SHAKSPEARE.

I had been familiar with the debates of the French Convention, and had

witnessed the genius of French eloquence in its highest exertions.

Nothing will cure this people of their aversion to nature. With them,

all that is natural is poor--simplicity is meanness. The truth of things

wants the picturesque, and thus wants every charm. I had listened to

some of their public speakers with strong interest, while they were

confined to detail. No man tells a story better than a French _conteur_.

There lies the natural talent of the people. Nothing can be happier than

their seizure of slight circumstances, passing colours of events, and

those transient thoughts which make a story as pretty as a piece of

ladies' embroidery--a delicate toil, a tasteful display of trivial

difficulties gracefully surmounted. But even in their higher order of

speakers, I could perceive a constant dissatisfaction with themselves,

unless they happened to produce some of those startling conceptions

which roused their auditory to a stare, a start, a clapping of hands. I

had seen Mirabeau, with all his conscious talent, look round in despair

for applause, as a sailor thrown overboard might look for a buoy; I had

seen him as much exhausted, and even overwhelmed, by the want of

applause, as if he had dropped into an exhausted receiver. If some lucky

epigram did not come to his rescue, he was undone.

I was now to be the spectator of a different scene. There was passion

and resentment, the keenness of rivalry and the ardour of triumph--but

there was no affectation. Men spoke as men speak when their essential

interests are engaged--plainly, boldly, and directly--vigorously always,

sometimes vehemently; but with that strong sincerity which administers

eloquence to even the most untaught orders of mankind, and without which

the most decorated eloquence is only the wooden sword and mask of

harlequin.

Pitt took the lead, in all senses of the phrase. He was magnificent. His

exposition of the state of Europe, perfectly unadorned, had yet an

effect upon the House not unlike that of opening a volume to a multitude

who had but just learned to read. All was novelty, conviction, and

amazement. His appeal to the principles by which a great people should

shape its conduct, had all the freshness and the strength of feelings

drawn at the moment from the depths of his own blameless bosom; and his

hopes of the victory of England over the temptations to public

overthrow, exhibited all the fire, and almost all the sacred assurance

of prophecy.

He described the system of France as "subversion on principle," its

purpose universal tumult, its instrument remorseless bloodshed, and its

success a general reduction of society to the wild fury and the squalid

necessities of the savage state. "This," he exclaimed, turning his full

front to the House, raising his hand, and throwing up his eyes to heaven

with the solemnity of an adjuration--"This we must resist, in the name

of that Omnipotent Disposer who has given us hearts to feel the

blessings of society, or we must acknowledge ourselves unworthy to hold

a name among nations. This we must resist--live or die. This system we

must meet by system--subtlety by sincerity--intrigue by

resolution--treachery by good faith-menace by courage. We must remember

that we have been made trustees of the honour of the past, and of the

hopes of the future. A great country like ours has no alternative but

to join the enemy of all order, or to protect all order--to league

against all government, or to stand forth its champion. This is the

moment for our decision. Empires are not afforded time for delay. All

great questions are simple. Shrink, and you are undone, and Europe is

undone along with you; be firm, and you will have saved the world!"

The feelings with which this lofty language was heard were intense. The

House listened in a state of solemn emotion, hour after hour, deeply

silent, but when some chord was so powerfully touched that it gave a

universal thrill. But those involuntary bursts of admiration were as

suddenly hushed by the anxiety of the House to listen, and the awful

sense of the subject. It was not until the great minister sat down that

the true feeling was truly exhibited; the applause was then unbounded--a

succession of thunder-peals.

I had now leisure to glance at the Opposition. Fox, for a while, seemed

good-humouredly inclined to give up the honour of the reply to some of

the popular speakers round him; but the occasion was too important to be

entrusted to inferior powers, and, on a general summons of his name, he

at length rose. The world is too familiar with the name of this

celebrated man to permit more than a sketch of his style. It has been

said that he had no style. But this could be said only by those who

regard consummate ability as an accident.

Of all the public speakers whom I have ever heard, Fox appeared to me

the most subtle--of course, not in the crafty and degrading sense of the

word; but in the art of approaching an unexpected case, he was a master.

He loitered, he lingered, he almost trifled by the way, until the

observer began to believe that he had either no object in view, or had

forgotten it altogether. In the next moment he rushed to the attack, and

carried all by storm. On this occasion he had a difficult part to play;

for the hourly violences of the French capital had begun to alienate the

principal aristocracy of England, and had raised abhorrence among that

most influential body, the middle class. The skill with which the orator

glided over this portion of his subject was matchless; no Camilla ever

"flew o'er the unbending corn" with a lighter foot. He could not

altogether evade the topic. But he treated it as one might treat the

narrative of a distressing casualty, or a disease to be touched on with

the pity due to human infirmity, or even with the respect due to a

dispensation from above. He often paused, seemed to find a difficulty of

breathing, was at a loss for words, of which, however, he never failed

to find the most pungent at last; and assumed, in a remarkable degree,

the appearance of speaking only from a strong compulsion, a feeling of

reluctant duty, a sense of moral necessity urging him to a task which

burdened all his feelings. I will acknowledge that, when he had made his

way through this difficult performance, I followed him with unequivocal

delight, and acknowledged all the orator. He had been hitherto Milton's

lion "pawing to get free his hinder parts." He was now loose, in all his

symmetry and power, and with the forest and the plain before him. "Why

has the monarchy of France fallen?" he explained, "because, like those

on whom the malediction of Scripture has been pronounced, it had eyes

and yet would not see, and ears, yet would not hear. An immense

population was growing up round it year after year, yet it could see

nothing but nobles, priests, and princes. In making this war," said he,

"you are beginning a contest of which no man can calculate the means, no

man can state the objects, and no man can predict the end. You are not

warring against the throne of France, nor even against the people of

France; but warring against every people of the earth which desires to

advance its own prosperity, to invigorate its own constitution, and to

place itself in that condition of peace, purity, and freedom, which is

not more the desire of man than the command of Providence."

The House burst into loud reprobations of the name of aristocrat and

democrat, which he declared to be mere inventions of party prejudice.

"Do you require to make political hostilities immortal, give them names;

do you wish to break down the national strength, divide it in sections:

arm against your enemy, if you will, but here you would arm one hand

against the other."

To the charge of defending the French mob, his answer was in the most

prompt and daring style.

"Who are the French mob? The French nation. Dare you put eight and

twenty millions of men into your bill of attainder? No indictment ever

drawn by the hand of man is broad enough for it. Impeach a nation, you

impeach the Providence that made it. Impeach a nation, you are

impeaching only your own rashness and presumption. You are impeaching

even the unhappy monarch whom you profess to defend. Man is every where

the creature of circumstances. Nations are what their governments make

them. But France is in a state of revolt. Be it so. I demand what nation

ever revolted against justice, truth, and honour? You might as well tell

me, that they rebelled against the light of heaven; that they rejected

the fruits of the earth; that they refused to breathe the air. Men do

not thus war against their natural benefactors; they are not mad enough

to repel the very instincts of preservation. I pronounce it, fearlessly,

that no nation ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere,

national, and benevolent authority. No nation was ever born blind.

Infatuation is not a law of human nature. The monarchy of France was the

criminal."

Another burst, which produced vast effect on the House, referred to the

exclusiveness of the chief public employments.

"The people have overthrown the titles and dignities of France. I admit

it. But was it from a natural hatred of those distinctions? That I deny.

They are congenial to the heart of man. The national hatred lay in the

sense of that intolerable injustice which turns honour into shame. For

centuries, those titles and dignities were to the people not badges of

honour, but brands of scorn. They were not public calls to generous

emulation, but royal proclamations of everlasting contempt. They were

not ramparts surrounding the state, but barriers shutting out the

people. How would such insults to the common origin of man, to the

common powers of the human mind, to the common desires of distinction

born with every man, be endured in this country? Is it to be wondered

at, that France should have abolished them by acclamation? I contend,

that this was a victory gained, not for a populace, but for a people,

for all France, for twenty-eight millions of men--over a portion of

society who had lost their rank, a body already sentenced by their

personal inefficiency--a caste, who, like a famished garrison, had been

starved by the sterility of the spot in which they had inclosed

themselves; or, like the Indian devotees, had turned themselves into

cripples by their pretence of a sacred superiority to the habits of the

rest of mankind."

Opposition still exhibited its ranks but slightly diminished, and the

chief passages of this impassioned appeal, which continued for three

hours, were received with all the fervour of party. Burke then rose.

Strong interest was directed to him, not merely for his eminent name,

but from the public curiosity to hear his explanation of that

estrangement which had been for some time spreading, under his auspices,

through the leading personages of the Opposition. Like most men who have

made themselves familiar with the works of a great writer, I had formed

a portraiture of him by anticipation. I never was more disappointed.

