It was my especial delight to wander through the woods adjoining our encampment alone; on one of which occasions I encountered the adjutant, who, after telling me that he had looked for me for some time, asked whether I could speak French. I was not without apprehension that something might have gone wrong, so I answered in the negative. Upon which he replied, "Don't you think you could get out a few words in that language, if you were paid an extra franc a day?" "I dare say I could, sir," replied I, smiling. "Oh, I thought so," was the answer; "so come along with me." I followed the adjutant accordingly, and found that I had been selected to act as serjeant in a mounted staff corps, of which it would be the duty to protect the country people from ill usage, and to repress, along the route of the army, every thing like plundering and violence. From each regiment in the brigade three men were chosen, over whom I was set; and the orders which I received were, that I should detach six, three on each flank, during the march, and myself bring up the rear with the remaining three. We were not to act as executioners, nor yet as a provost guard, but simply as a military police; that is to say, we were to arrest all persons whom we might find marauding, and to hand them over to the provost for punishment. And in order to make us known, as well as to ensure for us the respect of our fellow-soldiers, each man was supplied with a scarlet belt, which he was desired to pass over his right shoulder, and to regard as a badge of honourable distinction.

It will readily be believed that I accepted the distinction thus proffered to me, thankfully, the more so as I found that it carried an addition of two francs daily to my pay, and one franc to each of the men who were placed under me. Neither had I any cause to repent of the arrangement. On the contrary, I more than once found myself in a position to render essential service to the helpless, at the same time that I hindered my own people from doing wrong; and of the first instance in which I came to exercise my authority, it may be as well if I give a brief account.

The day after I received my appointment we marched; and I, obeying the instructions that had been communicated to me, dispersed two of my threes on each flank, and with the remaining triad brought up the rear. It might be about noon when we approached a house by the roadside from which lamentable cries, as of people in distress, proceeded. "Serjeant!" exclaimed the colonel, who rode near me, "do you hear that? Go and see what is the matter." In an instant I called my men, and desiring them to dismount, left one in charge of the horses, while with the other two, sword in hand, I entered. The house was full of Belgian dragoons, who had been plundering and ill-treating the people at a great rate. I told them what my duty was, called upon them to surrender, compelled them to restore to the inhabitants the effects which they had taken, and made a dozen of them prisoners. The remainder fled through the back door, and we saw them no more. I cannot undertake to describe the gratitude of the poor people, whose property, and in some instances more than their property, we thus preserved. Neither have I power to tell how astonished the Belgians were, when they found themselves handed over to a sort of power which was marvellously rapid in the administration of justice. The whole of them were stripped on the instant, and received a dozen each--a salutary example--which taught the allies that they, not less than the English, would not by our wise and noble commander be allowed to perpetrate, with impunity, wrongs upon the innocent inhabitants of France, purely because with the French government their own happened to be at war.

We halted that day about noon, not far from a gentleman's house, which I was ordered to protect, and where, with my comrades, I spent the night. Next morning, as a matter of course, the march was resumed. But except that we were joined at a large village, or rather town, through which we passed, by Louis XVIII. and his suite, there occurred nothing of which it is worth while to take especial notice. To be sure, the manner in which the people of the town received the king, whom but a few weeks previously they had driven into banishment, was exceedingly characteristic. Triumphal arches and green boughs were erected at the head of the principal streets. Beside them stood the magistrates and leading men of the place, as well as a number of gaily-dressed maidens, who strewed flowers in the way of the royal party, and offered bouquets; while the air was rent with discordant shouts, from which no more could be gathered, than that the parties shouting were disposed to make the most of passing events as they occurred. But I must not omit to describe a scene which befel in the same town, and in which I was myself an actor. I have often thought of it since with amazement, and possibly my readers may think with me, that it was at least a strange one.

