I rejoined my regiment the evening previous to the commencement of the march of the whole English army towards their quarters. I was left, however, behind, with two men, to see the last of the baggage packed, and to escort it all the way to Cambray, where the head-quarters of the corps were to be established. Two waggons were placed at our disposal, one of which we loaded early in the day, while the other, by reason of the non-arrival of some of the officers' traps, continued to stand empty. Had the waggoner merely murmured I could not have blamed him. The delay was provoking enough for him as well as for us; but when he avowed his determination to draw off, I knew my duty too well to permit it; so I told him, in peremptory language, that he must wait my orders. Being anxious, nevertheless, to save both him and myself trouble, I resolved to go in search of the missing articles, and, mounting my horse, placed one of my men as a sort of sentry over the waggoner, with strict orders not on any account to permit his escape.

I had not been long gone ere our friend, Jean Crapot, began to give signs of a vehement disposition to escape. He flogged his horses and moved forward, whereupon my trusty vidette, after vainly protesting against the move, drew his sword, and commanded the deserter to halt. The screams of the waggoner, who no sooner beheld the flash of the steel than he shrieked out, soon drew a crowd around them. The crowd called loudly for the municipal guard, and in five minutes my friend Billy Duff, a little old man belonging to the 8th Hussars, was surrounded by some dozen or two of armed men, who pointed their weapons towards him, and covered him with a very choice shower of French abuse. At the same time the officer commanding this party drew his sword and attacked Billy, who, to do him justice, behaved with admirable coolness, being content to parry, without returning, the thrusts that were made at him. I shrewdly suspect, however, that honest Billy, would have practised that day his last trick of fence had I not opportunely arrived to his assistance. I instantly desired him to lower his weapon, well knowing that resistance from both of us would have been useless; and the rascally Frenchmen sprang upon him forthwith, wrested his sword from him, and made him their prisoner.

I was very indignant, as may be easily believed, and protested against the proceeding; but no one paid the least regard to me. The cowards knew that the English army was gone, and they resolved to have their spite out against the few stragglers that remained. Accordingly Billy was dragged off, amid their yells and execrations, to the guard-house, where he was by-and-by conveyed as a prisoner before the French field-officer of the day. I confess that I was at my wits' end. On the one hand I did not know where to turn for help, on the other, I was resolved that Billy should not be deserted; so, buckling on my sword, which I had heretofore left in my quarters, I ran where I knew were the adjutant's lodgings, scarcely venturing to hope that I should have the good fortune to find him. As sometimes happens, however, in cases of emergency, Fortune stood my friend. He was in the very act of mounting his horse when I arrived, and at once agreed to go with me to the municipal guard. I have no language sufficiently strong wherewith to describe the insolence of the crew that were on duty there. They led us through a long passage, flourishing Billy's sword over their heads, as if it had been a standard taken in some general action, and introduced us into the presence of the commanding officer, in terms to which his own insolent manner entirely responded. It was to no purpose that the adjutant demanded the release of the man. They would not give him up till he should have been led as a prisoner before the commandant of the town, and his crime regularly entered in the black book. For poor Billy's crime, according to their showing, was that he had drawn his sword against a peaceable citizen; whereas he had simply done his duty, by using the means which every sentinel is supposed to have at his disposal, for hindering his post from being violated, or a prisoner put under his charge from escaping.

Having come to the determination of laying a charge against Billy before the English authorities, the officer of the guard put his prisoner under the escort of a serjeant and six men, and gave orders that he should be marched to the quarters of Colonel Kelly, who had been nominated military commandant of Paris. I went with my comrade, as in duty bound, and came in for my own share of the insults and threats with which a crowd, accumulating from street to street, seemed anxious to overwhelm us. Neither were they content to cover us with abuse; they closed in upon the escort, made a snatch at my sword, which with much difficulty I retained, spat upon us, and repeatedly exclaimed that we ought to be put to death. In a word, our progress was one not merely of vexation but of imminent hazard throughout. Neither were our prospects much brighter when we attained to the end of our journey. For, though Colonel Kelly's baggage crowded the courtyard, he himself had quitted his apartments, and it seemed more than probable that we should be left, after all, to the tender mercies of the French people. From such a fate, which must have been a trying one, our better angel saved us. As we were marching back to the guard-house I observed in one of the cross-streets a carriage standing, which I knew to be Colonel Kelly's; and by-and-by he came, with his lady, from a shop, and was about to enter. I called out to him. We were led up. The written charge was handed in, read, signed, returned with a smile; after which he told the escort they might go, and he would look after the prisoners. "Now, my lads," said he, as soon as the Frenchmen had departed, "get back to your stables as fast as you can, and make your escape out of the city. The troops are all on the march; I will not be answerable for your safety here." We needed no second bidding. Making choice of all manner of by-lanes, we reached our billet unobserved; and the horses being saddled and the baggage gone, we instantly mounted. In less than an hour we were clear of Paris, and on the evening of the sixth day overtook the regiment at Cambray.