Instead of the expressive countenance and commanding figure, I saw a

form of the middle size, and of a homely appearance, a heavy

physiognomy, and the whole finished by two appurtenances which would

have been fatal to the divinity of the Apollo Belvidere, spectacles and

a wig. His voice and manner were scarcely less prepossessing; the one

was as abrupt and clamorous, as the other was rustic and ungraceful. He

had the general look of a farmer of the better order; and seemed, at

best, made to figure on a grand jury.

But I soon felt how trivial are externals in comparison of genuine

ability; or perhaps, how much even their repulsiveness may add to the

power of genius. I had listened but a few minutes when I forgot every

thing, except that a man of the highest faculties was before me; with

those faculties wrought to the highest tension by the highest subjects.

Taking a line of argument, equally distinct from the leaders of the

Ministry and the Opposition, he dwelt as little on the political views

of England and Europe with Pitt, as he did upon the revolutionary

regeneration of France and Europe with Fox. His view was wholly English;

the reference of the revolutionary spirit to our own institutions. "I do

not charge," he exclaimed, turning full on the Opposition bench,

"individuals with conspiracy; but I charge them with giving the sanction

of their name to principles, which have in them all the germs of

conspiracy. Sir, the maxim of resisting the beginnings of evil, is as

sound in the concerns of nations as in the morality of individual minds.

Nay, I am not sure whether mischief is not more effectually done in that

incipient state, than when the evil comes full-formed. It is less

perceived, and it thus destroys with impunity. The locust, before it

gets its wings, destroys the crop with a still more rapacious tooth than

when its armies are loading the wind.

"Honourable members have talked largely of their zeal for the

constitution. Sir, I am content to follow the wisdom which judges of the

faith by the works. In my humble measure, I have been a zealous

worshipper of the constitution. There was a time when those honourable

gentlemen and myself--and I speak of that time with the regret due to

long friendship--took 'sweet counsel together,' and bowed before that

common worship as friends. That time is past. We have since taken

different paths. I have been charged with apostasy. What is my apostasy?

That I have not followed the frenzy and ingratitude of the hour; that,

while the most awful event in the history of human change has been

transacting before us, I have not shut my ears and eyes to its moral;

that I have not followed the throng into the valley, and there joined

the fabricators of the new idolatry, the priesthood of the golden calf

of revolution, and shared the polluted feast and the intoxicated dance;

while the thunders of divine vengeance were rolling on the hill above."

It was obvious from his manner, and his frequent return to the topic,

that that charge of deserting his party had deeply wounded his generous

and sensitive nature; and nothing struck me as more characteristic of

his mind, than the variety and richness of his fine amplification on

this subject.

"In those ranks," said he, "I fought for nearly the half of that portion

of life allotted to man; certainly for that portion of my course, in

which the desires, the vigour, and the applicability of all the best

parts of human nature have their fullest play. I came to it a

volunteer--I fought side by side with its foremost--I shared the 'winter

of their discontent,' as willingly as the summer of their prosperity. I

took the buffets of ill fortune, and they were many, with as cheerful a

countenance and as unshaken a fidelity as any man. But when I saw a new

banner raised among them, blazoned with mottoes of evil, and refused to

follow, who were the deserters? They or I?" As he spoke these words, he

drew his otherwise rather stooping form to its full height, lifted his

hand above his head, and stood like one at once demanding and defying

the investigation of the empire.

The roar of applause which followed seemed to shake the very walls. He

was powerfully moved; his countenance changed from its usual pallidness

to strong suffusion; his hands rather tossed than waved in the air. At

last I saw one of them thrust strongly into his bosom, as if the gesture

was excited by some powerful recollection. "Do I speak without proof of

the public hazards?" he exclaimed. "I can give you demonstration--I need

invoke neither powers above nor powers below to enlighten you. I have

the oracle within my hand." The House fixed all its eyes upon him. He

dropped his voice, and spoke with a faint, but clear tone which formed a

remarkable contrast to his usually bold, and even harsh enunciation:

"Sir," said he, in this half-whispered voice, "before I join these

gentlemen in their worship, I must know what deity presides in their

temple; I must see that the incense which fumes before its altar is

taken from the sacred repositories of the constitution, not the smuggled

importation of foreign fabrications of revolt--that pernicious compound

of civil mischief and mad metaphysics--which, instead of consummating

and purifying the sacrifice, only poisons the air. I must see something

of the priest too, before I join in his aspirations; I must see that he

is lawfully inducted to his office, that he is not a rebel in the garb

of loyalty--a blasphemer where he professes to pray, and a traitor where

he propounds allegiance."

Fox here, evidently taking the description to himself, exhibited

palpable signs of displeasure. Burke caught the expression at once, and

instantly changed the whole current of his conceptions. "If," said he,

"the honourable gentleman thinks that I designate _him_ as the

high-priest of this new worship, he does me as much injustice as

himself. No, no! When we shall see the Republican Pantheon thrown open,

he, and such as he, will not be called to officiate at the altar. He is

much more likely to be the victim. The popular ornaments, now flung so

lavishly upon him, will find him no further favour, than the speedier

offering on the same abhorred altar, which reeks with so much of the

best blood of France." Here a corpulent noble, peculiarly hostile to

Burke, laughed contemptuously. The orator instantly turned upon him.

"True," said he, "there may be a good deal of variety in that

procession. There may be the mummer as well as the priest; it may have

the mountebank selling his potions, and playing his tricks, as well as

the sacrificer with his axe--unless the ambition of the bloated

performer should prefer to combine the offices, and be at once the

butcher and the buffoon."

The hit was felt on all sides, and the laughter was unbounded. He then

rose, as was his custom, into a higher strain. "I can imagine that

procession," said he, "or rather, that triumph, of the principles of

change. Like the return of the classical Bacchus from his Indian

conquests, the demigod," and he now cast a look at Fox, "secure of

supremacy, exulting in his prowess, and thinking the civilized world at

his feet; but not without the companionship of his trusty Silenus"--and

here he turned his glance on the noble lord--"that veteran follower,

whose ambition is limited to his cups, and the vigour of whose fidelity

is shown only in the constancy of his intoxication; the whole procession

being drawn by the wild lords of the forest and the wilderness, who,

harnessed as they may be for the moment, will no sooner find their food

stinted, than they will resume the natural instincts of the lion and the

tiger, turn on their drivers and devour them.

"But, sir," he exclaimed, turning to the chair, "I have higher topics,

and to those I now call the attention of the representatives of England.

I have alluded to the revolutionary temple. I here have its deity." With

these words, he plucked from his bosom a large dagger, held it for a

moment up to the light, and then flung it at the foot of the table. The

astonishment, and even the alarm, of the whole assembly was beyond

description. They all started from their seats, as if assassination had

stood before them in a visible shape. Some crowded round Burke, some

seized the dagger, which was eventually carried to the Speaker, and

became the object of universal curiosity. All was confusion for a

considerable time. At length Burke, in a few words delivered in his most

impressive tone, explained the phenomenon. "That dagger," said he, "is

one of thousands, perhaps of millions, which the preachers of philosophy

are now forging for popular conviction. You see that by its construction

it is equally fitted for the head of a pike, or for a dagger--equally

serviceable in tearing down the monarchy in the field, or stabbing its

friends in their chambers. You have it, at once the emblem of rebellion

and assassination. Those are the arguments of the new school--those are

the instruments by which the limbs of the state are to be amputated, for

replacement by the inventions of the revolutionary mechanists. Those are

the keys by which the locks of cabinets and councils are henceforth to

be opened, and the secrets of national wealth laid bare to the rapacity

of the rabble." After this speech nothing was listened to.

The debate had been prolonged through the greater part of the night, and

yet such was the interest felt in its subject, that the streets in the

neighbourhood continued crowded to the last. All the hotels and

coffee-houses were filled with people waiting for the division. Groups,

with lighted torches, were lingering everywhere, and passing the

intelligence along, as a member happened casually to make his appearance

in the course of the night; shouts and expressions of wrath alternately

arose, according to the nature of the intelligence, and a species of

open-air legislature was held during one of the bitterest nights of

winter, with discussions as active, though perhaps not altogether so

classical, as those within; yet totally free from tumult, and in the

spirit of a people who live with a constant reference to the laws. The

rush of the members to the porch, on the breaking up of the debate,

produced a corresponding rush of the multitude. Public curiosity was

roused to its wildest height--every public sentiment had its full

expression; and whether the acclamation was louder when Fox's corpulent

frame was seen toiling its slow way through the pressure, or when Pitt's

slender figure and passionless face was recognised, is a question which

might have perplexed the keenest investigators of popular sentiment. All

was that uproar in which the Englishman delights as a portion of his

freedom.

On returning to my chamber, exhausted, yet animated with a new sense of

the value of existence in such a country, and of the noble faculties

which she carried in her bosom, I saw a large packet on my table. I

gazed on its envelope for a few moments with that strange emotion which

sometimes makes us dread to open the very letter which we most desire to

receive. It was obviously from Downing Street. At last I opened it. It

contained my commission in the Guards!