The brigade halted in this town for the night; and I received a billet on a particular house, to which, as may be supposed--accompanied by my comrade--I immediately repaired. We knocked at the front door, but nobody answered; whereupon we made our way round to the rear, where, trying the latch, we ascertained that it was not fastened, and immediately entered. We found ourselves in a passage, from which, on the right and left, two doorways diverged. One of these--that on the left--we tried, and were ushered into a small apartment, where, before a table literally covered with gold coins and bags of money, sat a man engaged, as it seemed, in reckoning up the amount of his treasure. The creaking of the door upon its hinges seemed to have disturbed him, for he instantly looked behind; and the expressions of astonishment, fear, agony, and horror which passed in rapid succession over his countenance, I shall never forget. He threw himself at once flat upon the table, stretching out his arms in the vain effort to conceal his wealth; and then, in a tone of voice, which bespoke the extent of his alarm, desired to be informed as to our wishes. I hastened to assure him that he had nothing to apprehend from us. I told him that we were English, not Prussians; and the announcement at once relieved him so far, that he was able to demand the cause of our intrusion; and on my informing him, he hastened to tell us that we were heartily welcome. He entreated us to go to the kitchen, where his housekeeper would take charge of us; and without so much as pausing to ascertain the amount of his exposed treasure, we at once obeyed. He was a monstrous lucky fellow in having fallen into our hands rather than into those of any of the gallant allies that co-operated with us. We got a good supper, and an excellent bed; but he retained his Napoleons, which, had some of Blucher's dragoons seen them, would have made their way probably to Prussia, at all events to Paris or its environs.

Up to the present point the British army seemed to have followed a route of its own. Our march of the next day brought us upon the track of the Prussians; and the contrast between our discipline and theirs was curious in the extreme. Our column passed, for example, about noon, a large château, with a village attached; and I and my men were sent, as a matter of course, to protect both. Alas! we came too late. The Prussians had been here before us, and the skill and industry with which they seemed to have carried on the work of devastation I have no language to describe. In the château there was not one article of furniture, from the costly pier-glass down to the common coffee-cup, which they had not smashed to atoms. The flour-mill, likewise, attached to the mansion, was all gutted, the sacks cut to pieces, and the flour wantonly scattered over the road. Stables, cow-sheds, poultry-houses, and gardens, seemed to have been, with infinite care, rendered useless; and as to living things there was none--not so much as a half-starved pigeon--to be seen about the premises. In like manner, the village was one wide scene of devastation. Its inhabitants appeared, indeed, to have escaped, for we came upon no human being, nor the corpse of any; but furniture, doors, windows, and here and there roofs, all seemed to have passed through the merciless hands of the spoilers. I never beheld such a specimen of war, conducted in a spirit of ferocious hostility. I was half ashamed of the connexion that subsisted between ourselves and the Prussians, when I looked upon the horrid work which they had perpetrated.

Having wandered over this wretched place, and ascertained that our presence was altogether useless, we mounted again, and rode on. Our route lay somewhat apart from that of the column, and carried us towards a wood, on approaching which we were challenged by a peasant, armed with a musket, and determined, as his bearing showed, to dispute our farther progress. I told him what we were; upon which he instantly recovered his arms, and entreated us to come forward. He became, indeed, our guide, and conducted us to an open space in the forest, wherein were collected the unfortunate fugitives from the very place which we had just abandoned. There they were, men, women, and children, established in a sort of bivouac, whither they had escaped with such little fragments of their property as the alarm of a moment had enabled them to carry off. Poor things! they clustered round our saddle-bows, as if we had been guardian angels sent to protect them from further violence. They offered us all that they had, which, of course, we refused to accept, and gratefully listened to our declarations that, for the present at least, danger had passed away. I have the satisfaction of remembering that, at my suggestion, they gathered up their effects on the instant, and went back to reoccupy the houses from which our somewhat ferocious friends had driven them.--We rode on, and in due time reached an eminence, just beyond which the column had been directed to halt for the night. We pulled up on the summit to look round us, and saw, a little way removed from the line of march, another village, in which the process of marauding was going on in full vigour. Multitudes of stragglers had broken in upon the inhabitants, who were fleeing in every direction, pursued by their enemies. It was a shocking spectacle; and, as in duty bound, I resolved, as far as my means went, to give to it a different character. I accordingly commanded my party to draw swords, and down we went at full speed into the heart of the village. The effect of our charge was marvellous: the plunderers dropped their booty and fled in all directions. We rode after them, belabouring them with the flats of our swords, and in five minutes had the satisfaction of knowing that order was entirely restored. It is an old aphorism, the truth of which all experience confirms, that good actions invariably bring their own reward. We were not only thanked by the authorities of the place, but feasted and fêted at the principal inn; and we spent the night among these poor people as merrily as those are wont to do whom their entertainers regard as special benefactors.

