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 I IU(7
 
 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, 
 Q
 
 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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