My destiny was now fixed, and it is impossible to tell how much I felt

relieved. I had spent the preceding period in such perplexing

indecision, that I felt my heart withering within me. Now all was clear.

My course was decided. I was in other hands than my own, and whatever

might be the result, I was no longer answerable for either good or ill

fortune. No human being who has not felt the trial almost the torment,

of being left to decide on the conduct which may make or mar him for

life, can conceive the depression into which it plunges the mind. From

this I was now relieved; I was wholly free; an established routine, a

vigorous profession, a regulated pursuit, and that pursuit one of the

most honourable nature, was suddenly prepared for me by the enclosure

upon my table. After again and again reading this simple but expressive

document, I threw myself on my bed, and attempted to forget it and the

world. But I could forget neither; my eyelids would not close; sleep had

gone from me. After a useless effort for composure, I rose, relighted my

lamp, and spent the rest of the night in writing to my relatives, to

Vincent, to Mordecai, and every one to whom I felt his majesty's

sign-manual a vindication of my whole career. There was still one cloud

that overhung my prospect, one gloomy and bitter remembrance: but this

cloud I had neither the power nor even the wish to dispel; this

remembrance was already a part of my being--to extinguish it was

impossible. I resolved to cherish it as a sacred recollection, to

combine it with the aspirations of my new pursuit, and render them thus

still nobler; to reserve it as a treasure inaccessible to the knowledge

of mankind, but to which I might return in my hours of discontent with

the world, and restore my sense of the beauty of mind and form which

might still exist in the shape of human nature.

Yet it may be justly supposed that I did not limit my feelings to this

lonely abstraction. I spent an anxious period in making enquiries for

the Marechale, in every quarter which offered the slightest probability

of discovering her abode. Though I had seen the announcement of

Clotilde's approaching marriage in the public journals, I had seen no

mention of its having taken place. My search was wholly unproductive.

The captivating duchess, who received me with the kindness which seemed

a part of her nature, while she joined me in my praises of the "young,

the lovely, and the accomplished Comtesse," "her dearest of friends,"

could tell me nothing more than that she had left London, and she

believed with an intention of visiting France. There her knowledge

ceased. I learned only further, that she had grown singularly fond of

solitude, was melancholy, and had no hesitation in expressing the

deepest dislike to the marriage proposed by her family. My enquiry was

at an end.

Hopeless as this intelligence was, it relieved me from the certainty,

which would have been despair. While Clotilde remained unallied to one

whom I could not avoid regarding as an uncongenial spirit, if not a hard

and tyrannical master, there was, at least, the chance of happiness

remaining for me in a world where every day brought changes more

extraordinary than our meeting. If there should be a war, my regiment

would be among the first to be employed, and France would inevitably be

the first object of a British expedition. The "march to Paris" had been

proclaimed by orators, exhibited in theatres, and chanted in street

ballads. All before us was conquest, and distinctions of every kind that

can captivate the untried soldier, glittered in all eyes. I was young,

ardent, and active. My name was one known to the table at which I seated

myself on my introduction to the Guards, and I was immediately on the

best footing with the gallant young men of a corps which has never

suffered a stain. I had even some peculiar sources of favour in their

eyes. I had actually made a campaign. This was more than had been done

by any man in the regiment. The Guards, always brave and always foremost

as they were, had not seen a shot fired for a quarter of a century. The

man who had heard bullets whistling about his ears, and had, besides,

seen the realities of war on the magnificent scale of continental

campaigning, possessed a superiority which was willingly acknowledged by

the gallant youths round us; and every detail of that most romantic

campaign, reluctantly given as it was by me, was listened to with

generous interest, or manly intelligence. And I had actually learned

enough, under the Duke of Brunswick, a master of tactics, to render my

services useful at the moment. The discipline of the British army was

not then, what it has since been, the model to Europe. The Englishman's

nature prompts him to require a reason for every thing; and there was no

peculiarly strong reason for the minute toil of foreign discipline, in

an army which had never been engaged since the American war. But other

days were now obviously at hand, and the passion for discipline, and

above all others, for the Prussian discipline, became universal. With

the exaggeration common to all popular impulses, the tactics of

Frederick were now regarded as the secrets of victory. That great

soldier, and most crafty of men, by his private reviews, to which no

stranger, even of the highest rank, was ever admitted, and by a series

of mystifications, had laboured to produce this impression upon Europe,

and had largely succeeded. Mankind love being cheated; and what the

charlatanism of necromancy effected a thousand years ago, was now

effected by the charlatanism of genius. If I had seen the Prussian

troops only at Potsdam, I should probably have mistaken the truncheon

for a talisman, like the rest of the world. But the field suffers no

mystification. I had seen that the true secret of this great tactician,

for such unquestionably he was, consisted in his rejecting the

superfluities and retaining the substance; in reducing tactics to the

ready application of force, and in simplifying the old and tardy

manoeuvres of the French and Austrian battalions, to the few

expeditious and essential formations required before an enemy in the

field. I was offered the adjutancy, and I accepted it rejoicingly.

In those days, by a curious anomaly, which can scarcely be believed in

ours, every regiment was practically free to choose its own system of

manoeuvre. The natural consequence was, that no two regiments did any

thing alike. To brigade the army was impossible, and every field-day was

a scene of ludicrous confusion. But this freedom had the advantage, in

the present instance, of allowing me to introduce that Prussian

discipline which has since been made the basis of the British. It was

then perfectly new, and it had all the effect of brilliant novelty. Our

parade was constantly crowded with officers of the highest grades,

anxious to transmit our practice to their regiments. The king, always

attached to German recollections, and who would have made as good a

soldier as any of his forefathers, was frequently a spectator. The

princes and nobility were constant in their attendance; and the

regiment, thus stimulated, rapidly displayed all the completeness and

precision of movement which to this day makes a review of the Guards the

finest military spectacle of Europe.

The adjutant was not forgotten in the general applause and excitement. I

was promised promotion in the most gratifying language of royalty

itself, and all the glittering prospects of the most glittering of all

pursuits opened before me. I still had my moments of depression.

Clotilde often rose before me like a departed spirit in the solitude of

my chamber, and even in the midst of public festivities, or in those

balls and banquets which the nobility gave in such profusion at this

period of the year. When a shape, however faintly resembling her

incomparable elegance of form, passed before my eye, or a voice, in the

slightest degree reminding me of her noble tones, reached my ear, I felt

an irresistible pang, that, for the time, embittered all the scene

around me.

But I had in no period of my life been suffered to linger in long

melancholy. One night, after returning from a dinner at Devonshire

House, I found a gentleman in possession of my chamber, with my fire

briskly blazing, supper on the table, and every appearance of his having

made himself master of the establishment. As I paused at the door, in

some surprise at the ease of the proceeding, the intruder turned round,

and I saw the face of my old and excellent friend Vincent. I was

delighted to take the honest hand of one who was enough to redeem the

character of human nature. He was full of congratulations and country

news. He told me that this, his first visit to London for years, was

simply to shake hands with his pupil; to hear from him his adventures;

and to have the opportunity of seeing the regiment on parade. He now

enjoyed all his objects together. The regiment "reminded him of the

grenadiers of Maria Theresa, in the first Hungarian campaign; and all

that he wished for me was, that I had seen Daun or Landohn. However, no

man in this world could have every wish gratified; and he was certain

that I had in me the materials of a field-marshal."

But he had more important topics. By an accidental meeting with an old

college friend, high in office, he had ascertained that an expedition

for Holland had been resolved on; and that it was to take place without

delay. The French army had passed the frontier, and taken the strong

fortress of Breda. Williamstadt was bombarded, and must fall in a few

days if not relieved. With its fall, the Seven Provinces would be thrown

open. In this emergency, aid had been solicited from England.

Vincent's country news was brief. My lordly brother was in pursuit of a

neighbouring heiress; and, as a prospective remedy for matrimonial

ennui, speculating on the chance of employment on some foreign embassy.

Vincent himself had married one of his daughters to a neighbouring

squire, whom he denominated an "unlicked cub," but an honest man. Thus I

had the knowledge of all that the country could furnish, and thus--"runs

the world away."

