Before and after Waterloo Part 10

A.N. MDCCCXII.

Memorable par la Campagne Contre les Russes Sous la Prefecture de Jules Dragon.

Vu et approuve par nous Commandant Russe de la ville de Coblentz Le Ier. Janvier 1814.

At Coblentz as well as at Cologne the Rhine is pa.s.sed by a flying bridge--_i.e._, a large boat moored to several other smaller ones, whose only use is to keep the large one steady. It swings from bank to bank, according as the mooring line is placed on one side or the other, merely by the action of the current producing a sort of compound motion.

Coblentz is completely commanded by the heights of Ehrenbreitstein, a rock as high as Dover, the summit and side covered with the ruins of the fortress which the French blew up. The people in this country are pretty well satisfied with the change of affairs. They led a life of unsupportable tyranny under the rod of Napoleon. The river was crowded with custom house officers. Not a man could pa.s.s without being personally searched for Coffee and sugar in every part of his dress. All they lament now is the uncertainty of their fate. Many expressed a hope that the report of their being sold to England might be true. All they want is certainty, and then their commerce will revive. As it is, nothing can be more uninteresting in a commercial point of view than this n.o.ble river. We did not see above a dozen Merchants' barks in the course of 120 miles, and yet they say trade is tenfold greater than when Napoleon governed. Below Coblentz we pa.s.sed some of the Chateaux of the German Princes, which are generally large, uncomfortable-looking houses, fitted up, as far as external examination allowed us to judge, without taste. The river became rather dull, but at Andernach, where we slept, it began to improve and to promise better for the next morning, and for some miles we were not disappointed.

We were under the necessity of travelling on the Sunday, which in our situation I certainly held to be no crime. What I could do I did in inducing our Boatmen to attend their Ma.s.s. Religion, which appears to be nearly extinct in France, is by no means so in Germany. We find the churches all well attended and plentifully scattered over the whole country. In the course of the morning we pa.s.sed a large Chapel dedicated to St. Apollonius, and noted for its Miracles, all of which were recorded by our Boatmen with the air of implicit reverence and belief.

It happened to be the festival of the Saint, and from a distance of 10 or 20 miles even the road was crowded with persons going or coming to their favourite shrine. You will recollect what Mme. de Stael says of the Germans' taste for religious music. Of this we had a specimen to-day. As we pa.s.sed the height upon which the Chapel stood a boat containing 40 or 50 people put off from the sh.o.r.e and preceded us for several miles chaunting almost the whole way hymns and psalms. In the Evening, soon after leaving Bonn, we came up with another containing about 120, who every quarter of an hour delighted us with the same strains. They glided with the stream, and gave us time to row alongside, and we continued in their company the remainder of the day.

Could I have heard and not have seen all would have been perfect, but the charm was almost broken by the heterogeneous mixture of piety and indifference, outward practice and inward negligence. Some were telling their beads and chattering Pater Nosters, some were at one moment on their knees, in the next quarrelling with their neighbour; but, after all, the general effect was so solemn and imposing that I was willing to spare my criticisms, and give them credit for perhaps more than they deserved. Conceive such a concourse of persons, on one of the finest Evenings imaginable, floating silently with the stream, and then at a signal given bursting forth into songs of praise to G.o.d--all perfect in their respective parts, now loud, now low, the softer tones of the women at one time singing alone. If the value of a Sabbath depends on the religious feelings excited, I may safely say I have pa.s.sed few so valuable. They had no Priest amongst them, the hymns were the spontaneous flow of the moment. Whenever one began the rest were sure to follow.

When upon the subject of music I must be the advocate of Mme. de Stael.

She has been accused of falsehood in stating that in the Cottages in Germany a Piano Forte was a necessary piece of furniture. I cannot from my own knowledge go quite so far, but from my short experience of German manners I may safely say there is no nation in which Music is so popular. We have heard the notes of pianos and harpsichords issuing from holes and corners where they might least be expected, and as for flutes and other instruments, there is scarcely a village in which, in the course of an hour, you will not hear a dozen.