In this manner I continued my march, giving protection, wherever I and my party arrived, to the persons and property of all orders of Frenchmen, by whom we were uniformly treated as friends and preservers. Such services were not always unattended with personal risk; and once, in particular, we owed our preservation at least as much to our ingenuity, or presence of mind, as to the badges which we carried. We had observed a large mansion, removed by a considerable space from the road, and judging that it would be regarded as a prize by the marauders, we put spurs to our horses, and happily reached it ere any stragglers from the army could come up. I knocked at the door, which we found closed, but nobody answered: I knocked again, but still the signal was disregarded; on which, having previously observed that all the stables were empty, and that not a living thing was to be seen on the premises, I came to the conclusion that the place was abandoned. Under this impression, I had already directed my men to remount for the purpose of proceeding elsewhere, when one of the upper windows opened, and a man, putting his head through, desired to be informed who we were. I replied that we were "English police:" upon which he immediately entreated me to wait, and in a few seconds opened the door for our reception. He was an old gentleman, very venerable in his appearance, and full of alarm--as he well might be--on account of his family and effects, and for his wife and two daughters, who were in the house with him; for he not unnaturally mistook us for Prussians, of whose mode of dealing, wherever they went, the rumour had already reached him. Finding, however, that our business was to protect, not to fleece him, his gratitude set my powers of expression at defiance; and the ladies, who soon joined us, were to the full as lavish of their thanks as he.

We had scarcely passed his threshold, when a whole swarm of Belgians made their appearance, flocking up from a village which they had just plundered, and hastening to effect the same end at the château. I determined at once to resist them; so, planting one of my men as a sentry at the door, I drew the rest under cover, and quietly waited to meet the issue, be it what it might. On came the marauders as fast as they could run; and very angry as well as greatly surprised were they to find their further progress disputed by my sentinel. They peremptorily desired to know what our business was there; and some officers--of whom a good many bore them company--seemed resolute, in spite of the vidette, to force an entrance. Upon this I went out, and told them that we had been sent by the commander-in-chief to take possession of the quarter, and that his arrival there, with the Staff of the Army, was every moment to be expected. The effect upon these gentlemen was electrical: they repeated my tale to the men; gave the word to fall in; were obeyed with marvellous celerity, and marched off without doing the slightest damage to any thing. Their departure relieved the old gentleman at once from all his anxiety, and induced him to cast every thing like disguise aside. About twenty peasants, well armed, accordingly came forth from their hiding-places. Horses, cattle, poultry, were in like manner released; and, in ten minutes, the château, with all the out-buildings attached to it, gave signs of ample vitality and very great abundance. We, of course, and our horses, were treated to our hearts' content--besides receiving a warm invitation to visit the family again as often as opportunities might offer; and, finally, we did not quit the place till a thousand proofs had been afforded that, in the faithful discharge of the duties assigned to us, we had done real service to those who needed it.

In this manner I continued my march, day by day gladdened by the thought that I had been the means of preserving many an innocent family from wrong, and many a village as well as château from total destruction. At last, the head-quarters of the army reached Neuilly, where and around which an extensive encampment was formed. It was from the high grounds near the village that I obtained my first view of Paris; and its gilded domes and spires, and innumerable minarets, impressed me, as well as the prodigious extent of its area, with sensations of profound admiration. I acknowledge, too, that I thought, not without pity, of the state of public feeling as it must have then operated in the city--where, from hour to hour, the advance of hostile columns was anticipated, and men could count on no other result than that their streets would become the scenes of strife. Yet the halt which we made appeared to promise better things, and the going and coming of frequent flags of truce told a tale of negotiations in progress. To be sure, the horizon seemed at one time entirely overcast; for a corps of French troops, which occupied Montmartre, refused to fall back when required to do so, and were instantly attacked and driven from their positions by a portion of our infantry. But except on that occasion, no fighting took place, though the outposts of the hostile armies wellnigh touched one another, and on both sides the extreme of vigilance was by night and day exhibited.

While we lay in this place, which, being of limited extent, afforded but inadequate accommodation even to the head-quarter staff, I found myself involved in a little adventure, of which, because of the interest which it excited in me at the moment, I may as well give some account.

I was late of reaching Neuilly--so late, indeed, that when I came up the place was crowded. I reported myself to the commanding officer, showing that all was right, and received from him directions to pass the night in the streets--unless, indeed, I should prefer crossing to a town which lay on the farther side of the river. There would, however, be some risk attendant on this move, because the tricolour still floated from one of its public buildings, and the impression was that the French had not yet withdrawn from the place. Not relishing, however, the prospects of a night spent in fasting and the open air, I proposed to four of my people--Germans, belonging to an hussar regiment--that we should reconnoitre the town together. I found them quite ready to share the enterprise with me, and towards the river-side we accordingly proceeded.

