poured down in
torrents; gusts of cold and stormy wind swept across the wide plains, or
moaned sorrowfully through the dense forest. As I rode on by the side of my
companion, I could not help remarking how little the effects of a fatiguing
march and unfavorable weather were apparent on those around me. The spirit
of excited gayety pervaded every rank; and unlike the stern features which
the discipline of our service enforces, the French soldiers were talking,
laughing and even singing, as they marched; the canteens passed freely from
hand to hand, and jests and toasts flew from front to rear along the dark
columns; many carried their loaves of dark rye-bread on the tops of their
bayonets; and to look upon that noisy and tumultuous mass as they poured
along, it would have needed a practised eye to believe them the most
disciplined of European armies.

The sun was just setting, as mounting a ridge of high land beside the high
road, my companion pointed with his finger to a small farm-house, which,
standing alone in the plain, commands an extensive view on every side of
it.

"There," said he,--"there is the _quartier general_; the Emperor sleeps
there to-night. The King of Holland will afford him a bed to-morrow night."

The dark shadows of the coming night were rapidly falling as I strained my
eyes to trace the British position. A hollow, rumbling sound announced the
movement of artillery in our front.

"What is it, Arnotte?" said the quartermaster to a dragoon officer who rode
past.

"It is nothing," replied the other, laughing, "but a _ruse_ of the Emperor.
He wishes to ascertain if the enemy are in force, or if we have only a
strong rear-guard before us."

As he spoke fifteen heavy guns opened there fire, and the still air
reverberated with a loud thunder. The sound had not died away, the very
smoke lay yet heavily upon the moist earth, when forty pieces of British
cannon rang out their answer, and the very plain trembled beneath the
shock.

"Ha, they are there, then!" exclaimed the dragoon, as his eyes flashed with
ecstasy. "Look! see! the artillery are limbering up already. The Emperor is
satisfied."

And so it was. A dark column of twelve hundred horse that accompanied the
guns into the plain, now wheeled slowly round, and wound their long track
far away to the right. The rain fell in torrents; the wind was hushed;
and as the night fell in darkness, the columns moved severally to their
destinations. The b