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I HAVE endeavoured, in this book of mine, to measure out the peace and
war in due proportions, according to the spirit of the times it speaks
of, and, as there appears to me to be as much peace in the last chapter
as occurred in Europe between 1814 and 1815, I shall, with the reader's
permission, lodge my regiment at once on Dover heights and myself in Scotland
taking a shot at the last of the woodcocks, which happened to be our relative
positions when Bonaparte's escape from Elba once more summoned the army
to the field.
The first intimation I had of it was by a letter
informing me of the embarkation of the battalion for the Netherlands and
desiring me to join them there without delay; and, finding that a brig
was to sail the following day from Leith to Rotterdam, I took a passage
on board of her. She was an odd one to look at, but the captain assured
me that she was a good one to go; and, besides that, he had provided everything
that was elegant for our entertainment. The latter piece of information
I did not think of questioning until too late to profit by it, for I had
the mortification to discover, the first day, that his whole stock consisted
in a quarter of lamb, in addition to the ship's own, with a few cabbages
and five gallons of whiskey.
After having been ten days at sea I was awoke one
morning before daylight with the ship's grinding over a sand-bank on the
coast of Holland; fortunately it did not blow hard, and a pilot soon after
came alongside, who, after exacting a reward suitable to the occasion,
at length consented to come on board and extricated us from our perilous
situation, carrying the vessel into the entrance of one of the small branches
of the river leading up to Rotterdam, where we came to anchor. The captain
was very desirous of appealing to a magistrate for a reduction in the exorbitant
demand of the pilot, and I accompanied him on shore for that purpose. An
Englishman made up to us at the landing-place, and said that his name was
C—, that he had made his fortune by smuggling, and, though he was not permitted
to spend it in his native country, that he had the greatest pleasure in
being of service to his countrymen. As this was exactly the sort of person
we were in search of, the captain explained his grievance, and the other
said that he would conduct him to a gentleman who would soon put that to
rights. We accordingly walked to the adjoining village, in one of the houses
of which he introduced us formally to a tall Dutchman with a pipe in his
mouth and a pen behind his ear, who, after hearing the story, proceeded
to commit it, in large characters, to a quire of foolscap.
The cautious nature of the Scotchman did not altogether
like the appearance of the man of business, and demanding through the interpreter
whether there would be anything to pay for his proceedings, he was told
that it would cost five guineas. "Five devils," said Saunders. "What is
it for?" "For a protest," said the other. "D—n the protest," said the captain;
I came here to save five guineas, and not to pay five more." I could stand
the
scene no longer, and rushed out of the house under the pretence of seeing
the village; and on my return to the ship, half an hour afterwards, I found
the captain fast asleep. I know not whether he swallowed the remainder
of the five gallons of whiskey, in addition to his five-guinea grievance,
but I could not shake him out of it, although the mate and I tried alternately
for upwards of two hours; and indeed I never heard whether he ever got
out of it,—for when I found that they had to go outside to find another
passage up to Rotterdam, I did not think it prudent to trust myself any
longer in the hands of such artists, and, taking leave of the sleeper with
a last ineffectual shake, I hired a boat to take me through the passage
in which we then were.
We started with a stiff fair wind and the boatman
assured me that we should reach Rotterdam in less than five hours (forty
miles); but it soon lulled to a dead calm, which left us to the tedious
operation of tiding it up; and, to mend the matter, we had not a fraction
of money between us, nor anything to eat or drink. I bore starvation all
that day and night with the most Christian-like fortitude; but the next
morning I could stand it no longer, and sending the boatman on shore to
a neighbouring house, I instructed him either to beg or steal something,
whichever he should find the most prolific; but he was a clumsy hand at
both and came on board again with only a very small quantity of coffee.
It, however, afforded some relief, and in the afternoon we reached the
town of Dort, and, on lodging my baggage in pawn with a French inn-keeper,
he advanced me the means of going on to Rotterdam, where I got cash for
the bill which I had on a merchant there. Once more furnished with the
"sinews of war," with my feet on terra firma, I lost no time in
setting forward to Antwerp, and from thence to Brussels, when I had the
happiness of rejoining my battalion, which was then quartered in the city.
Brussels was at this time a scene of extraordinary
preparation, from the succession of troops who were hourly arriving, and
in their formation into brigades and divisions. We had the good fortune
to be attached to the brigade of our old and favourite commander, Sir James
Kempt, and in the fifth division, under Sir Thomas Picton. It was the only
division quartered in Brussels, the others being all towards the French
frontier, except the Duke of Brunswick's corps, which lay on the Antwerp
road.