I had begun by this time to grow weary of service in the staff corps, I therefore applied for and obtained permission to rejoin my regiment, which occupied Bergen, in Dutch Flanders, and the villages round, and lived on the best and most friendly terms with the natives. It was here that the Waterloo medal was served out to us,--which the colonel graced with a long and eloquent speech, besides granting us three days of entire exemption from duty, and himself, with the rest of the officers, presenting us with a very handsome gratuity in money. It is scarcely worth while to relate how the money went, or after what fashion the days of fête were expended. The Flemings are nowise backward in their cans,--as all who know them will testify; but I suspect they never beheld such wassailing as gave a character to the three days in question. Still the results were by no means injurious either to them or to us. We feasted them all, gave dances to their wives and daughters, and won their hearts by our liberality. I am sure, at least, that from that time forth we lived together on the most friendly terms,--and that when we quitted them they deplored our removal as if ties of close consanguinity had united us.

There occurred while we lay here two adventures--both of them serious, one fatal--of which I may as well make mention.

We were a good deal scattered about, in small parties, and under numerous commands--forage being, as it seemed, scarce; or, if not, the Duke being naturally desirous to press as lightly as possible, in its exaction, on the inhabitants. I was one of fourteen who, under one Serjeant Ford, occupied the village of Morqueon; and there was another detachment at a place called Fellay, near Arras, of which a corporal had charge. One day Serjeant Ford received a letter from Fellay, to inform him that the men stationed there were extremely uncomfortable, and to request that he would ride over, and endeavour, by his influence with the mayor, to obtain for them better treatment. I volunteered to accompany the serjeant, and away we went.

A few hours' ride carried us to the village; and, on inquiring for the house where the English troops were quartered, it was immediately shown to us. We entered, and found the whole party seated round a table, on which stood several flasks of brandy, and glasses in proportion, while the landlord seemed bent on making them drink their fill--he, by the way, sedulously setting the example. This was by no means the sort of spectacle by which we expected to be greeted, and we stared at one another not a little astounded, which the landlord no sooner observed than he addressed to us marks of his most particular attention. He assured us that everybody then within his gates drank at his expense; that we could not oblige him more than by making the most of his good cheer; and that he should not be contented till we had drained his cellar, which he should take care to replenish whenever the convenient moment came. Soldiers are seldom backward in doing honour to an invitation such as this; so down we sat in the chairs pulled out for us, and I am bound to add that, for a couple of hours, the scene was as curious, yet as sociable and merry, as mortal eye need rest upon.

Our comrades of the corporal's party, who appeared to have had nearly enough ere we arrived, filed off by degrees, one after another, to their beds: the serjeant likewise retired; but our host, whose thirst seemed to be unquenchable, kept his place, and insisted upon it that I should not leave him. At length, however, the liquor took such effect upon him that he became quite mad. All of a sudden he seized a burning beam, and made a blow at my head, which with some difficulty I eluded. I disarmed him instantly; upon which he sprang up, ran to a closet, and, snatching a pistol, began to load it. Happily for me, one of my brother-soldiers still dozed upon his chair; and he, on my shouting out, rushed upon the madman, and wrenched the weapon from his hold. But he was bent upon mischief: he armed himself with a heavy brazen candlestick, and striking me a blow on the forehead, laid me senseless on the floor. It is not worth while to continue the relation of a mere--yet a desperate--riot. It ended in the man of the house escaping, we could not tell where,--and I having been put to bed, all seemed over.

It was not so, however: Serjeant Ford, annoyed at what had occurred, and apprehending that a false tale might reach head-quarters, got out of bed, and lodged a complaint against the landlord at the police-office. He was arrested, brought to trial, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment, besides paying a fine of seven hundred francs to the Crown. But the most curious piece of the business remains to be told: not only did he bear me no ill-will, but both he and his wife, when I saw them again some time after his release, thanked me for all that had happened; for the effect of his punishment was to cure him of his propensity to drinking, and he became from that time a respectable and sober man. So much for the administration of justice in Dutch Flanders. I never saw a criminal prosecution more fairly and honestly conducted: I never heard, except in this particular instance, of punishment being followed by effects so beneficial.

