It was on the 13th of November, 1813, that the last of the French army passed the Rhine; and the same day, about noon, I learned from some countrymen whom I met in a wine-house, that bands of Cossacks were hovering about in the fields, at no great distance. Now, we had not been taught to think too highly either of the self-denial or the honesty of the Cossacks; and I confess that the intelligence rendered me very uneasy, on account of my mistress and the female domestics of the family. I therefore hurried home, warned my poor mistress--whose husband had gone from home--of the danger that menaced, and gave her all the aid which I could furnish, in guarding against it. The first thing done, was to direct the cook to have an abundant supply of provisions ready: the next, to get up from the cellars wine and spirits, enough to cheer the hearts of half a regiment. After this, I persuaded the baroness to retreat with her children and nurses up stairs into one of the bedrooms, and to barricade the door on the inside, so as to hinder it from being easily opened. Then, having seen matters arranged, as far as circumstances would allow, I strolled out, partly to ascertain how far danger really threatened, partly to gratify the sort of nervous curiosity by which all men, so situated, are apt to be affected.

It was night when I entered the streets, throughout the whole compass of which not a living thing showed itself. The shops were all closed, every window was dark, and not so much as the stroke of a hammer broke in upon the deathlike silence. I wandered on and on, seeing nothing, and hearing nothing, except the clank of my own footsteps on the pavement. At last I turned towards a public-house, which I had been in the habit of frequenting; and finding the door shut, I knocked. For a considerable space no notice was taken of the signal; but I knocked again and again; and in the end, the sound of the bolt withdrawn from its socket reached me. By-and-by the door creaked on its hinges, and mine host stood in the very narrow aperture, holding a candle in his hand, by the flame of which I could perceive that he was pale as ashes. "What's the matter, Boniface?" cried I; " has any thing happened?" "Oh, nothing at all," replied he, drawing a deep breath;" I only thought it might be the Cossacks." From this I learned, that the arrival of these people was momentarily expected; so, having drunk a glass of wine, and conversed for a few moments with mine host, I hurried home.

It might be about nine o'clock when the first straggling party of Cossacks entered Dusseldorf. Their advance was conducted with extreme caution; for they no sooner passed one gate, than they put their horses to the speed, and galloped helter-skelter through, emerging by the gate opposite. Having thus satisfied themselves that there was no garrison in the place, they returned to the gate through which they had first shown themselves, and there formed. They marched next to the market-place where they halted. But though the inhabitants, perceiving but a handful of men, ventured to come forth and invite them into their houses, not one of these wild and wary warriors would quit his station. They sat down, to be sure, to the tables which were soon spread for them in the open air, and ate and drank as savages are accustomed to do, who have long fasted. But though they vociferated their delight as often as a cry arose, "Long live the Emperor Alexander," they steadily refused to enter beneath a roof.

Throughout the whole of that night the Cossacks continued to receive, by twos and threes, a fresh accession of numbers. At first not more than twenty or thirty had entered the town; when day broke, about 200 occupied the square; and they were soon afterwards reinforced by about 500 Prussian lancers. These proceeded, without delay, to obtain billets upon the inhabitants; and taking quiet possession of the apartments that were allotted to them, they exhibited no disposition to molest or offer injury to their entertainers. The case was very different, when a few hours later a battalion of Russian infantry, with a regiment of horse, entered the town. They did not so much as go through the form of applying for billets; but spreading themselves through the town, they took possession by parties of whatever domiciles seemed to attract their notice, or hold out the prospect of agreeable quarters. Neither did they stop there. Whole families were turned into the street: the grossest outrages perpetrated on the women: horses were put up in the very drawing-rooms, and the costliest articles of furniture broken up for firewood. As to the work of plunder, that went on without the smallest interruption, and no human being appeared to blush for it. Among others, our house was visited by two officers of cavalry and a troop of their men. They knocked furiously at the gate; and though I lost no time in opening it, they overwhelmed me with abuse because I had kept them waiting. They demanded quarters for themselves and a superior officer. I showed them into a couple of rooms in the lower story, where beds had been purposely prepared; and replied to their orders concerning dinner, that it should be forthcoming immediately. And thanks to the bravery of my countrywoman, the cook, who refused to retreat with the rest of the female servants, and stood to her utensils all day, I was enabled, within ten minutes, to set before them a sumptuous meal.

