEW DAYS
this dreadful night, the consternation, the
alarm, the tumult, the combination of
horrid noises that filled the streets, I shall
never forget. The rapid rolling .of the
carriages, the rattle of artillery, and the
slow heavy motion of the large waggons
filled with wounded soldiers, which inces-
santly entered the town, were the most
dismal of all.
Of the bitter agony, the most deep-
seated affliction that now overwhelmed us,
it would be in vain to speak. There are
feelings in the human heart that can find
no utterance in words, and which lie too
deep for tears : and the conviction that
the British army had been defeated the
dreadful uncertainty of its fate and the
heart-piercing sight of my brave, my un-
fortunate wounded countrymen returning
from the lost battle in which their valour
had been exerted, and their blood been
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 145
shed in vain, awakened sensations which
no visible emotion, no power of language
could express ; but which have left an im-
pression on my mind that no lapse of time
can efface. No private calamity, however
great, that had befallen myself individually,
could have afflicted me with such bitter
anguish as I now suffered. The image of
the British troops retreating before a con-
quering, an insulting, a merciless enemy
defeated, perhaps cut to pieces : the idea of
their misfortunes and their sufferings of
the wounded abandoned to perish on the
fatal field ; the misery of thousands ; the
distress in which it would plunge my
country ; the years of war and bloodshed,
and all the dreadful consequences it would
bring upon the world, incessantly haunted
my mind during this long night of misery.
Overpowered by three days and nights of
extreme fatigue, anxiety, and agitation, I
L
146 A FEW DAYS
fell at times into a sort of unquiet slumber ;
but my busy fancy still presented the
horrid images of terror and distress, and
repeatedly I started up from uneasy sleep
to the dreadful consciousness of waking
misery : Oh ! it was a night of unspeakable
horror
." Nor when morning came
Did the realities of light and day
Bring aught of comfort : wheresoe'er we went
The tidings of defeat had gone before ;
And leaving their defenceless homes, to seek
What shelter walls and battlements might yield,
Old men with feeble feet, and tottering babes,
And widows with their infants in their arms
Hurried along nor royal festival,
Nor sacred pageant with like multitude
E'er fill'd the public way : all whom the sword
Had spared fled here !"
. Southey's Roderick.
With a heavy heart, I rose and dressed
myself, and went out before eight o'clock,
attended only by our old valet de place,
who with a sorrowful countenance awaited
me at the foot of the stairs. From him,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 147
and from the master of the hotel, who were
both on the watch for news, I learnt thai
no official intelligence had been received,
no courier had arrived : but no doubt was
entertained of the truth of the dreadful
reports of the night, and the events of every
hour seemed to give full confirmation of
the worst. I traversed the gloomy streets,
anxiously gazing at every melancholy care-
worn countenance I met, as if there I
could read the truth. I was struck to the
heart with horror by the sight of the heavy
loaded waggons of wounded soldiers which
incessantly passed by me; while litters
borne silently along on men's shoulders
gave dreadful indications of sufferings more
severe, or nearer their final termination ;
nor were they less painful to the thoughts
from being unseen. Imagination perhaps
conjured up sufferings more dreadful than
L2
148 A FEW DAYS
the reality, sufferings at which my blood
ran cold.
Wholly forgetful of some business I had
to transact, I hurried through the streets
with the vague hope of hearing some deci-
sive intelligence; certain that any thing,
even the knowledge of the worst, would be
preferable to this state of wretchedness and
torturing suspense. At last, without in-
tending it, I found myself near the Malines
gate. Conducted by the old valet, I
turned into a narrow street on my right,
where, to my inexpressible astonishment, I
saw five wounded Highland soldiers who,
in spite of the bandages which enveloped
their heads, arms, and legs, were shouting
and huzzaing with the most vociferous de-
monstrations of joy. In answer to my
eager questions, they told me that a courier
had that moment entered the town from the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 149
Duke of Wellington, bringing an account
that the British had gained a complete
victory, that the remains of the French
army were in full retreat, and the English
in pursuit of them.
To the last hour of my life, never shall
I forget the sensations of that moment.
Scarcely daring to credit the extent of this
wonderful, this transporting news, I did,
however, believe that the English had
gained the victory ; believed it with feelings
to which no language can do justice, and
which found relief in tears of joy that I
could not repress. For some minutes I
was unable to speak. The overpowering
emotions which filled my heart were far too
powerful for expression ; but the boon of
life to the wretch whose head is laid upon
the block could scarcely be received with
more transport and gratitude. The sudden
transition from the depth of despair lo joy
L3
150 A FEW DAYS
unutterable was almost too great to be
borne.
In the mean time the Highlanders, re-
gardless of their wounds, their fatigues,
their dangers and their sufferings, kept
throwing up their Highland bonnets into
the air, and continually vociferating,
" Boney's beat ! Boney's beat ! hurrah !
hurrah ! Boney's beat \" Their tumultuous
joy attracted round them a number of old
Flemish women, who were extremely cu-
rious to know the cause of this uproar,
and kept gabbling to the soldiers in their
own tongue. One of them, more eager
than the rest, seized one of the men by his
coat, "pulling at it, and making the most
ludicrous gestures imaginable to induce
him to attend to her ; while the Highlander,
quite forgetting in his transport that the old
woman did not understand Scotch, kept
vociferating that " Boney was beat, and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 151
rinning away till his ain country as fast as
he could gang." At any other time, the
old Flemish woman, holding the soldier
fast, shrugging up her shoulders, and
making these absurd grimaces, and the
Highlander roaring to her in broad Scotch,
would have presented a most laughable
scene " Hout, ye auld gowk," cried the
good-humoured soldier, " dinna ye ken
that Bonney's beat what, are ye deef ?
dare say the wife I say Bonney's beat,
woman \" When the news was explained
to the old women they were in an extasy
almost as great as that of the Highlanders
themselves, and the joy of the old valet was
quite unbounded. These poor men were
on their way to the Hospital, but they did
not know which way to go; they were
ignorant of the language, and could not
inquire. I thought of sending the valet de
place with them, who was extremely will-
L 4
152 A FEW DAYS
ing to conduct *' ces bons Ecossois," as
he called them, but then I could not easily
have found my own way home ; so the
valet de place, the soldiers, and I, all went
to the Hospital together. Our progress was
slow, for one of them was very lame,
another had lost three of the fingers of his
right hand, and had a ball lodged in his
shoulder. Some of them were from the
Highlands, and some from the Lowlands,
and when they found that I came from
Scotland, and lived upon the Tweed, they
w r ere quite delighted. One of them was
from the Tweed as well as myself, he said,
" he cam' oot o' Peeblesshire."
After parting with them close to the
Hospital, I returned homewards, and by
the time I reached the Place de Maire it
was thronged with multitudes of people,
who seemed at a loss how to give vent to
their transport. One loud universal buz?
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 153
of voices filled the streets ; one feeling per-
vaded every heart ; one expression beamed
on every face : in short, the people were
quite wild with joy, and some of them
really seemed by no means in possession
of their senses. At the door of our hotel
the first sight I beheld among the crowds
that encircled it, was an English lady, who
had apparently attained the full meridian
of life, with a night-cap stuck on the top
of her head, discovering her hair in papil-
lotes beneath, attired in a long white flan-
nel dressing-gown, loosely tied about her
waist, witlTthe sleeves tucked up above the
elbows. She was flying about in a distracted
manner, with a paper in her hand, loudly
proclaiming the glorious tidings, continually
repeating the same thing, and rejoicing, la-
menting, wondering, pitying, and exclaim-
ing, all in the same breath. From an
English gentleman whom I had met, I had
154 A FEW DAYS
already learned all the particulars that were
known ; but this lady seized upon me, re-
peated them all again and again, inter-
rupting herself with mourning over the
misfortunes of poor Lady ,
pitying Lady , rejoicing in
the victory, wondering at the Duke's
escape, lamenting for Sir Thomas Picton,
and declaring, which was incontestably
true, that she herself was quite distracted.
In vain did her maid pursue her about
with a great shawl, which occasionally she
succeeded in putting upon her shoulders,
but which invariably fell off again the next
moment. In vain did another lady, whose
dress and mind were rather more com-
posed, endeavour to entice her away she
could not be brought to pay them the
smallest attention, and I left her still talk-
ing as fast as ever, and standing in this
curious dishabille among gentlemen and
KESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 155
footmen, and officers and soldiers, and
valets de place ; and in full view of the
multitudes who thronged the great Place
de Maire. An express had arrived, soon
after eight o'clock, from the Duke of Wel-
lington to Lady , with a
bulletin dated Waterloo, containing a brief
account of the glorious battle. But from
private letters and accounts we learnt that
the triumph of the British arms had indeed
been complete. After a most dreadful
and sanguinary battle, which lasted from
ten in the morning till nine at night, the
French at length gave way and fled in con-
fusion from the field, leaving behind them
their artillery, their baggage, their wounded
and their prisoners. The certainty of this
great, this glorious victory, won by the
heroic valour of our countrymen in cir-
cumstances so disadvantageous ; the fall of
the enemy of Britain and of mankind ; the
156" A FEW DAYS
deliverance of Europe ; the peace of the
world, and, above all, the glory of England,
rushed into my mind ; and every indivi-
dual interest, every personal consideration,
every other thought and feeling were swal-
lowed up and forgotten.
The contest had been dreadful the car-
nage unexampled in the bloodiest annals
of history. The French army had been
nearly annihilated, and our loss was tre-
mendous. The greatest part of our gallant
army, the best, the bravest of our officers
were among the killed and wounded. Sir
Colin Halket, Generals Cooke and Alten,
Sir Dennis Pack, the Prince of Orange,
Lord Uxbridge, and Lord Fitzroy Somer-
set were severely wounded. Sir Thomas
Picton, Sir William Ponsonby, Sir Alex-
ander Gordon were killed. Sir William
de Lancey had also been killed by a can-
non ball while in absolute contact with the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 157
Duke, whose escapes seemed to have been
almost miraculous. Unmindful, perhaps
even unconscious, of the showers of shot
and shell, he had stood undaunted from
morning till night in the thickest of the
battle, coolly reconnoitring with his glass
the motions of the enemy, issuing his or-
ders with the utmost precision, and every-
where present by his promptitude, coolness
and presence of mind. Almost all his
staff officers were either killed or wounded.
Lady shewed us the official
bulletin; it contained a most brief and
modest account of the victory, announcing
scarcely any particulars, and mentioning
the names only of a very few of the prin-
cipal officers who were among the sufferers.
In a few hours the town was crowded
with the wounded. The regular hospitals
were soon filled, and barracks, churches,
and convents, were converted into tempo-
158 A FEW DAYS
rary hospitals with all possible expedition.
Tents were pitched in a large piece of open
ground near the citadel, and numbers of
these unfortunate sufferers were carried
there : but nothing could contain the mul-
titude of wounded who continually entered
the town. Numbers were lying on the
hard pavement of the streets, and on the
steps of the houses ; and numbers were
wandering about in search of a place of
shelter. Nothing affected me more than
the quiet fortitude and uncomplaining pa-
tience with which these poor men bore
their sufferings. Not a word, not a mur-
mur, not a groan escaped their lips. They
Jay extended on their backs in the long
waggons, their clothes stained with blood,
blinded by the intolerable -rays of the sun,
in silent suffering ; while every jolt of the
waggons seemed to go to one's very heart.
Numbers on foot, almost sinking with fa-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 159
tigue and loss of blood, were slowly and
painfully making their way along the
streets. Officers supported on their horses,
and almost insensible, with faces pale as
death and marked with agony, and those
dreadful litters, whose very appearance
bespoke torture and death, were passing
through every street.
Never shall I forget the impression that
the sight of my poor wounded countrymen
made upon my mind. When I saw their
sufferings, and thought of their deeds in
arms, of their dauntless intrepidity in the
field, and of the immortal glory they had
won ; tears of pity, admiration, and grati-
tude burst from my heart, and I looked at
the meanest soldier returning, covered with
wounds, from fighting the battles of his
country, with a respect and admiration,
which not all the kings and princes of the
earth could have extorted from me.
160 A PEW DAYS
If such were the horrors of the scene
here, what must they be on the field of
battle, covered with thousands of the dead,
the wounded and the dying! The idea
was almost too dreadful for human endu-
rance ; and yet there were those of my own
country, and even of my own sex, whom I
heard express a longing wish to visit this
very morning the fatal field of Waterloo !
If, by visiting that dreadful scene of glory
and of death, I could have saved the life,
or assuaged the pangs, of one single indi-
vidual who had fallen for his country,
gladly would I have braved its horrors;
but for the gratification of an idle, a bar-
barous curiosity, to gaze upon the mangled
corpses of thousands; to hear the deep
groans of agony, and witness the las*
struggles of the departing spirit No!
worlds should not have bribed me to have
encountered the sight: the consolation of
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. l6l
being useful, alone could have armed one
with courage to have witnessed it. No-
thing could exceed the humanity and kind-
ness of the Belgic people to those poor
sufferers who now crowded the streets.
Unsolicited they took them into their
own houses ; sent bedding to the hospitals ;
resigned their own rooms to their use;
provided them with every comfort, and
administered to their wants as if they had
been their own sons. One old lady alone,
who was the sole inhabitant of a large
house, refused to take in two wounded offi-
cers ; the Commandant, on hearing of this,
immediately billeted six private soldiers
upon her. But, notwithstanding the praise-
worthy activity and exertion which were
used to accommodate them, it was long,
long indeed, before they could all be taken
care of. We grieved that we had no house
to shelter them, and no power to give them
M
162 A FEW DAYS
any essential relief. Money was to them
as useless as the lump of gold to Robin-
son Crusoe in his desert island : we could
not act by them the part of the good
Samaritan, nor could we, like the heroines
of the days of chivalry, bind up and dress
their wounds, for in our ignorance we
should only have injured them, and the
most stupid hospital mate could perform
that office a thousand times better than the
finest lady.
Numbers of poor wounded Highlanders
were patiently sitting in the streets, shaded
from the powerful rays of the sun. We
had a good deal of conversation with seve-
ral of the privates of the 42d and 92d re-
giments, and their account of the battle was
most simple and interesting. They seemed
not to have the smallest pride in what they
bad done ; but to consider it quite as amatter
of course; they uttered not the smallest
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 163
complaint, but rattar made light of their
sufferings, and there was nothing in their
words or manner that looked as if they
were sensible of having done any thing in
the least praiseworthy ; nothing that laid
claim to pity, admiration, or glory. The
carnage among the French, both on the
16th and 18th, in their encounter with the
Highland regiments, was described to us as r
most dreadful. The cuirassiers, men and
officers, horses and riders, were rolled
in death, one upon another, after the Bri-
tish charge with the bayonet. In vain the
French returned to the attack with furious
valour and reinforced numbers. Their ut-
most efforts could make no impression on
the impenetrable spiked wall of the British
embattled bayonets ; and when they retired
from the ineffectual attack, the brave High-
landers, with loud cries of " Scotland for
<?ver V rushed among them, bore down all
M 2
164 A FEW DAYS
resistance, and scattered their legions like
withered leaves before the blast of au-
tumn.
It is but justice to these gallant men to
say, that it was not from themselves we
heard this relation of their own deeds.
They could not be induced to speak of
what they had done, but it was repeated
on every side ; it was the theme of every
tongue. The love and admiration of the
whole Belgic people for the Highlanders
are most remarkable. Whenever they heard
them mentioned they exclaimed, " Ah !
ces braves homines ! ces bons Ecossais !
ils sont si doux et si aimables et dans
la guerre ! ah ! mon Dieu ! comme ils
sont terribles !" They never speak of them
without some epithet of affection or admi-
ration. Their merits are the darling topic
of their private circles, and their figures
the favourite signs of their public houses :
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 165
in short they are the best of soldiers and
of men according to the Belgians nothing
was ever like them, and the idea they have
of their valour is quite prodigious. But
the sufferings of the wounded was not the
only affecting sight that Antwerp presented.
The deep, the distracting grief of the un-
fortunate people whose friends had pe-
rished, and the heart-rending anxiety of
those who vainly sought for intelligence of
the fate of those most dear to them, were
amongst the most distressing parts of the
many mournful scenes we witnessed. Of
those friends for whose safety we were
deeply solicitous, we could gain no in-
formation, and the suspense, dreadful as it
was, we, as well as thousands, were obliged
to endure. But our anxiety, our sor-
rows, seemed light indeed in comparison
with those of others : there were few who
had not some near friend or relative
M 3
166 A FEW DAYS
to deplore, and Antwerp was filled with
heart-broken mourners, whom the victory
of yesterday had bereft of all that made
life dear to them. In the same hotel with
us was poor Lady , a young
and widowed bride, upon whom, in all the
hopes of happiness in the very flower of
youth unacquainted with sorrow, and far
from every friend, the heaviest stroke of
affliction had fallen unprepared. But
three little days ago, she seemed to be at
the summit of felicity, and now she was
bereaved of every earthly hope. She
bore the intelligence of her irreparable loss
with astonishing firmness. I did not won-
der that she refused to see every human
being, for no earthly power could speak
consolation to misery such as hers. In
vain I tried to forget her I could not
banish her from my remembrance; and
often, during our long wanderings in the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
distant regions of Holland, when I was
far from her, and far from all that might
have recalled her to my remembrance,
among other sights and other scenes, her
early misfortunes wrung my heart with
the deepest sorrow.
But whatever might be the grief and
anxiety of individuals, the universal joy
was unbounded. It is impossible to de-
scribe the effects of this victory upon all
ranks of people. Every human heart
seemed to beat in sympathy ; every coun-
tenance beamed with joy; every tongue
spoke the language of exultation. As the
terror and despair of the Belgians had been
excessive, their transport was now vehe-
ment and overflowing, and their volubility
not to be imagined. We went into several
shops, and the people, unable to restrain
themselves, poured out upon us the fulness
of their jojs their astonishment, their gra-
M 4
168 A FEW DAYS
titude, their admiration, and their praise,
Totally forgetful of their interests, they
thought not of selling their goods ; they
thought of nothing they could do nothing
but talk of the battle and the British, and
it was with difficulty we could get them to
shew us what we wanted : nay, more than
once we were actually obliged to go away
without doing any thing, from the impos-
sibility of making them attend to the busi-
ness of selling and buying.
But sometimes the expression of their
feelings was so simple, so natural, and so
touching, and there was so much of truth
and naivete, both in their manner and
their words, that it was impossible to hear
them without emotion. The French they
loaded with execrations ; and their hatred,
their indignation, and their bitter feelings
of their wrongs, said more than volumes
of eloquence, or even facts could have
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 169
done, in condemnation of the conduct of
their late masters. All the English mer-
chandize, and all colonial produce, im-
ported even before it was decreed to be a
crime, were seized, carried from their shops
and warehouses, and burnt before their
eyes in the Place Verte. No remuneration,
no indemnity whatever was given them ;
and by this single act of wanton tyranny,
hundreds of industrious families were re-
duced to beggary. Heavy exactions and
continual contributions were levied, and
the weight of these fell upon the most
industrious and respectable orders of the
people. " All that we had they took,"
was said again and again to us, " and if
we had had thousands more, it would have
all gone." They ruined the commerce,
the manufactures, the trade of the country,
and then they drained the poor inhabitants
of their property. They shut up the
170 A PEW DAYS
sources of wealth, and then called on them
for money. They blocked up the foun-
tain, and then asked for its waters. Like
Egyptian task-masters, they took from
them the materials, and then demanded
their work. They expected them to make
" bricks without straw." The French sol-
diers lived at free-quarters upon the people,
and the Belgic youths were marched away
to fight in foreign wars. The oppressed
people were subject to the unrestrained
rapine and brutal insolence of the French
soldiery, of which they durst not complain.
