confidence broken, either by defeat or
internal treachery. In a word, that the expedition had already failed,
and the sooner we had the means of leaving the land of our disasters the
better.

Such were the universal feelings of all my comrades; but Humbert, who
had often told us that we were only here to prepare the way for another
and more formidable mission, now pretended to think that we were
progressing most favourably towards a perfect success. Perhaps he firmly
believed all this, or perhaps he thought that the pretence would give
more dignity to the finale of an exploit which he already saw was
nearly played out. I know not which is the true explanation, and am half
disposed to think that he was actuated as much by one impulse as the
other.

'The Army of the North' was the talisman, which we now heard of for the
first time, to repair all our disasters, and ensure complete victory.
'The Army of the North,' whose strength varied from twenty to
twenty-five, and sometimes reached even thirty thousand men, and was
commanded by a distinguished Irish general, was now the centre to which
all our hopes turned. Whether it had already landed, and where, of what
it consisted, and how officered, not one of us knew anything; but by
dint of daily repetition and discussion we had come to believe in its
existence as certainly as though we had seen it under arms.

The credulous lent their convictions without any trouble to themselves
whatever; the more sceptical studied the map, and fancied twenty
different places in which they might have disembarked; and thus the Army
of the North grew to be a substance and reality, as undoubted as the
scenes before our eyes.

Never was such a ready solution of all difficulties discovered as this
same Army of the North. Were we to be beaten by Cornwallis, it was only
a momentary check, for the Army of the North would come up within a
few days and turn the whole tide of war. If our Irish allies grew
insubordinate or disorderly, a little patience and the Army of the North
would settle all that. Every movement projected was fancied to be in
concert with this redoubted corps, and at last every trooper that rode
in from Killala or Ballina was questioned as to whether his despatches
did not come from the Army of the North.

Frenchmen will believe anything you like for twenty-four hours. They
can be flattered into a credulity of two days, and, by dint of great
artifice and much persuasion, will occ