The Russians expressed themselves both surprised and pleased at the rapidity with which their wants were supplied. They drank copiously, too, from a magnum of white Burgundy, which, having no good Rhenish in the house, I set before them as choice Markobruner, and desiring that tea might be ready in a couple of hours, they walked abroad. And now began my troubles with the men. So long as the officers continued on the spot, the privates bore themselves with some show of moderation; but moderation was now at an end. They clamoured for food, drink, every thing of which they fancied themselves in need, and made a rush to storm the kitchen, which the cook defended with great resolution. At last, however, by dint of expostulation and entreaty, I prevailed upon them to desist; and a bountiful supply of black puddings and gin soon restored them to good humour.

Meanwhile, flying portions of these savages had wandered all over the house, trying every door, and entering every apartment to which they found access. Among others, they had twice or thrice lifted the latch of that behind which my mistress and her family lay; but finding it fastened, they did not burst through, very much to the relief of the parties within, who were wellnigh killed with terror. They were not, however, so delicate in their dealings with our horses: these they turned out of the stalls into the streets, putting their own under cover, and feeding them with our forage. In short, it was a day and a night of extreme anxiety even to me; of agony and terror to the rest. Nevertheless, it passed by with perhaps less of suffering than might fairly have been expected. And on the morrow, my mistress, perceiving that no personal violence was likely to be offered to her, ventured to quit her place of refuge.

Her first step was to wait upon the officers, who chanced to be at breakfast, and to remonstrate with them against the treatment which her horses had received. They did not so much as rise when she entered the apartment; but asking with a sneer, whether she thought her horses, or those belonging to the Emperor, of greater worth, they told her, point blank, that things should remain as they were. She instantly withdrew, and burst into tears. But tears were of small avail in such a situation as that into which the fortune of war had brought her, and she was condemned in consequence, throughout a space of four whole days, to sustain as she best might, the wrongs and insults to which foreign soldiers subjected her.

During four whole days this state of things continued, and Dusseldorf was the scene of indescribable misery. Each new hour brought an accession to the numbers of the troops that filled it, till by-and-by not fewer than 10,000 to 12,000 must have taken up their quarters there. As a matter of course, the inhabitants were expelled from one apartment after another, to make way for men and horses. The streets, also, were strewed with fragments of broken furniture, beds, chairs, curtains, cooking utensils; and the noise of revelry rose above sounds which told of outrage suffered and feelings lacerated. But the most curious figures in that strange scene were the Cossacks: for a Cossack accoutred for war, bears as little resemblance to a human being as it is possible to conceive. His attire consists of an accumulation of rags of all sorts fastened about his trunk and limbs, with ropes or bands of straw: his cloak is not unfrequently a bear-skin, with a hole cut in order to let his head pass through; over which again is drawn a red woollen night-cap, so closely, as to leave no part of his countenance visible except the small piercing red eyes, or the sharp cheek-bones. Moreover, the Cossack is so enveloped in swaddling-clothes, that each limb appears as thick as an ordinary man's waist, and each waist like a goodly pollarded oak. As to his arms and appointments, these consist always of a lance, long and stout, and headed with steel; often of a bow and a quiver full of arrows, as well as of pistols stuck in profusion round his body. His horse again is as rough as a polar bear, small of stature, yet exceedingly hardy; and as to the saddle, according to the height of that, you may judge of each man's personal wealth. For a Cossack never stuffs his plunder any where but in the croup of his saddle, which, as he is a capital forager, grows higher and higher, till, towards the end of the campaign, its shape is portentous. Finally, a Cossack never undresses till the campaign has ended, nor thinks of sleeping in a bed. He is accordingly a moving mass of filth and vermin: yet, withal, hardy, active, acute, and brave--a very locust to the land over which he sweeps as a conqueror, a very hornet to the flying enemy, whom it is his business to harass.