It was unsafe even to murmur. Not only
the liberty of the press, but the liberty of
speech was denied them. Any unfortunate
person convicted of holding intercourse
with England was imprisoned, and some
of them, (we were told,) by way of example,
were shot.
We happened to go into a little station-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 171
er's shop, kept by a widow and her three
daughters, who received us almost with
adoration because we were English. They
all began to talk at once, and relieved their
minds by pouring out a torrent of invec-
tives against those detested tyrants, " ces
fleaux du genre humain," as they called
them. All their goods had been seized;
their shop (which was not then a stationer's)
completely stripped of its contents, under
the pretence of its being filled with British
and colonial produce, which they said
was not the case; and a considerable
quantity of continental manufactures had
also been carried away. " But that was
nothing," the poor mother said, as she
wiped the tears from her eyes, " that she
could have borne, for though it seemed
heavy at the time, she thought less of it
now ; but her five sons, (fine handsome
young men, they were, as ever a mother
172 A FEW DAYS
bore,) her five sons were all taken for
soldiers, and perished in the French wars ;
some in the retreat from Russia, and some
in the subsequent campaign in Germany/'
The tears streamed down the cheeks of one
of these young women, as she spoke to me
of her " poor brothers." I can give no
idea of the bitterness, the rancour, the
hatred, and above all, the volubility of
the abuse which these poor women poured
out against the French.
We got away from them with difficulty ;
and though the deep sense of their own
wrongs rankled in their minds, and aggra-
vated the resentment and detestation which
they must naturally feel towards the
authors of so much misery, yet we found
the same sentiments, in greater or in less
degree, among all the Belgians with whom
we conversed, or whom we heard con-
versing. I had always understood that the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 1?3
French (and Napoleon in particular) were
highly popular in Antwerp, but from some
most respectable old-established merchants,
both British and Belgic, we learnt that the
inhabitants were decidedly hostile to the
French, and that they were both feared and
hated by all, excepting the very dregs of
society, and those individuals who had
made fortunes under their administration.
In the course of our rambles we had
many conversations with various people
whom we never saw before, and I suppose
shall never see again. We met a wounded
officer who had been taken prisoner by the
French. He said, that after repeatedly
threatening to kill him, and loading him
with abuse, they actually knocked him on
the head with the butt end of a musket,
and left him for dead upon the field ; he
came, however, to himself, and effected
his escape. His face was most frightfully
174 A FEW DAYS
swelled, and so bruised, that it was every
shade of black, and blue, and green; his
head was entirely tied up with white hand-
kerchiefs and bloody bandages, and in my
life I never saw a more battered object.
He had his arm in a sling ; but he was by
much too rejoiced at his escape to care
about his wounds or bruises. He told us,
what then I could scarcely believe, that the
French had killed many of our officers-
whom they had taken prisoners, and that
they had piked numbers of the wounded.
The truth of these brutal murders, dis-
graceful to humanity, and even more
dishonourable and more barbarous than
the worst cruelty of savages, were unhap-
pily, afterwards, too indisputably proved.
In our progress through the streets we
could not resist stopping to speak to such
of the poor wounded soldiers as seemed
able to talk, and who looked as if they
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
would thank us even for a word of kind-
ness, much to the amazement of Mr. ,
an Antwerp merchant, who was walking
about with us, to " shew us the lions," as
he said. However, he waited most pa-
tiently, while Mrs. , S , and
I talked to ensigns, Serjeants, corporals.,
and common soldiers, who were all, more
or less, wounded or disabled.
" We have got six of those wounded
soldiers billeted upon us/' said Mr. ,
as we walked on, " but I must get them
boarded out somewhere, for they would be
very troublesome in the house." " Trou-
blesome I" I exclaimed. " Yes ! you know
they would be very troublesome in a house,
though I suppose the surgeons will look
after their wounds, and all that ; they will
cost me" (I forget how many guelders he
said) " a week, but I would rather pay it,"
with a strong and proud emphasis upon
176 A PEW DAYS
the word pay) " than have them in the
house, it would be so very disagreeable/'
I was silent, for I durst not trust myself
to speak. Yet this was a very well-mean-
ing man. I make no doubt he subscribed
handsomely to the Waterloo fund, and that
he would have given money to those very
wounded soldiers to whom he refused
shelter if he had thought they wanted it.
But beyond giving money his ideas of
charity did not extend. To his mercan-
tile mind, money was the chief and only
good the sole source of pride and of
happiness the only object in life worth
seeking after the one thing needful. He
was a very good kind of man in his way,
but he was entirely occupied with his
" snug box" at Clapham, his brother's
grand potteries in Staffordshire, and his
own cargoes of rice, and hogsheads of
rum and sugar ; he could not feel the vast
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 17?
debt of gratitude their country owed to
" the men of Waterloo ;" to those gallant
soldiers who had fought and bled for her
safety and glory. He did not mean to be
unkind or ungenerous ; he would have
started at the reproach of wanting huma-
nity, or being deficient in gratitude, but
but but in short he was an Antwerp
merchant.
The day was extremely hot, and on the
outside of the Cafes, beneath the shade of
awnings, and seated beside little tables in
the open street, the Belgic gentlemen were
eating ices and fruit, and diinking coffee,
and reading " L/Oracle de Bruxelles," and
playing at domino and backgammon with
the utmost composure, utterly regardless
of the crowds of passengers, and apparently
as much at 'their ease as if they were in
their own houses, or indeed more so ; for
the Belgians, like the French, are more at
178 A FEW DAYS
home at le Cafe, or in the public streets,
or any where, than in their own home,
which is the last place in which they think
of looking for enjoyment. They have no
notion of domestic comfort, domestic plea-
sure, or domestic happiness ; and conse-
quently they cannot have much knowledge
of domestic virtues. I cannot, therefore,
help considering the French as a gay, rather
than a happy nation. French habits and
manners, and, I am afraid, French morals,
are universally prevalent throughout Bel-
gium. Groups of ladies of the most re-
spectable character may every where be
seen, sitting on chairs or benches, in the
public streets or promenades, working,
talking, laughing, and amusing themselves
with all the ease and gaiety and sangfroid
in the world. Sometimes only a knot of
ladies, but more frequently ladies coquet-
ting with their obsequious beaux.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 179
We visited the unfinished Quay, begun
by Napoleon, which was to have extended
above a mile along the broad and deep
Scheldt, and would have been one of the
finest quays in Europe. We saw the Fly-
ing Bridge, (" Le Pont Volant/') a most
ingenious contrivance, on which carriages,
horses, and waggons pass with great rapi-
dity and security from one side of the river
to the other, without interrupting its navi-
gation, even for vessels of the largest
burden. Such a plan, I should think,
might be adopted with great success upon
the Thames between London and Graves-
end, or in any river where the arches of a
stone bridge would obstruct the passage of
the ships, and where the breadth is too great
for the single span of an iron bridge. The
mechanism seemed to be very simple, but
I do not understand it well enough to ex-
plain it. The largest ships of war can
180 A FEW DAYS
come up close to the Quay ; but the navi-
gation of the Scheldt is difficult, and even
dangerous, from the number of sand banks
which choke it up. Antwerp is upwards
of fifty miles from the mouth of the river.
We saw the Docks, the offspring of
Napoleon's hatred against our country ;
one of them was made sufficiently large
and deep to be capable of containing the
greatest part of the British navy, and at
one time he exulted in the expectation of
seeing the " Wooden Walls" of Old England
safely moored in his docks at Antwerp.
Little did he anticipate the day when the
little army of England, which he despised
and ridiculed, should be the unmolested
possessors of his capital of Paris !
The Arsenal (la Maison de Marine) is
now emptied of its stores, and deserted by
its workmen. We saw a long building
erected by Napoleon for the manufacture
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 181
of ropes for ships now equally useless,
Its length is precisely the same as that of
the cable of a first-rate British ship of war.
The manner in which they repair ships in
these docks is unlike any thing I ever saw
before, and by those who are conversant in
such matters it is considered superior to
the plan followed in England. Instead of
lifting the ship entirely out of water and
placing it upon the stocks, (in effecting
which, or in relaunching it, a vessel is said
often to sustain injury,) a rope is attached
to the masts, and the ship is hauled down
until its keel is exposed ; after repairing
that side they haul it down on the other in
the same manner, and the workmen stand
upon a raft that is fastened to its side.
We went to see the Citadel, a noble
and complete fortification overlooking the
Scheldt. The walls are of such an im-
mense height and thickness, that I should
N3
182 A PEW DAYS
imagine them to be quite invulnerable.
The fortress is capable of containing
10,000 men; by means of the river,
fresh reinforcements might be constantly
thrown in ; and with a strong garrison,
and an adequate supply of provisions and
ammunition, I should suppose, that like
another Troy, it might stand a ten years'
siege ; only that modern patience would
never hold out such a length of time.
The Commandant was confined to his
bed by indisposition ; but every part of the
fortification was explained to us by a very
good humoured, intelligent Irish officer,
whose name I have forgot, but who seemed
to be excessively amused by the (I fear)
almost childish delight which my sister
and I betrayed in seeing all the wonders
of this wonderful place. -Every thing to
us was new and interesting. It was the
first citadel we had ever seen : and to see
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.' 183
with our own eyes, a real, actual citadel ;
nay, more, to be in one, was so very de-
lightful, that we both agreed, if we had
seen nothing else, we should have thought
ourselves amply repaid for our journey to
Antwerp.
This good natured officer contentedly
toiled along with us, under the burning
rays of a most sultry sun, round the whole
fortifications, and pointed out to us where
and how attacks might be made with suc-
cess, and in what manner they could be
resisted. The sight of the moat, the draw-
bridges, the ramparts, the bastions, and the
dungeons ; the sally-ports and gates, which
communicate with the Citadel from the
moat by long subterranean passages, so
forcibly recalled to my recollection all that
I had heard and read of battles and sieges
in history and in tales of chivalry, that I
could have fancied myself transported back
N4
184 A FEW DAYS
into ages long since past, into the iron
times of arms ; and all that had before
only existed in imagination was at once
realized.
After visiting all the lions of Antwerp,
docks and fortresses ; and ships and statues,
and pictures and prisons ; and quays and
cathedrals ; and battle-beaten walls and
flying bridges ; and decayed monasteries,
and modern arsenals ; which, as they have
all been often so much better described
than I can describe them, I shall fqrbear
to describe at all, we returned to the hotel,
excessively heated, and tired, and very
glad to sit down to rest. To-day, for the
first time since our arrival, we began to
have serious thoughts of getting some din-
ner. We might have eaten something
during those days of alarm and agitation,
and I suppose we did ; but, excepting the
breakfast we had got upon the stairs at
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 185
Brussels on Saturday, I have not the most
distant recollection of ever having eaten at
all.
Upon the necessity and expediency of
now dining, however, we were all unani-
mously agreed : the difficulty was how to
achieve it. Mr. and Mrs. had a
pigeon-hole for their only habitation, in
which it would have been perfectly impos-
sible to have introduced a table ; a single
chair was all it was capable of containing.
In our rooms we had some difficulty in
turning round when more than one person
at a time was in them ; b,ut by dint of
sitting out of the window, and against the
door, and upon all the boxes, we had inge-
niously succeeded in getting some break-
fast but to dine was perfectly impractica-
ble. There happened, however, to be in
this very hotel, a Captain , an idle,
not a fighting, captain ; one who made his
186 A FEW DAYS
campaigns, not at Waterloo, but in Bond
Street ; and this Captain , who had
been in Antwerp long before the com-
mencement of hostilities, had, luckily for
us, got possession of a room in which it
was possible to move. He was a New-
market friend of Mr. 's who intro-
duced him to us, with the recommendation,
that he was a young man of fashion and
fortune, well known about town ; and in
Captain 's room and company, Mr.
and Mrs. , S , J , and I
accordingly dined ; we were also favoured
with the company of a particular friend of
his, a Mr. . Many foolish young
men it has been my lot to see, but never
did I meet with any whose folly was at all
comparable to that of Captain .
Captain was a young man who
prided himself upon his knowledge of
horse flesh, and who had, by his own ac-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 187
count, been jockied out of " many a cool
thousand" by his ignorance of it ; he was
a young man who delighted in building
more new invented carriages in one year
than he could pay for in twenty ; he was a
young man who prided himself upon bor-
rowing money from Jews at 15 per cent,
while his guardians were saving it for him
at 5 ; and in squandering it at Newmarket
while they thought him poring over Greek
and mathematics at Cambridge; he was a
young man, whose highest pride consisted
in driving four in hand " knowingly ;"
whose greatest ambition was to resemble a
stage coachman exactly, and whose dis-
tinguishing characteristic was that of being
a most egregious fool.
In consequence, I suppose, of a perse-
verance in this laudable career, Captain
now found it more convenient to
play the fool upon the continent than in
188 A FEW DAYS
England. After recounting to us various
and manifold deeds of folly committed in
London and Newmarket, amongst Jews
and Whip Clubs, he at length gravely as-
serted, " that it was impossible for any
man to dress under seven hundred a year."
This piece of information was received
by some of the party with equal amaze-
ment and incredulity : but Captain
assured us " Ton his soul it was true;
that he knew as well as any man, what it
Was to dress, and that it could not be done
for less than seven hundred a year nay,
that it often costs nine/'
" And pray, Captain ," said I,
involuntarily glancing at his coat, which
happened not to be by any means a new
one, " do you spend nine hundred a year
upon dress?" " Oh! not now" he ex-
claimed; " I don't dress now; I never
dressed but eighteen months in my life/'
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 189
He then explained at large to me, who, in
my ignorance, had not understood what to
dress meant, " that ' to dress' signified to
be the first in fashion, to make it the study
of one's life to appear in a new mode
before any body else; ' to sport' some-
thing new every day ; and during the time
he dressed/' he said " his tailor sent him
down three boxes of clothes every week,
from town, wherever he might happen to
be." Having thus satisfactorily proved,
that, at a considerable expense to his
pocket, he had turned himself into a sort
of block for the tailors to attire in their
new invented coats and waistcoats, like
the wooden dolls the milliners dress up to
set off their new fashions, he next poured
out such a quantity of nonsense about
the battle and the wounded, that he re-
minded me of Hotspur's account of his
190 A FEW DAYS
interview with a coxcomb of the same
species :
" When the fight was done,"
But why do I waste a word upon him.
A Scotch acquaintance, Mr. of
, arrived this evening from the field,
where he had been ineffectually engaged in
the soul-harrowing employment of search-
ing among the dead, the wounded, and the
dying, for his youngest brother, who was
no where to be found. He was a gallant-
spirited youth of eighteen, and this was his
first campaign. His horse had returned
without his rider among the multitude of
wounded he could not be found. Some
hopes, some faint hopes, yet remained that
he might have been taken prisoner, and
that he might yet appear ; but there was
too much reason to fear that he had pe-
rished, though where or how was unknown.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 191
Alas ! every passing day made the hope*
of his friends more and more improbable.
No tidings were ever heard of him, and
" on earth he was seen no more." The un-
certainty in which the fate of this lamented
young man was involved was even more
dreadful than the knowledge of the worst
could have been. Mrs. 's anxiety
respecting her brother was relieved by
Mr. 's assurance of his being in
perfect safety. He could tell us nothing
of the fate of those for whom we were so
deeply anxious. " Do not ask me," he
exclaimed, " who is wounded, I cannot
tell you. It would be easy to say who are
not." Intelligence from another quarter,
however, relieved our fears, and although
it subsequently proved false, for the pre-
sent it led us to believe that our friend was
in safety.
We now learnt that the battle had been
A fEW DAYS
even more desperate, and the victory more
glorious and decisive, than Lord Welling-
ton's concise and modest bulletin had led
us to imagine. The French had not " re-
treated," they had been completely routed
and put to flight; they had not merely
" been defeated," they were no longer an.
army. They had fled in every direction
from the field, pursued by the victorious
British^ and by the Prussians, who had not
come up till just at the close of the battle.
The whole of their artillery, ammunition,
and baggage, their caissons, all the materiel
of their army had been taken. Of 130,000
men, who had marched yesterday morn-
ing to battle, flushed with all the hopes
and confidence of victory, no trace, no
vestige now remained ; they were all swept
away ; they were scattered by the whirl-
wind of war over the face of the earth.
Yesterday their proud hosts had spread
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 193
terror and dismay through nations, and
struck consternation into every heart, ex-
cept those of the brave band of warriors
who opposed them. To-day the greater
part of them slept in death, the rest were
fugitives or captives. It was an awful, a
tremendous lesson. They were gone with
all their imperfections on their heads,
their hopes, their purposes, their plans, their
passions, and their crimes, were at rest for
ever ! And their leader, who had spoiled
away the lives of thousands, with feelings
untouched by remorse ; who had impiously
presumed to defy the powers of God and
man; and whose insatiate ambition the
world itself seemed too small to contain
where was he now ? an outcast and a
wanderer, hunted, pursued, beset on all
sides, and at a loss where to lay his head !
It was with a heart pierced with an-
guish, that I wept for the brave who had
194 A FEW DAYS
fallen ; that I felt in the bitterness of sor-
row, that not even the proud triumph of
my country's glory could console me for
the gallant hearts that were lost to her for
ever !
" How many mothers shall lament their sons ;
How many widows weep their husbands slain !
Ye dames of Albion ! e'en for you I mourn :
Who, sadly sitting on the sea-beat shore,
Long look for lords who never shall return !"
Jt was twelve o'clock before the
left us, and then, worn out with fatigue of
body and mind, for the first time during
four nights, I enjoyed the blessing of some
hours of undisturbed repose, in spite of
the bonfires, the acclamations, the noisy
rejoicings, and the songs, more patriotic
than melodious, which resounded in my
ears. Last night the streets were filled
with the cries of horror and alarm, to-night
they resounded with the shouts of exulta-
tion and joy ; and it was with feelings of
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 195
deep and fervent thanksgiving to Heaven
that I laid my wearied head upon the
pillow, and sank to sleep with the blessed
consciousness that we should not this
night be disturbed by the dreadful alarms
of war.
Nothing on retrospection seemed to me
so extraordinary as the shortness of time
in which these wonderful events had hap-
pened. I could scarcely convince myself
that they had actually been comprized in
the short space of three days, so long did
it seem to be ! Yet in that brief space
how many battles had been lost and won
how many gallant spirits had death
arrested in their glorious career of honour
and immortality how many hearts had
grief rendered desolate ! In these eventful
days the fates of empires and of kings had
been decided, and the trembling nations of
Europe freed from the vengeance and the
196 A FEW DAYS
yoke of the tyranny which menaced theni
with subjugation.