At Cologne we were lodged at a French Inn kept by the landlord and his wife alone--no waiters, no other attendance--and yet the house was s.p.a.cious, clean, and excellent. I never met with more attention and wish to accommodate, and not only in the house; the exertions of our host were exerted still further in our behalf. He introduced us to a Club chiefly composed of French Germans, who were as hospitably inclined as himself. One gentleman invited us to his house, would give us some excellent hock, introduced us to his family, amongst the rest a little fellow with a sabre by his side, with curling locks and countenance and manner interesting as Owen's. Hearing I was fond of pictures and painted gla.s.s, he carried me to a fine old Connoisseur, his father-in-law, whose fears and temper were a good deal roused by the "peste," as he termed it, of still having half a dozen Cossacks in his house. However, they were officers, and by his own account did him no harm whatever; but for fear of accidents he had unpanelled his great dining-room. Our friend had a large and excellent house, in a style very unlike and far more magnificent than is usually met with in England. In return for his civility I was delighted to have it in my power to give him a few ounces of our Pecco Tea which remained of our original stock. Travelling in Germany is certainly neither luxurious nor rapid; the custom of hiring a carriage for a certain distance and taking post horses does not extend here, and you are therefore reduced to the following dilemma, either taking a Carriage and the same horses for your journey or the "Post Waggon," or Diligence, which is of the two rather more rapid. Of two evils we preferred the last, and at half-past 8 this morning were landed at Aix la Chapelle, having performed the journey of 45 miles in 12 and a half hours shaken to death, choked with dust, and poisoned with tobacco, for here a great hooked pipe is as necessary an appendage to the mouth as the tongue itself. Under the circ.u.mstances above mentioned, with the Thermometer at about 98 into the bargain, you may conceive we were heartily glad to run from the coach office to the Baths as instinctively as young ducks. On looking over the list of persons visiting the place, we were delighted to find the names of Lord and Lady Glenbervie[86] and Mr. North.[87] Accordingly, having first ascended the highest steeple in the town, and been more disgusted than in any place I have seen since Spain, with virgins and dolls in beads and muslins, and pomatum and relics of saints' beards, and napkins from our Saviour's tomb, and mummeries quite disgraceful, we went to call upon them....

We find this, like every other town and village, swarming with Prussian troops. General Kleist commands, and has no less an army than 170,000.

This seems very like a determination of the King of Prussia not to give up the slice he has gained in the grand continental scramble. Every uniform we saw was of British manufacture. An officer told me we had furnished sufficient for 70,000 Infantry and 20,000 Cavalry.

There is little to be seen in this place. The country about reminded me most of England; for the first time on the continent we saw hedges and trees of tolerable size growing amongst them. We were directed above all other things to pay our respects to the great gambling table. It is, indeed, one of the Lions of the Town; the room is splendid in size, and everybody goes to see it. It is open 3 times a day for about 2 or 3 hours each time. About 50 or 60 people were winning or losing round a large table at a game apparently something like vingt un; not a word was said, but money was shovelled to the right and left very plentifully....

I forgot to mention that near Linz on the Rhine we pa.s.sed a headland fronted and inlaid with as fine a range of Basaltic columns as the Giant's Causeway, some bent, some leaning, some upright. They are plentiful throughout that part of the country, and are remarkably regular; all the stone posts are formed of them, and even here I still see them....

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRENCH DILIGENCE.]

LETTER XI.

BRUXELLES, _29th_.