Up to the present moment, the French had been in possession of one bank of the Rhine, the Allies of the other; yet, by neither party was an attempt made to break in upon the repose of its adversaries. On the side of the French this forbearance was purely voluntary, for they had in battery opposite to Dusseldorf, two 8-pounders, and a howitzer. The Allies, I am afraid, could lay claim to no merit on that score, seeing that they were destitute of cannon, and possessed not a single boat wherewith to try the effect of a passage. But the cannon for which they had repeatedly sent, came up at last; and one night, orders were given to plant eight 12-pounders above and below the town, so as to throw upon the French camp a cross-fire. Having been made aware of the issuing of these orders, and being desirous of witnessing the effect of the first discharge, I made interest with the governor of the jail to whom I was personally known, and was by him admitted into a cell in one of the upper stories, whence an extensive view of the surrounding country could be obtained. I took my place beside the barred window, just as the first gray streaks of dawn appeared in the sky, and the intensity of interest with which I watched them gradually extend, I have no power of language to describe. At last the morning came there was nothing remarkable in it for a brief space; and in the French camp all seemed security and peace. The huts had been built with great regularity: they were filled with slumbering soldiers; not a man indeed appeared to be awake throughout the whole encampment, except the sentries, and horses and mules stood picketed in numbers near. In a moment afterwards what a change was there! The allied guns opened. Crash went the huts, down fell horses and mules; forth from their sleeping-places rushed crowds of men, only that they might the more expose themselves to the showers of round and grape that fell among them; while here and there a human form stretched upon the earth, or dragging itself along, gave evidence that not in vain had round and grape sped upon their course. It was a horrid spectacle, for the wretches thus cut down neither had offered, nor could offer the smallest resistance; and their retreat itself, though begun without the loss of a moment, did not carry them for some time out of the reach of their destiny.

The French appeared to have been taken so much by surprise that they made, for a while, no reply to this rude salutation. By degrees, however, their artillerists recovered their self-possession, and sharply and well their guns spoke back, sending round shot into many a house, and setting fire to more than one store of combustibles. On our side, however, as every possible preparation had been made to meet this exigency, buckets and engines were all ready, and the flames were soon extinguished. But besides that some lives were lost, more than one domicile received a mark of what war will do, in the shape of a round-shot lodged even in its inner chambers, which not to this day, I have reason to believe, have the Dusseldorfers thought it necessary to efface.

The firing continued on both sides till dusk, when the allies, having levelled the enemy's camp with the ground, ceased, and the enemy withdrew their guns from a position which was no longer tenable. But our people were not willing to let the matter end there. Having ascertained that two horse-boats had been scuttled just before the French evacuated the place, the officer commanding caused them to be raised, and in the course of half an hour they were repaired and made sea-worthy. Immediately one hundred Prussian grenadiers, headed by a brave and enterprising young officer, volunteered to make a dash upon the town of Eberfeldt, where it was well known that most of the boats removed from the Dusseldorf side had been laid up. The offer was accepted, of course; and about midnight this handful of gallant fellows shoved off, carrying with them the best wishes of their countrymen. It appeared that they managed all things with equal prudence and bravery. They landed without observation, the French suspecting nothing on that side, and therefore having no sentries planted. They crept up towards the gate of the town, and lay down, waiting till the hour of relief should come round. It struck at last: they heard the relief muster inside; they saw the drawbridge fall and the gate roll back, and then, without so much as a cry, they sprang forward. The guard were bayoneted to a man, and into the town they rushed. What can soldiers do when thus surprised? That night a battalion of five hundred men, a general, and twenty officers of inferior rank, became prisoners to this handful of grenadiers, who seized them in their beds; and, when daylight came, the inhabitants of Eberfeldt were at once astonished and delighted to see that their town was in possession of the allies.