If the passage of time were to be com-
puted by the succession of events, rather
than by moments, we should indeed have
lived a life-time ! an age ! for it was " eter-
nity of thought." Every thing that had
happened, even immediately before these
events, seemed like the faintly-remembered
traces of a dream, or the fading and distant
images of long past years. It seemed as if
at once
" From the tablet of my memory
Were wiped away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there ;
And this remembrance all alone remain'd,
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixt with baser matter."
Yes ! the days, the months, the years of
my future life may pass away and be for-
gotten, and all the changes that mark them
fade like a morning dream ; but the minutest
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 197
circumstance of these eventful days must
be remembered " while Memory holds her
seat ;" for such moments and such feelings
in life can never return more.
A fortnight elapsed which we passed in
making the tour of Holland; in gliding
along its slow canals, visiting its populous
cities, gazing at its splendid palaces,
yawning over its green ditches, wondering
at its great dykes, its prodigious sluices,
and its innumerable windmills; admiring
its clean houses, laughing at the humours
of its fairs, and falling fast aleep in its
churches.
We found the Dutch a plain, plodding,
pains-taking, well-meaning, money-getting,
matter-of-fact people; very dull and drowsy,
and slow and stupid ; little addicted to
talking, but very much given to smoking ;
but withal pious and charitable and just
and equitable; with no wit, but some
o3
198 A FEW DAYS
humour; with little fancy, genius, or in-
vention, but much patience, perseverance,
and punctuality. They make excellent
merchants, but very bad companions.
What Buonaparte once in his ignorance
said of the English, is truly applicable
to the Dutch, " They are a nation of
shopkeepers;" and they used to remind
me very much of a whole people of
Quakers. In dress, in manners, in ap-
pearance, and in habits of life, they pre-
cisely resemble that worthy sect ; and like
them, in all these points they are perfectly
stationary. It is singular enough that in
all matters of taste and fashion, in which
other nations are continually varying, the
Dutch have stood stock still for at least
two centuries; and in political opinions
and institutions, which it requires years,
and even ages, to alter in other countries,
the Dutch have veered about without
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 199
ceasing. They have literally changed their
form of government much oftener than the
cut of their coats. They have had Stadt-
holders, and Revolutions, and Republics,
and Despotisms, and Tyrants, and limited
Monarchies ; and new Dynasties and old ;
and the " New Code Napoleon," and
the newer Code of King William : and they
have changed from the side of England to
that of France, and from France to that of
England, and from the House of Orange
to Buonaparte, and from Buonaparte to
the House of Orange, with a rapidity and
versatility which even their volatile neigh-
bours, the French, could not equal.
But while their government, their laws,
their sovereigns, and their institutions,
have undergone every possible transforma-
tion the fashion of their caps and bonnets,
their hats and shoebuckles, remains un-
changed ; and they have adhered, with the
o4
200 A FEW DAYS
most scrupulous exactitude, to the same
forms of politeness, the same hours, dresses,
manners, and habits of life that were the
fashion among the venerable Burgomasters
in the days of good King William. Cer-
tainly if Solomon had ever lived in Holland
he never would have said that " the fashion
of this world passeth away/' for there it
lasts from generation to generation.
I should think that the Dutch are now
very like what the English were in the
times of the Puritans. They have a great
deal of rigidity and vulgarity in their ap-
pearance, and of coarseness and grossierett
in their manners; and they are wholly
destitute of vivacity, refinement, and " the
grace that charms." I speak of the people
at large ; not of the Court nor of the
courtly, who in every country are much
the same, or at least fashioned upon one
model ; but, excepting the Court, there is
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 201
no polite circle, no general good society.
It is the rarest thing in the world to meet
with a gentleman in Holland. The Dutch
are equally devoid of that acquired good-
breeding which distinguishes the well edu-
cated English, and that native politeness
and winning courtesy which is so irresistibly
engaging among the French and the Belgic
people.
I did not think any thing could have
roused the phlegmatic Dutch to such
energy and vehement animation as they
shewed in their ardent attachment to the
present government, and their detestation
of their former tyrants. They are abso-
lutely enthusiastic in their loyalty to the
House of Orange; and their implacable
and virulent hatred to the French surpasses
all conception. They cannot be silent
upon this subject ; they cannot forget their
past sufferings, and the tyranny and cruelty
202 A FEW DAYS
which they endured so long. They never
utter their names without bitter execrations,
and the very language is become unpopular.
But the British they look upon with the
highest respect and admiration, and treat
them with a blunt, coarse, complimentary
sort of kindness, which is flattering to our
national pride.
The Dutch, however, allowed that Louis
Buonaparte was a very well-intentioned,
good-hearted man ; but he was only an
instrument in the hands of the " Great
Napoleon ;" and, though he did not like to
crush them, he had no power to mitigate
the tyranny which bowed them to the
earth. For Napoleon himself, his minis-
ters, his soldiers, his edicts, and the system
of plunder, oppression, and slavery which
constituted his government, no words are
strong enough to speak their abhorrence.
They are now most completely an unani-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 203
mous people. From the lowest beggar in
the street to the king upon his throne, one
common political feeling animates and in-
spires them.
The only people who grew rich during
the reign of the French were the smugglers,
and some of these men made astonishing
fortunes by the sale of colonial produce,
chiefly coffee and tobacco, and English
manufactures, which they introduced into
the kingdom in great quantities, notwith-
standing all the spies, soldiers, plans, pe-
nalties, and prohibitions of Buonaparte.
In the failure of taxes and contributions
to satisfy his rapacity, he sequestrated a
large portion of the funds destined for the
annual repair of the dykes and sluices,
which in consequence were fast falling to
decay ; so that had the French government
lasted much longer, Holland might have
been no longer a country ; it might physi-
204 A FEW DAYS
sicalty, as well as politically, have ceased to
exist, and a tide, even more destructive
than the armies of France, have rolled over
it and restored it again to the Ocean.
Sometimes the faint reports of distant
war roused us during our slumbering pro-
gress through this soporific country ; and
Dutch men and Dutch bonnets, and towns
and palaces, and universities and museums,
and tulips and hyacinths, and even
" Orange Boven" itself, were entirely for-
gotten in the animating and overpowering
interest of the triumphant progress of the
British arms, the final fall of the Usurper
of France, and the entrance of the Allied
Army, led by the Duke of Wellington,
into the gates of Paris !
A sight more affecting than any other
that Holland contained we frequently wit-
nessed: long trackschuyts filled with the
wounded Dutch soldiers of Waterloo, mu-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 205
tilated, disabled, sick and suffering, passed
us upon the canals, slowly returning to
their homes. In many of the towns and
villages of Holland, the hospitals were
filled with these poor soldiers, to whom the
inhabitants shewed the most humane and
praiseworthy kindness and attention. It
is but justice to the Dutch to state, that
though their charity began at home it did
not end there. Every town and village
made contributions for the wounded Belgic
and British, as well as for the Dutch, both
of money and provisions, including plenty
of butter and cheese, together with an
enormous supply of ankers of real Hollands,
which amused me extremely. I am sure
they sent it out of pure love and kindness,
anxious, 1 suppose, that the poor wounded
should have plenty of what they liked best
themselves ; or perhaps they thought that
gin, like spermaceti, was " sovereign for an
inward bruise."
206 A FEW DAYS
If Ireland be " the country that owes the
most to Nature and the least to Man,"
Holland is unquestionably the country
which owes the most to Man and the least
to Nature. I bade it farewell without one
feeling of regret : with as little emotion as
Voltaire, I could have said " Adieu!
Canaux, Canards, Canaille \" and after
crossing many a tedious and toilsome ferry,
and slowly traversing the trackless and
sandy desert which separates Bergen-op-
Zoom from Antwerp, we left Holland,
I hope, for ever !
Nothing can be imagined more dreary
than this journey. One wide extended
desert of barren sand surrounded us as far
as the eye could reach, in which no trace
of man, nor beast, nor human habitation
could be seen. Some bents, thinly scat-
tered upon the hillocks of sand, and occa-
sional groups of stunted fir, through which
the winds sighed mournfully, were the only
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 207
signs of vegetation. Slowly and heavily
the horses dragged our cabriolet through
these deep sands, choosing their own path
as their own sagacity, or that of their driver,
directed. Quitting at last this solitary
waste, we entered the sheltering copse
woods of oak which surround the city of
Antwerp, drove swiftly by neat cottages
and smiling gardens, descried with delight
its lofty walls, its frowning fortifications,
and the spire of the Cathedral, whose
beauty we could now admire ; and with
feelings which may be better conceived
than described, we once more entered its
gates. But what a change had one fort-
night produced ! It did not seem to be
the same place or the same people; and
when I thought of all the quick varying
scenes of horror, consternation, and triumph
which we had witnessed here, and remem-
bered that within these walls we had
208 A FEW DAYS
trembled for the safety, and mourned the
imaginary defeat of that army who were
now victorious in the capital of France ;
when I recalled all that the heroes of my
country had done and dared and suffered
for her honour and security and peace,
and that to them, under Heaven, Europe
owed its salvation, it was difficult, it was
nearly impossible to restrain the strong tide
of mingled emotions which at this moment
swelled my heart. Not for worlds, not to
have been the first and greatest in another
land, would I have resigned the distinction
of calling England my country ; and I
blessed heaven that I was born an Eng-
lishwoman, and born in this, the proudest
era of British glory.
As these reflexions rapidly passed through
my mind, a Highland soldier obstructed our
passage with his musket, signifying to the
driver, that he was to go at a foot's pace
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 209
past a large building, which we now dis-
covered to be an hospital, and before
which the street was thickly laid with
straw. We were affected with this proof
of the attention and care paid to the
wounded, still more so when we after-
wards learnt that this hospital was full of
wounded French. The Highland soldier
who now stood on guard to prevent the
smallest noise from disturbing the repose
of his enemies, had himself been wounded
wounded in the action with them. It
was a noble, a divine instance of gene-
rosity, it was returning good for evil. It
was worthy of England. The French
soldiers had inhumanly murdered their
wounded prisoners. The British not only
dressed the wounds and attended to all
the wants of their's, but they protected and
watched over them, that even their very
slumbers might not be disturbed,
p
210 A FEW DAYS
At the hotel of Le Grand Laboureur,
they knew and welcomed us again, and
testified great joy at the success of the
Allies since we had seen them, and a great
dread lest Napoleon should make his
escape* In the streets we met numbers of
poor wounded British officers, weak, pale,
faint, and emaciated, slowly and painfully
moving a few yards to taste the freshness
of the summer and the blessed beams of
heaven.
Many fine young men had lost their
limbs, many were on crutches, many were
supported by their wives or by their ser-
vants. At the open windows of the houses,
propped up by pillows, some poor unfor-
tunate sufferers were lying, whose looks
would have moved a heart of stone to pity.
We passed several hospitals, and looked
into some of them. The cleanliness and
neatness of appearance which they ex-
hibited were truly gratifying.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 211
Antwerp was filled with wounded. In
every corner we met numbers of conva-
lescent soldiers and officers, some of whom
looked well; but the suiferings we saw,
and heard of, were far too dreadful to re-
late, and in many cases death would have
been a blessed relief from a state of hope-
less torture. Several vessels had already
sailed, filled with convalescent wounded,
for England.
Most of the wounded French, the
wretched survivors of Buonaparte's im-
perial army were here. But what con-
solation had they to support them on
the bed of pain and sickness? What
glory awaited them when they returned to
their native country ? What was their re-
compense for their valour, their sufferings,
their services, and their dangers ? Broken
health, and blighted hopes, and ruined for-
tunes, and blasted fame, were all they had
p 2
A TEW DAYS
to look to. They had not fought and bled
for their country, but for a leader who had
basely deserted them. Surrounded by
these bleeding victims of a tyrant's ungo-
vernable ambition, I felt the truth that in-
spired the poet's lines
" Unblest is the blood that for tyrants is squandered,
And Fame has no wreath for the brow of the slave."
And what British heart would not ex-
claim with him
" But hail to thee, Albion, who meet'st the commotion
Of Europe, as firm as thy cliffs meet the foam,
With no bond but the law, and no slave but the ocean
Hail, Temple of Liberty ! thou art my home !"
The night soon closed in upon us, and
we could see the wounded no more. We
went to rest, and enjoyed a night of more
calm repose than it had ever yet been our
lot to experience in Antwerp.
With what different feelings, and under
what different circumstances did I open
my eyes on this Sunday morning, to those
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 213
which we suffered on the dreadful morning
of Sunday the 18th of June, which we had
spent here before ! Then horror and de-
spair filled the minds of the people then
they were lamenting the imaginary de-
struction of that army for whose success
they were now offering up thanks for this
was the Kennesgevin, or day of thanks-
giving, for the glorious victory of Waterloo.
We attended high mass at the Cathedral,
as we had done before, but with sensa-
tions how different! and if at that awful
moment my prayers ascended to heaven,
to crown with victory and glory the arms
of my country, the deep and fervent emo-
tions of gratitude, which filled my heart,
were now offered up in thanksgiving to the
throne of divine mercy. The anxiety, the
misery, that I had endured when I was be-
fore within these aisles was too poignant to
be easily forgotten ; but that remembrance
214 A FEW DAYS
made me feel more deeply the blessings
which heaven had bestowed upon us.
Mass being over, we ascended by 640
steps to the top of the tower, or rather of
the staircase, of the Cathedral, for its ut-
most pinnacle is accessible only to the
winged inhabitants of air : but as we were
not furnished with wings, we were obliged
to content ourselves, instead of soaring
higher, with gazing upon the magnificent
prospect that lay below us. The men
and women flocking out of the churches
through the streets, looked exactly like a
colony of ants swarming on the gravel
walks of a garden in a sunny day : the
streets and houses looked like the mi-
niature model of a town in pasteboard ;
and the majestic Scheldt like a long ribbon
streaming through a measureless tract of
country.
However, the view was both various and
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 215
beautiful. Far as the eye could reach,
the rich fields and woods of Flanders, with
its populous villages, its lofty spires, and
noble canals lay extended around us, pre-
senting a striking contrast to the cold,
bare, triste, watery flats of Holland, which
were fresh in our remembrance, and Flan-
ders, no doubt, looked doubly beautiful
from the recent comparison.
We distinctly saw the fortifications of
Bergen-op-Zoom on one side, and the
steeple of Vilvorde on the other. We
traced the Scheldt winding its course
through a rich country down towards the
ocean. Upon its broad bosom lay the
vessels waving with the flag of Britain,
and destined to carry home the troops who
had so bravely fought and bled in her ser-
vice, and for her glory.
When I thought of the dreadful waste of
human life and sufferings which the battle
p 4
216 A TEW DAYS
of Waterloo had cost the world, it almost
seemed as if had been dearly purchased :
yet in frequent indecisive battles, and in
long protracted campaigns, more blood
might have been shed, without the
same glorious or important results. In
one great day, years of bloodshed and
of toil had been saved. In one tre-
mendous burst of thunder the war had
ended, and the lightnings of heaven in
that vengeful hour had descended upon the
head of the guilty. The dark cloud which
menaced Europe had passed away, and
the prospect was now calm, bright, and
unclouded^ The blood of Britons had
indeed flowed, but it had flowed in a noble
cause, and it had not flowed in vain. It
had secured present peace and security to
the world, and it had left to future ages
the proudest monument of British fame.
But I forget that I am all this time upon
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
the top of Antwerp Cathedral it is high
time to descend from my altitude. When
we once more reached this earth, we went
to see a sort of religious puppet-show, called
Mount Calvary. It had been " got up"
with great care and cost, and must have
required a world of labour ; for there were
artificial rocks and caverns, and heaven and
hell into the bargain ; and it was altogether
a most edifying spectacle. There were the
Crucifixion, and the Virgin Mary, and St.
Paul, and St. Peter, and I dare say all
the rest of the Apostles, and at least fifty
more holy persons, who were most likely
saints, all as large as life, and made of
white stone. There were also red-hot
flaming furnaces of purgatory, filled with
figures of the same materials ; with this
difference, that they were making horrible
grimaces. There were also the Sepul-
chre and the Angel; and our friend
218 A FEW DAYS
Mr. , (the Antwerp merchant,) who
took us to see this show, was in an extasy
with it, and declared that all the paintings
in the world were not to be compared to
it, nay, that he did actually think that it
was almost as well worth seeing as St.
Paul's or the Monument ; but this he as-
serted more cautiously.
We visited the tomb of Rubens, with
more veneration than we had paid to the
shrines of all the saints. The people of
Antwerp almost adore the memory of this
great artist. He was descended from one
of the most ancient families in Flanders ;
of noble birth and of splendid fortune.
Antwerp was the place of his birth and of
his death, and his spirit still seems to hover
over it ; for never did I witness a passion
for paintings, and a knowledge of the art,
so universally diffused among all classes,
as in this town. All the merchants, and even
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 219
the petty shopkeepers and tradespeople,
have good paintings, both of the Flemish
and Italian school. In every house they
may be seen ; and in every street even the
lowest of the people may be heard to can-
vass their merits. They still lament over
the loss of the fine paintings which were
carried from the churches by the French ;
and they seemed particularly to grieve for
their celebrated Altar-piece, the pride of
their city, which was taken from them.
They petitioned and implored Buonaparte
with so much importunity and perseve-
rance to restore to them this idol of their
affections, that he at last promised it
should be sent back. In process of time,
and in conformity with his impeiial word,
there arrived the celebrated altar-piece of
" the Descent from the Cross," correctly
copied from the original by a modern
French artist. The immortal touches of
220 A FEW DAYS
Rubens were not there. The fraud was in-
stantly discovered, and the people were
indignant at this mockery of restitution.
They told us they intended immediately to
send deputies to Paris to claim this and the
other treasures of which they had been
despoiled, and which now adorn the
Louvre.
There are some very fine private cabinets
of pictures in Antwerp, which are opened
to strangers with all that alacrity and po-
liteness which in England, in such cases,
we are so lamentably and notoriously defi-
cient in. In one of these we saw the
&niu&4-.
celebrated Chapeau J&ilc- of Rubens. I
A
was disappointed in it; probably from
having had my expectations too highly
raised by hearing its beauties extravagantly
extolled. In fact the subject does not
call forth any great powers either of
genius or execution. It is simply the por-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 221
trait of a handsome woman with a very
attractive countenance, and dressed in a
very becoming grey beaver hat and feather ;
and both the lady and her hat are most
beautifully painted. We saw some land-
scapes by Rubens, some of which were
very fine. There is no branch of painting
which the versatile genius of this wonderful
man did not lead him to attempt, and none
in which he did not succeed. His Scriptural
and historical paintings, upon which rests
his fame ; his allegories, portraits, and land-
scapes, are well known : but I have seen a
miniature picture of his performance, beau-
tifully finished, a piece of fruit and
flowers, very well executed, though in an
uncommon style, and lastly, an interior,
not a servile copy of Teniers, Ostade, or
Gerard Douw, but marked with his own
characteristic originality of manner and
A FEW DAYS
expression. This last piece is in the pos-
session of a Flemish gentleman at Ghent.
