ld see
more service, and consequently have more amusement, than if I
remained on board the frigate. We convoyed forty or fifty transports,
containing the cavalry, and brought them all safe to an anchor off
Cadsand.

The weather was fine, and the water smooth; not a moment was lost in
disembarking the troops and horses; and I do not recollect ever having
seen, either before or since, a more pleasing sight. The men were
first sent on shore with their saddles and bridles: the horses were
then lowered into the water in running slings, which were slipped
clear off them in a moment; and as soon as they found themselves free,
they swam away for the shore, which they saluted with a loud neigh as
soon as they landed. In the space of a quarter of a mile we had three
or four hundred horses in the water, all swimming for the shore at the
same time; while their anxious riders stood on the beach waiting their
arrival. I never saw so novel or picturesque a sight.

I found the gun-boat service very hard. We were stationed off
Batz, and obliged to be constantly on the alert; but when Flushing
surrendered we had more leisure, and we employed it in procuring some
articles for our table, to which we had been too long strangers. Our
money had been expended in the purchase of champagne and claret, in
which articles we were no economists, consequently few florins could
be spared for the purchase of poultry and butcher meat; but then these
articles were to be procured, by the same means which had given us the
island of Walcheren, namely powder and shot. The country people were
very churlish, and not at all inclined to barter; and as we had
nothing to give in exchange, we avoided useless discussion. Turkeys,
by us short-sighted mortals, were often mistaken for pheasants; cocks
and hens, for partridges; tame ducks and geese for wild; in short,
such was our hurry and confusion--leaping ditches, climbing dykes,
and fording swamps--that Buffon himself would never have known the
difference between a goose and a peacock. Our game-bags were as
capacious as our consciences, and our aim as good as our appetites.

The peasants shut all their poultry up in their barns, and very
liberally bestowed all their curses upon us. Thus all our supplies
were cut off, and foraging became at least a source of difficulty, if
not of danger. I went on shore with our party, put a bullet into my
fowling-piece, and, as I thought, shot a deer; but on more minute
inspect