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On mounting the belfry, our interest was intensely excited by different skirmishes that were taking place on the left of the position in the intervening ground before Flushing. The French seemed obstinately to dispute some particular spots that did not appear to us of much consequence. One house in particular was hotly defended and as hotly attacked, and caused considerable loss, for we could see our wounded men retire or being carried off as the smoke rolled away. I remember the ire excited in a young brother officer, who fell victim in a short time after to the climate, who hastily ran down to ask to be allowed to take out a field-piece to drive "the rascals" out. The house, however, was within range of the cannon of the town, whose fire would have opened had our artillery been brought to play. The garrison seemed to think that as long as the skirmishers were unassisted, they would give them fairplay; so the "rascals" remained till the house was set on fire, having made the assailants pay dearly for their victory. My last view brought me in contact with four men who were slowly bearing away a field officer whose arm had been amputated on the field, and who appeared senseless as a corpse.

I stopped for a short time in the village, which contained some pleasant country houses of inhabitants of Middleburgh, and presented all that neatness so remarked in the Dutch. In general great pains were taken to preserve them from injury,

and many of our officers who occupied them carried their delicacy so far as to collect all the furniture into one or two rooms and look them up, abstaining from every appropriation but that of house-room, to the great astonishment of the proprietors. It was cheerful place, but the havoc that was made in the trees, as fuel became scarce, soon destroyed its beauty.

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Our expedition had arrived at the time of the Middleburgh fair, and though the spot where it was held was open, commerce seemed to have ceased. This beautiful town had flourished by being the great depot of the Dutch East India Company. Its houses bespoke wealth; the numerous canals offered every facility for commerce. The picturesque stadthouse, high steeple, and harmonious chimes excited my attention. Even thus early the inhabitants thought our operations were slow; they dreaded the destruction of the dykes which would inevitably take place if the siege were protracted; they thought we might have carried the town by a coup-de-main, and that done, we should have benefited them by our visit. It has been alleged that had a coupde-main been resolved on when our troops first pursued the French into Flushing, we should have succeeded. One night was sufficient to enable the garrison to receive such reinforcements from Cadsand as to require a formal siege. Though our presence caused a stoppage to general commerce, yet the petty shopkeepers and peasantry

were well pleased at it; they found a ready and advantageous sale for what they possessed, and I received many a welcome from the country people who passed me, and apparently with sincerity. By the time I had returned to Middleburgh the hour of the table d'hôte at the principal hotel was over. It appeared to have been plentifully served. I was not used to the buttery ocean which surrounded their vegetables, but contrived to make a good though expensive meal, after which I was glad to get into one of the public waggons which plied between Middleburgh and Tergoes, and for ten sous was quickly rattled along the magnificent paved road which extends from one town to another in the island, beautified by avenues of trees. Bulky vrows, hardy-looking Boers, carrying back purchases they had made at Middleburgh, and officers who, like myself, had been on their errand of curiosity, were stowed side by side on benches slung by leather thongs to the sides of the waggon, and there we escaped the inevitable shakings of our vehicle, which often jolted out the live or dead contents of the baskets carried by our party. There was no ceremony and much seeming good-will on the part of the invaded to the invaders, who shook hands with each other on parting. On arriving at Tergoes it was too late to attempt getting on board my transport, and I found my way to an inn on the quay, kept by an Englishman, whose profits I suppose having

been checked by the interruptions to smuggling of which his may have been the headquarters, like many of the same genus, vented his ill-humour by making everything as uncomfortable for his countrymen as possible, demanding exorbitantly, yielding little, and that in a grumbling way. The sheets of the bed to which I was shown, black with a month's wear, I very innocently requested to be changed. "Lie in your clothes if you do not like the sheets," he replied, and remembering the state of my friends whom I had just left, I soon reconciled myself to the alternative. It was here I accidentally heard that on the first night of the landing a respectable-looking Englishman, who appeared to be an inhabitant, came down to the beach and made inquiries whether I was with the expedition. What a train of conjecture this led me to. I never was able to discover who the individual was, but I fancied I could fix on one whose career had been blasted by not having learnt till too late the necessity of self-denial,-one who, connected with the first families of the empire, might from his parentage have anticipated the highest dignities of the Church of which he was a member. Polished in his manners, highly educated, he had received me hospitably and kindly in one of my early stations out of England, and his eldest daughter, mercifully I trust, spared by death from the fruits of her father's imprudence, had often made my young blood flow

swiftly through every vein while I ascribed every perfection to her which youth gives to a first love, hidden, indeed, but not the less violent,-for who at eighteen dares give utterance to his feelings or supposes it possible that the object of his adoration can ever return them? Her father's follies, working on a delicate constitution, broke her heart, while her unwise parent sought refuge from his creditors and his shame in foreign lands.