At Antwerp we saw some beautiful land-
scapes by Asselins and Dietrichsen ; a
very fine Holy Family by Morillo ; and the
Death of Abel by Guido. The whole
figure of Abel prostrate on the earth, but
especially the touching, the more than hu-
man expression of his face as he looks up
at his brother and his murderer, is one of
the finest things I ever beheld in painting.
It is in that upward look of pathetic sup-
plication and unutterable feeling that Guido
is unrivalled it is his characteristic ex-
cellence. We saw some very fine paintings
both by Italian and Flemish artists, but
the fascination of the former, in spite of
myself, riveted my eyes upon their never-
satiating beauties. It is impossible not to
feel the decided superiority of the Italian
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 223
over the Flemish school of painting, in
force, delicacy, and dignity of expression ;
in the power of transposing soul into paint-
ing, if I may so express myself, and in all
that constitutes the greatness, and the sub-
limity of the art. But the Flemish artists
laboured under great natural disadvantages.
They did not live beneath the brilliant sky
that sheds its tints of beauty over the hap-
pier climates of Italy and Provence ; they
did not dwell in the enchanting vales and
sunny mountains, or gaze upon the ca-
verned rocks and romantic solitudes which
formed and perfected the genius of a Claude
Lorraine, Vernet, Salvator Rosa, and
Poussin. Fate threw Berghem and Both,
and Cuyp, under unkinder skies, and
amidst less picturesque scenes ; but in ge-
nius they are perhaps equal, if not superior,
to the French and Italian masters. Nor
were Rubens, Rembrandt, Teniers, and
224 A FEW DAYS
many of the Flemish artists, inferior to any
in conception and execution, in originality,
in invention, in truth of expression, and all
the natural and acquired powers which
constitute the perfection of the painter's
art. And if the Italian artists, if Guido,
Raphael, Buonarotti, Carlo Dolce, and
Correggio, possess a pathos and sublimity,
a force, a grace, and an undefinable charm
of expression, which makes their works
unequalled on earth, let it be remembered
that the Flemish artists did not, like them,
wake to " life amidst the beauty and the
harmony of nature ; they were not sur-
rounded by faces and forms of speaking,
. moving expression, of heavenly sublimity
and soul-subduing tenderness. The " hu-
man face divine" was not moulded of the
finer elements of beauty and of grace.
Painting is an imitative art. The world
which Nature had spread before them they
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM;
copied ; but they could not create a new
one. They were driven to seek in the
habitations of meixfor the sources of that
interest which the scenes of nature denied
them ; and their powerful and original
genius, seizing upon the materials which
surrounded them, formed for itself a new
and distinct schooL They were most
faithful copies of Nature. It is impossible
to travel through Belgium and Holland
and not notice at every step the landscapes
of Hobbima, the Interiors of Ostade and
Gerard Douw > the faces, figures, and
humorous scenes which Teniers has exhi-
bited so often to our view ; and to recog-
nize at every turn the fat and fair, and
well fed and well clad beauties of F.
Mieres. But the paintings and the painters
of Italy and Flanders have led me far from
my travels. To return to Antwerp :
After the bright-painted, well-scoured,
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226 A FEW DAYS
baby-house looking towns o.f Holland, the
streets of Antwerp appeared very grand
and magnificent, but extremely dirty.
Remarking this to an English, or rather an
Irish officer, he laughed, and said they were
beautifully clean in comparison of the state
in which the British troops found them
when they first came to the garrison. Their
complaints of the filthiness and unwhole-
someness of the town produced no effect ;
and to their representations of the necessity
of cleaning it, the Magistrates answered,
with offended dignity, that "the city of
Antwerp was clean/' The British Com"
mandant then ordered our soldiers to sweep
the streets, and to pile up all the dirt
against the houses of those Magistrates who
with so much pertinacity maintained that
the city of Antwerp was clean ! The
mountains of dirt collected by the soldiers
in one morning blocked up the windows,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 227
and it was with difficulty that the Magistrates
could get out of their doors. When they
did, however, they immediately bestirred
themselves, convinced by more senses than
one that the city of Antwerp was not clean ;
and they have taken due care ever since
that the streets shall be regularly swept.
The churches in Antwerp were once
extremely rich in silver shrines, images,
ornaments, gold plate, and precious stones ;
but these treasures, the Belgians said, had
been carried off by Buonaparte : upon
more strict inquiry, we found that these
alleged robberies of Napoleon le Grand
had been committed eighteen years ago,
most probably by the sacrilegious hands
of the Jacobin Revolutionists, who would
leave little or nothing for imperial plunder.
On my remarking this to one of the Bel-
gians, he said, with a shrug of the shoul-
der, " Ah ! c'est egal ces gens-la etoient
228 A FEW DAYS
tous les m6mes les coquins ! " but what-
ever mischief has been done, they always
lay it upon Buonaparte, whom they hate
with a bitterness surpassing all conception.
The journey betwixt Antwerp and Brus-
sels was quite new to us. The anxiety and
agitation of mind which we had suffered
on the day we left Brussels for Antwerp,
had so completely engrossed every faculty,
that the scenery on the way had not made
the smallest impression on us. The ob-
jects of living interest, with which the road
was then crowded, had alone fixed our at-
tention. I could scarcely believe that I
had ever travelled this road before, or ever
seen the towns and villages through which
we had so lately passed.
. I beheld the same harvest, which I then
feared would be reaped in blood, ripening,
to crown the hopes of the husbandman,
beneath the blessing of heaven. .My eye
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 229
now rested with delight upon the corn
fields, waving in rich luxuriance, the deep
verdure of the meadows, and the lofty
woods which diversified the prospect : the
peaceful and prosperous Appearance of
the country, and the contented, gladsome
faces of the people, as they stood at their
cottage-doors, " gay in their Sunday 'tire/'
presented a happy contrast to the terrors
and sufferings we had witnessed, and
the still more dreadful and multiplied
horrors which then seemed ready to burst
upon this devoted country.
We entered Malines ; but I did not re-
tain the smallest recollection of it until we
again reached the inn. From the inn-
window I well remembered sorrowfully
gazing into the market-place below, and
contemplating the train of baggage-wag-
gons, the confusion of English carriages*
the parties of troops advancing, the
Q3
230 A FEW DAYS
wounded soldiers returning, and the af-
frighted countenances of the poor Belgic
peasantry, crowding together in dismay,
with which it was then filled. Now I be-
held a very different scene : a crowd of
Belgians, indeed, filled the market-place,
but it was a joyous, not a trembling crowd.
The people were all amusing themselves
after their own fashion. Some flocking to
the Church ; others gazing at a wonderful
puppet-show, which was stationed at the
very door ; others listening to a Belgic bal-
lad-singer, who was roaring out, in no very
harmonious strains, the downfall of Napo-
leon, and the warlike prowess of the Bel-
gians ; and others were talking and laugh-
ing with most noisy glee. The sounds of
innocent mirth and pious gratitude were
indeed a blessed contrast to the terrors and
anxiety we had before witnessed here.
The Kennesgevin, or thanksgiving, for
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 231
the victory, and for the deliverance of the
country, had been celebrated, and one
priest mounting the pulpit after another,
continued to preach a succession of homi-
lies to the people, who might listen to as
many or as few of them, as their piety or
their taste dictated. We saw a young
priest mount the pulpit, and some of the
congregation, who had been assembled
during the sermon of his predecessor, re-
mained to hear him. He preached in the
Belgic language, therefore we could not
understand him ; his discourse was appa-
rently extempore, and accompanied with
much ungraceful gesticulation. In distant
parts of the Church, before the shrine of
many a saint, numbers of pious votaries
of both sexes were kneeling in silence;
engaged in their private earnest devotions,
without attending at all to the lectures of
the priest, or being disturbed by those
Q4
.232 A FEW DAYS
who, like us, were wandering up and down
the long-drawn aisles and decorated cha-
? pels of this ancient Cathedral.
There is a perpetual going in and out,
and moving backwards and forwards, du-
ring the whole service of the Catholic
Church abroad. The people, a,s soon as
they have finished their own prayers, walk
off without ceremony, and are succeeded
by others; which in a Protestant church
we should think a most scandalous pro-
ceeding; and indeed the service of the
Catholic Church itself, both in England
and in Ireland, is conducted in a very dif-
ferent manner. It is a common practice
here, as well as in France and Italy, for
strangers to walk about and exaniine the
churches, paintings, &c. when the Mass is
performing ; nor does it seem to annoy the
congregation in the least.
The Roman Catholic .seems to be the*
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 233
exclusive religion of Belgium ; no other
form of worship or religious persuasion
seems to have any proselytes; indeed it
is only in consequence of a law enacted
since the present King ascended the throne,
that other religions have been tolerated.
-The Belgians are very pious, and even bi-
goted ; but they are not gloomy, they are
lively bigots ; apparently without a doubt
to disturb the fullness of their faith ; strict in
their observances, gay in their lives, happy
in the consolation their religion gives them
here, and in its promises hereafter. Com-
paring their character with that of their
unbelieving neighbours, the French, I have
no hesitation in preferring bigotry to infi-
delity. Even the extreme of superstition
is. better than the horrors of irreligion and
atheism.
The Church of Malines is a fine old
structure : the towers (for there are two)
seem to have been built at an earlier, pe-
234 A FEW DAYS
riod than the body. We were astonished
at the magnificence of the interior. Its
magnitude, its antiquity, its lofty arches, its
massy pillars, its rich altars, its sculptured
figures, and its carved confessionals, have a
very imposing effect ; and the large, though
not fine paintings which adorn its walls, and
the decorations which piety has profusely
spread over every part of this vast edifice,
give it an air of great splendour. Foreign
churches possess a decided advantage, to
the eye of the mere spectator, over those of
England, from being wholly unincumbered
with pews, which certainly take from the
grandeur and unity of the whole.
The pulpit of carved wood in this
Church is most beautifully executed. It
was done only a few years ago by a Fle-
mish artist. There are a few pieces of
sculpture of ancient date carved in wood
in basso relievo, and painted white, which
I admired extremely. The expression
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 235
given to some of the figures and faces as
quite astonishing.
We passed through Vilvorde, half-way
to Brussels, where there is a strong Maison
de force for the imprisonment and employ-
ment of criminals. At the little inn where
we had before baited our horses, we stop-
ped once more for the same purpose. The
garden remembered us immediately, and
with a countenance of great glee, express-
ed his delight to see us again, and de-
scribed most vividly the distress they had
experienced, and all the rapid and dread-
ful alarms that succeeded to each other.
He then reminded us of our parting pro-
phecy, that the Allies would be victorious,
and that the French would never more
penetrate into Flanders, and he said, he
had often thought of it since ; and that it
had proved true, for they had indeed seen
no French, except les Francois blesses.
236
A FEW DAYS
We proceeded on our journey through a
country still improving in beauty. Sloping
grounds, and woods and lawns, and
country seats and pleasure grounds, and
meadows covered with the richest verdure,
greeted our eyes as we advanced to Brus-
sels. We met and passed several of the
Diligences; tremendous machines in size,
and slowness, not unlike the vehicles which
in England are used for the conveyance of
wild beasts from one town to another.
They were filled with an innumerable
motley multitude, some of which were
playing upon the fiddle, others singing,
and all merry making, as they jogged
along. The road was much cut up with
the passage of commissariat-waggons, long
trains of which we frequently met upon the
way.
We drew near to Brussels, and traversed
the margin of that calm and quiet canal.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 237
which, when we left it, had presented a
scene of such horrid confusion ; and as we
approached Lacken we looked up at it
once more, but with very different feelings
to those with which we had gazed at it
when we had passed it before, and recol-
lected the boast Napoleon had made the
preceding day, " To-morrow I shall sleep
at Lacken/' It was from hence that his
premature pompous declarations to the
Belgic people were dated, announcing
victory ; which were even found ready
printed in his carriage at Charleroi, after
his defeat and flight on the 18th of June.
We entered a sort of wood. On each
side of us, upon the grass and beneath the
shade of the trees, there was a large en-
campment of tents, men, horses, waggons,
huts, and arms ; with all the accompani-
ments and confusion attendant upon such
an establishment. It formed, however, a
238 A FEW DAYS
picturesque and animated scene ; fires were
burning, suppers cooking, men sleeping,
children playing, women scolding, horses
grazing, and waggons loading ; while long
carts and artillery were drawn up beneath
the trees ; parties' of Flemish drivers sitting
on the ground round the fires, drinking and
smoking; and people moving to and fro
in every direction. This encampment be-
longed to the Commissariat department.
We passed the Alice Verte, usually the
fashionable promenade for carriages on
Sunday evening ; but though this was
Sunday evening, it was entirely deserted.
The inhabitants of Brussels had not yet
perhaps resumed their habits of gaiety,
and in fact the Alice Verte was nearly im-
passable, owing to the heavy rains and the
immense passage of military carriages
upon it.
We entered Brussels about the same
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 239
hour that we had entered it for the first
time. Then, the British military were
crowding every street ; standing at every
corner; leaning out of every window, in
the full vigour of youth and hope and ex-
pectation : then, they were gaily talking
and laughing, unconscious that to many it
was the last night of their lives. Now,
Brussels was filled with the wounded. It
is impossible to describe with what emo-
tions we read the words " Militaires blesses"
marked upon every door ; " un, deux, trois,
quatre," even " huit (Meiers blesses/* were
written upon the houses in white chalk.
As we slowly passed along, at every open
window we saw the wounded, " languid
and pale, the ghosts of what they were/'
In the Pare, which had presented so gay
a scene on the night of our arrival, crowded
with military men, and with fashionable
women, a few officers, lame, disabled, or
240 A FEW DAYS
supported on crutches, with their arms in
slings, or their heads bound up, were r\o\r
only to be seen, slowly loitering in its de*
serted walks, or languidly reclining on its
benches. The Place Royale, which we had
left a dreadful scene of tumult and confu-
sion, was now quite quiet, and nearly
empty. It was in all respects a melancholy
contrast, and it was with saddened hearts
that we alighted at the Hotel de Flandre,
where they gladly received us again, and
talked much of the eventful scenes that
had followed our departure.
Colonel , of the Inniskillen Dra-
goons, was in this hotel. He had been-
severely wounded in five different places ;
he passed the night after the battle on the
road between Waterloo and Brussels, which
was completely blocked up from the' exces-
sive confusion occasioned by the abandoned
baggage and waggons. Although his; life
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 241
had been despaired of, he was now reco-
vering, and supposed to be out of danger.
Some English newspapers, which his ser-
vant lent to us, were indescribably interest-
ing to us ; every particular relative to the
battle, we read, or rather devoured, with
insatiable avidity. The list of the killed
and wounded we could not get a sight of
till the next morning. Secure that none of
our own friends were contained in it, we
restrained our impatience and went to rest.
Little did we know the shock that awaited
us ! the misery of the following morning,
when we saw the name of Major
among the list of severely wounded ; and
found him at last in a state of extreme
suffering and danger! the days of deep
anxiety and individual grief that followed
I pass over in silence. Nor can I bear to
dwell upon the miseries it was our lot to
witness; the still more excruciating and
R
242 A FEW DAYS
hopeless sufferings which we daily heard
related, and the scenes of death and distract-
ing affliction which surrounded us. How
often was the anxious inquiry made with
trembling eagerness for a wounded friend
or relation " Where is he to be found ?"
How often, after a few minutes of torturing
suspense, was the dreadful answer returned
" Dead of his wounds !" Numbers of
the young and the brave, after languishing
for weeks in hopeless agony, expire^ during
our stay in Brussels ; and it happened
more than once within our own knowledge,
that the parents, whose earthly hopes of
happiness were centered in an only son,
arrived from England to see their wounded
boy the very day of his decease, in time
to gaze upon his insensible and altered
corpse, and to follow the mortal remains
of all they loved to the grave. The heart-
broken countenance, and the silent, motion-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 243
less grief of one old man, whom I saw
under this dreadful affliction, made an im-
pression on my mind too strong to be easily
forgotten. Despair seemed to have settled
upon his soul, but he neither shed a tear,
nor uttered a complaint. I could not even
go from the hotel where we stayed to the
house where Major lodged, with-
out passing crowded hospitals, filled with
many hundreds of poor wounded soldiers ;
and although every attention that skill and
humanity could suggest to contribute to
their recovery was paid to them, both by
the British government and the Belgic
people, their sufferings were dreadful.
Many of the British officers died in the
common hospitals : they had been origi-
nally conveyed to them, and it was after-
wards found impossible to remove them.
At every corner the most pitiable objects
struck one's eye. I could not pass through
R 2
244 A f EW DAYS
a single street without meeting some unfor-
tunate being, the very sight of whose suf-
ferings wrung my heart with anguish.
Numbers of young officers, in the very
flower of life and vigour, pale, feeble, and
emaciated, were slowly dragging along
their mutilated forms. Upon couches,
supported by pillows, near the open win-
dow, numbers lay to enjoy the fresh
summer air, and divert the sense of pain by
looking at what passed in the streets. But
we knew too well, that the sufferings we
saw were nothing to those we did not see.
Every house was filled with wounded
British officers ; and how many, like our
poor friend Major , were silently
enduring lingering and excruciating tor-
ture, unable to raise themselves from the
couch of pain !
Often, as I gazed at the soldier's frequent
funeral as it passed along, I could not help
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 245
thinking that, though no eye here was
moistened with a tear, yet in some remote
cottage or humble dwelling of my native
country, the heart of the wife or the mother
would be wrung with despair for the loss
of him who was now borne unnoticed to a
foreign grave. But let me not dwell upon
these scenes of misery ; their remembrance
is still too painful though it can never be
erased from my mind.
The whole of our stay in Brussels was
one unvaried scene of suppressed anxiety
and watchfulness for the safety of Major
, whose situation was most criti-
cal. Our time was spent in his apartment,
in constant but fruitless endeavours to alle-
viate his sufferings, which neither skill nor
care could mitigate, but which he bore
with the most unshaken fortitude. When
we had at last the consolation of seeing
him comparatively better, and felt assured
R3
246 A FEW DAYS
that he was out of all immediate danger,
we dedicated one day to a visit to
Waterloo.*
On the morning of Saturday the fifteenth
* The road from Brussels to the field of battle was
not for some time considered safe, on account of the
number of deserters who had taken shelter in the woods,
and issued forth, sometimes alone, and sometimes in a
gang, to rob passengers and plunder the defenceless
cottages and farm-houses of the surrounding country.
Neither property nor life certainly could be considered
safe at the mercy of these armed desperadoes ; but I
never heard of any well-authenticated murder that they
committed : and from all the inquiries I made, I believe
that most of the horrible stories we heard of their enor-
mities were entirely devoid of truth ; and that the mischief,
even in the way of plunder, they did, was very much ex-
aggerated. Even at the time we went to the field, great
apprehensions were entertained by many people of these
lawless deserters. Large parties of these were brought
in two or three times a week, during our stay in Brussels.
They consisted of Belgic, Nassau, and Brunswick
soldiers. There was some difficulty in procuring proper
places of confinement for them. They were generally
sent to the neighbouring Maisons de Force ; what even-
tually was to be their punishment, or what has been their
fate, I have never been able to learn.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 247
of July, we set off to visit the field of the
ever-memorable and glorious battle of Wa-
terloo. After passing the ramparts, we
descended to the pretty little village of
Ixelles, embosomed in woods and situated
close to the margin of a still glassy piece
of water. From thence we ascended a
steep hill, and immediately entered the
deep shades of the forest of Soignies, which
extends about nine miles from Brussels.
