p and gave me some particulars of the fight. He pointed to this cave or
cellar as the place of shelter in which he and 44 others had been
concealed, every moment dreading a discovery which, whether by friend or
foe, they looked upon as equally fatal. Fortunately the foe were the
discoverers. Upon the termination of the battle, which had been
favourable to the Allies, in came a parcel of Russians upon the
trembling peasants. Conceiving it to be a hiding-place for French
soldiers, they rushed upon them, but finding none, satisfied themselves
with asking what business they had there, and turning them out to find
their way through blood and slaughter to some more secure place of
shelter. A small mill pool had been so completely choked with dead that
they were obliged to let off the water and clean it out. With Sir
Charles Stuart's dispatches cut out of the Macclesfield Paper we
ascended the Cathedral, and from thence, as upon a map, traced out the
operations of both armies. Soissons is half surrounded by the Aisne,
and stands on a fine plain, upon which the Russians displayed.
Buonaparte, in one of his Bulletins, abuses a governor who allowed the
Allies to take possession of the town when he was in pursuit, thus
giving them a passage over the river, adding that had that governor done
his duty the Russians might have been cut off. In England this was all
voted "leather and prunello" and a mere vapouring opinion of the
Emperor's, but as far as I could observe he was perfectly right, and had
the governor been acting under my orders I question much whether I
should not have hanged him. In looking about we were shewn a sort of
town hall, with windows ornamented with the most beautiful painted glass
you ever saw--nice little figures, trophies, landscapes, &c.--but a
party of Russians had unfortunately been lodged there, and the glass was
almost all smashed. I procured a specimen, but alas! portmanteaus are
not the best packing-cases for glass, and in my possession it fared
little better than with the Cossacks. However, if it is pulverised, I
will bring it home as a Souvenir....

[Illustration: HOUSES AND TOWER, LAON, 1814.]

_To face p. 161._

From Soissons to Laon the country is uninteresting except from the late
events. With the exception of the first view of the plain and town of
Laon, we passed village after village in the same state of ruin and
dilapidation. Chavignon, about 4 miles from Laon, seemed, however, to
have bee