The glad tidings soon spread to Dusseldorf, and boats coming over, crowds of curious persons hastened to ascertain how matters had gone with the party. Among others, I must needs visit Eberfeldt, and a curious scene of revelry and triumph it presented. The Prussians occupied the great square, the French having been unceremoniously thrust into the common jail, and there, with the inhabitants of all ranks and both sexes, they were carousing. But not to Dusseldorf alone had tidings of the night's work made their way. At Juliers, a place scarcely nine English miles distant, a division of six thousand French troops lay; and these, made aware of the disaster that had overtaken their comrades, hastened to avenge it. It was curious to watch the progress of things. Guns, tumbrils, ammunition-waggons, military stores of every description, quantities of bullion, of smallarms, and great-coats, were run down to the water's edge, and embarked; while, by-and-by, the idlers, whom curiosity had brought into danger, began to hurry as fast as possible beyond the reach of it. For, strange to say, though a lodgement was thus made, there existed no intention on the part of the allies to hold the ground on the enemy's bank of the river, and the hundred grenadiers received, in consequence, no reinforcement. Accordingly, the news no sooner spread that an enemy's column was advancing, than helter-skelter all ran for the beach; and, in a few minutes, it seemed doubtful whether boats enough would remain to carry back again the handful of heroes who had so well accomplished the task committed to them.

The Prussian officer, however, was a good soldier in every sense of the word. He did not neglect his line of retreat: he marched a party down to the river, which at once took and kept possession of as many boats as were judged necessary. He then coolly planted his men under cover of certain houses which commanded the road by which the French must advance, and saluted the head of the column, as soon as it arrived within range, with a volley. A smart skirmish followed, in which the Prussians lost, I think, three men; but it was not of long continuance. The officer had done his duty; he therefore retreated in excellent order, and, carrying with him his wounded, arrived on the opposite shore, amid the enthusiastic shouts of his comrades.

All this while the force of the allies continued to increase in and around Dusseldorf. Every farm-house and hovel in the neighbourhood was filled with troops, who, with their horses, literally licked up every thing that was fit for food--till, by-and-by, about twenty thousand men were ready to debouch by the opening which our Prussians had made. Among other arrivals, I must not omit to mention that of the Black Hussars--a corps originally raised by a Prussian noble, whom his master, for reasons of state, had sent into banishment. These men, with their leader, had long existed by plunder, which they carried off from far and near, and stored up in their haunts among the Hartz mountains. But when the crisis came, the chief of the band made a tender of his services to the allied sovereigns: he was pardoned and accepted; and the battles of Leipsic and Hennau bear testimony to the reckless bravery which marked his own proceedings and those of his followers. His men were well mounted: he had equipped them in black, and they bore upon the fronts of their chakos the same emblems which our own Black Brunswickers used to bear--namely, the skull and cross-bones. But though the rumour of their approach excited unspeakable alarm in Dusseldorf, I am bound to state that, when they did come, they conducted themselves with at least as much of regularity as any other body of armed men in the town. Two of their officers were quartered upon us, and we found them in all respects civil and even modest.

The Black Hussars, with the rest of the forces assembled in Dusseldorf, broke up in due time, and took the road to Paris. Other heavy columns moved simultaneously with them from Cologne and Coblentz; and the newspapers, which circulated freely, told us day by day of some fresh triumph obtained and some province liberated. Such a state of things naturally excited in my mind a strong desire to revisit the land of my birth; and as spring came on, I only waited the return of my master in order to carry this natural and cherished scheme into execution. He came at last, bringing with him a letter from my mother, whom he had seen and informed of my wellbeing; and who, erroneously conceiving that I intended to live and die abroad, proposed to sell off her little property and join me at Dusseldorf. But this kind proposal only sharpened my zeal to breathe once more the atmosphere which I had breathed in my childhood; and suspecting that my master would throw impediments in the way, I set about making my preparations very quietly. At last I told him. He was surprised, vexed, and perhaps somewhat unjust: he refused at first to let me go without three months' notice, and when I resisted this, he sent me away with less of kindness than I conceived that I had merited. I did not, however, resent the injury; but, retiring to a public-house, packed my little all into as narrow a compass as possible, and made ready to begin my homeward journey on the morrow.

Though Dusseldorf had been to me the land of strangers, there were some kind hearts there which I was loth to leave behind. This was particularly the case in reference to my first master and friend, Baron Golstein. Yet it would have been strange, had the consciousness of liberty recovered not very much outweighed these natural regrets; and I am not ashamed to acknowledge that my step was light and buoyant, as, for the last time, I traversed the streets of that ancient town: besides, I was not an object of any one's compassion. Two good suits of clothes I could call my own, besides a watch and thirty odd Prussian dollars in money; while my travelling companion was a poodle dog, whose gambols served to while away many a vacant hour, and whose sagacity was not inferior to that of his kind in general. My first day's march, which carried me to Gueldres, was performed in the highest spirits; and my reception there having been all that the heart of man could wish, my second began under circumstances nowise less propitious.