We found that the bridge was barricaded on both sides; though in both barricades openings had been made sufficiently large to admit of the passing of a man and horse. We therefore rode through, when, leaving two of the men to keep guard at the farther side, I took the remaining two with myself, and advanced with great caution and deliberation towards the town. The first object that met our eyes, on approaching the main street, was a huge tricoloured flag, which waved over the barracks of the Chasseurs of the National Guard on an eminence hard by. As may be supposed, the vision had not the effect of rendering us less cautious; nevertheless, on we went--neither seeing nor hearing any thing. In fact, the town was deserted. We rode quite through--passing up one street and returning by another--and then trotted off to make our comrades aware of how matters stood, and to join them with ourselves in our search after novelties.

We looked out for some respectable cabaret, having made up our minds to establish there our head-quarters; and had not gone far ere the well-known sign of the Bush informed us that our object was attainable. We knocked, but the signal was not regarded: we entered, and saw that the house was as desolate as the street. A fire was burning on the hearth--the clock continued to go--on the counter there stood a jug half filled with wine--and in a cupboard we found a loin of mutton cooked, with a well-dressed salad, both ready to be served up. We next examined the cellars, which were abundantly stocked with casks, all, as we ascertained by sounding them, full of wine. In a word, it was precisely the sort of domicile of which we were in search, and we made up our minds not to look farther.

The next thing to be thought of was the accommodation of our horses, for which we were not slow in ascertaining that the cabaret could do nothing. I accordingly proceeded to the house adjoining, in the rear of which I found a stable, which, on examination, proved to be fitted up with half a dozen stalls, and abundantly stocked both with forage and litter. I threw the bridle over my mare's neck, and led her towards the door; but she snorted, tossed up her head, and, in spite both of coaxing and punishment, refused to enter. "There must be something uncommon here," exclaimed I, as I seized a fork and ran in. To toss the litter about was but to obey the impulse of the moment, and there sure enough we found beneath the straw a French soldier, shot through the heart, dead as a stone, but fully accoutred. How he could have come there we were at a loss to conjecture. But a practical acquaintance with the events of war has a marvellous effect in stifling men's sympathies on occasions like the present. We lifted the body in our arms, cast it into the river, and having made our horses comfortable in the stalls which they no longer refused to occupy, we returned to the cabaret, nowise indisposed to act with the same praiseworthy consideration towards ourselves.

We ate and drank merrily that night, but committed no excess: indeed, we could not divest ourselves of the suspicion that, after all, a snare might have been laid for us, and the same feeling of half anxiety which hindered us from lying down, operated, among other causes, to keep us sober. Once or twice, moreover, we went abroad, examining the houses near, and loitering at the corners of streets; but not one sign of human life could we discover: the place was evidently deserted. Accordingly, when dawn came in, I rode across to Neuilly, where many of my comrades met me, and it was agreed among us that we should return in a body, and spend that day as I and my former companions had spent the last. I have nothing to relate of events that befel till towards dusk, when, from my place beside the board, and surrounded by a dozen or more of the 11th, I saw a man peep in at the front door and instantly withdraw again. I sprang up, without speaking a word, and found a poor Frenchman hovering about the threshold, who, not without manifest indications of alarm, told me that he was the master of the house. A sort of general explanation immediately followed. We offered to pay for the provisions which we had taken: he positively refused to accept a sou; and telling us that his wife and daughter, and, indeed, all the rest of the inhabitants, were concealed in the woods, whither they had fled, be went away at our request to assure them that we were English, not Prussians, and that they might return without scruple to their houses. A happy family was that, so soon as its several members found themselves settled once more under the shadow of their own roof, and the invaders, from whom they had fled, anxious rather to apologize for what was past than to inflict upon them or their property fresh injuries. Indeed, the entire place appeared to change its character as house after house became tenanted, and the light-hearted owners betook themselves to their ordinary occupations. Nor can I pass on to other subjects without recording that the mutual good will which sprang up among us at the outset never suffered a moment's interruption. Throughout a space of nearly twelve months which I spent in or near Paris, I was always to my friend of the cabaret a welcome guest; and I quitted him and his amiable wife and daughter, at last, not without marks of unaffected sorrow on both sides.