The morning was bright and beautiful ; the
summer sun sported through the branches
which met above our heads, and gleamed
upon the silver trunks of the lofty beech
trees. On either side woodland roads con-
tinually struck in various directions through
the forest; so seldom trodden, that they
were covered with the brightest verdure.
At intervals, neat white-washed cottages,
and little villages by the road side, enli-
vened the forest scenery. We passed
R4
248 A FEW DAYS
through " Vividolles," " La Petite Espi-
nette," " La Grande Espinette," " Longue-
ville," and several other hamlets whose
names I have forgotten.*
Upon the doors of many of the cottages
we passed, were written in white chalk,
the names of the officers who had used
them for temporary quarters on their way
to the battle ; or who had been carried
there for shelter in returning, when wound-
ed and unable to proceed farther. Many
we knew had died in these miserable
abodes ; but all, excepting one or two of
the most severely wounded, had now been
removed to Brussels. It was impossible to
* It is remarkable that every village in this part of the
country has a French name, except Waterloo, which is
pronounced by the natives, according to the fashion of
the London Cocknies, Vaterloo; the letter W being
the exclusive property of the British people with the
exception of the aforesaid Cocknies, who resign all claim
to it.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 249
retrace without emotion the very road by
which our brave troops had marched out
to battle, three weeks before, and by which
thousands had been brought back, covered
with wounds, in pain and torture. They
alone of all that gallant army had returned ;
thousands had met a glorious death upon
the field of battle, and the victorious sur-
vivors had pursued their onward march to
the capital of France.
I could not help asking myself, as we
proceeded along, what would have been
the consequences if the French and British
armies had happened to encounter each
other in the midst of this forest, instead of
meeting, as they did, a few miles beyond
it ? Had our troops been a little later in
leaving Brussels on the morning of the 16th
of June, this must inevitably have been the
case; for it was impossible that the ad-
vanced guard of Belgic troops, which was
250 A FEW DAYS
stationed at the out-post of Quatre Bras,
could have sustained the attack of the
French, or have delayed their progress for
any length of time. But if the hostile ar-
mies had encountered each other here, it
would have been impossible that a general
action could have taken place ; the thick
entangled underwood makes all entrance
into the forest impracticable ; and if
they had attempted to fight, the road
would soon have been choked up with
dead. Yet the English, I imagine, would
not have retreated, since, if they had, they
must either have abandoned Brussels to
the enemy, or fought under its very walls ;
and whether the French would have re-
treated till they came to open ground, or
how they would have manoeuvred in such
a situation, it was impossible for an
unmilitary head like mine even to form a
conjecture. During the battle, all the cot-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 251
tages and villages by the way-side had been
deserted by their inhabitants, who fled in
consternation into the woods, in expecta-
tion of the victory and immediate advance
of the French, from whom they looked for
no mercy. The road had been so dread-
fully cut up with the heavy rains and the
incessant travelling upon it, that notwith-
standing three weeks of summer weather
had now elapsed since the battle, the
chaussee in the centre was worn into ruts
upon the hard pavement, and in many
places it was still so deep, that the horses
could scarcely drag us through; the un-
paved way on each side of the chaussee
was perfectly impassable. Along the whole
way, shattered wheels and broken remains
of waggons still lay, buried among the
mud. Their demolition was one of the
many consequences that resulted from the
violent panic with which the men who were
252 A TEW DAYS
left in charge of the .baggage were seized,
towards the close of the battle. It was
originally caused, I understood, by the
Belgic cavalry, great numbers of whom
fled in the heat of the desperate attack
made by the French upon our army in
front of Mont St. Jean before the Prus-
sians came up. They were rallied and
brought back by some British officers ; but
unable to stand the dreadful onset of the
French, they turned about again and fled
in irretrievable confusion, trampling upon
the wounded and the dying in their speed,
and spreading the alarm that the battle
was lost. With troops less steady, with
any other troops, in short, than the British,
the example of flight, joined to such an
alarm, at this critical moment, might have
occasioned the loss of the battle in reality.
The men stationed in the rear in charge of
the baggage, who knew nothing of what
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 253
was going forward, believed at once the
report, and, without stopping a moment to
ascertain its truth, they set off at full speed.
If the battle was lost, it was clearly their
business to run away, and they could not
be accused of neglecting this part of their
duty. Following the example of the
Belgians, they all set off full gallop in the
utmost confusion, pell-mell, along the road
to Brussels. Nothing is so infectious, no-
thing so rapid in its progress as fear : the
panic increased every moment ; the terri-
fied fugitives overtook the carts filled with
wounded, and encountered waggons and
troops, and military supplies coming up to
the field. It was impossible to pass : the
road, confined on each side by the thickly
woven and impenetrable underwood, was
speedily choked up ; those who were pro-
ceeding to the army insisted upon going
one way, and those who were running away
254 A FEW DAYS
from it persisted in going the other. The
confusion surpassed all description ; till at
last, amidst the crash of waggons, the im-
precations of the drivers, and the cries of
the soldiers, a battle took place, and many
were the broken heads and bruises, and
various were the wounds and contusions
received in this inglorious fray. It is even
said, and I fear with truth, that some lives
were lost. The baggage was abandoned and
scattered along the road ; the waggons were
thrown one upon another into the woods,
and over the banks by the road-side ; the
horses, half-killed, were left to perish ; and
the wounded were deserted. Over every
obstacle these panic-struck people, frantic
with fear, forced their way, and, pursued
by nothing but their own terrified imagina-
tions, they arrived at Brussels, proclaiming
the dreadful news, that the battle was lost,
and the French advancing! The fearful
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 255
w
tidings extended from thence even into
Holland ; and thus, in consequence of the
cowardice of some Belgians and baggage-
men, the last and most dreadful alarm of
Sunday night was spread over the whole
country.
The road, the whole way through the
forest of Soignies, was marked with vestiges
of the dreadful scenes which had recently
taken place upon it. Bones of unburied
horses, and pieces of broken carts and
harness were scattered about. At every
step we met with the remains of some tat-
tered clothes, which had once been a sol-
dier's. Shoes, belts, and scabbards, in-
fantry caps battered to pieces, broken fea-
thers and Highland bonnets covered with
mud were strewn along the road-side, or
thrown among the trees. These mournful
relics had belonged to the wounded who
had attempted to crawl from the fatal field.
256 A TEW DAYS
and who, unable to proceed farther, had
lain down and died upon the ground now
marked by their graves, rif holes dug by
the way-side and hardly covered with earth
deserved that name. The bodies of the
wounded who died in the waggons on the
way to Brussels had also been thrown out,
and hastily interred.
Thus the road between Waterloo and
Brussels was one long * uninterrupted
charnel-house : the smell, the whole way
through the Forest, was extremely of-
fensive, and in some places scarcely bear-
able. Deep stagnant pools of red putrid
water, mingled with mortal remains,
betrayed the spot where the bodies of
men and horses had mingled together in
death. We passed a large cross on the
left side of the road, which had been
erected in ancient times to mark the
place where one human being had been
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 25?
murdered. How many had now sunk
around it in agony, and breathed, un-
noticed and unpitied, their dying groans !
It was surrounded by many a fresh-made,
melancholy mound, which had served for
the soldier's humble grave; but no monu-
ment points out to future times the bloody
spot where they expired, no cross stands to
implore from the passenger the tribute of
a tear, or call forth a pious prayer for the
repose of the departed spirits who here
perished for their country !
The melancholy vestiges of death and
destruction became more frequent, the
pools of putrid water more deep, and the
smell more offensive, as we approached
Waterloo, which is situated at the distance
of about three leagues,* or scarcely nine
* A French league is something less than three English
miles. It measures two English miles and three quarters.
258 A FEW DAYS
miles, from Brussels. Before we left the
forest, the Church of Waterloo appeared in
view, at the end of the avenue of trees. It
is a singular building, much in the form of
a Chinese temple, and built of red brick.
On leaving the wood, we passed the
trampled and deep-marked bivouac, where
the heavy baggage- waggons, tilted carts,
and tumbrils had been stationed during the
battle, and from which they had taken
flight with such precipitation.
Even here, cannon-balls had lodged in the
trees, but had passed over the roofs of the
cottages. We entered the village which has
given its name to the most glorious battle
ever recorded in the annals of history. It
was the Head-quarters of the British army
on the nights preceding and following the
battle. It was here the dispositions for the
action were made on Saturday afternoon.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 259
It was here on Monday morning the dis-
patches were written, which perhaps con-
tain the most brief and unassuming account
a conqueror ever penned, of the most glo-
rious victory that a conqueror ever won.*
Waterloo consists of a sort of long, irregu-
lar street of white-washed cottages, through
which the road runs. Some of them are
detached, and some built in rows. A
small house, with a neat, little, square
flower-garden before it, on the right hand,
was pointed out to us as the quarters of
Lord Uxbridge, and the place where he
remained after the amputation of his leg,
until well enough to bear removal. His
name, and those of " His Grace the Duke
of Wellington," " His Royal Highness the
Prince of Orange," and other pompous
* Caesar's celebrated bulletin, " veni, vidi, vici," wan
more concise, but not quite so unassuming.
c O
260 A FEW DAYS
titles, were written on the doors of these
little thatched cottages. . We also read the
lamented names of Sir Thomas Picton, Sir
Alexander Gordon, Sir William De Lan-
cey, Sir William Ponsonby, and many
others who now sleep in the bed of honour.
Volumes of sermons and homilies upon the
instability of human life could not have
spoken such affecting and convincing elo-
quence to our hearts as the sight of these
names, thus traced in chalk, which had
been more durable than the lives of these
gallant men.
After leaving Waterloo, the ground rises :
the wood, which had opened, again sur-
rounded us, though in a more straggling
and irregular manner and it was not till
we arrived at the little village of Mont St.
Jean, more than a mile beyond Waterloo,
that we finally quitted the shade of the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 26l
forest, and entered upon the open field
where the battle had 'been fought. D uring
the whole of the action the rear of the left
wing of our army rested upon this little
village, from which the French named the
battle. We gazed with particular interest
at a farm-house, at the farthest extremity
of the village nearest the field, on the left
side of the road, with its walls and gates
and roofs still bearing the vestiges of the
cannon-balls that had pierced them. Every
part of this house and offices was filled with
wounded British officers ; and here Major
was conveyed in excruciating
agony, upon an old blanket, supported by
the bayonets of four of his soldiers.
On the right we saw at some distance
the church of Braine la Leude, which was
in the rear of the extremity of the right
wing of our army. From the top of the
s 3
262 A FEW DAYS
steeple of this church the battle might have
been seen more distinctly than from any
other place, if any one had possessed cool-
ness and hardihood sufficient to have stood
the calm spectator of such a scene ; and
if some cannon-ball had not stopped his
observations by carrying off his head.
Alighting from the carriage, which we
sent back to the barriere of Mont St. Jean,
we walked past the place where the beaten
down corn, and the whole appearance of
the ground, would alone have been sufficient
to have indicated that it had been the bi-
vouac of the British army on the tempes-
tuous night before the battle, when, after
marching and fighting all day beneath a
burning sun, they lay all night in this
swampy piece of ground, under torrents of
rain. We rapidly hurried on, until our
progress was arrested by a long line of
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 263
immense fresh-made graves. We suddenly
stopped we stood rooted to the spot
we gazed around us in silence; for the
emotions that at this moment swelled our
hearts were too deep for utterance we felt
that we stood on the field of battle !
" And these then are the graves of the
brave !" at length mournfully exclaimed one
of the party, after a silence of some minutes,
hastily wiping away some " natural tears."
" Look how they extend all along in front
of this broken beaten down hedge what
tremendous slaughter !" " This is, or ra-
ther was," said an officer who was our
conductor, " the hedge of La Haye Sainte ;*
the ground in front of it, and the narrow
* La Haye Sainte, (the holy hedge). It gives its name
to the farm-house of La Haye Sainte. I could not hear
from any of the country-people why it was distinguished
by the epithet " Sainte." They did not sem to have any
tradition respecting it.
s4
264 A FEW DAYS
lane that runs behind it, were occupied by
Sir Thomas Picton's division, which formed
the left wing of the army ; and it was in
leading forward his men to a glorious and
successful charge against a furious attack
made by an immense force of the enemy,
that this gallant and lamented officer fell.
He was shot through the head, and died
instantly without uttering a word or a
groan !" We gazed at the opposite height,
or rather bank, upon which the French
army was posted. We thought of the feel-
ings with which our gallant soldiers must
have viewed it, before the action com-
menced, when it was covered with the
innumerable legions of France, ranged in
arms against them. The solemn and por-
tentous stillness which precedes the burst-
ing of the tempest, is nothing to the awful
sublimity of a moment such as this. The
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 265
threatening columns of that immense army,
which their valour had now destroyed and
scattered, were then ready to pour down
upon them. The cannon taken in the ac-
tion, which now stood in the field before
us under the guard of a single British
soldier, were then turned against them.
The field-pieces taken by the Prussians
in the pursuit were not here. But 130
pieces of cannon belonging to the British,
and taken by them on the field of battle,
still remained here. We went to examine
them ; they were beautiful pieces of ord-
nance, inscribed with very whimsical
names, and some of them with the revo-
lutionary words of Liberte, Egalite, Fra-
ternite ! Our own artillery, which was
admirably served, had been principally
placed in two lines upon the ridge of the
gentle slope on which our army was sta-
tioned. About four o'clock in the after-
266 A FEW DAYS
noon the first line of guns advanced, and
the second took the place which the first
had before occupied ; it was also placed
upon every little eminence over the field,
and it did great execution amongst the
enemy's ranks.*
* An order had been issued not to fire at the enemy's
field-pieces, but at the troops. However, during the
latter part of the action, a young officer of artillery, out of
patience with the destruction caused among his men, and
particularly with the loss of Captain Bolton, his friend
and brother officer, from the fire of -some guns opposite,
levelled his cannon at them, and had the satisfaction to
see the French artillery-men, and officers who commanded
them, fall in their turn. At that moment he was accosted
suddenly by the Duke of Wellington, whom he had no
idea was near, " What are you firing at there ?" The
artillery officer confessed what he was about. " Keep a
good look out to your left," said the Duke, " you will see
a large body of the enemy advancing just now fire at
them." They soon perceived a tremendous number of
the Imperial Guards, the elite of the army, advancing with
great order and steadiness to attack the British. The
moment they appeared in view, the officer to whom the
Duke had spoken, directed against them such a tremen-
dous and effective fire, that they were mowed down by
KESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 26?
The ground occupied by Sir Thomas
Picton's division, on the left of the road
from Brussels, is lower than any other part
of the British position. It is divided from
the more elevated ridge where the French
were posted by a very gentle declivity.
To the right the ground rises, and the
hollow irregularly increases, until at Cha-
teau Hougoumont it becomes a sort of
small dell or ravine, and the banks are
both high and steep. But the ground
occupied by the French is uniformly
higher and decidedly a stronger position
than ours.
Nothing struck me with more surprize
than the confined space in which this tre-
mendous battle had been fought ; and this,
perhaps, in some measure contributed to
ranks. This gallant young officer had volunteered his
services, and was one of the brigade attached to the se-
cond division of our army.
268 A FEW DAYS
its sanguinary result. The space which
divided the two armies from the farm-house
of La Haye Sainte, which was occupied
by our troops, to La Belle Alliance, which
was occupied by theirs, I scarcely think
would measure three furlongs. Not more
than half a mile could have intervened
between the main body of the French and
English armies : and from the extremity of
the right to that of the left wing of our
army, I should suppose to be little more
than a mile.
The hedge along which Sir Thomas
Picton's division was stationed, and
through which the Scots Greys made their
glorious and decisive charge at the close
of the action, is almost the only one in the
field of battle. The ground is occasionally
divided by some shallow ditches, and in
one place there is a sort of low mud dyke,
which was very much broken and beaten
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 269
down. This was not on the ground our
troops occupied, but rather below the
French position ; and excepting this, the
whole field of battle is uninclosed. The
ground is, however, very uneven and broken,
and the soil a strong clay. It belongs to
different farmers, and bore crops of different
kinds of corn ; but it is entirely arable land,
and excepting a very small piece on the
French side, none of it was in grass.
Against the left wing of our army the
attacks of the French were furious and
incessant. Buonaparte had stationed op-
posite to it the chief body of his Corps de
Reserve, and fresh columns of troops con-
tinually poured down, without being able
to make the smallest impression upon the
firm and impenetrable squares which the
British regiments formed to receive them.
It was Buonaparte's object to turn the left
wing of our army, and cut it off from the
270 A FEW DAYS
Prussians, with whom a communication
was maintained through Ohain, and who
were known (by the Commanders of the
British army at least) to be advancing.*
The Duke expected them to have joined
before one o'clock, but it was seven before
they made their appearance.
On the top of the ridge in front of the
British position, on the left of the road,
we traced a long line of tremendous graves,
or rather pits, into which hundreds of dead
had been thrown as they had fallen in their
ranks, without yielding an inch of ground.
The effluvia which arose from them,
even beneath the open canopy of heaven,
* It is, however, a remarkable fact, and does additional
honour to the resolute, invincible constancy of British
soldiers, that the greatest part of the officers, and nearly
the whole of the privates of the British army, were wholly
ignorant that there was any expectation of the arrival of
the Prussians. Many of them never knew till after the
battle was over., that they had joined*
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 2?1
was horrible ; and the pure west wind
of summer, as it passed us, seemed
pestiferous, so deadly was the smell
that in many places pervaded the field.
The new turned clay which covered those
pits betrayed how recent had been their
formation. From one of them the scanty
clods of earth which had covered it, had
in one place fallen, and the skeleton of a
human face was visible. I turned from
the spot in indescribable horror, and with
a sensation of deadly faintness which I
could scarcely overcome.
On the opposite side of the road we
scrambled up a perpendicular bank,
through which the road had evidently
been cut. It was upon this eminence that
the Duke of Wellington stood at the com-
mencement of the action, surrounded by
his staff. It was here, we were told, that
in the most critical part of it, he rallied
272 A FEW DAYS
the different regiments, and led them on
again in person to renew the shock of
battle. Here we stood some time to survey
the field.
Immediately before us, nearly in the
hollow, was the farm-house of La Haye
Sainte, surrounded by a quadrangular
wall, full of holes for musketry: At
the commencement of the action it was
occupied by the British, and it formed the
most advanced post of the left centre of
our army. It was gallantly and success-
fully defended by a detachment of the
light battalion of the German Legion,
until their ammunition was exhausted ; it
was impossible to send them a supply, as
all communication with them was cut off
by the enemy, who at length succeeded in
carrying it, after a most obstinate resis-
tance; but its brave defenders only
resigned its possession with their lives.
KESIDEXCE IN BELGIUM.
On the opposite side of the road, a little
behind La Haye Sainte, and immediately
below the ground occupied by Sir Thomas
Picton's division, is a quarry which was
surrounded by British artillery at the com*
mencement of the battle. Towards the
close of the action it was filled with the
wounded, who had taken refuge in it as a
shelter from the storm of shot and shells,
and from the charge of the cavalry, when,
horrible to relate ! a body of French cui-
rassiers were completely overthrown into
this quarry by a furious charge of the
British, and horses and riders were rolled
in death upon these unfortunate sufferers.