I had some difficulty in returning to my ship from the violence of the tide, which seemed to defy all the efforts of the boatman, though it was overcome. I can compare it to nothing but the appearance I have since witnessed of the inundation of the Nile in rushing through some of the narrow channels of the river when the high banks prevented it spreading over the neighbouring country. After some delay we were ordered to proceed higher up the river and disembark our men in South Beveland and to march to Terveer, its chief town. After two days of additional delay off the place of landing, an agent of transports condescended to send us boats, and our halfcompanies were landed. were at some distance from any habitation, and marched along a sandy dyke, receiving friendly salutations from the peasantry and directions to get into the high-road. The weather, oppressively hot, made us gladly rest near a farmhouse at a short distance from the road, and though all the

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inhabitants except the mistress and a female servant were absent, yet these two inmates readily produced everything their farm offered, fixing the price beforehand, in perfect security that it would be paid, which the officers took care should be punctually done. It was, I believe, a rich day's harvest for them, besides an addition. addition of sundry compliments and civil greetings from more than one of the party to the buxom vrows who handed round bowls of rich milk and hunches of bread and butter in quick succession, and stared at our voracity. We soon after reached a pleasant village, where we found the first B. cantonments, and, having reported to the General Commanding our arrival, were directed onwards. The effects of the climate had not yet begun to show themselves, all appeared life and gaiety, every house was filled with officers and soldiers in glorious inactivity-enjoying all that money could procure or legalised contributions furnish. We refused many a friendly invitation to refresh, and had some difficulty to prevent our detachment from participating in the potations presented to them. One description of house and road pervades the country. The former, neat, washed white, with painted window-shutters, pointed roofs, and here and there gilded balls ornamenting the corners; the roads carried along the tops of dykes or beneath them, generally paved and lined with trees invariably near the towns and vil

lages. With objects on objects on the march such as these, the interest of novelty seldom flags. We arrived at Terveer, were soon dismissed to our quarters in the midst of a busy populous town, intersected by canals, enjoyed a luxurious dinner with friends of my regiment, and talked over the prospects of the expedition and grumbled at our inactivity. I was ordered to proceed with the half-company to relieve a detachment at Fort Batz the following morning, and marched early. What I saw of Terveer was after the night had closed. I remember making my way through clouds of tobacco-smoke in several coffeehouses, where oceans of Flemish beer and Schnapps were offered me by as coarse a set of idlers as I have since ever witnessed, but met with great civility. The harmonious chimes again delighted me from the steeple of a stadthouse and church of the same imposing form as those of Middleburgh and Tergoes.

I was billeted on one of the descendants of the Spaniards who once ruled these countries, who had a comfortable house, I know not in what quarter of the town. He was an old bachelor, preserving as full a mixture of Spanish gravity as of Dutch phlegm, and I should think with more of the habits of his ancestors, as after a copious supper, of which he would have me partake, he rose early enough in the morning to secure my having a good breakfast of chocolate, which I would willingly have exchanged for

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more exhilarating coffee. amply, as he said, repaid him for his hospitality, by giving him information respecting England, of which he seemed as ignorant as a Nubian. Whether my men had indulged in Schnapps and small beer after their arrival in billets, I cannot say, but before we had half completed our march to Batz they were all knocked up, and though perfectly sober when they started, the whole party were found very quietly reposing under some trees by a most convenient sloping bank which we occupied, and I remember a good-natured Deputy Adjutant-General, now at the head of his profession, kindly taking pity on us and sending a couple of waggons which happened to be within hail, to carry my men's kits and such men as had not courage to continue their route. We excited some laughter as we passed through the villages occupied by the troops, but as there had been no breach of the articles of war, we thought the laugh was on our side. I have often reflected on this part of my life. My men and myself were, from the excessive heat, perhaps also from the pestilential air of the country, from thirst and fatigue, to appearances intoxicated. I remember almost reeling up to the General Officer passing with the staff to explain the state of my men; my tongue cleaved to my palate, and I could hardly speak. Had he been of the suspicious and hasty disposition of some whom it has been my lot to serve, he

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would perhaps have passed an unmerited censure on the corps, an opportunity for which has sometimes been greedily seized; as it was, our state was cribed to its true cause. The general officer's name I do not remember; his AdjutantGeneral and his speedy, goodnatured aid I shall not forget.

What the distance was between Terveer and Batz has escaped me; my party did not arrive at the Fort till between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. I was just in time to see a large flotilla of gunboats closely pursued and cannonaded by our own boats beyond the advanced forts of Antwerp. It was the last of the enemies' attempts to molest our station.

Fort Batz, in connection with the approaches to Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, may be considered a strong position. It commands the branch of the Scheld in the direction of the latter place, and is exactly facing the broad channel formed by the continuation of the Bergen-op-Zoom branch and that coming from Antwerp and sweeping united round between Walcheren and South Beveland, An advanced battery towards the river, but commanded by the guns of the Fort, exposed an approaching enemy to a nearer fire. works of the Fort were in good repair, half revetted, with good dry ditch and exterior slope, with raised bastions of small dimensions at the four angles. It contained within its walls one good street in which were the buildings of Government

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offices and quarters for the garrison, but they had made little or no resistance to our capture; most of the inhabitants had left it, though the Burgomaster had remained, at the request of the British Commander. Free ingress and egress were granted to the inhabitants, and this brought us in contact with the reverend pastor, whose house had been assigned to the officers of artillery whom I relieved, but which I was not allowed to retain, as it was soon required for officers of superior rank. Many of the houses had been pierced by the enemies' shots in their various approaches of the preceding days, but I believe there had been no injury to our troops. My subaltern and myself obtained a good room in a small house in the main street, and I was then initiated into the mysteries of Dutch stoves for domestic economy. There appeared to be only one habitable room in the house. It was on the ground-floor, its furniture simply deal table, chairs, kitchen- and washing-utensils, a clock and stove, the floor paved with red tiles. In the

wall were four recesses like berths in a ship, two and two, one above the other, and before these curtains were drawn; all the walls white, the wood-work painted green, every part to appearance the picture of cleanliness. All this was so new, we hugged ourselves at such agreeable quarters. The first night brought us proofs of possible drawbacks. Cockroaches on board ship are disagreeable companions, but

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