All now was excitement and activity. The intelligence of the French

advance into the territories of our old and very helpless ally, awoke

England at once. The feeble and perfectly fruitless negotiations, by

which the slide from disgust into war is generally managed, had produced

their effect; and France, furious for its prey, and England, steady and

stubborn, for the first time were brought face to face. The summons, so

long wished for, at length reached us; and the Guards were ordered for

embarkation. We received it in the spirit of a jubilee. All had been

prepared. And on the night before our final parade, I received my

appointment to a company. Our parade, next morning, was one which I

believe was never forgotten by any individual who had the good fortune

to witness it. Of all the striking ceremonials which I have ever seen,

it was the most striking. The king had given notice of his intention to

be present, and bid us farewell. At six o'clock, the three regiments

were drawn up in front of the Horse-Guards, a body of three thousand

men, and finer-looking troops never bore arms. All the avenues to the

park were crowded with the multitude. Exactly at the half-hour, a rush

of the people towards the parade showed that the king, always punctual,

was at hand. He came, surrounded by general officers, with the Prince of

Wales, then a most chivalric figure, in the uniform of his regiment of

light dragoons, and the Duke of York, as a field-marshal. The enthusiasm

of the troops could not be restrained, as this brilliant staff

approached their line; and three cheers were given with all the zeal of

honest loyalty. There are times when tears are the only substitute for

speech; and the king, one of the most kindhearted of men, visibly shed

tears at this reception. Another _cortege_ now approached; they were the

carriages of the queen and princesses. The scene now became almost

painful. There was many a tear from royal and noble eyes--the impulse of

high emotion, not of sorrow--or if tinged with the thoughts which always

shade the name of war, yet undegraded by weakness. The multitude caught

the feeling; the shouts subsided; and all was weeping and waving of

handkerchiefs. The king put an end to this embarrassing sympathy. He

rode forward, and, taking his station in the centre, gave the word to

"march." He was answered by one gallant "huzza" from the line, repeated

by the thousands and tens of thousands who now moved before and around

us. Our bands struck up, and, with the monarch and his sons at our head,

and the queen and princesses following in their equipages, we marched

through streets, crowded to the roof, echoing with acclamations, and

wishing us all good fortune as we passed along, until we left the mighty

metropolis behind. Even then, it was only to meet the new multitude of

the country. The road to Greenwich, where we were to embark, exhibited a

population as countless, enthusiastic, and full of good wishes as those

with whom we had just parted. The king still rode in our front; flags,

banners, and every kind of joyous testimonial met our eyes; and if ever

there was a triumph before the victory, it was in that honest and

generous display of the true heart of England.

The embarkation took place within a few hours; and on that night we

slept on the element which Britain has so long made her field of battle.

The weather was serene, and we fully enjoyed the freshness of the air,

and the brightness of the view, as we rounded the coast. At the mouth of

the Thames, we had met a strong squadron of the line of battle,

appointed for our convoy, and bringing numerous transports with troops.

Our fleet had now become extensive, and as we moved out from the land,

the sight became continually more animated and exciting. The despatch of

the look-out frigates, the constant change of signals, the firing of

guns to regulate the sailing of the great convoy, the manoeuvres of

those floating castles, the seventy-fours and three-deckers, the harmony

of their bands as they passed us, rushing along under a cloud of

canvass, with the hum of the thousands on board--all formed one of the

most heart-stirring combinations that could exist to the eye, or even to

the heart of a human being.

I stood gazing on the poop of our transport the entire day; and even

when twilight came, there was but a change of interest and beauty. We

moved on, a moving multitude--a fragment of a mighty nation--almost a

nation ourselves, on the face of the deep. Within the horizon which now

lay beneath my glance, smooth as glass, and shining in the richness of

the departing day, what materials of living power were gathered; what

bold hearts; what high hopes; what indefatigable perseverance; what

accomplished intelligence! a force inferior to the one before me had

more than once changed the fate of the world. It might be now on its way

only to change that fate once more. The cause, too, was a noble one. It

was sustained by no aggression, perfidy, or desire of change. It was to

protect a friendly nation, and to sustain an inspired cause. There was

no taint of cruelty or crime to degrade the soldiership of England. We

were acting in the character which had already exalted her name as

protectors of the weak and punishers of the powerful.

On the second evening we reached the flat and uninteresting coast of

Holland. But if the coast was repellent, nothing could exceed the

eagerness of the inhabitants to welcome our arrival. On our first

approach to the land every boat that could swim came off, crowded with

people, some to take refuge on board the fleet, but thousands to urge

our speedy landing. The ferocious plunder which had become the principle

of the republican arms had stricken terror into the hearts of the

Hollanders: a people remarkably attached to home, and fond, or even

jealous, of the preservation of the most trivial article of property

connected with that home. The French troops, often pressed with hunger,

and adopting the desperate maxim of "making war support war," had

committed such wanton ruin of property in the Netherlands, that, at this

distance, the common effect of exaggeration described them as rather

demons than men.

War is of all things the most picturesque, and there never was a gala on

the waters of the Adriatic more gay or glittering than our landing. But

we had infinitely the advantage in the numbers, the brilliancy, and,

what gave a higher feeling to the whole, in the reality of all its

objects. This was no painted pageant; it was real strength, real

soldiership; the cannon that roared above our heads, as we descended

into the boats, were the thunderers which had shaken many a battlement;

the flotilla of launches, long-boats, and cutters which covered the sea,

was manned with the soldiers and sailors sent forth to fight the battle

of human freedom on every shore of the globe. The ships were that

British fleet whose name was synonymous with the noblest exploits of

war, and which it would have been well worth going round the

circumference of the globe to see.

On this night we bivouacked; the shore offered no human habitation, and

it was too late for the landing of our tents. But the sand was dry; our

fires were soon lighted; all was sport and activity; our bands played

"Welcome to Holland;" our men danced with the peasantry; all had the

look of a magnificent frolic; and, when at last I threw myself on my

open air pillow, I dreamed of fairyland.

At daybreak we marched, in the highest spirits, and only longing to have

an opportunity of trying our strength with the enemy. From time to time,

the sound of a cannonade reached us, and heightened our eagerness to

advance. But Holland is proverbially difficult for any movements but

those of a trackschuyt; and the endless succession of narrow roads, the

perpetual canals, and the monotony of her level fields, rich as they

were, exhausted us, more than if we had marched twice the distance. But

the spell of human hearts is excitement, and war is all excitement. All

round us was new, and from the colonel to the rank and file, the

"general camp, pioneers and all," enjoyed the quaint novelty of Dutch

life. The little villages, so unlike our own, and yet so admirably

fitted for peasant comfort, the homesteads embedded in plantations of

willows, the neatness of every thing round the farm-houses, and even the

sleekness of the cattle, which seemed by their tameness to form a part

of the habitancy--all were objects of constant remark on our march; and

we could easily comprehend the horror with which the arrival of a French

commissariat must strike these comfortable burghers. But the punctuality

of British payments was perfectly known already; the whole plenty of the

land was poured out before us; we regaled sumptuously.

On the second evening of our march through this landscape of fatness, we

were warned of our approach to the besieged fortress, by the louder roar

of the cannon, and not less by the general desolation of the country.

The enemy's hussars had made a wide sweep, and wherever they were seen,

the villagers had fled instantly, carrying off their cattle. We found

the traces of those foraying excursions in the fragments of burned

mills, a favourite object of destruction with the French--for what

purpose I never could comprehend, except the pleasure of seeing them

burn--in cottages unroofed, for the sake of the thatch; in broken

moveables, and, in some instances, in the skeletons of horses and

remnants of arms; for the peasantry were not always patient sufferers,

and some of the smaller detachments of the plunderers had met with

severe retaliation.

At length we halted for the night, and orders were issued for a general

movement at daybreak, to attack the French force covering the siege of

Williamstadt. The order was received with shouts; and the night was

spent in great exultation. The cannonade, which was now within a few

miles of us, continued with such violence during the night that sleep

was next to impossible; and long before the first streak of light in the

east, we were busy in the numberless preparations for a first action.

Orderlies and aides-de-camp were speedily in motion, and at the first

tap of the _reveille_ all were on parade. The sun rose brightly, gave

one broad blaze along our columns, and after thus cheering us, instantly

plunged into a mist, which, except that it was not actually black,

obscured our road nearly as much as if it had been midnight. This was

simply a specimen of the new land on which we now set foot. But it

perplexed all the higher powers prodigiously--generals and the staff

galloping round us in all directions, the whole one mass of confusion.

Yet we still pushed on, toiling our puzzled way, when, as if by magic, a

regiment of the enemy's hussars dashed full into the flank of our

column. Never was there a more complete surprise. The enemy were as much

astonished as ourselves, for the collision had been the result of an

attempt to find their way through the fog back to their camp; but I now

for the first time saw the temper of John Bull in the field. The attack

of the hussars was evidently looked on by our men less as a military

manoeuvre, than as a piece of foreign impudence. To fire might be

hazardous to some of our advancing columns, which we could hear, though

not see; but the word "charge" from our gallant old colonel was enough;

they rushed with the bayonet on the cavalry, forced their way in between

the squadrons, which had been brought to a stand by the narrowness of

the dyke; and in five minutes the whole had laid down their arms, given

up their horses to our fifers and drummers, and were marching to the

rear.