The ghastly spectacle which it exhibited
next morning was described to me by an
eye-witness of this scene of horror. On
the left, in the hollow between the two
armies, we saw the hamlet of Ter la Haye,
. which was occupied by British troops ;
274 A FEW DAYS
its possession was never disputed by
the enemy, although it was close advanced
upon their position. Beyond it, still farther
to the left, were the woods of Frischer-
mont, from which the Prussians issued
through a narrow defile, and advanced to
attack the right flank of the French.
These woods bounded the prospect on
that side. On the right stood the ruins of
Chdteau Hougoumont, (or Chateau Gou-
mont, as the country-people called it,)
concealed from view by a small wood
which crowns the hill. It formed the most
advanced post of the right centre of our
army, and it was defended to the last with
efforts of successful valour almost more
than human, against the overpowering
numbers and furious attacks of the enemy.
The battle commenced here before eleven
o'clock. The French, suddenly uncover-
ing a masked battery, opetied a tremen-
RESIDENCE IX BELGIUM.
dous fire upon this part of our position,
and advanced to the attack with astonishing
impetuosity, led on, it is said, by Jerome
Buonaparte in person, while Napoleon
viewed it from his station near the Observa-
tory on the opposite height. They were
completely repulsed by the bravery of
General Byng's brigade of Guards, but
they succeeded in carrying the wood which
was occupied by the Belgic troops. The
French, however, after a dreadful struggle,
were driven out of the wood again by the
Coldstream and the third regiment of
Guards, and never afterwards were able to
regain possession of it. The Black Bruns-
wickers behaved most gallantly. In re-
trieving the consequences of the miscon-
duct of the Belgic troops, and in defending
the Chateau and the garden, the British
Guards performed prodigies of valour;
though they suffered most severely.
T2
A FEW DAYS
Lieutenant-General Cooke, Major-General
Byng, Lord Saltoun, the lamented Colonel
Miller, who died as he had lived a brave
and honourable soldier; Captain Adair,
Captains Evelyn and Ellis ; Colonels
Askew, Dashwood, and D'Oyley, with
many others, particularly distinguished
themselves by their steady gallantry and
personal valour. The house was consumed
by fire, and numbers of the wounded perish-
ed in the flames ; yet the British maintained
possession of it to the last, in spite of the in-
cessant and desperate attacks of the enemy,
who directed against it a furious fire of shot
and shells, under cover of which large
bodies of troops advanced continually to
the assault, and were driven back again
and again with tremendous slaughter.
Without the possession of this important
post, the right flank of our army could not
be attacked; it formed what is called the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 277
key of the position ; from its elevation it
commanded the whole of the ground oc-
cupied by our army, and had it been lost,
the victory to the French would scarcely
have been doubtful.
Opposite, but divided from it by a deep
hollow, were the heights occupied by the
French, upon which, at some distance, and
secure from the storm of war, stands the
Observatory, where Buonaparte stationed
himself at the beginning of the action, and
whence he issued his orders, and com-
manded column after column to advance
to the charge, and rush upon destruction.
His " invincible" legions, his invulnerable
Cuirassiers, in vain assaulted the position
of the British, with the most furious and
undaunted resolution. In vain the vast
tide of battle rolled on like the rocks of
their native land, they repelled its rage.
T3
278 A FEW DAYS
Squares of infantry received the onset of
the French columns, directed against them
a steady and uninterrupted fire of mus-
ketry, and stood unshaken, and unterri-
fied, beneath the most tremendous showers
of shot and shell Every vacancy caused
by death was instantly filled up : the enemy
vainly sought for an opening through which
they might penetrate the indestructible
phalanx; and when at last they receded
from the ineffectual attack, the British
rushed forward, charged them with the
bayonet, and, notwithstanding their supe-
riority of numbers, invariably drove them
back with immense slaughter. But I am
relating the history of the battle, forgetful
that I am only describing the fieldt
From the spot where we now stood I
cast my eyes on every side, and saw
nothing but the dreadful and recent
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 279
traces of death and devastation. The rich
harvests of standing corn,* 'which had co-
vered the scene of action we were contem-
plating, had been beaten into the earth, and
the withered and broken stalks dried hi the
sun, now presented the appearance of
stubble, though blacker and far more bare
than any stubble land.
In many places the excavations made by
the shells had thrown up the earth all
around them ; the marks of horses* hoofs,
that had plunged ancle deep in clay, were
hardened in the sun ; and the feet of men,
* In this part of Belgium, wheat generally grows to
full five feet in height, and rye upwards of six feet :
great quantities of the latter are grown, for it answers
to the liberal definition of oats by Dr. Johnson, and is
the food of men in England, and of horses in Flanders ;
nay it is actually baked into bread for their use, and
regularly given them at the inns where they stop to bait.
Several soldiers of the Highland regiments who had got
into a field of this gigantic rye on the 16th, were shot
without even being able to see their enemy.
T 4
280 A FEW DAYS
deeply stamped into the ground, left traces*
where many a deadly struggle had been.
The ground was ploughed up in several
places with the charge of the cavalry, and
the whole field was literally covered with
soldiers' caps, shoes, gloves, belts, and
scabbards, broken feathers battered into
the mud, remnants of tattered scarlet cloth,
bits- of fur and leather, black stocks and
havresacs, belonging to the French soldiers,
buckles, packs of cards, books, and innu-
merable papers of every description. ' I
picked up a volume of Candide; a few
sheets of sentimental love-letters, evidently
belonging to some French novel ; arid
many other pages of the same publica-
tion were flying over the field in much
too muddy a state to be touched. One
German Testament, not quite so dirty as
many that were lying about, I carried
with me nearly the whole day;
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 281
printed French military returns, muster
rolls, love letters and washing bills; ille-
gible songs, scattered sheets of military
music, epistles without number in praise of
" TEmpereur, le Grand Napoleon," and
filled with the most confident anticipations
of victory under his command, were strewed
over the field which had been the scene
of his defeat. The quantities of letters
and of blank sheets of dirty writing paper
were so great that they literally whitened
the surface of the earth.
The road to Genappe, descending from
the front of the British position, where we
were now standing, passes the farm-house
of La Haye Sainte, and ascends the oppo-
site height, on the summit of which stands
" La Belle Alliance/' which was occupied
by the French. We walked down the hill
to La Haye Sainte its walls and slated
roofs were shattered and pierced through
282 A FEW PAYS
in every direction with cannon shot. We
could not get admittance into it, for it was
completely deserted by its inhabitants.
Three wounded officers of the 42d and 92d
regiments were standing here to survey the
scene : they had all of them been wounded
in the battle of the 16th. One of them
had lost an arm, another was on crutches,
and the third seemed to be very ill. Their
carriage waited for them, as they were
unable to walk. After some conversation
with them, we proceeded up the hill to the
tamlet of La Belle Alliance. The princi-
pal house on the left side of the road was
pierced through and through with cannon
balls, and the offices behind it were a heap
of dust from the fire of the British artillery.
Notwithstanding: the ruinous state of the
o
house, it was filled with inhabitants. Its
broken walls, " its looped and windowed
wretchedness," might indeed defend them
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 283
sufficiently well " from seasons such as
these/' when the soft breezes and the bright
beams of summer played around it but
against " the pelting of the storm/' it would
afford them but a sorry shelter. It was im-
mediately to be repaired; but I rejoiced
that it yet remained in its dilapidated state.
The house was filled with vestiges of the
battle. Cuirasses, helmets, swords, bayo-
nets, feathers, brass eagles, and crosses of
the Legion of Honour, were to be pur-
chased here. The house consisted of three
rooms, two in front, and a very small one
behind. On the opposite side of the road
is a little cottage, forming part of the ham-
let of La Belle Alliance ; and at a short
distance, by the way side, is another low-
roofed cottage, which was pointed out to
us as the place where Buonaparte break-
fasted on the morning of the battle.
Farther along this road, but not in sight,
284 A FEW DAYS
was the village of Planchenoit, which was
the head-quarters of the French on the
night of the 17th *
We crossed the field from this place to
Chateau Hougoumont, descending to the
bottom of the hill, and again ascending
the opposite side. Part of our way lay
through clover; but I observed, that the
corn on the French position was not nearly
So much beaten down as on the English,
which might naturally be expected, as they
attacked us incessantly, and we acted on
the defensive, until that last, general, and
decisive charge of our whole army was
made, before which their's fled in confu-
sion. In some places patches of corn
nearly as high as myself were standing.
Among them I discovered many a for-
gotten grave, strewed round with melan-
* Buonaparte slept at the farm of Caillon near
Planchenoit.
HESIDEXCE IN BELGIUM. 285
choly remnants of military attire. While
I loitered behind the rest of the party,
searching among the corn for some relics
worthy of preservation, I beheld a human
hand, almost reduced to a skeleton, out-
stretched above the ground, as if it had
raised itself from the grave. My blood
ran cold with horror, and for some mo-
ments I stood rooted to the spot, unable
to take my eyes from this dreadful object,
or to move away : as soon as I recovered
myself, I hastened after my companions,
who were far before me, and overtook
them just as they entered the wood of
Hougoumont. Never shall I forget the
dreadful scene of death and destruction
which it presented. The broken branches
were strewed around, the green beech
leaves fallen before their time, and stripped
by the storm of war, not by the storm of
286 A FEW DAY*
nature, were scattered over the surface of
the ground, emblematical of the fate of the
thousands who had fallen on the same spot
in the summer of their days. The return
of spring will dress the wood of Hougou-
mont once more in vernal beauty, and suc-
ceeding years will see it flourish :
" But when shall spring visit th* mouldering urn,
Oh ! when shall it dawfi on the night of the grave !"
The trunks of the trees had been pierced
in every direction with cannon-balls. In
some of them, I counted the holes where
upwards of thirty had lodged: yet they
still lived, they still bore their verdant
foliage, and the birds still sang amidst
their boughs. Beneath their shade, the
hare-bell and violet were waving their
slender heads; and the wild raspberry
at their roots was ripening its fruit.
I gathered some of it with the bitter
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 287
reflexion, that amidst the destruction
of human life these worthless weeds and
flowers had escaped uninjured.
Melancholy were the vestiges of death
that continually met our eyes. The car*
nage here had indeed been dreadful.
Amongst the long grass lay remains of
broken arms, shreds of gold lace, torn
epaulets, and pieces of cartridges-boxes;
and upon the tangled branches of the
brambles fluttered many a tattered rem-
nant of a soldier's coat. At the outskirts
of the wood, and around the ruined walls
of the Chateau, huge piles of human ashes
were heaped up, some of which were still
smoking. The countrymen told us, that so
great were the numbers of the slain, that it
was impossible entirely to consume them.
Pits had been dug, into which they had
been thrown, but they were obliged to be
raised far above the surface of the ground.
288 A FEW DAYS
These dreadful heaps were covered with
piles of wood, which were set on fire, so
that underneath the ashes lay numbers of
human bodies unconsumed.
The Chateau itself, the beautiful seat of
a Belgic gentleman, had been set on fire
by the explosion of shells during the ac-
tion, which had completed the destruction
occasioned by a most furious cannonade.
Its broken walls and falling roofs presented
a most melancholy spectacle : not melan-
choly merely from its being a pile of ruins,
but from the vestiges it presented of that
tremendous and recent warfare by which
those ruins had been caused. Its huge
blackened beams had fallen in every
direction upon the crumbling heaps of
stone and plaster, which were intermixed
with broken pieces of the marble flags, the
carved cornices, and the gilded mirrors,
that once ornamented it.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 289
We went into the garden, which had
sustained comparatively little injury, while
every thing around it was laid waste. Its
gay parterres and summer flowers made it
look like an island in the desert. A ber-
ceau, or covered walk, ran round it, shaded
with creeping plants, amongst which ho-
ney-suckles and jessamines were inter-
mixed, en treillage. The trees were loaded
with fruit ; the myrtles and fig trees were
flourishing in luxuriance, and the scarlet
geraniums, July flowers, and orange trees,
were in full blow. My native country can
boast of no such beauty as bloomed at
Chateau Hougoumont: its rugged clime
produces no fruitful fig trees, no flowers
rich in the fragrance of orange blossom :
but it is the land of heroes !
" Man is the nobler growth our realms supply,
And souls are ripened in our northern sky."
I saw the pure and polished leaves of
290 A FEW DAYS
the laurel shining in the sun, and I could
not restrain my tears at the thought that the
laurels, the everlasting laurels which Eng-
land had won upon this spot, were steeped
in the heart-blood of thousands of her
brave, her lamented sons. But if not im-
mortal in their lives, they will be so in
their fame. Their laurels will never
wither ; and no British heart, hencefor-
ward, will ever visit this hallowed spot
without paying a tribute of veneration and
regret to those gallant spirits who here
fought and fell for their country.
At the garden gate I found the holster
of a British officer, entire, but deluged
with blood. In the inside was the maker's
name, Beazley and Hetse, No. 4, Par-
liament-street. All around were strewed
torn epaulets, broken scabbards, and sa-
bretashes stained and stiffened with blood
proofs how dreadfully the battle had
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 2Q1
raged. The garden and courts were lined
during the engagement with Nassau troops,
as sharpshooters, who did great execution.
A poor countryman, with his wife and
children, inhabited a miserable shed
amongst these deserted ruins. This unfor-
tunate family had only fled from the spot
on the morning of the battle. Their little,
dwelling had been burnt, and all their pro-
perty had perished in the flames. They
had scarcely clothes to cover them, and
were destitute of every thing. Yet the
poor woman, as she told me the story of
their distresses, and wept over the baby
that she clasped to her breast, blessed
heaven that she had preserved her chil-
dren. She seemed most grateful for a little
assistance, took me into her miserable
habitation, and gave me the broken sword
of a British officer of infantry, (most pro-
bably of the Guards,) which was the only
u2
292 A FEW DAYS
thing she had left ; and which, with some
other relics before collected, I preserved
as carefully as if they had been the
most valuable treasures.
It is a remarkable circumstance that
amidst this scene of destruction, and sur-
rounded on all sides by the shattered walls
and smoking piles of " this ruined and
roofless abode," the little chapel belonging
to the Chateau stood uninjured. Its
preservation appeared to these simple
peasants an unquestionable miracle ; and
we felt more inclined to respect than to
wonder at the superstitious veneration with
which they regarded it. No shot nor shell
had penetrated its consecrated walls ; no
sacrilegious hand had dared to violate its
humble altar, which was still adorned with
its ancient ornaments and its customary
care. A type of that blessed religion to
which it was consecrated, it stood alone,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 293
unchanged, amidst the wreck of earthly
greatness, as if to speak to our hearts,
amidst the horrors of the tomb, the
promises of immortality; and to recall
our thoughts from the crimes and sorrows
of earth to the hopes and happiness of
heaven. The voice of the Divinity himself
within his holy temple seemed to tell us, that
those whom we lamented here, and who in
the discharge of their last and noblest duty
to their country, had met on the field of
honour " the death that best becomes the
brave," should receive in another and a
better World their great reward ! Black-
ened piles of human ashes surrounded us ;
but I felt that though " the dust returns
to the earth, the spirit returns unto Him
that gave it."
The countryman led me to one of these
piles within the gates of the court belong-
ing to the Chdteau, where, he said, the
u3
294 A FEW DAYS
bodies of the British Guardsmen who
had so gallantly defended it, had been
burnt as they had been found, heaped
in death. I took some of the ashes
and wrapped them up in one of the
many sheets of paper that were strewed
around me; perhaps those heaps that
then blackened the surface of this scene
of desolation are already scattered by
the winds of winter, and mingled unno-
ticed with the dust of the field ; perhaps
the few sacred ashes which I then gathered
at Chateau Hougoumont are all that is now
to be found upon earth of the thousands
who fell upon this fatal field !
It was not without regret that we left
this ever-memorable spot, surrounded as it
was by horrors that shocked the mind, and
vestiges that were revolting to the senses.
Still we lingered around it, till at length,
after gazing for the last time at its ruined
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM.
archways and desolated courts, we struck
into the wood, and lost sight for ever of
the Chateau Hougoumont. The road to
Nivelles, which strikes off to the right from
the high road to Genappe at the village of
Mont St. Jean, passes the Chateau on the
other side. The right wing of the British
army crossed this road, and in the deep
ditches on each side of it we were told
that human remains still lay uninterred.
Some of the party returned to Mont
St. Jean by this road, which is con-
siderably nearer; but my brother, my
sister, and myself, once more crossed the
field in order to pay another visit to " La
Belle Alliance."
I could not be persuaded to go to see
the skeleton of a calf which had been
burnt in one of the outhouses of Hougou-
mont, and over which one of the ladies of
our party uttered the most pathetic lamen-
u4
296 A FEW DAYS
tations. It seemed to fill her mind with
more concern than any thing else. At ano r
ther time I might have been sorry for the
calf; but when I remembered how many
poor wounded men had been burnt alive in
these ruins, it was impossible to bestow a
single thought upon its fate. Finding
that her sensibility obtained no sympathy
from me, the lady turned to S , and
began to bewail the calf anew, till at last
wearied out with her folly, " out of her
grief and her impatience/' S ex-
claimed, " that she did not care if all the
calves in the world were burnt."
As we passed again through the wood of
Hougoumont, I gathered some seeds of the
wild broom, with the intention of planting
them at - , and with the hope
that I should one day see the broom of
Hougoumont blooming on the banks of the
Tweed. In leaving the wood I was struck
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 297
with the sight of the scarlet poppy flaunt-
ing in full bloom upon some new-made
graves, as if in mockery of the dead.
In many parts of the field these flowers
were growing in profusion : they had
probably been protected from injury by
the tall and thick corn amongst which
they grew; and their slender roots had
adhered to the clods of clay which had
been carelessly thrown upon the graves.
From one of these graves I gathered
the little wild blue flower known by the
sentimental name of " Forget me .not !"
which to a romantic imagination might
have furnished a fruitful subject for poetic
reverie or pensive reflection.
While S was taking a view, and
J was overlooking and guarding her,
I entered . the cottage of " La Belle
Alliance," and began to talk to Baptiste
la Coste, Buonaparte's guide, whom I
298 A FEW DAYS
found there. He is a sturdy, honest-
looking countryman, and gave an inte-
resting account of Buonaparte's beha-
viour during the battle. He said that he
issued his orders with great vehemence,
and even impatience. He took snuff in-
cessantly but in a hurried manner, and
apparently from habit, and without being-
conscious that he was doing so : he talked a
great deal and very rapidly ; his manner of
speaking was abrupt, quick, and hurried :
he was extremely nervous and agitated at
times, though his anticipations of victory
were most confident. He frequently ex-
pressed his astonishment, rather angrily,
that the British held out so long at the
same time he could not repress his admi-
ration of their gallantry, and often broke
out into exclamations of amazement and
approbation of their courage and conduct.
He particularly admired the Scotch Greys
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 299
" Voila ces chevaux gris ah ! ce sont
beaux cavaliers tres beaux," and then
he said they would all be cut to pieces.