The other adventure, of which I have to speak, was by many degrees more tragical; for it ended in the death of one of the finest young men in the 11th Light Dragoons. Serjeant Tongue, connected, I believe, with a highly-respectable family, and himself singularly handsome and of a good address, was yet the slave of a temper so violent and ungovernable, that he ceased, when irritated, to be, to a great extent, at least, master of himself. He had formed an attachment to a very pretty girl, the daughter of the mayor of Moul; and the young lady made no secret in any quarter that she returned his love. It happened once upon a time that a fête was to take place in the village; and Tongue, having engaged his lady-love to be his partner in the dance, looked forward with great eagerness to the accomplishment of his wishes. Unfortunately for him, he was detained in his quarters beyond the hour at which the dancing was to begin, and when he entered the ball-room, he beheld to his unspeakable chagrin, that his partner had given her hand to another. This was a French hussar, the son of the publican at whose house the fête was held--a fine, gay, well-dressed youth--who, with a comrade, had come over from a neighbouring village where they were quartered, and seeing the mayor's daughters sitting by, claimed the right to dance with them. I was told that their doing so was quite in agreement with the usages of the country, neither do I doubt the truth of the statement; but Tongue saw the matter in a different light. He stood, with folded arms, watching them as they swept round. He observed, or fancied, that the hussar used freedoms with the maiden, such as his English sense of decorum could not tolerate, and he lost all self-command. He ran home to his quarters, loaded a pistol with two blank cartridges, and, bidding me and another man put on our swords, rushed back to the ball-room.

We followed him, of course, scarce knowing what was meant; but the moment I observed the situation of his partner, my mind misgave me. I would have interfered, and done my best to lead him away; but ere I could make a step in advance, the music ceased, and Tongue, springing forward, seized the French hussar by the collar. A frightful scene followed: he did not fire, but, holding the pistol cocked, he struck the young man some severe blows with the muzzle, and dragged him through the room, looking all the while more like a maniac than a sane person. It was to no purpose that the farmers, by whom he was greatly beloved, tried to appease him. He continued to strike and drag the unfortunate Frenchman through the room, till one of the company, unfortunately, threw his arms round Tongue's neck, and endeavoured to extricate the hussar from his grasp. It was an unwise act: during the scuffle that ensued, the pistol exploded, and the young hussar fell to the ground terribly wounded.

As Providence would have it, the muzzle had turned obliquely from its object when the explosion took place. The consequence was, that the powder made no breach in his body, but it burned his clothes, scorched the whole side of his abdomen, and appeared to all the lookers-on to have killed him. In an instant, Tongue's senses seemed to return: he was overwhelmed with anguish and remorse; and though the generous young hussar assured him that, come what would, no more should ever be said about the matter, he never smiled afterwards. The wounded man was conveyed to bed, and medical assistance sent for. The villagers, with whom Tongue was an especial favourite, entreated him to think no more about the matter; and the mayor himself was the first to put his name to a paper, in which the circumstance of the wound was attributed entirely to accident: but Serjeant Tongue continued inconsolable. At last, one day when the serjeant-major came to visit us, and Tongue with myself was attending him in his inspection of the men's quarters, our poor comrade, pretending sudden illness, ran home to his own quarters. We did not suspect any thing--at least the serjeant-major did not--neither had I the most remote idea of what was really intended; wherefore our horror may be conceived, when, on repairing to his billet, we found a letter, addressed to the serjeant-major, on his table. It contained a statement of the mental agony which for many days the writer had experienced, and ended with a declaration that he meant to destroy himself. We ran to the stables, and there learned from one of the men that he had gone into the orchard, carrying both his pistols with him, as if for the purpose of shooting sparrows. We followed him thither, and saw him sitting in a dry ditch, and the pistols beside him. Instantly, on perceiving us, he sprang up, and presenting one of the pistols at us, charged us, as we valued our lives, not to advance a step nearer. The serjeant-major, who was a feeling and humane man, threw himself on his knees, and entreated Tongue to cast the weapons from him, and to listen to reason; but the poor fellow only shook his head and smiled bitterly. One of the pistols he did fling away; he then planted his back against a tree, and placing the muzzle of the other in his own mouth, blew his head to pieces.

I shall never forget the horror of that scene, nor the deep and universal mourning that followed. For the young French hussar was by this time recovering fast, and never uttered one word of reproach, far less of threatening, against his rival. But the deed was done; so there remained for us only the painful duty of giving the rites of sepulture to his remains--which we did, Lieutenant Wood reading the service over him, and the whole detachment attending as sincere, though not as formal, mourners.