It was a fine fresh morning, the 3rd of April, 1814, when this second march began. Having a considerable distance to accomplish, I started betimes, and was passing over an extensive heath--my pipe in my mouth, and my dog frisking round me--when far ahead I discovered the form of a man, and I quickened my pace, desiring to overtake him. I gained upon the stranger sufficiently to observe that he wore a glazed hat and a brown coat,--the former, at least, affording ground to believe that he must be a countryman; so I stepped out lustily, being elated by the prospect of finding a pleasant companion with whom to converse by the way. The stranger however, was evidently suspicious: he looked behind, and seeing me stride out, he began to stride also, thus increasing rather than diminishing the space that was between us. It was in vain that I sent on my dog, or that the animal, trotting from the one to the other, strove, as it were, to bring us together: the stranger held his pace, and I soon found that the hope of overtaking him, unless some check should occur, was idle.

The chase was thus continued, till a town or large village appeared in the distance, in passing through which I felt sure that I should lose my man. Not willing, however, to abandon my own project so long as the faintest prospect of a different result appeared, I sent my dog forward, and desired him to keep the stranger in view till I should come up. I lost both man and beast at the entrance of the village; and not seeing either of them in the street, I made up my mind to pass on, even at the cost of my faithful poodle's company. But the dog thought differently: he suddenly showed himself at the head of a street, lane, or alley, and having, as it were, invited me to follow, turned round and waited for me. By these means, I was led to a public-house, in the taproom of which, sure enough, and ensconced behind the buttress of a large chimney, I beheld my man. He made every possible effort to hold aloof from me: I addressed him in German--he could not answer; I spoke to him in French, and received a reply in a wretched patois; after which I held out my hand and called him countryman, desiring him to keep a good heart, and not to shiver. He looked up like one who has received a reprieve on the gallows. He had mistaken me, it appeared, for a gendarme, and being like myself a liberated prisoner, trembled at the anticipation of a recapture. As may be imagined, we became excellent friends in a moment; and both having our faces turned towards Holland, we resolved to prosecute the journey together.

My new acquaintance represented himself to me as captain and part owner of a brig from Halifax: he had been ten years in a French prison, and having effected his escape with but a slender stock of money in his pocket, his means of getting refreshment by the way were quite exhausted. These tidings only made me the more desirous of accepting his companionship during my progress: I compassionated his sufferings, and told him he should share the contents of my purse--he giving me, in return, repeated assurances that my outlay would be more than made good, so soon as we reached Rotterdam; and as I could not for a moment doubt either his inclination or his ability to perform the promise, I made him heartily welcome to the best at each stage where we halted.

It is not worth while to describe at length the little adventures that befel us during our progress to Nimeguen. They were such as fall to the lot of pedestrians in general, with this solitary exception, that at Nimeguen, my companion not being provided with a passport, would have found it impossible to obtain admission into the place, had I not interceded for him. But the commandant, a good-natured old gentleman, no sooner heard the particulars of our story, than he gave orders that both should be accommodated with apartments, and be permitted to rest in the town three whole days. We then took a trackschuyt, which in three days more conveyed us to Rotterdam, where, on one of the quays, at the sign of the Dolphin, we fixed our head-quarters. But my money--not very abundant at the outset--was by this time beginning to run short, and certain very awkward suspicions of my companion's honesty would rise in spite of me, seeing that he made no effort at all to replenish the purse. Still I hoped the best. I even went with him to the English Consul's house--Mr. Ferrier's--of whom we together begged a supply, but who told us frankly, that though he could procure us a passage to England, he had no money at his disposal for us or for any body. Accordingly, we were fain to accept letters to the naval officer in command at Helvoetsluys, and, in company with two or three more Englishmen, pushed off in one of the packet-boats for the mouth of the Maese.