He said, " These English certainly fight
well, but they must soon give way ;" and
he asked Soult, who was near him, " if he
did not think so ?" Soult replied, " He
was afraid not." " And why?" said
Napoleon, turning round to him quickly.
" Because," said Soult, " I believe they
will first be cut to pieces." Soult's opinion
of the British army, which was founded on
experience, coincided with that of the
Duke of Wellington. " It will take a
great many hours to cut them in pieces,"
said the Duke, in answer to something
that was said to him during the action ;
" and I know they will never give way."
Buonaparte, however, who knew less of
them, and whose head always ran upon
the idea of the English flying to their
300 A FEW DAYS
ships, had never dreamt that with a force
so inferior they would think of giving him
battle ; but imagined that they would con-
tinue their retreat during the night, and
that he should have to pursue them. It is
said that he expressed great satisfaction
when the morning broke and he saw them
still there ; and that he exclaimed " Ah !
pour le coup je les tiens done ces An-
glais r
Before the engagement began he ha-
rangued the army, promising them the
plunder of Brussels and Ghent. Once,
towards the close of the battle, he address-
ed himself to the Imperial Guard, leading
them on to the brink of the hill, and telling
them, " that was the road to Brussels."
Regardless of the waste of human life,
he incessantly ordered his battalions to
advance to bear down upon the enemy
to carry every thing before them. He
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 301
inflamed their ardour by the remembrance
of past, as well as the prospect of present
victory, and the promise of future reward :
but he never led them on to battle himself
he never once braved the shock of
British arms. It is not true that he was
ever near Lord Uxbridge, or in any
danger of being taken prisoner by the
English. Indeed he exposed himself to
very little personal risk ; a proof of which
is, that not one of those who attended him
the whole day was wounded.
La Coste said, that at first, when he was
told that the Prussians were advancing, he
obstinately and angrily refused to believe it,
declaring it was the French corps under
Marshal Grouchy.* He then commanded
* That Buonaparte either did believe those troops to
be French, or that he pretended to believe it, (which is
perhaps more probable,) is unquestionably true. Marshal
Ney, in his account of the battle, states that he received a
302 A FEW DAYS
this news to be spread amongst the army,
and ordered Marshal Ney, at the head of
four chosen regiments of the Guards, to
charge, and to penetrate the centre of the
British.* He stood to witness the complete
failure of this desperate effort to retrieve the
fortune of the day ; but when he perceived
his troops give way and retreat in confusion
before the grand simultaneous charge of
the British army, he turned pale, his per-
turbation became extreme and exclaim-
ing, " All is lost let us save ourselves,"
(Tout est perdu sauvons nous,) or words to
that effect, he put spurs to his horse, and
message from the Emperor, brought by General Labe-
doyere, to inform him " that the French corps under
Marshal Grouchy had arrived in the field, and attacked
the left wing of the British and Prussians united. Gene-
ral Labedoyere rode along the lines, spreading this intel-
ligence through the whole army." Vide Marshal Ney's
Letter.
* Vide Marshal Ney's Letter.
RESIDENCE Itf BELGIUM. 303
galloped from the field. La Coste
expressly said, that he was among the
first of the officers to set the example of
flight.* His own old Imperial Guard
still remained disputed every foot of
ground fought desperately to the last,
and at length, overpowered by numbers,
fell gloriously as their leader should have
fallen.
But he ! not even despair could prompt
him to one noble thought, or rouse him to
one deed of desperate valour. He fled,
as at Egypt, at Moscow, and at Leipsic
he had fled, while his faithful veterans
were still fighting with enthusiastic gal-
* This statement too is confirmed by Marshal Ney,
who said, " that Buonaparte had entirely disappeared
before the end of the battle." Let it be remembered
that Key's letter was written exactly a week after the
battle, while Napoleon was still Emperor, and still in
Paris, and which, if his statement was not true, a thousand
witnesses could have contradicted it.
304 A FEW DAYS
lantry, and shedding the last drop of their
blood in his cause !
Was this the conduct of a hero ? Was
this the conduct of a general ? Was this
the conduct of a great mind ? No ! He had
set his " life upon a cast and he should
have stood the hazard of the die/'
And for what did he abandon his army,
and basely fly in the hour of danger ?
that he might be humiliated, pursued
and taken that he might become a
suppliant to that hated enemy, whose
ruin he had pursued with implacable
hostility, and be indebted to their faith
and generosity for life and safety that
he might live to hear his name execrated,
and linger out a few years of miserable
existence in obscurity and degradation I
It has been said by his advocates and
admirers, that he was not only a great
man, but the greatest man who ever lived -
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. ,305
and that his only fault was ambition. Yes !
Napoleon Buonaparte had indeed ambi-
tion but it was for power, not for glory ;
for unbounded empire and unlimited
dominion, not for the welfare of his sub-
jects and the prosperity of his country.
He used the talents, the opportunities,
and the power, with which he was gifted,
and such as perhaps no mortal ever before
enjoyed, not to save, but to destroy, not
to bless, but to desolate, the world.
The conduct of the leaders of the con-
tending armies was as opposite as the cause
for which they fought. While Napoleon
kept aloof from the action, Lord Welling-
ton exposed himself to the hottest fire, threw
himself into the thickest of the fight, and
braved every danger of the battle. He issued
every order, he directed every movement,
he seemed to be every where present, he
encouraged his troops, he rallied his regi-
x
306 A FEW DAYS
ments, he led them on against the tremen-
dous forces of the enemy, charged at their
head, and defeated their most formidable
attacks. No private soldier in his army
was exposed to half the personal danger
that he encountered. All who surrounded
him fell by his side, wounded and dying.
All his personal staff, with scarcely an ex-
ception, were either killed or wounded.
In the battle's most terrible moment, and
most hopeless crisis, when our gallant army,
weakened by immense losses, and by more
than seven hours of unequal combat, were
scarcely able to stand against the over-
whelming number of fresh troops which
the enemy poured down against them,
when tke Belgians fled, when every British
soldier was in action, when no reserve
remained, and no prospect of succour
from our allies appeared, Lord Welling-
ton himself rallied the troops, charged at
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 30?
their head, and once more drove back the
enemy.*
Nor was the conduct of the two gene-
rals on this day more opposite than that of
the armies which they commanded, and
the motives by which they were actuated.
The French fought to obtain plunder and
aggrandisement the British to fulfil their
duty to their country. Well did their ge-
nerals know this essential difference !
Buonaparte held out to his troops the
spoils of Belgium and Holland. When he
wished to animate them to the greatest
exertions, he led them forward, and told
them, " That was the road to Brussels !"
Lord Wellington, in the most critical
moment of the battle, held another lan-
* It was past six o'clock when this circumstance hap-
pened. The Prussians had not appeared. The regiments
which he led to the charge were the 52d aud the 95th. He
also repeatedly rallied the Belgic regiments, and some-
times vainly exerted himself to make them face the enemy.
308 A FEW DAYS
guage. " We must not be beaten/' he said
to his soldiers ; " what will they say of us
in England !"- After the battle their con-
duct was equally different. The French had
murdered numbers of their prisoners, and
those whose lives they spared, they robbed,
insulted, and treated with the utmost
cruelty * shutting them up without food,
without dressing their wounds, and sub-
jecting them to every hardship and priva-
tion. The British, on the contrary, though
irritated by the knowledge of these barba-
rities, protected the wounded French from
the rage of the Prussians, who would have
gladly revenged the cruelties with which
they had been treated by them. Our
wounded soldiers, who were able to move,
employed themselves in assisting their
suffering enemies, binding up their wounds,
and giving them food and water but the
brave are always merciful.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 309
A countryman, who belonged either to
La Belle Alliance, or to some of the neigh-
bouring cottages, told me, that when he
came here early on the morning after the
battle, the house was surrounded with the
wounded and dying of the French army,
many of whom implored him, for God's
sake, to put an end to their sufferings.
But the agonizing scenes which had so
recently taken place here, and the images
of horror which every object in and around
La Belle Alliance was irresistibly calcu-
lated to suggest to the mind, were almost
too dreadful for reflection. More pleasing
was the remembrance, that it was here
Napoleon Buonaparte stood when he dis-
patched a courier to Paris with the news
that he had won the day; and that it
was here the Duke of Wellington and
Marshal Blucher accidentally met* a few
hours after, in the very moment of victory.
310 A FEW DAYS
when Buonaparte was flying before their
triumphant armies, himself the bearer of the
news of his own defeat.
The interview between the Duke of Wel-
lington and Marshal Blucher was short,
but it will be for ever memorable in the
annals of history. They did not enter the
house, but remained together a few mi-
nutes in earnest conversation. It is well
known that Blucher and the Prussians con-
tinued the pursuit during the night. The
remains of the British army rested from
their toils on the ground, surrounded by
the bleeding and dying French, on the very
spot which they had occupied the prece-
ding night, and Lord Wellington returned
to Waterloo.
" As he crossed again the fatal field, on
which the silence of death had now suc-
ceeded to the storm of battle, the moon,
breaking from dark clouds, shed an uncer-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 311
tain light upon this wide scene of carnage,
covered with mangled thousands of that
gallant army whose heroic valour had won
for him the brightest wreath of victory, and
left to future times an imperishable monu-
ment of their country's fame. He saw
himself surrounded by the bloody corpses
of his veteran soldiers, who had followed
him through distant lands, of his friends,
his associates in arms, his companions
through many an eventful year of danger
and of glory : in that awful pause, which
follows the mortal conflict of man with
man, emotions, unknown or stifled in the
heat of battle, forced their way the feel-
ings of the man triumphed over those of
the general, and in the very hour of victory
Lord Wellington burst into tears/'*
The state of the wounded during this
* From Circumstantial Details relative to the battle of
Waterloo, by a near Observer.
x 4
312 A PEW DAYS
dreadful night may be conceived. Not
even a drop of water was to be had on the
field to relieve their thirst, and none was to
be procured nearer than Waterloo. Late
as it was, , and exhausted as our officers
must have been with the fatigue of such
unremitting exertions, many of them
mounted their horses, slung over their
shoulders as many canteens as they could
carry, galloped to Waterloo, a distance of
more than two miles from almost every
part of the field, filled them with water,
and returned with it for the relief of the
wounded men.
I did not leave a corner of La Belle
Alliance unrummaged, but I cannot say
that I saw any thing particularly worthy
of notice : I ate a bit of intolerably bad
rye-cake, as sour as vinegar, and as black
as the bread of Sparta, which nothing but
the consideration of its having been in La
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 313
Belle Alliance during the battle (which the
woman assured me was the case) could
have induced me to swallow : but I need
not stop to relate my own follies.
I bought from the people of the house
the feather of a French officer, and a
cuirass which had belonged to a French
cuirassier, who, they said, had died here
the day after the battle. Loaded with my
spoils, I traversed the whole extent of the
field, thinking, as I toiled along beneath
the burning sun, under the weight of the
heavy cuirass, that the poor man to whom
it had belonged, when he brought it into
the field, in all the pride of martial ardour,
and all the confidence of victory, little
dreamed who would cany it off. If he had
known that it was to be an English lady,
he would have been more surprized than
pleased.
I did not stop till I got to the old tree
314 A FEW DAYS
now known by the name of Lord Welling*
ton's tree,* near which he stood for a
length of time during the battle; and
beneath which I now sat myself down
to rest. Its massy trunk and broken
branches were pierced with a number of
cannon-balls, but its foliage still afforded
me a grateful shade from the rays of the
sun.
It was between this part of the field and
Hougoumont, that the lamented Sir
William Ponsonby gloriously fell in the
prime of life and honour, after repeatedly
leading the most gallant and successful
charges against the enemy, in which he
took upwards of 2000 prisoners and two
French eagles. The particulars of his
death are well known. In the heat of the
action he was unfortunately separated from
* It is on the left of the road in going towards
\\ ;itrrlu< >, behind the farm-house of La Haye Sainte.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 315
his brigade, his horse stuck fast in the deep
wet clay of some newly-ploughed land,
and he saw a large body of Polish Lancers
bearing down against him. In this dread-
ful situation he awaited the inevitable fate
that approached him with the composure
of a hero : he calmly turned to his aide-de-
camp, who was still by his side, and it is
said that he was in the act of giving him a
picture and a last message to his wife,
when he was pierced at oce with the
pikes of seven of the Polish Lancers, and
fell covered with wounds. England never
lost a better soldier, nor society a brighter
ornament. He was deservedly beloved by
his friends and companions, adored by his
family, and lamented and honoured by his
country.
Numbers of country-people were em-
ployed in what might be called the glean-
ings of the harvest of spoil. The muskets*
316
A FEW DAYS
the swords, the helmets, the cuirasses, all
the large and unbroken arms, had been
immediately carried off; and now the
eagles that had emblazoned the caps of
the French infantry, the fragments of
broken swords, &c. were rarely to be
found ; though there was great abundance
upon sale. But there was still plenty of
rubbish to be picked up upon the field,
for those who had a taste for it like me-
though the greatest part of it was in a most
horrible state.
It was astonishing with what dreadful
haste the bodies of the dead had been
pillaged. The work of plunder was carried
on' even during the battle ; and those har-
dened and abandoned wretches who follow
the camp, like vultures, to prey upon the
corpses of the dead, had the temerity to
press forward beneath a heavy fire to rifle
the pockets of the officers who fell, of their
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 31?
watches and money. The most daring
and atrocious of these marauders were
women.*
* Some soldiers' wives were, however, actuated by
better motives, and, like the matrons of Hensberg, in times
of old, seemed to think their best treasures were their
husbands. Many of them rushed forward and carried
their wounded husbands off the field at the hazard of
their own lives. The wife of a serjeant in the 28th was
severely wounded in two places by a shell, which struck
her as she was carrying off her wounded husband. This
anecdote was related to me by an eye-witness of the cir-
cumstance. The woman (respecting whom I inquired
since my return to England) has, I understand, been al-
lowed a pension from Chelsea Hospital. I heard of se-
veral simitar instances of heroic conjugal affection ; and
I myself saw one poor woman, the wife of a private in the
27th, whose leg was dreadfully fractured by a musket-ball
in rescuing her husband. When struck by the ball she fell
to the ground with her husband, who was supposed to be
mortally wounded, but she still refused to leave him, and
they were removed together to the rear and afterwards
sent to Antwerp. The poor man survived the amputa-
tion of both his arms, and is still alive. The woman,
who was then in a state of pregnancy, has, since her re-
turn to this country, given birth to a child, to which the
Duke of York stood godfather.
318 A PEW DATS
The description I heard of the field the
morning after the battle from those who
had visited it, I cannot yet recal without
horror. Horses were galloping about in
every direction without their riders : some
of them, bleeding with their wounds
and frantic with pain, were tearing up
the ground, and plunging over the
bodies of the dead and the dying, -
and many of them were lying on the
ground in the agonies of death.
Over the whole field the bodies of the
innumerable dead, already stripped of
every covering, were lying in heaps upon
each other ; the wounded in many instances
beneath them. Some, faint and bleeding,
were slowly attempting to make their way
towards Brussels ; others were crawling
upon their hands and knees from this scene
of misery ; and many, unable to move, lay
on the ground in agony.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 31Q
For four days and nights, some of these
unfortunate men were exposed to the
beams of the sun by day, and to the
dews by night ; for notwithstanding
the most praiseworthy and indefatigable
exertions, the last of the wounded were
not removed from the field until the
Thursday after the battle ; and if we con-
sider that there were at least 8000
British, besides the Belgic, Brunswick,
and Prussian wounded soldiers, and an
incalculable number of wounded French,
we shall find cause for surprize and admi-
ration, that they could be removed in so
short a time. Their conveyance, too, was
rendered extremely difficult, as well as
inconceivably painful to the poor sufferers,
by the dreadful and almost impassable
state of the roads.
The Belgic peasantry shewed the most
active and attentive humanity to these
320 .' A FEW DAYS
poor wounded men. They brought them
the best food they could procure ; they
gave them water to drink they ministered
to all their wants complied with all their
wishes, and treated them as if they had
been their own children.
An officer, with whom I am acquainted,
went over the field on the morning of
the battle, and examined the ghastly heaps
of dead in search of the body of a near
relation ; and after all the corpses were
buried or burnt in the same melancholy
and fruitless search, many an English-
woman, whom this day of glory had bereft
of husband or son, wandered over this
fatal field, wildly calling upon the names
of those who were now no more. The very
day before we visited it, the widow and the
sister of a brave and lamented British officer
had been here, harrowing up the souls of
the beholders with their wild lamentations,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 321
vainly demanding where the remains
of him they loved reposed, -and accusing
heaven for denying them the consolation
of weeping over his grave. I was myself,
afterwards, a sorrowful witness of the
dreadful effects of the unrestrained in-
dulgence of this passionate and heart-
breaking grief. In the instance to which
I allude, sorrow had nearly driven reason
from her seat, and melancholy verged upon
madness.
I have forced myself to dwell upon these
scenes of horror, with whatever pain to my
own feelings, because in this favoured coun-
try, which the mercy of heaven has hitherto
preserved from being the theatre of war,
and from experiencing the calamities which
have visited other nations, I have some-
times thought that the blessings of that ex-
emption are but imperfectly felt, and that
the. sufferings and the dangers of those
322 A FEW DAYS
whose valour and whose blood have been
its security and glory, are but faintly un-
derstood and coldly commiserated. I
wished that those who had suffered in the
cause of their country should be repaid by
her gratitude, and that she should learn
more justly to estimate " the price of vic-
tory/' But it is impossible for me to de-
scribe, or for imagination to conceive, the
horrors of Waterloo !
How gladly would I dwell upon the in-
dividual merits of those who fell upon this
glorious field, had I but the power to
snatch from oblivion one of the many
names which ought to be enrolled in the
proud list of their country's heroes ! In the
heat of such a battle, probably thousands
have fallen, whose untold deeds surpass all
that from childhood our hearts have wor-
shipped. But that heroic valour and de-
voted patriotism, which in other days were
RESIDENCE IN V BELGIUM. 323
confined to individuals and signalised their
conduct at Waterloo pervaded every
breast. Every private soldier acted like a
hero, and thus individual merit was lost in
the general excellence, as the beams of the
stars are undistinguished in the universal
blaze of day.
But it is not only the unrivalled glory of
my countrymen in arms, of which I am
proud, it is the noble use which they have
made of their triumph. It is not only their
irresistible valour in battle, but their unex-
ampled mercy and moderation in victory
which exalts them above all other nations.
It has been justly said by those whom the}'
conquered, that no other army than the
British could have won the battles of
Quatre Bras and Waterloo : and no other
army but the British, after such a battle
and such a victory, after a long course of
incessant warfare, after recent insults and
Y2
524 A FEW DAYS
wanton cruelties, and after ages of invete-
rate hostility and national animosity, no
other army but the British, in such circum-
stances, would have marched through the
heart of that enemy's country, and entered
that enemy's capital, as the British army
marched through France and entered
Paris.