As if to reward us for this dashing affair, a gust of wind blew aside

the fog; the sun gleamed again; and Williamstadt, the French camp, the

covering force formed in columns and waiting for us, and the whole

country to the horizon, green as a duckpond, and altogether as smooth,

burst on our view. The suddenness of the display was like the drawing-up

of a stage curtain, with a melo-dramatic army and castle behind. Our

advance was now rapid. The skirmishers on both sides began to engage,

and our light artillery to throw a long shot now and then into the

enemy's columns. The difficulty of the ground, intersected with high

narrow causeways stretching over marshy fields, retarded our progress;

and for two hours--and they were the two longest hours which any of us

had ever spent--we were forced to content ourselves with firing at our

long range, and watching the progress of our more distant columns moving

on the flank of the enemy. To a military eye nothing could be more

interesting than the view of the vast field on which these concentric

movements were developing themselves from hour to hour. At length we

received the order to advance, and drive in a strong column which had

just debouched from a wood in front of us. Our men rushed on with a

cheer, threw in a heavy volley, and charged. Their weight was

irresistible, and the French column broke, and took refuge again in the

wood. Another glance showed me the whole British force in motion, every

where pressing on; the enemy every where retreating, all their columns

converging upon their camp. Those are the brilliant moments of a

soldier's life. All was exultation. We had met the enemy, and driven him

from his position.

But the most difficult task of the day was still to be achieved. The

French camp had been placed in strong ground; heavy batteries commanded

every approach; and Dampierre, their general, an officer of known

ability, had exhibited all his skill in rendering the position, if not

impregnable, at least one which could not be forced without the most

serious loss. The day had been already far spent, and the troops were

wearied with six hours' marching and fighting; but nothing could

restrain their eagerness to finish the victory. The heads of columns

again advanced, and the firing became tremendous on both sides. The

French batteries poured an absolute shower of balls upon us, and we were

beginning to lose men, when a strange and indescribable sound suddenly

caught every ear. Such was the universal sense of something more

singular, and even more formidable, than the work of war, that the fire

on our side rapidly subsided, and every eye was turned to look for the

cause. It soon exhibited itself. With a roar like thunder, I saw the sea

bursting in upon the plain where the enemy lay intrenched. The Dutch

garrison had sallied out from Williamstadt, on the repulse of the

French, and cut the dyke in several places. The ocean now fought our

battle; each chasm in the long mound which protected the fields from

inundation, was now the channel of a roaring cataract; the trenches were

soon filled; as the waters advanced, the field-works were washed away;

still wave rolled on wave; cannon, tents, baggage, every thing but the

soldier himself, was seen gradually sinking, or floating away on the

surface of the surge. Within the hour, the ground on which we had fought

during the day was completely covered with the flood. The French camp

was totally buried. The enemy had only time to make a hurried retreat,

or rather flight, along the causeways which stood above the waters. As

an army, they were utterly ruined; when they at last reached firm

ground, they scattered through the country, and those battalions never

appeared in the field again.

Our troops entered the relieved fortress, with drums beating and colours

flying. We were received as deliverers; all that the place could offer

was heaped upon us; and if praise could have repaid our exploits, never

was praise more abundant from the lips of the whole population.

The catastrophe was complete; and when at night I broke away from the

heat and noise of the huge barrack in which we had been placed, as the

post of favour, and walked upon the rampart, nothing could form a more

expressive contrast to the tumult of the day. The moon was high, and her

light showed the whole extent of the late field of battle. But all now

was one immense shining lake. Where cavalry had charged and artillery

had roared, and the whole living clash and confusion of a stubborn

engagement had filled the eye and ear but a few hours before, all was

now an expanse of quiet water, calm as the grave, without a vestige of

the struggle, but with hundreds of the combatants sleeping their last

sleep below, and the whole artillery and equipment of a powerful army

submerged.

I was still gazing from the ramparts, when I observed a body of cavalry

advancing along the dike, at a rapid pace, with a group of staff

officers among them. The alarm was given by the sentries; and, after

some brief pause, it was ascertained that they were the escort of the

new commander-in-chief of the allied armies in the Netherlands. My first

impression was, that the man to whom so important a trust was given must

be Clairfait; and I hastened down to meet him at our quarters. But I was

disappointed; and for the dark and decided physiognomy, and military

frankness of that distinguished soldier, I saw the Prince Cobourg, stern

and lofty in his air, evidently too Austrian to be popular, yet known to

be a gallant officer. But my disappointment was considerably assuaged by

seeing one of his staff throw himself off his horse, and hasten towards

me with almost joyous salutation. My surprise and pleasure were equal

when I found him to be Guiscard!

Supper was on the table when I introduced the Prussian philosopher to my

brother officers, and they were delighted with him. But he was the

philosopher no longer, or rather had thrown off the half misanthropy

which had made him so strong a contrast to my honest friend Varnhorst.

His very countenance had adopted a different expression. It was no

longer stern and sarcastic, but was lighted up with pleasantry; and the

only conception of the change which I could form was, either that he had

arrived at that height of philosophy to which every thing seems trivial,

or that he had met with some of those extraordinary instances of good

fortune which throw all the world into sunshine for the moment.

But he was full of knowledge on the subject most interesting to his

hearers; and he gave us his information of the allied councils, and the

movements of the armies, with a copiousness and courtesy which all our

questioning could not tire.

"We have now," said he, "the finest army in line that Europe has ever

seen; little less than 200,000 men are under the command of the prince.

If he is suffered to move them in a mass, they must break through any

part of the French territory which they choose. If they divide, they

will be beaten. It will now take only three pitched battles to reach

Paris--for the three covering armies fight with the guillotine in their

rear. But a single unlucky skirmish may bring every peasant in France

upon us; and it takes but fifteen days to make the French peasant a

soldier. Blows, and those straightforward, are our true policy. If we

negotiate, we shall be beaten; if beaten here, we shall be beaten on the

Rhine, and perhaps even on the Danube."

The news of Dumourier's attempt to overthrow his government had reached

us, but in the usual way of mystification. The answer of Guiscard was

prompt and plain. "Dumourier," said he, "is one of those men who has a

one-sided understanding. He is a capital soldier, but a childish

statesman; and, with an absurdity by no means limited to himself, he

thinks that his talent lies in statesmanship. The result has been, that

the factions have always managed him as they do all men of his calibre.

When he attempted to act for himself, they crushed him without mercy;

when he ceased to be a tool, he necessarily became a victim. The army is

now in retreat. To the French retreat is always ruin; the horseman sells

his horse; the foot-soldier sells his musket; and the artilleryman sells

his powder and ball, breaks up his gun-carriage for a fire, and throws

his gun into the next ditch. The peasantry then fall on them all, repay

their plunder with the pike and the pitchfork, and in three days the

army is dissolved."

"But will Cobourg follow up his blow?" was the question on all sides.

"The commander-in chief," was the answer, "is intelligent and brave. He

has learned his profession under the greatest soldier whom Russia has

produced, or perhaps ever will produce--Suwarrow. But he is himself

under orders. If he were a republican general he would instantly march,

and within a week he would be in the Tuileries. But as an Austrian

commander, he must wait for the opinion of men too far off to know a

single fact of the campaign, too blind to know them if they were on the

spot, and too jealous even of their own general to suffer him to beat

the enemy if victory would throw their own nothingness into the shade."

Every hour now produced its event. A general _feu-de-joie_ announced the

first great success of the campaign; Mayence had been taken, with its

garrison of 20,000 men. The French general Custine, had made an

unsuccessful attack on the lines of the besiegers, to relieve the

fortress in its last extremity, had been beaten, and driven back into

the Vosges, where he was at liberty to starve among the most barren

mountains of France. But this intelligence came qualified by the

formidable rumour that Prussia was already making terms with the French,

that it had acknowledged the government as the "Republic," and even that

the Prussians had sung the _Marsellaise_. Thus we had the light and

shade.