After a night and greater part of two days pa.s.sed in a species of oven called a French Diligence, with Reaumur Thermometer at 23--hotter, you will observe, than is necessary to hatch silkworms, and very nearly sufficient to annihilate your unfortunate brother and husband--did we arrive at Bruxelles.... I must give you a few details that you may fully understand the extent of our misery. We arrived at Liege all well, with only two other pa.s.sengers; conceive our sorrow when on re-entering the Diligence after dinner we found besides ourselves and a lady the places occupied by a Dutch officer, who sat gasping without his coat, and so far exhausted by the heat, though he had been ten years in Batavia, that his pipe hung dangling as if he had not breath sufficient to keep its vestal fire alive, and a lady with two children besides living intruders. A net from the top was filled with bags, baskets, and band-boxes. Our night was sad indeed, and the groans of our fellow-travellers and the ineffectual fluttering of a fan which the Officer used proved how little they were satisfied with the order of things. The children were crammed with a succession of French Plums, almonds, garlicked mutton, liqueurs, and hock, all of which ingredients the kind mother endeavoured to cement on their Stomachs by Basons of milk at sunrise, but no sooner had a few additional jolts brought these bons-bons into close contact than the windows were occupied the rest of the journey by the stretched-out heads of the poor children.

The heat has been more excessive for the last 4 or 5 days than has been experienced for many years in this country; and, in short, when _I_ think it worth while to mention heat as the cause of real inconvenience, you may consider it such as would have thrown you into a fever. Enough of our personal sufferings, which you may easily conceive have been few indeed if the above is worth recording....

I left Aix la Chapelle with no great regret. The Country round it is pretty, much resembling Kent, but as a town or watering-place it has nothing to recommend but its gambling-table. I expected to have found a museum of human nature and national character.--Tables d'hotes crowded with the best bred of all countries, but just the reverse. There were Tables d'hote's at the minor Inns tolerably frequented, but none at the most fashionable; there the guests lived by themselves. There is no point of rendezvous, no promenade, no a.s.sembly room, where the concentrated world may be seen. Like Swedenborgh's theory of living in the midst of invisible spirits, so at Aix la Chapelle (unless time and opportunity may have thrown him into private circles) a traveller may be surrounded by Princes and Potentates without knowing or benefiting by their ill.u.s.trious presence; the Glenbervies made the same complaint.

From Aix to Liege we had the company of a very pleasant, well-informed citizen of Liege (indeed, all the military cla.s.ses in Germany seem well informed), who in pathetic terms lamented his lot. In the cutting up of this grand continental dish Prussia has had Benjamin's mess in this part of the country. We have his troops, with few exceptions, forming a cordon within the Rhine from Saarbruck to Liege, and they are by no means popular. We have clothed them, and all the people feed them, besides having been called upon for contributions. It is flattering to see the high respect shown to the British character, which increases as opportunities occur of observing its effects. If we were like the people of Bruxelles (said our Liegeois) all would be well; we should rejoice in having a garrison. British troops, so far from exacting contributions or demanding free quarters, pay for everything, are beloved by the people, and money circulates, whereas under the Prussian government we pay all, are put to all manner of inconvenience, and receive neither thanks nor satisfaction. They appear to have been peculiarly unfortunate in all wars. Poor Liege has received a thump from one, a kick from another, and been robbed by a third. The Austrians have burnt their Suburbs, the Republicans sold their national and ecclesiastical Estates, and lately they have had the pleasure of being pillaged by French Marshals and satisfying the voracious appet.i.te of the Crown Prince, who put them to an expense of 150,000 frs. in providing his table for 7 weeks, and when they hinted that they thought it but fair their Royal visitor should pay for his own dinners, he departed, leaving his bills unpaid. He seems to have been secreting himself here like a Cat in a barn watching the motions of the mice, acting solely from interested motives, and ready to pounce upon whatever might be safely turned to his own advantage. When the French retreated out of Holland the Duke of Tarentum[88] did the poor people at Liege the honour of making their town a point in the line of his march. He stopped one night, and because the inhabitants did not illuminate and express great joy at his ill.u.s.trious presence he demanded an immediate contribution of 300,000 frs., 150,000 of which were paid the next morning. Luckily the Allies appeared towards Noon, and I hope his Grace will not get the remainder.