We have only to remember what has
invariably been the conduct of the French
armies in their march through the countries
they have conquered. We have only to
picture to ourselves what would have been
their conduct, if they had triumphantly
inarched through England, and we shall
then be able to appreciate the meritorious
moderation of the British army no plun*
dered towns, no burning villages, no
ruined houses marked their course, no
outrage, no cruelty nor violence disgraced
their triumphant progress. The French
RESIDENCE IN IJELGIUM. 325
people received from their enemies that
mercy which was denied them by their own
soldiers. There is not a spot on the earth,
from the burning sands of Egypt to the
frozen deserts of Russia from the Black
Sea to the Pillars of Hercules from the
coasts of the Baltic to the shores of the
Mediterranean, where the name of French-
man and of Napoleon Buonaparte is not
dreaded and detested. Wherever the
power of Buonaparte has been known, or
his dominion felt, his name is uttered
with execrations. Wherever he has gone,
his path, like that of the pestiferous serpent,
has been traced by misery and desolation.
But it is a proud reflection to every British
heart, that there is not a country of the
civilized world where England is not men-
tioned with respect and gratitude, and the
very name of Englishman coupled with
blessings.
Y3
326 A FEW DAYS
I am too sensible of my own incom-
petency, and too conscious of my want of
knowledge, to attempt to give any account
of the battle itself. The deeds of my
countrymen I can only admire, I am not
qualified to record them. Abler pens
than mine must do justice to the events
of this day of glory, which I cannot
recal to memory without tears : but
it was impossible to stand on the field
where thousands of my gallant countrymen
had fought and conquered and bled and
died, and where their heroic valour had
won for England her latest, proudest
wreath of glory, without mingled feelings
of triumph, pity, enthusiasm, and admira-
tion, which language is utterly unable to
express.
I stood alone upon the spot so lately
bathed in human blood where more than
two hundred thousand human beings had
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 327
mingled together in mortal strife : I cast
my eyes upon the ruined hovels immor-
talized by the glorious achievements of
my gallant countrymen. I recalled to
mind their invincible constancy their un-
daunted intrepidity their heroic self-devo-
tion in the hour of trial their magnanimity
and mercy in the moment of victory : I
cast my eyes upon the tremendous graves
at my feet, filled with the mortal remains
of heroes. Silence and desolation now
reigned on this wide field of carnage : the
scattered relics of recent slaughter and
devastation covered the sun-burnt ground ;
the gales of heaven, as they passed me,
were tainted with the effluvia of death. I
shuddered at the thought that, beneath the
clay on which I stood, the best and bravest
of human hearts reposed in death. Oh!
surely in such a moment and on such a
Y 4
328 A FEW DAYS
spot, " some human tears might fall and
be forgiven \"
, Alas ! those for whom I mourned sleep
in death, and in vain for them are the
tears, the praise, or the gratitude of their
country : but though their bodies may
moulder in the tomb, and their ashes,
mingled with the dust, be scattered unno-
ticed by the winds of winter, their names
and their deeds shall never perish, they
shall live for ever in the remembrance of
their country, and the tears which pity
gratitude admiration wring from every
British heart, shall hallow their bloody and
honourable grave. On earth they shall
receive the noblest meed of praise ; and
oh ! may we not, without impiety or
presumption, indulge the hope, that in
heaven the crown of glory and immortality
awaits those who fell in the field of honour,
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 329
and who in the discharge of their last and
noblest duty to their country, " resigned
their spirit unto Him that gave it" ?
It was with difficulty I could tear myself
from the spot but after casting one
long and lingering look upon the wood-
crowned hill of Hougoumont, the shattered
walls of La Haye Sainte, the hamlet of
La Belle Alliance, the woods of Frischer-
mont, the broken hedge in front of which
Sir Thomas Picton's division had been
stationed, and which was doubly interesting
to me from the remembrance that it was
there Major had fought and
fallen ; and after giving one last glance at
the tree beneath which I stood, I joined
my brother and sister, who had been taking
sketches at a little distance, and set off
with them to Mont St. Jean, lightened of
the load of my cuirass, which a little girl,
who before the battle had been one of the
330 A FEW DAYS
inhabitants of La Haye Sainte, joyfully
carried to the village for half a franc.
On our return we entered the farm-house
where Major - had been con-
veyed when wounded. The farm-house
and offices inclose a court into which the
windows of the house look. It is only one
story high, and consists of three rooms,
one through another. Not only these
rooms, but the barns, out-houses, and
byres were filled with wounded British
officers, many of whom died here before
morning.
In that last tremendous attack which
took place towards the close of the day,
before the arrival of the Prussians, (but
which, thanks to British valour, was wholly
unsuccessful,) the battle extended even
here. The French suddenly turned the
fire of nearly the whole of their artillery
against this part of our position, in front
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 331
of Mont St. Jean, and a general charge
of their infantry and cavalry advanced,
under cover of this tremendous cannonade,
to the atack. Weakened as our army had
been in this quarter with the immense loss
it had sustained, they expected it to give
way instantly, and that they should be able
to force their way to Brussels. The Belgians
fled at this tremendous onset. The British
stood firm and undaunted, contesting every
inch of ground. Every little rise was
taken and retaken. The French and
English, intermingled with each other,
fought man to man, and sword to sword,
around these walls, and in this court,
while cannon-shot thundered against the
walls of the house, and shells broke in at
the windows of the rooms crowded with
wounded. Such of the officers as it was
possible to remove were carried out beneath
332 A FEW DAYS
a shower of musketry. But our troops
maintained their ground in spite of the
immense numbers of the enemy, and of a
most tremendous and incessant fire ; and
after a long and desperate contest, the
French were completely repulsed and
driven back. They never for a moment
gained possession even of this farm-house,
much less of the village of Mont St. Jean,
to which indeed the battle never extended.
Some cannon-balls indeed lodged them-
selves in the walls of the cottages, but the
action took place entirely in front of the
village, and its possession was never there-
fore disputed.
The farmer's wife had actually remained
in this farm-house during the whole of this
tremendous battle, quite alone, shut up
in her own room, or rather garret. There
she sat the whole day, listening to the roar
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 333
of the cannon, in solitude and silence,
unable to see any thing, or to hear any
account of what was passing, . It seemed
to me that the utmost ingenuity of man
could not have devised a more terrible
punishment than this woman voluntarily
inflicted upon herself. When I asked her
what could been her motives for remaining
in such a dreadful situation, she said that
she staid to take care of her property,
that all she had in the world consisted
in cows and calves, in poultry and pigs,
and she thought if she went away and
left them, she should lose them all, and
perhaps have her house and furniture
burnt. She seemed to applaud herself
not a little for her foresight. If the
French, however, had been victorious in-
stead of the English, the woman, as well
as her hens and chickens, would have been
in rather an awkward predicament.
334 A FEW DAYS
Her husband first told me this story,
which I could scarcely credit till she her-
self confirmed it. But he, honest man !
had wisely run away before the battle had
begun, leaving his wife, his pigs and
poultry, to take care of themselves. She
said she staid in her room all that night,
and never came down till the following
morning, when all the surviving wounded
officers had been removed, but the bodies
of those who had expired during the
night still remained, and the floors of
all the rooms were stained with blood.
She seemed very callous to their fate, and
to the sufferings of the wounded ; and very
indifferent about every thing except her
hens and chickens. She led me to a little
miserable dark cow-house, where General
Cooke (or Cock, as she called him) had
remained a considerable time when wound-
ed, and it seemed to be a sort of gratifica-
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 335
tion to her, that a British general had been
in her cow-house.
Leaving this farm-house, we walked
through the village of Mont St. Jean, and
stopped at the little inn, where we found
the rest of the party busily employed upon
every kind of eatable the house afforded,
which consisted of brown bread, and butter
and cheese, small beer, and still smaller
wine. Although I had rejected with ab-
horrence at Chateau Hougoumont a pro-
posal of eating, which some one had
ventured unadvisedly to make ; and though
it did seem to me upon the field of battle
that I should never think of eating again,
yet no sooner did I cast my eyes upon
these viands than I pounced upon them,
as a falcon does upon his prey, and de-
voured them with nearly as much voracity.
They seemed to me to be delicious ; and
336 A FEW DAYS
the brown bread and butter, especially,
were incomparable.
The woman of the house and her two
daughters, who were industriously em-
ployed in plain needle work, related to us
with great naivete all the terrors they had
suffered, and all the horrors they had seen.
Like all the other inhabitants of the village,
they had fled the day before the battle,
not into the woods, but to a place, the
name of which I do not remember, but
which they said was very far off, (" bien
loin.")
Several cannon-balls had lodged in the
walls about this house, although it was at
the extremity of the village, farthest from
the field. Having finished our frugal
repast, for which these kind and simple
people asked a most trifling recompense,
we left Mont St. Jean, passed through the
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 33?
village of Waterloo for the last time, and
returned to Brussels with an impression on
our minds, from our visit to the field of
Waterloo, which no time can efface.
It was on Wednesday, the 19th of July,
that we learnt the astonishing news that
Napoleon Buonaparte had surrendered
himself to the British, and was actually a
prisoner on board the Bellerophon. An
aide-de-camp of the king of France, going
express to the king of Holland at the
Hague, was the bearer of this important
intelligence. It was communicated to us
by General , who came in with a
countenance radiant with joy, whilst we
were sitting by Major 's bed-side,
and scarcely could my sister and I, in our
transports, refrain from embracing the good
old general. He had himself seen the
aide-de-camp of Louis XVIII. ; yet this
news was so unexpected, so wonderful,
z
338 A FEW DAYS
and above all so good, that scarcely
could it be credited. Could it indeed be
possible that Napoleon the dreaded Na-
poleon was really a prisoner to the Eng-
lish ! All ranks of people were breathless
with expectation, and with trembling eager-
ness and anxious inquiries awaited further
intelligence. In a few hours it was con-
firmed beyond a possibility of doubt.
" Buonaparte est pris ! il est pris !
c'est vrai c'est bien vrai !" cried M.
, the Belgic gentleman in whose
house Major was an inmate,
bursting into his room with a turbulence
of joy, ill-suited to the suffering state of
our poor wounded friend.
The loud acclamations of the populace
the ejaculations of thanksgiving and tears
of joy which burst from the women, and
the curses which were freely bestowed on
him by the men, proved the strength of
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 339
their terror and the bitterness of their
detestation.
It was our fate to be the bearers of this
intelligence almost the whole way through
Belgium. So slowly does news travel in
this country, that although it had arrived
in Brussels at five o'clock in the afternoon,
and we did not set off till eight the follow-
ing morning, no rumours of it had been
received in any of the towns or villages
through which we passed ; and we even
found the good people of Ghent in pro-
found ignorance of it. But the Belgians
were slow of belief, and the transport and
the vociferous joy with which it was uni-
formly received at first, were generally fol-
lowed by doubts and fears, and fervent
wishes for its truth.
At the inn at Alost we found a party
comfortably sitting down to dinner at
twelve o'clock, at the well-spread Table
z 2
340 A FEW DAYS
(TH6te. No sooner had I mentioned this
news than knives and forks were thrown
down, plates and dishes abandoned. An
old, fat Belgic gentleman, overturning his
soup plate, literally jumped for joy ; an-
other, more nimble, began to caper up and
down the room. A corpulent lady, in at-
tempting to articulate her transport, was
nearly choked, like little Hunchback, with
a fish-bone ; and the demonstrations of joy
shewn by the rest of the party were not
less extravagant. One old man, however,
shook his head in sign of incredulity, and
said with fervour, when I assured him
that Buonaparte was really a prisoner
to the English, " that he should have
lived long enough if he ever lived to see
that day." Nothing amused me more,
however, than the squall set up by an old
country-woman, who shook my hand till
she nearly wrung it off, and then, shocked
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 341
at what she had done, burst forth into
apologies to me, exclamations of joy, and
abuse of Buonaparte, all in a breath.
To my cost, however, the official ac-
count of this important news did arrive at
Ghent, just after I had gone to bed. It
had been more than twenty-four hours on
its way, travelling at the rate of about a
mile an hour ; and much did I wish that it
had been longer, for neither peace nor re-
pose was now to be had. Bonfires were
lighted, guns fired, squibs and crackers
let off in the streets, rockets sent up to
the clouds, and both heaven and earth
disturbed by the uproar. Not satisfied
with this, they took it into their heads to
keep up a firing with muskets under my
windows ; and the inhabitants and the
English soldiers, royally drunk and loyally
noisy, vied with each other in singing or
rather roaring out the most discordant
z 3
342 A FEW DAYS
strains, and " God save the King" in Eng-
lish, and a variety of Belgic songs in low
Dutch were sung all at once, with the most
patriotic perseverance, in the streets. By
the time these outrageously loyal people
found their way to bed, it was nearly time
for me to get up, which I did at five o'clock,
in order to see a very fine cabinet of paint-
ings. The old Flemish gentleman to whom
they belonged, not satisfied with giving me
permission to see them, had the politeness
to rise at that unseasonable hour, in order
that he might be ready to receive me, and
to shew them to me himself. What English
gentleman would have got out of his bed
before six o'clock in order to shew his col-
lection of paintings to a foreigner, a person
of no distinction, of whom he knew nothing,
who had no introduction to him, whom
he had never seen before, and would most
probably never see again ?
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 343
Next day at nine o'clock we embarked
from Ostend for England, in a large
packet crowded with passengers. We set
sail with a favouring gale ; but the winds
and the waves maintained their usual ca-
pricious and inconstant character, and after
a succession of calms, contrary winds, and
opposing tides, we found ourselves, late on
the evening of the second day, at anchor
within sight of the harbour of Margate, but
without a hope of reaching it till the follow-
ing morning. In order to escape spending
another night on board, AVC embraced the
expedient of committing ourselves to a little
boat, in which it seemed invariably to be
our fate to end all our voyages.
We were rowed ashore and landed in
the dark, at past eleven o'clock at night,
upon the slippery and weed-covered rocks
of Margate, exactly six weeks after we
landed in the same manner, at the same
24
344 A FEW DAYS
hour, and the same day of the week, on the
deep and deserted sands of Ostend. In
that six weeks what a change had taken
place ! When I left England, Buonaparte
was the terror of the world Europe was
arming against him, and his threatening
hosts were ready to overwhelm it again
with ruin. When I returned, these tremen-
dous armies were defeated and scattered
the victorious troops of England were in the
capital of France; and Buonaparte him-
self, fallen from the highest imperial throne
of the universe to the lowest abyss of for-
tune, was a prisoner on board a British ship
of war, and a suppliant to the mercy of my
country !
Events so extraordinary and improbable,
and changes so sudden and so wonderful,
seemed to outrun the rapidity of imagina-
tion itself, and to exceed the limits of
possibility. The past seemed like a dream.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 345
Scarcely, on retrospection, could we be-
lieve it to be real, or be convinced that
the scenes we had witnessed, since our
departure from England, had not been the
illusions of fancy, or the " baseless fabric
of a vision." They bore more resemblance
to the shifting and imaginary scenes repre-
sented on the stage, than to events which
had actually happened on the great theatre
of the world. It had indeed been a great
and a bloody tragedy, and it had been our
lot to witness it from the first to the last
scene. It began at our entrance, it finished
at our departure from Brussels. The news
of Buonaparte having attacked the Prus-
sians reached Brussels at the very moment
of our arrival, the news of his surrender
to the British was received the night before
we left it.
In that six weeks the work of an age had
o
been accomplished; an usurper had been
346 A FEW DAYS
dethroned ; a monarch had been restored ;
a kingdom had been lost and won ;
a war had begun and ended ; peace had
revisited the world ; and justice strict,
impartial justice, had descended upon the
head of the guilty. And all this was the
work of England !
Yet it has been asked and I have often
heard the question slightingly repeated by
my own countrymen, " And what, after
all, has England gained for years of war
and bloodshed but glory ?" And what, I
ask in return, could she gain that is equi-
valent to it? What is there on earth to
be compared to it?
" Is aught ou earth so precious and so dear
As Fame and Honour ? or is aught so bright
And beautiful as Glory's beams appear,
Whose goodly light than Phaebus' lamp doth shine
more clear ?"
Faerie Queen.-
Glory is the highest, the most lasting
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 34?
good. Without it, extent of empire,
political greatness, and national prosperity,
are but a name ; without it, they can have
no security, and can command no respect ;
without it all other possessions are worth-
less and despicable, unstable and tran-
sitory. Fortune may change ; arts may
perish ; commerce may decay ; and wealth
and power and dominion and greatness
may pass away, but glory is immortal
and indestructible, and will last when em-
pires and dynasties are no more.
What gives nations honour and renown
in future times but the glory they have
acquired? What exalted Greece and
Rome to their proud pre-eminence among
the nations, and transmitted the lustre of
their name to the remotest times ? W T hy
does the traveller still traverse distant coun-
tries, to explore with hallowed respect their
mouldering temples, and linger with silent
348 A FEW DAYS
awe amidst the ruins of the Parthenon, or
on the site of the Capitol? Why does
generation after generation contemplate
with veneration the plains of Marathon,
and the heights of Leuctra ? Why do they
still retrace with enthusiasm the deeds
of their departed heroes, and the long
catalogue of their ancient glories? It
is to these ancient glories that they
owe their present interest and importance.
The nations of the East were possessed of
unbounded wealth, magnificence, and
power and were long the seats of com-
merce, of the arts of life, and of learning,
when the western world was immersed in
ignorance and barbarism. Yet their an-
tiquities are unexplored, their history
neglected, their very existence almost
forgotten ; for they have left no proud
remembrance, no ray of glory, to immor-
talize their name.
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 34<)
If it had been extent of empire, or
superiority of wealth, that gave nations
lasting greatness, Persia would have en-
joyed that veneration which is now paid
to Athens. If it had been conferred by
antiquity, or by being the birth-place of
the arts and sciences, Egypt would have
stood upon that pedestal of fame which
Rome now fills.
Yes ! England has nobly fought, tri-
umphantly conquered, and well has she
been rewarded! She has gained that
unalienable, imperishable prize, which
neither time nor fortune, nor fate nor
any earthly power can ever wrest from her.
She has won the immortal meed ! Gene-
rations yet unborn shall pride themselves
on being the descendants of those who
fought and conquered in the righteous
cause of Justice, Honour, and Indepen-
dence, on the plains of Spain, and OB-
350 A FEW DAYS
the glorious field of "Waterloo ; and feel
the throb of generous enthusiasm and of
virtuous patriotism, when they retrace the
bright history of their country's achieve-
ments.
With these sentiments deeply impressed
upon my mind ; with the proud conscious-
ness, that highly as the fame of England
had stood in all ages, she had now attained
an unparalleled height of greatness and
glory ; that the ancient triumphs of Cressy,
Poictiers, and Agincourt, in one age, of
Ramillies, Malplaquet, and Blenheim, in
another, had been surpassed in those of
Salamanca, Vittoria, and Waterloo, in our
own ; that her name would descend to the
latest times as unrivalled in arms, invin-
cible by land and by sea, and pre-eininent,
not only in valour, but in faith and honour,
in justice, mercy, and magnanimity,
and in public virtue. 1 returned to my
RESIDENCE IN BELGIUM. 351
country, after all the varying and eventful
scenes through which it had been my lot
to pass, more proud thdn when I left it
of the name of
AN ENGLISHWOMAN.
FINIS.
LONDON :
TEMPLE-BAR.
pi- O
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