Belgian Government to put all the frontier fortresses in the most complete state of defence. On ascending one of the steeples this morning we had a fine view of the surrounding country and of the height of Genappe, which are close to Mons and memorable for the brilliant victory gained by Dumouriez over the Austrians in 1792. The landscape presents an undulating campaign country, gentle slopes and alternate plains covered with corn, as far as the eye can reach, and interspersed with villages and farmhouses. In Mons is a very large splendid shop or warehouse of millinery, perfumery, jewellery, etc. It is called La Toilette de Vénus, and is served by a very pretty girl, who, I have no doubt from her simpering look and eloquent eyes, would have no objection to be a sedulous priestess at the altar of the Goddess of Amathus. A battalion of Hollanders—a very fine body of men—marched into this place yesterday evening; the rest of the garrison is composed of Belgians, chiefly conscripts.
LEUZE, May 15.
Yesterday morning we left Mons and proceeded to Ath to breakfast. A multitude of people were employed there also at the fortifications. The garrison of Ath is composed of Hanoverians. Ath reminded me of the wars of King William III and my Uncle Toby's sieges.[9] There was so little remarkable to be seen at Ath that we proceeded to this place shortly after breakfast and arrived at one o'clock, it being only ten miles distance between Ath and Leuze. We took up our quarters with Major-General Adam, who commands the Light Brigade of General Sir H. Clinton's division. This brigade is quartered here and in the adjacent farmhouses. General Adam, though he has attained his rank at a very early age, is far more fitted for it than many of our older generals, some of whom (I speak from experience) have few ideas beyond the fixing of a button or lappel, or polishing a belt, and who place the whole Ars recondita of military discipline in pipe-clay, heel-ball and the goose step. Fortunately for this army, the Duke of Wellington has too much good sense to be a martinet and the good old times are gone by, thank God, when a soldier used to be sentenced to two or three hundred lashes for having a dirty belt or being without a queue. To the Duke of York also is humanity much indebted for his endeavours to check the frequency of corporal punishment. The Duke of York, with all his zeal for the service, never loses sight of the comfort of the soldier and is indefatigable in his exertions to ameliorate his conditions. We had a pleasant dinner party at General Adam's, and at night I went to sleep at the house occupied by Captain C., one of the aides-de-camp of the General,[10] an active, intelligent officer who had formerly served in the marines, which service he had quitted in order to enter the regular army.
May 16.
Yesterday morning we paid a visit to Tournay, which is distant from Leuze about ten miles, and we breakfasted at the Signe d'Or. We then proceeded to pay our respects to the Commandant General V.[11] The garrison consists of Belgians. General V. had been some time in England as a prisoner of war. He was made prisoner, I think he said, at Batavia. He received us very politely, and not only gave us permission to visit the works of the citadel, but sent a sergeant to accompany us. The new citadel is building on the site of the old one, and, like it, is to be a regular pentagon. The fortifications of the city itself are not to be reconstructed; these of the citadel, which will be very strong, rendering them superfluous. The sergeant was a native of Würtemberg and had served in the army of his own country and in that of France in most of the campaigns under Napoleon. He was a fine old veteran, and very intelligent, for he explained to us the nature of the works with great perspicuity. With true Suabian dignity he refused a five franc piece which I offered him as a slight remuneration for the trouble he had taken, and as he seemed, I thought, rather offended at the offer, I felt myself bound to apologize. From the number of workmen employed in repairing the citadel, it will not be long before it is placed in a respectable state of defence. Tournay is a large handsome city and the spacious quais on the banks of the Scheld which runs through it add much to the neatness of its appearance. It is only ten miles distant from Lille, but all communication from France is stopped. We learned that some of the Hanoverians had been deserting. In return we met with a young French hussar who had come over to the Allies. He seemed to be an impudent sort of fellow, and said, with the utmost sang-froid, that the reason he deserted was that he had not been made an officer as he was promised, and he hoped that Louis XVIII would be more sensible of his merits than the Emperor Napoleon. We returned to Leuze to dinner in the afternoon. This morning we went to assist at a review of General Clinton's division, on a plain called Le Paturage, about seven miles distant from Leuze. The Light Brigade and the Hanoverian Brigades form this division. The manoeuvres were performed with tolerable precision, but they were chiefly confined to advancing in line, retiring by alternate companies covered by light infantry and change of position on one of the flanks by échelon. The British troops were perfect; the Hanoverians not so, they being for the most part new levies. In one of the échelon movements, when the line was to be formed on the left company of the left battalion, a Hanoverian battalion, instead of preserving its parallelism, was making a terrible diversion to its right, when a thundering voice from the commander of the brigade to the commandant of the battalion: "Mein Gott, Herr Major, wo gehn Sie hin?" roused him from his reverie; when he must have perceived, had he wheeled up into line, the fearful interval he had left between his own and the next battalion on the left.
After the review had finished we repaired to the château of the Prince de Ligne, then occupied by Lieut.-General Sir H. Clinton, to partake of a breakfast given by him and his lady. On the breaking up of the breakfast party, General Wilson and myself remained at the château to dine with General Adam al fresco in the garden under the trees. The palace and garden of the Prince de Ligne are both very magnificent. The latter is of great extent, but too regular, too much in the Dutch taste to please me. Little or no furniture is in the palace; but there are some family pictures and a theatre fitted up in one of the halls for the purpose of private theatricals. In the garden is a monument erected by the late Prince de Ligne to one of his sons, Charles by name, who was killed in the Russian service at the siege of Ismail. The present prince is a minor and resides at Bruxelles.
GRAMMONT, May 18.
We left Leuze yesterday afternoon and arrived here at seven in the evening in order to be present at the cavalry review the next morning. We partook of an elegant supper given to us by our friend, Major Grant of the 18th Hussars, and we were much entertained and enlivened by the effusions of his brilliant genius and inexhaustible wit. The whole cavalry of the British army passed in review this morning before the Duke of Wellington, who was there with all his staff and received the salutes of all the corps like Godfrey, con volto placido e composto. It was a very brilliant spectacle. The Duke de Berri was present. I think I never beheld so ignoble and disagreeable a countenance as this prince possesses. I thought to myself that he had much better have stayed away from this review; for he must be insensible to all patriotism who could take pleasure in contemplating a foreign force about to enter and ravage his own country. We learn that the Duchess d'Angoulême is to have a review of the fidèles very shortly. She is certainly much more warlike than the males of that family; this disposition is increased by her religious fanaticism. This renders her, of course, a most dangerous person to meddle with politics; but great allowances must be made for her feelings, which must naturally be embittered by the recollection of so much suffering during the Revolution and of the barbarous and inhuman treatment experienced by her father and mother.
I observed a peculiarity in this part of the country, viz., that there are villages lying close to each other in some of which French is spoken, in others Flemish; and that, with some few exceptions, the inhabitants of neighbouring villages are reciprocally unintelligible. General Wilson does not intend to return to Bruxelles. I shall accompany him as far as Gand and then return to Bruxelles to await the issue of the contest.
BRUXELLES, June 11.
I took leave of General Wilson at Gand on the 22nd of last month and immediately returned here, where I have been ever since. I have shifted my quarters to a less expensive hotel and am now lodged at the Hôtel de la Paix. We get an excellent dinner at the table d'hôte for one and a half francs, wine not included; this is paid for extra, and is generally at the price of three francs per bottle. This hotel