In the character of almost all these French military leaders there are such blots and stains that one sickens at the thought of being of the same species. It would be endless to recount the acts of rapacity committed by all these engines of Imperial France; conscious that their throne might one day fall, they lost no time in ama.s.sing wealth, and pillage was the watchword from the Cathedral to the Cottage. Lisle is in the hands of the French, and by their own account the people have suffered every species of misery, yet they are strong for Napoleon, Garrison and Citizen, and I cannot find that they ever vented their feelings in any other way than in nicknaming their General Maison[89] (a cruel Tyrant who destroyed all their suburbs under pretence they might be in the way in case of a siege, which might have been done in a day had the Allies ever thought of such a thing); he is in consequence called General Brise Maison, and then the foolish people laugh and cry, "Que c'est bon cela," think they have done a great feat and submit like lambs. The country from Liege to Brussels wears the same Anglicised face--hedgerows and trees without any leading features. Bruxelles is a nice town--and really it was a gratification in pa.s.sing the gate to see a fat John Bull keeping guard with his red coat. The Garrison consists of about 3,000, amongst the rest a regiment of Highlanders whose dress is the marvel of the people. A French Lady who came with us from Liege had seen some and expressed her utter surprise, and as if she was speaking to one who doubted the fact, she repeated, "C'est vrai!

actuellement rien qu'un pet.i.t Jupon--mais comment!" and then she lifted her eyes and hands and reiterated, "pet.i.t jupon--et comment,"

concluding, as if she almost doubted the evidence of her own senses, "Je les ai vus moi-meme."

At Bruxelles at least we expected to see a numerous and genteel Table d'hote, and in this hope took up our quarters at a magnificent Hotel in the Place Royale--very fine indeed, and very full of English, much too full, for though we saw a few in the pa.s.sages, or eyed them as they peeped out of their doors, and sat down with about 15 or 20 at table, "They spoke not, they moved not, they looked not around." By dint of asking for salt and mustard, and giving my next neighbour as much trouble as I could to show I had a tongue which I should be happy to use, we towards the 3rd Act of the Entertainment began to talk, and ascended gradually from the meats to the wines (here, it is true, there was some prolixity), and then to other subjects pretty well, though the burthen of my companion's song was that "the French were all d---- d rascals and ought to be well licked." We tried the Play; there we found a few English officers and one English lady, few of any other nation, not 50 altogether, in a house dismal and dirty. There is a delightful sort of wood and promenade called the Park....

[Ill.u.s.tration: DUTCH SHIPS.]

CHAPTER V

THE LOW COUNTRIES

Dutch arks--Walcheren memories--Earth-covered ships--Cossacks and keys--Brother alleys--Bergen op Zoom--Cossack shopping--Goat curricles--Treckschuyt travelling--Booksellers' shops.

After Brussels the travellers proceeded to Holland, and saw Antwerp on their way. They had now gone beyond the country which Napoleon's victories had made famous, and the chief military interest of the country through which they pa.s.sed, just eleven months before Waterloo, was derived from two very melancholy events for an Englishman to record--the Walcheren Expedition and the storming of Bergen op Zoom.

LETTER XII

BERGEN OP ZOOM, _July 31st_.

...On leaving Bruxelles the country immediately loses its character, and becomes entirely Dutch, by which we exchange for the better, leaving dirty floors, houses, and coaches for as much cleanliness as soap and water can produce; I only regret from my experience of last night that they should be so much occupied in washing as to forget that drying is also a luxury, but there is no such novelty in this country, and so much to be seen that I have no time to catch cold. Our Diligence from Bruxelles held 10 people inside and 3 in front, and we had all ample elbow room; it was large, as you may suppose, as everything else in Holland is from top to bottom. Hats, Coats, breeches, pipes, horns, cows--are all gigantic, and so are the dogs, and because the poor things happen to be so, they harness a parcel of them together and breed them up to draw fish-carts. I yesterday met a man driving four-in-hand; in turning a corner and meeting three of these open-mouthed Mastiffs panting and pulling, you might almost fancy it was Cerberus drawing the Chariot of Proserpine--but I am wandering from the Diligence, which deserves some description. It resembled a little Theatre more than a coach, with front boxes, pit, &c., lined with common velvet. We had a curious collection of pa.s.sengers. Opposite to me sat a prize thoroughbred Dutch woman as clean and tidy as she was ugly and phlegmatic, with a close-plaited cap, unruffled white shawl, and golden cross suspended from her neck. I took a sketch while she stared me in the face unconscious of the honor conferred. By her side sat a French woman crowned with the lofty towers of an Oldenburg Bonnet. By my side a spruce, pretty, Englishwoman, whom I somehow or other suspected had been serving with his Britannic Majesty's troops now occupying Belgium.