In the course of this voyage, as well as during our sojourn at Helvoetsluys, I was very much indebted to the kindness of one of our fellow-passengers, a groom in the employment of the Prince Regent, who had been sent to Holland with a present of two fine horses for the Prince of Orange. That individual, being flush of money, insisted on acting as paymaster throughout, and used his best endeavours to get me away from the society of the captain, whom he never particularly admired. But, partly because I was not willing to wrong a fellow-prisoner, partly because I believed that, being honest, he would pay his debts, and otherwise befriend me on our arrival in England, I resisted all the groom's suggestions, and, taking my passage in the same ship with the captain, was conveyed safely to Harwich. As we messed in different parts of the ship, the captain boarding with the lieutenants, and I living with the petty officers, we had comparatively little intercourse during the voyage; and, when I came to land, I found that my friend had got the start of me by an hour. I was both provoked and mortified; and, being determined at least to tell him my mind, I made all haste to the London coach-office. But in this particular, too, my labour proved vain; the coach had started about twenty minutes, and my friend having ensconced himself on the top, I never saw nor heard of him again.

The Kilkenny Militia happening at this time to be quartered in Harwich, I proceeded to report myself to the officer in command, and received orders to join one of the messes of the corps till arrangements could be made for forwarding me to my own regiment. I went to the room allotted to me; but the miserable fare of the militia-men--a red-herring and a bowl of potatoes--agreed so little with my notions of comfort, that I at once made up my mind to have nothing more to say to them. I accordingly repaired to a public-house, where, with the last coin that adhered to the interior of my pocket--an eighteen-pence token--I treated myself, and a soldier whom I found there, to a noggin of English gin. Moreover, I found there an opportunity of befriending four foreigners, strangers at once to the language and the manners of our island, who had come over in the hope of getting a pension--long ago granted to them by the Duke of York--renewed. I ordered their supper for them, became their interpreter, went with them to the coach-office, and next morning saw them off ;--trifling acts in themselves, doubtless, yet, by persons in their situation, felt and admitted to be grave favours. And now, being reduced to a few pence, yet resolute not to return to barracks, I pawned my watch to the landlord for five shillings, and sat down in a corner, with my pipe, not a little disconsolate.

I was thus circumstanced, when the door of the room opened, and there entered, with a shout, about a score of seamen, all rigged out in their best, and all bedizened with knots and streamers of ribbon. They instantly recognised me, for they were part of the crew of the frigate in which I had crossed from Holland; and, having informed me that they had received three months' pay, with three days ashore in which to spend it, they insisted on my casting in my lot with them. It will be readily imagined that I neither experienced nor expressed the smallest reluctance to become their guest. And, sure enough, for the entire space of time which they had at their command, ours was a life of revelry and joyance.

The first thing to be done was to provide a fiddler, and an adequate number of partners for a dance. These were soon procured, and supper, with an ample supply of grog, egg-flip, and other good things, being ordered, the ball began in a large outhouse attached to the inn. Nobody went to bed that night, and though the sailors ate less than might have been expected, the consumption of liquor was something quite unparalleled. Next day, hackney-coaches were procured, and, the fiddler playing all the way, we made an excursion, partners and all, into the country. There, too, a convenient house of entertainment was found, where, as in the town, dancing and frolic chased the hours away till evening. A dinner followed, and we returned to Harwich, with frequent halts by the way, in order that the crews of the different vehicles might refresh themselves; and, that nothing might be wanting to complete the farce, we did not compass our journey without a fight. One of our party happening to quiz a negro belonging to the band of the militia, the latter grew restive, and Jack and he had a regular set-to, from which Jack came off victorious. But why continue these details?--the seamen kept up the fun till the hour arrived when their lieutenant came to inform them that their time was expended, after which they returned cheerfully on board of ship, and I was once more left to my solitude.

I was not altogether easy, in consequence of the breach of discipline of which I had been guilty, in absenting myself without leave from the barracks, and had made up my mind to return, when a corporal entered the room where I was sitting, and asked eagerly of the landlord whether or not he had seen me. I made myself known to the corporal at once, and was much relieved when he informed me that orders had arrived to forward me to my regiment, and that he was already in possession of my marching-money. The watch which I had pawned was redeemed, my little bundle packed, and at an early hour on the following morning I began my march towards London.