"Mein Gott, Herr Major, Wo Gehn Sie Hin?" Roused Him
From His Reverie; When He Must Have Perceived, Had He Wheeled Up Into Line,
The Fearful Interval He Had Left Between His Own And The Next Battalion On
The Left.
After the review had finished we repaired to the chateau of the Prince de
Ligne, then occupied by Lieut.-General Sir H. Clinton, to partake of a
breakfast given by him and his lady.
On the breaking up of the breakfast
party, General Wilson and myself remained at the chateau to dine with
General Adam al fresco in the garden under the trees. The palace and
garden of the Prince de Ligne are both very magnificent. The latter is of
great extent, but too regular, too much in the Dutch taste to please me.
Little or no furniture is in the palace; but there are some family pictures
and a theatre fitted up in one of the halls for the purpose of private
theatricals. In the garden is a monument erected by the late Prince de
Ligne to one of his sons, Charles by name, who was killed in the Russian
service at the siege of Ismail. The present prince is a minor and resides
at Bruxelles.
GRAMMONT, May 18.
We left Leuze yesterday afternoon and arrived here at seven in the evening
in order to be present at the cavalry review the next morning. We partook
of an elegant supper given to us by our friend, Major Grant of the 18th
Hussars, and we were much entertained and enlivened by the effusions of his
brilliant genius and inexhaustible wit. The whole cavalry of the British
army passed in review this morning before the Duke of Wellington, who was
there with all his staff and received the salutes of all the corps like
Godfrey, con volto placido e composto. It was a very brilliant spectacle.
The Duke de Berri was present. I think I never beheld so ignoble and
disagreeable a countenance as this prince possesses. I thought to myself
that he had much better have stayed away from this review; for he must be
insensible to all patriotism who could take pleasure in contemplating a
foreign force about to enter and ravage his own country. We learn that the
Duchess d'Angouleme is to have a review of the fideles very shortly. She
is certainly much more warlike than the males of that family; this
disposition is increased by her religious fanaticism. This renders her, of
course, a most dangerous person to meddle with politics; but great
allowances must be made for her feelings, which must naturally be
embittered by the recollection of so much suffering during the Revolution
and of the barbarous and inhuman treatment experienced by her father and
mother.
I observed a peculiarity in this part of the country, viz., that there are
villages lying close to each other in some of which French is spoken, in
others Flemish; and that, with some few exceptions, the inhabitants of
neighbouring villages are reciprocally unintelligible.
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