But while politicians tremble, soldiers are gay. What were all those

shiftings and doublings to us? We had all the luxuries of the most

luxurious of all lives, the foreign camp. We had now marched from the

country of fogs and bogs, and were moving through the richest soil, and

not the least beautiful landscape, of the Continent. Holland was left

behind, Flanders was round us, France was before us. We had the finest

army of Europe, untouched by disaster, confident in its strength, and

the enemy in full flight. If we despised the fugitives, we fully as much

despised the politicians; the man with the sword in his hand naturally

scorns the man with the pen behind his ear. Thus we galloped, danced,

and dreamed on. The spring, too, had come; the harshness of a foreign

winter had been changed within a few days to the delightful softness of

early summer. The fields were covered with flowers, and the country was

filled with the preparations for the rural fetes of the first of May. I

enjoyed the scene doubly, for I had been sent along with a squadron of

dragoons to the advanced posts, and thus escaped the turmoil of the

camp. My quarters were in one of the old Flemish country-houses, which

had been the headquarters of the French general, and had thus escaped

the usual ravage. The chateau was large, well furnished in the national

fashion, and the half-dozen domestics who remained after the escape of

their master, were charmed with the expenditure which always follows the

presence of English troops. My companion, the captain of dragoons, was

one of the finest specimens of his country--the heir of a noble family,

generous and gay, brave as his own sword, and knowing as little of the

soldier's life as became a young aristocrat with the prospect of thirty

thousand a-year. He insisted on our giving a ball to the Flemings; and

our invitations were sent out accordingly for half a dozen leagues

round. They included, of course, the camp; and every lounger who could

obtain leave for the night came crowding in upon us. Nothing could

succeed better. All was festivity within doors. But not so all without,

for the night suddenly changed from serenity to storm. England is not

the only spot famed for fickleness of atmosphere. By midnight every

beech and elm round the chateau was tossing and bending down to the

roots, and a heavy snowfall was already sheeting the fields. As the

storm rose, it occurred to me to ascertain what provision might have

been made against it by our soldiers, who were lodged in the barns and

extensive outhouses of the chateau. Leaving my dragoon friend to act as

master of the ceremonies, I sallied forth. The storm was now at its

height; and it was with some difficulty that I could make my way. In the

midst of the excessive darkness, I felt some animal make a sudden spring

on me, which nearly brought me to the ground. Wolves were not common in

the country, but there had been some recent instances of their issuing

from the forests, and my first idea was that I had been thus attacked.

But the barking and bounding of a dog soon put an end to this

conception; and I recognised in my assailant the huge house-dog of the

chateau, with whom I had already struck up a particular friendship. More

sharpsighted than myself, he had rushed across the wood after me, and

exhibited all imaginable rejoicing at the rencontre. I reached the

barns, found all my men wrapped in that quiet which cares nothing for

the troubles of kings and cabinet councils, and was preparing to return,

when Caesar, with every demonstration of having found something of

importance, brought me a letter which he had dug out of the snow. By the

light of the lantern, I discovered it to be the report of an engineer

officer dispatched from the French army to ascertain the condition of

our outposts, informing the head of the staff of an intended ball, and

proposing a plan for carrying off the whole party together. I was

thunderstruck. The letter was dated three days before, and though

evidently dropped by some negligence of the officer, yet giving full

time for him to make his report in person, and bring the force necessary

for our capture. If it succeeded, an exploit of this order might have

paralysed the whole campaign; for nearly the entire staff of the army,

besides a crowd of regimental officers of all grades, were within the

walls of the chateau.

I hastened back, showed the report to one or two of the principal

officers, in private, for the purpose of avoiding alarm to our fair

partners, and we then considered what means were left to protect us from

the approaching catastrophe. Our little council of war was nearly as

much perplexed as matters of this kind are in general; and the

propositions, various as they were, came finally to the usual result,

that we had got into a scrape, and that we must get out of it as well as

we could. To send the ladies away was impossible, in a tempest which

already flooded every road, and with all the trees crashing over their

heads. To expect reinforcements from the camp, at such a distance, and

in such weather, was hopeless; with the recollection that the whole

affair might be over in the next quarter of an hour, and our entire

assembly be in march before the French hussars. This was the first

occasion of my responsibility as a soldier; and I learned, from this

time forth, to give commanders-in-chief some credit for their

responsibilities. The agonies of that half hour I have never forgotten.

Military failure was nothing compared to the universal shame and

blighting which must fall on the officer who suffered such a disgrace to

be inflicted on him in the presence of the whole army; and such a

calamity to arrest the progress of that army, if not the hopes of

Europe. My resolution was desperately but decidedly taken, if the post

fell into the enemy's hands, on that night to throw away my sword and

abandon my profession, unless some French bayonet or bullet relieved me

from all the anxieties of this feverish world. To offer the command of

the post to any of the superior officers present was, as I well knew,

contrary to rule; and on me and the dragoon devolved the whole duty.

But this state of almost nervous torture was as brief as it was painful,

and my faculties became suddenly clear. The service of outposts was a

branch of soldiership, at that period, wholly unpractised by the British

troops; but I had seen it already on its most perfect scale in the

Prussian retreat, which I and my hussars had our share in covering. My

first step was to warn my soldiers and the dragoons of the probability

of attack, and my second to call for a favourite quadrille, in which I

saw all our guests busily engaged before I left the chateau. My next was

to repeat my Prussian lesson in reconnoitring all the avenues to the

house. This, which ought to have been our first act on taking

possession, had been neglected, in the common belief that the enemy were

in full retreat. The gallant captain of dragoons prepared to take a

gallop at the head of a party along the _chaussee_, and ascertain

whether there were any symptoms of movement along the road. He mounted

and was gone. Posting the dragoons in the farm-yard, I went to the front

to make such preparations as the time might allow for the enemy. Like

the greater number of the Flemish chateaux, it was approached by a long

avenue lined with stately trees; but it wanted the customary canal, or

the fosse, which, however detestable as an accompaniment to the grounds

in peace, makes a tolerable protection in times of war, at least from

marauding parties. All was firm, grand, and open, except where the

garden walls and hedges of the lawn shut it in. As the avenue was the

only approach accessible to cavalry, and as this was the force which

would probably be used for a _coup-de-main_, if it were to be attempted

at all, I set all hands to work to secure it. Wild as the night was, my

men wielded the spade and mattock with good will; and we had completed a

trench of some feet deep and wide, half across the road, when I caught

the trampling of cavalry at a distance. My chagrin was irrepressible;

the enemy would be upon us before we had got through our work, and we

must be taken or fly. My men worked vigorously; but the cavalry were

upon us--and to my utter astonishment and infinite relief, our labours

produced a roar of laughter. The party were our dragoons, who had looked

for the French advance in vain, and were now amusing themselves with our

waste of toil. We forgave them their jest; they passed, and we prepared

to follow to our quarters. But still the French officer's report haunted

me; the precision of its terms, and the feasibility of the enterprise

itself, struck with new force; and even after I had given the word to

move, I halted the men, and climbing a little pleasure turret by the

side of the avenue, gave a parting glance round the horizon. Nothing was

to be seen. The night was dark as a dungeon, and I prepared to descend,

when at that moment the distant sound of a trumpet broke on the air. I

listened, and thought that I recognised the French call for cavalry to

saddle and mount. I sprang down; every man piled his arms, took spade

and mattock in hand once more, and in a few minutes the trench was

completed across the road. Still no further notice of approaching troops

was to be heard; and I heard a low, but rather provoking laugh among my

company. Still I determined to persevere, and ordering some of the trees

round us to be cut down, formed a rude species of _chevaux-de-frise_ in

front of our trench. It was scarcely finished, when the distant

trampling of cavalry was heard in the lull of the gale. All were now

convinced, and dispatching a notice to the dragoons to be ready, we

stood to our arms. Giving the strictest orders that not a word should be

spoken, nor a shot fired, I waited for the enemy. The trampling

increased every moment, and it was evident that the body of cavalry must

be large, though of its actual numbers we could form no conjecture. They

suddenly stopped at the entrance of the avenue, and I was in fear that

my _trou-de-rat_ would be discovered; but the national impatience soon

spared me this vexation. The cavalry, hearing nothing in the shape of

resistance, and not relishing the pelting of the storm in the open

country, rushed in without further search, and came pouring on at the

gallop. The avenue was long, and the whole corps was already within it,

when the leading squadrons came at full speed upon my rude

fortifications. In they dashed, into the very heart of my

_chevaux-de-frise_. Nothing could equal the confusion. Some sprang over

the trees, but it was only to be flung into the trench; some even leaped

the trench, but it was only to be met by our bayonets. The greater

number, startled by the cries of their unlucky comrades in front,

attempted to rein back; but found it impossible, from the weight of the

squadrons still pushing on from behind. At this point, while they stood

a struggling mass, wholly unable to move either backward or forward, I

gave the word to fire, and poured in a volley with terrible execution.

An ineffectual firing of pistols was their only return. Some of their

officers now rushed to the front, with the usual gallantry of their

character, called on their men to advance, and charged the trench; but

this dash only filled it with falling men and horses. I gave them a

second volley, which was followed by a howl of despair; the whole of

their leading squadron was brought down--every shot had told. The mass

still stood, evidently taken by surprise, and wholly unable to extricate

themselves. I now ordered our dragoons to mount, take a circuit to the

head of the avenue, and, if possible, close them in. In a few minutes, I

heard the effect of my order in their galloping through the enclosures,

and in the shout of a charge at the further end of the avenue. The staff

and other officers in the chateau had hurried out at the sound of our

firing, and some had come up to us, and others had joined the dragoons.