She had on her right hand a huge Brabanter who spoke English, and had acquired, I have no doubt, a few additional pounds of fat by living in London. Edward sat behind me in a line with the Brabanter's wife and a Dutch peasant. These, with two or three minor characters, completed our cargo, and away we went on the finest road in the world towards Antwerp between a triple row of Abeles and poplars, and skirting the bank of a fine ca.n.a.l upon which floated a fleet of Kuyp's barks, and by which grazed Paul Potter's oxen--the whole road was, in truth, a gallery of the Flemish school. By the door of every ale-house a living group from Teniers and Ostade, with here and there bits from Berghem and Hobbema, &c. Halfway between Bruxelles and Antwerp is Malines. I had began to fear that I had lost my powers of observation, and was, therefore, no longer struck with the external appearance of the towns--in fact, that the novelty was gone, and that my eyes were too much familiarised with such objects to notice them. Happily Malines undeceived me, and convinced me I was still fully alive to whatever had any real peculiarity of character to ent.i.tle it to notice. With the exception of the villages on the Rhine, all the towns and houses I had seen lately had little to recommend them, and were like half the people in the world, possessed of no character of their own, their doors and windows like all other doors and windows, but Malines had doors and windows of its own, and seemed to take a pride in exhibiting its own little queer originalities; in every house was a different idea. The people were of a piece with their dwellings; I could almost fancy I was permitted to inspect the toys of some Brobdignag baby who washed, cleaned, and combed the beings before me every morning and locked them up in their separate boxes every evening. When the nice green doors of the nice painted houses opened, I bethought me of the Dutch ark you bought for Owen, and was prepared to make my best bow to Noah and his wife, who I expected to step forth with Ham and j.a.phet, and all the birds and beasts behind them.

We approached Antwerp as the sun was setting behind its beautiful Cathedral and shining upon the pennants of the fleet which Bonaparte has kindly built for the accommodation of the allied powers. The Antwerpers had a well-arranged promenade and tea garden, &c., about a mile from the house, well wooded. These, with all the houses in the suburbs, the French entirely destroyed, leaving not a wreck behind. I must acquit them of wanton cruelty here, however, as in sieges these devastations are necessary. We pa.s.sed thro' a complete course of fortifications, and then entered what, from all I can perceive, is the best town I have seen on the continent.

It is a ma.s.s of fine streets, fine houses, and fine churches; the Tower of the Cathedral is quite a Bijou 620 steps in height! but the ascent was well rewarded; from thence a very respectable tour of about 30 miles in every direction may be accomplished. Walcheren and Lillo (the celebrated fort which prevented our ascending the Scheld) were visible without any difficulty, with Cadsand and all the well-known names of that silly expedition,[90] rendered apparently more silly by seeing how impossible it would have been to have taken Antwerp unless by a regular siege, which might have been of endless duration; we might have bombarded the basons in which the men-of-war were deposited, and with about as much success as Sir Thos. Graham,[91] who, after expending a mint of money in bombs and powders, in the course of two days contrived to send about half a dozen sh.e.l.ls on board the line of battleships. I was on board the _Albania_, which had suffered the most. The extent of her damage was two sh.e.l.ls which pa.s.sed thro' the decks, exploding without much mischief, and a round-shot which shivered a quarter gallery and then fell on the ice--indeed, bombarding vessels, which are objects so comparatively small, is something like attempting to shoot wild ducks on Radnor Mere by firing over their heads with ball in hopes that in its descent it may come in contact with the bird's head.