A proposal was now sent by a general officer to the commandant of the

brigade, to surrender, with a threat of being put to the sword in case

of an instant's delay. The brave Frenchman was indignant at the

proposal, and threatened to hang the bearer of it to the next tree. But

the British camp had palpably been alarmed by this time. Bugles and

trumpets were heard in every direction. Our dragoons had already shut up

the avenue; and after some slight discussion, the advance of a few

squadrons more, which came up at the gallop, proved the total

impossibility of escape, and the affair was at an end. This night's

_melee_ had no rival in the campaign; it put into our hands twelve

hundred of the best cavalry in the French army, and almost wholly

stripped the enemy of the means of protecting his flanks, while it made

a most brilliant figure in the Gazette--the true triumph of the British

soldier.

To me, it was a restoration to life from the depths of despair. It may

be perfectly true, that many a post has been surprised, and many an

officer captured, without being objects of penalty, or even of public

observation; but my case was different. My character as a soldier was

essential to my existence. The eyes of many, at home and abroad, were on

me; and the scorn of one, wherever she was, would have been fatal to me.

But of those bitter extremes I say no more; my spirit was buoyant with a

sense that I had done my duty in the most effective style. Nor was I

left to my solitary sense on the subject. My return to the chateau was

as triumphant as if I had gained a pitched battle at the head of a

hundred thousand men. Our fair guests, who had spent the hour before in

the terrors of instant capture, were boundless in their congratulations

and expressions of gratitude. The officers, to whom my defence had made

the entire difference between a French prison and liberty, spoke in the

manliest and most cheering terms of my conduct. The scene of the

struggle was visited during the next day by every officer of the army

who could obtain a horse and an hour's leave; and the report which was

forwarded to the commander-in-chief contained language which was

regarded as a sure pledge of promotion.

Guiscard hurried over to join in the congratulation. He had been

employed until a late hour in sending despatches to his court, relative

to the growing problems of our politics with Prussia; and taking the

first opportunity of throwing aside the envoy, he came at a gallop to

shake hands with me. His impatience to see the ground scarcely suffered

him to sit down at table; his toast to the brave British army was given,

and we went out to traverse the avenue. After having inspected every

corner of it with his keen military glance--"You will find my theory

right," said he; "war is always a succession of mistakes. There never

has been a battle fought, in which even the successful general could not

point out a series of his own blunders, any one of which might have

ruined him. The only distinction is, that there are brilliant mistakes

and stupid ones. Yours was of the former order--the Frenchman's of the

latter. If, instead of sending his whole brigade headlong down the road,

like clowns at a fair, he had dismounted half a squadron of his

dragoons, and sent them to fire into the casements of the chateau, while

he kept the rest of his men in hand in the neighbourhood, he must have

captured every soul of the party, and by this time had you all fast at

the French headquarters; but he blundered, and he has paid the price of

blundering." To my laughing reply, "that there was at least some merit

in the steadiness of the men who beat him"--"Of course," was his answer.

"The English steadiness is like the English fire, the grand cure for the

English contempt of the tactician. Yours is an army of grenadiers; you

are fit for nothing but assaults: but it must be owned that your troops

of old managed that part of their business well, and I dare say that the

art is not lost among you yet. Still, there are other matters to be

thought of. Pray," said he, turning his keen eye on me, "can any one in

the chateau tell how near is the French army to-night?" I acknowledged

my ignorance. "I ask the question," said he, "because I think it by no

means improbable, that they are at this moment marching down upon you.

Not that they can afford to lose a brigade of cavalry a-night, and I

therefore think you safe enough for the twelve hours to come; but I am

far from answering for the next twenty-four. Dampierre commands them; I

know him well--he is a bold and also a clever fellow; the loss of his

cavalry last night will leave him no alternative but to attack you or to

meet the guillotine. Those are fine times to make a general officer look

about him. My last letters from the Rhine state that the two generals of

the two covering armies on the frontier have been put under arrest, and

that they are now both on their way to Paris, from which Custine and

Beauharnais will never return with their heads on their shoulders."

I shuddered at this fate of brave men, overcome only by circumstances,

and asked whether it was possible that such a system could last, or in

any case could be endured by men with swords in their hands.

"It can, and will," was the reply. "Soldiers are the simplest race of

mankind, when they come in contact with the cunning men of cities. An

army, showy and even successful as it may be, is always an instrument

and no more--a terrible instrument, I grant you, but as much in the

hands of the civilian as one of your howitzers is in the hands of the

men who load and fire it. At this moment sixty commissioners, ruffians

and cut-throats to a man--fellows whom the true soldier abhors, and who

are covered with blood from top to toe--are on their way from Paris to

the headquarters of the fourteen armies of the republic. Woe be to the

general who has a will of his own! Those fellows will arrest him in the

midst of his own staff, carry him off in the presence of his army, and

send him to give a popular holiday to the Parisians, by his execution

within half an hour after his arrival. So much for the power of an

army."

"But Frenchmen are human beings after all. Must not those horrors revolt

human nature?" was my question, put with indignant sincerity. He looked

at me with a quiet smile.

"You are romantic, Marston, but you are of an age that becomes romance.

When you shall have lived as long as I have done, and seen as much of

the world as myself, you will know that it is utterly selfish. It may be

true, that some generous spirits are to be found here and there, some

fond hearts to cling to, some noble natures which inspire an involuntary

homage for their superiority; but you might as well expect to be lighted

on your way by a succession of meteors. In the world, you will find that

every man carries his lantern for himself; and that whether small or

great his light, the first object is to guide his own steps, with not

the slightest care whether yours may not be into the swamp--unless,

indeed, he may have a particular object in bewildering you into the very

heart of it. But now, to more pressing affairs than my honest and

luckless philosophy. Get leave from your colonel to take a ride with me.

I feel a sudden wish to know what Dampierre is doing; and a few hours,

and as few leagues, may supply us with information on points which your

brave countrymen seem so constitutionally to despise. But recollect that

_I_ am a Prussian."

We returned to the table, which was crowded with visitors, and spent an

hour or two in great enjoyment; for what enjoyment can be higher than

the conversation of minds willing to give and receive intellectual

pleasure? And Guiscard was never more animated, easy, and abundant, in

communicating that pleasure. He was a model of the most accomplished

order of the continental gentleman. He had commenced life as a scholar;

a disappointment in his affections drove him into the army. He

discovered that he was made for the profession; and, combining the

accomplished diplomatist with the almost chivalric soldier, he had

rapidly risen to the highest rank of the royal staff. But he had the

still rarer qualities of a sincere heart, and was a firm and willing

friend.

The orderly now returned with the leave for which I had applied. The

post was left in charge of the captain of dragoons; and Guiscard and I,

without mentioning our purpose, rode out quietly, as if to enjoy the

cool of the evening. It was well worth enjoying. The storm had gone down

at daybreak, and been succeeded by a glowing sun; the fields flourished

again, and if I had been disposed to forget the tremendous business

which might be preparing for the morrow, I might have lingered long over

the matchless luxuriance of the Flemish landscape. There certainly never

was one which gave slighter evidence of the approach of two hostile

armies. From the first hill which we ascended, the view, for leagues

round, exhibited nothing but the rich tranquillity of a country wholly

agricultural; soft uplands, covered with cattle grazing; ploughed

fields, purpling in the twilight; clumps of trees sheltering villages,

from which the smoke of the evening fires rose slowly on the almost

breathless air, giving an impression of the comfort and plenty of the

meal within; and at intervals, some huge old chateau, with its

buttressed and richly-wrought architecture--those carvings and

colourings which so strikingly convey the idea of a past age of quaint

luxury and lavish wealth--rose from the centre of its beech grove,

glaring against the sunset, as if it had been suddenly covered with a

sheet of gold. All was peace, and the few peasants whom we met, as the

night fell, were all in the same tale, that there had been no patrols in

their neighbourhood of late, and that, with the exception of the attack

on the "outposts of the English," they had not heard or seen any thing

of the French for a month before.

The night had now fallen, and though calm, it was one of remarkable

darkness. We passed village after village, but by this time all were

fast asleep, and except the disturbance of the house-dogs as we rode

by, not a sound was to be heard. I felt every inclination to take my

share of "nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," and proposed to my

companion to turn our horses into the first farm-yard, and "borrow an

hour" or two's rest from the farmer's hospitality, and clean straw.

"I agree with you," was the answer, "that Dampierre is clearly not on

this road; but that is no reason why he may not be on some other. On

considering the matter, I think that we have been wrong in looking for

him here; for his national adroitness is much more likely to have tried

a movement in any other direction. He may be marching on either the

right or the left of the spot where we are standing. And if he is the

officer which I believe him to be, he is trying this game at this

moment."

"What then is to be done, but ride back to our quarters, unless we

should prefer being cut off by his advance?" was my question.

"One thing is to be done," was the reply--"we must not let ourselves be

laughed at; and if we return with nothing more for our night's work than

the story that we slept in a Flemish barn, we shall be laughed at. So

far as I am concerned, I care nothing for the sneers of ignorance; but,

my young friend, your late conduct has inevitably made you an object of

envy already; and the only way to pluck the sting out of envy, is by

giving the envious some new service to think of."

We now agreed to separate, and examine the country to the right and left

for an hour precisely, meeting at one of the villages in the road, if no

advance of the enemy were discernible within that time. We parted, and I

commenced as comfortless an expedition as it would be easy to imagine.

The Flemish cross-roads, never very passable, were now deep in mire; the

rivulets, of which they are generally the conduits, had been swelled by

the storm of the night before; and I floundered on for nearly the

appointed time, in the full perplexity of a stray traveller. I was on

the point of returning, when I observed a sudden light rising above some

farm-houses, about half a league off. The light rapidly strengthened,

and I rode forward, in some degree guided by its illumination. But after

blazing fiercely for a while, it sank as suddenly as it rose; and I was

again left bewildered among hedges and ditches. But a loud hum of

voices, followed by the sound of many footsteps, now convinced me that a

large body of men were near; though whether peasants roused by the fire,

or battalions, I was still unable to discover. While I stood under cover

of a clump of trees by the roadside, the question was settled by the

march of a patrol of cavalry, followed at brief intervals by squadrons

and light troops intermixed. It was evident that Dampierre meditated a

surprise of the British forces, and that the whole of his skirmishers

were already in motion. How long this movement had continued, or how

near the enemy might already have approached to the British camp, was

entirely beyond my conjecture; and for the first few moments, the

probability of the surprise, and the possibility of my being already so

completely within the range of the French march as to preclude my

bearing the intelligence in sufficient time, made the drops of anxiety

and perturbation roll down my forehead. But every thing must be tried. I

no longer attempted to wind my way back through the network of lanes;

but, in the spirit of an English sportsman, took the country in a

straight line towards the British quarters. My horse, a thorough English

hunter, evidently preferred leaping the Flemish fences to wading his way

through the swamps; and I had the honour of bringing the first

information, and the happiness of finding that I had brought it just in

the right time.

The camp was immediately under arms; every preparation was made in a

silence which gave me a high conception of the capabilities of the

British soldier for every species of service; and, without a sound among

ten thousand men, we waited for the approach of the enemy.

Dampierre's manoeuvre had been a dashing one--conceived and managed

with the skill of an able officer. His purpose had been to throw his

main body into the rear of our position; and while he drew off our

attention by a false attack on our front, avail himself of the

confusion of a night attack to crush us. Whether the fighting qualities

of the Englishman would not have made him repent of his plan under any

circumstances, is no longer the question; but the surprise was now

wholly his own. The first volley which we poured into his columns, as

they crept up stealthily towards our line, was so heavy that it finished

the battle. By the blaze of the musketry, we could see the French masses

actually rolling back upon each other, staggering and shaken like

landsmen at sea, or like any man in an earthquake. Our cavalry were now

ordered to follow; but the enemy were too quick in making their escape;

and the intersected nature of the country forbade any continued pursuit.

A few shots from our howitzers, which ripped up the ground after them,

were all that we could send as our parting present; and the engagement,

which began in such silence and sternness, finished in roars of laughter

from all our battalions.

Day broke, and the order was issued to follow the French general. The

troops, animated by the prospect of coming to action at last, and

utterly wearied with the idleness of the camp, received the intelligence

with shouts; and the whole moved rapidly forward. Dampierre, before his

march of the previous night, had provided for casualty, by forming an

intrenched camp in the famous position of Famars. It was strong by

nature, and he had added to its strength by covering it with fieldworks,

and a powerful artillery. It was late in the day before we came within

sight of it; and its strength, from the height of its glacis--the

natural glacis made by a succession of sloping hills--was all displayed

to full and formidable advantage. The troops, fatigued with the length

of the march under the burning sun of one of the hottest days which I

ever felt, were halted at the foot of the heights; and the plans of

attack proposed were various enough to have perplexed the Aulic Council

itself. Lines of circumvallation, or bombardment, or waiting the effect

of famine, were successively urged. But the British style prevailed at

last over the scientific. The Guards were ordered to head the column

which was to storm the lines in front, and columns on the right and left

were put in motion at the same instant. We rushed forward under a

general discharge of the French artillery and musketry, and in a quarter

of an hour the position was in our hands. The difficulty of its

approach, and the broken nature of the ground in its rear, enabled the

French general to make his retreat with the chief part of his forces.

But our prize was well worth the trouble; for we brought back two

thousand prisoners, and the whole artillery in position.

The war had now begun in earnest; and our advance was unintermitted. On

the eighth day from the storm of Famars, we again came in sight of

Dampierre. He was now the assailant; our army, which had never exceeded

ten thousand men, (such was the military parsimony of those days,) with

the Prussian troops, and some of the smaller German contingents, were

now unwisely spread to cover a line of nearly thirty miles. The French

general had seized the opportunity of retaliating his ill fortune upon

the allied troops. At daybreak we were roused by the tidings that the

French had broken through our weak extended line in several places, and

had got into the rear of the whole army. The force of the enemy, its

direction, or its object, were alike matters of total ignorance; and,

for some hours, it was impossible to obtain any exact information.

It was in vain that we adopted all the usual expedients, of detaching

officers, examining peasants, or judging of the progress of the

engagement by the sound of the advancing or retreating fire. We had only

to wait, drawn up ready for action, and take our chance of the result.

Of all the contingencies of the field, none is more perplexing; but I

had a personal source of anxiety to add to the general vexation. I had

every reason to believe that my excellent friend, Guiscard, had either

fallen into the hands of the enemy, or had been killed on the night when

we separated. If either misfortune had occurred, it was solely in

consequence of his zeal for my character, and the thought inexpressibly

distressed me. I had made the most persevering enquiries for him, but

without any success; or rather, with a painful gathering of facts, all

which told against my feelings. His horse had been found straying

through the country; his helmet had been also found; and a fragment of a

sabre, in a spot evidently much trampled, and which, therefore, appeared

to be the scene of the personal rencontre in which he had probably

fallen. Every thing had been found but his body.

At length, the firing, which had continued with more or less steadiness

during the day, approached our position and we were ordered to advance.

The country was now a portion of an ancient forest, and it was difficult

to see in front of us beyond a few hundred yards. As we made way, we

could hear not only the musketry but the shouting of the troops engaged;

as, growing constantly more impatient, we pressed on, a mounted officer

came galloping towards us. Judge of my astonishment and delight when I

saw Guiscard. As he reined up beside me--

"I have not a moment," said he, "to speak to you; you shall hear of my

adventures by and by. I was in as much fear for you as you probably were

for me. But now, tell me where I am to look for the officer in command

of the column."

The general was soon found, and Guiscard communicated to him that the

enemy had concentrated his chief force directly in front of us, where a

Prussian column had been posted; that the Prussians had resisted

vigorously several successive attacks; but that the force converging on

it was too powerful, and that it must speedily retire. "Then let it

retire," was the general's reply, "and we shall take their place."

"Pardon me, general," was the prompt suggestion of the pupil of a more

experienced school; "but, if you will permit me, I shall ride back to my

countrymen, inform them of your advance, and make them hold their

position until you come out from the forest upon the enemy's flank."

His opinion was received, and he put spurs to his horse and was gone. We

now moved with all speed to the right of our former direction; and after

half an hour's toiling through the intricacies of a wood on which no axe

seemed to have fallen since the Deluge, passed round the enemy, and came

full upon their rear. A few volleys, thrown in upon them in this state

of alarm, broke them; the Prussian fire in front, and our's in the rear,

made their disorder irreparable. In this crisis, Dampierre rushed

forward with a group of aides-de-camp to restore the engagement,

striking the fugitives with his sabre, and desperately exposing his

person to the balls which now fell thick as hail around him. For a while

he seemed to bear a charmed life; but a rifleman of the Prussian hulans

took a sure aim. He fired, and I saw the unfortunate general fall from

his horse. He had died instantly. A more gallant death, and scarcely a

more expeditious one, than awaited the unsuccessful generals of the

merciless Republic. We buried him on the spot where he fell, with the

honours due to a distinguished soldier. Before nightfall the French had

retired in all quarters; and the remnant of the troops hurried across

the Flemish frontier, utterly disheartened and ruined.

This engagement, which was known long after as the battle of the forest

of Vicogne, cleared the Netherlands, raised the fame of the British

troops to the highest pitch, and left in their hands four thousand

prisoners.

The councils of the allied camp now assumed a bolder tone. France was

before us. The popular enthusiasm had been cooled by time and calamity.

Defeat had taught the nation the folly of supposing that it could

contend single-handed with Europe; and the only obstacle to our march to

Paris was the line of fortresses erected by Louis XIV. The most powerful

of those fortresses lay in the road by which the British columns were

advancing; and it was with a singular mixture of rejoicing and anxiety,

of ardour and awe, that I saw, at the breaking of a brilliant morning,

spread beneath me the strong city of Valenciennes.