About a dozen Gun Brigs were sunk, all of which we saw with their masts above the water; a few houses near the Bason were shattered, and about 20 Townsmen killed. The country round Antwerp is quite flat, and appears, with the exception of 2 or 3 miles round the town, a perfect wood; fancy such a wood with the Scheldt winding through it, several roads radiating in lines straight as arrows, with here and there a steeple breaking the horizontal line, and you may suppose yourself at the top of the Cathedral. The Town is large, with the river washing the whole of one side; on the south are the dockyards, with rope walks and everything in fine style; the destruction of these might have been practicable, as they are rather beyond the line of immediate fortifications, but probably they have works for their express protection, and the advantage gained must have been in proportion to the stores and vessels building. I counted 16 or 17 ships of the line on the Stocks, 2 or 3 of 120 Guns. In the Scheldt floated 13 in a state of apparent equipment; in the basons 9--all of the line--thus completing a fleet of 39 fine Ships, besides a few frigates and Gun Brigs innumerable--of these only two were Dutch.

It was curious to see such a fleet, and some of them were actually worn out, the utmost extent of whose naval career had been an expedition to Flushing. On descending the Spire, we examined the Carillons, which are a Gamut of chiming bells of all sizes--the total number for them and the Church is 82; by a clock work they play every 7 minutes, so that the neighbourhood of the Cathedral is a scene of perpetual harmony; they can also be played by hand. Most of the churches in this country have them.

Our Guards in marching into Alkmaar were surprised and gratified in hearing the church bells strike up "G.o.d Save the King." There are several good churches in the town, and once all were decorated with the works of Rubens, which Napoleon carried off. I should, however, be perfectly satisfied with a selection from the remainder. I saw a Vandyck on the subject of our Saviour recommending the Virgin Mary to St. John, which was incomparable; it quite haunts me at this moment, and, however horrible the effect of the bleeding figure on the Cross, I do not wish to lose the impression. The Dutch have carried the art of carving in wood to a most extraordinary pitch of perfection. I am surprised it has not been more spoken of; some of their pulpits are really quite marvellous. Religion increases and, I think, improves. There is less mummery here than at Aix and some other places I have lately seen, with the exception of a few little Saviours in powdered wigs and gilt satin and muslin frocks, and a very singular figure as large as life, supposed to represent the deposition in the holy sepulchre, which was covered by a shroud of worsted gauze, studded over with enormous artificial flowers and tinsel like a Lady's court dress.

Wherever we went, at whatever hour, Ma.s.s was performing to good congregations. The women here all dress in long black shawls, or, rather, hooded wrappers, which, as they knelt before their confessional boxes, were extremely appropriate and solemn. The English have a church here for the garrison; it is simplicity itself. They have even removed several fine pictures, the rooms having been a sort of museum--the Vandyck I alluded to among the rest....

In our morning's tour we, of course, visited the celebrated basons for the men-of-war. "Still harping upon these ships," I can fancy you exclaiming; "when will he have done with them?" You must bear it patiently. It was on account of these said basons, in a great measure, that I came to Antwerp, so you must endure their birth, parentage, and education.

There are two Basons, one calculated for 16, the other for 30 sail of the line; they are simple excavations. Nature never thought of such a thing, and gave no helping hand. It was Napoleon's work from first to last; the labour and expense must have been enormous. They open by dock gates immediately into the Scheldt, from whence each ship can proceed armed and fitted cap a pie (if she dares) to fight the English. They were begun and finished in two years, but improvements were suggested, and there is no knowing what more the Emperor intended to do.

Precautions had been taken during the bombardment to preserve the Ships. For instance, all the decks were propped up by a number of spars, by which means if a bomb fell it did no other mischief than forcing its way through and carrying all before its immediate course, whereas without the props it might have shaken the timbers and weakened the access considerably. In every ship also were 2 cartloads of earth, to throw over any inflammable substance which might have fallen on board.

From this mole hill of a truth was engendered a mountainous falsehood for home consumption. I read in the English Papers of the time that the French had scuttled their ships to the level of the water, and then covered them over with earth, which was carefully sodded!! Sir Thos.

Graham's batteries were very near the basons, half-way between the village of Muxham, about 2 miles from the town and the nearest French battery. From one of the latter we had a perfect conception of the whole business. Without saying a word about my extreme partiality and fears for the safety of No. 1, and probable inconvenience which might ensue from loss of said No. 1 to Nos. 2, 3 and 4, I wonder much whether my curiosity would have allowed me to sleep quite in the back ground. The sight must from this point have been superb, as it was the intention to throw the bombs over this battery so as to make them fall in the bason amongst the ducks. The top of the Cathedral would have been perfection, but the Governor most vexatiously kept the keys....

We found abundance of British troops here, remnants of all the regiments who had survived the storming of Bergen op Zoom, about 3 or 4,000....

They have no reason to complain of their quarters, though it is possible many of them may be of the same opinion with a soldier of the Guards, who, in reply to my question of "How do you like Antwerp?" said with great earnestness, "I like St. James's Park a great deal better." I observed several ladies with their "pet.i.ts chapeaux," and I must do them the justice to say they are much handsomer than the French, German, or Dutch.... English Curricles, coaches, and Chariots are to be seen, and some few English horses, which are certainly better calculated for speed and pleasant driving than the heavy breed of this country. Flanders Mares--as Henry VIII. tells us by comparing his queen to one--have never been remarkable for elegance and activity, and I was much entertained in seeing an Englishman break in a couple of these for a Tandem.

...At our Table d'hote, where we met nothing but English merchants, I heard the report of the day that Belgium was to be a sort of independent state, under the Prince of Orange's government, according to its old laws and customs, and that he was to hold a court at Bruxelles.... The Prince of Orange is now in fact gone to make his public entrance into Bruxelles....

There is a custom that the key of the town should be presented to the possessor or Governor of the Town on a magnificent silver-gilt plate.

When the Cossack chief came, as usual, the key was offered, which the good, simple man quietly took, put into his pocket, and forgot to return. When I saw the dish, the man told me this anecdote, and lamented wofully the loss of his key, which may possibly in future turn the lock of some dirty cupboard or other on the banks of the Don. It seems these Cossacks were immensely rich. Latterly I have been a.s.sured they could not fight had they been inclined, from the excessive height of their saddles and weight of their clothes; on the one they could scarcely sit, and with the others they could scarcely walk. They had always 3 or 4 Coats or coverings, and in the folds of these were unkennelled 1,330 Napoleons on one of them who happened to die at Bruxelles.

We quitted Antwerp after dinner yesterday for Bergen op Zoom by a new sort of conveyance; by way of variety we "voitured" it, viz., hired a carriage, driver, and horses for Breda on our way to Amsterdam. It was a nice sort of Gig Phaeton, with comfortable seats for 4, the Driver on the front bench. I fear I must retract what I said in the beginning of this letter, as to the decided change in houses and people here. It was most conspicuous about Malines, but on this road there was nothing remarkable one way or the other.

Our road was, however, Dutch throughout. Upon a sort of raised d.y.k.e, between a monotonous avenue of stunted willows, did we jog gently on, with nothing to relieve the eye but here and there a windmill or a farm.

On our left we saw, as far as eye could reach, the Swamp (or I scarcely know what to call it), which fills up the s.p.a.ces between the Main and South Beveland, and it almost gave me the Walcheren fever to look at it.

The Evening Gun of Flushing saluted the Sun as he sank to rest behind these muddy isles, and we begun to fear, as night drew on, that we should have to take up our night's lodging in the Gig, for though he knew that the gates of the Fortress were closed at 9, our st.u.r.dy Dutchman moved not a peg the faster. However, we escaped the evil, and 10 minutes before 9 we pa.s.sed the drawbridge of the ditch leading to the Antwerp gate, which had been the grave of the 1st Column of Guards, led by General Cooke, on the 8th March....