to look at it.
The Evening Gun of Flushing saluted the Sun as he sank to rest behind
these muddy isles, and we begun to fear, as night drew on, that we
should have to take up our night's lodging in the Gig, for though he
knew that the gates of the Fortress were closed at 9, our sturdy
Dutchman moved not a peg the faster. However, we escaped the evil, and
10 minutes before 9 we passed the drawbridge of the ditch leading to the
Antwerp gate, which had been the grave of the 1st Column of Guards, led
by General Cooke, on the 8th March....

NOTE.

_Storming of Bergen op Zoom, March 8, 1814._--Sir Thomas Graham had
landed 6,000 men on October 7, 1813, in S. Beveland, in order to
combine with the Prussians to drive the French from Holland.

On March 8, 1814, he led 4,000 British troops against Bergen op
Zoom. They were formed into four columns, of which two were to
attack the fortifications at different points; the third to make a
false attack; the fourth to attack the entrance of the harbour,
which is fordable at low water.

The first, led by Major-General Cooke, incurred some delay in
passing the ditch on the ice, but at length established itself on
the rampart.

The right column, under Major-General Skerret and Brigadier-General
Gore, had forced their way into the body of the place, but the fall
of General Gore and the dangerous wounds of Skerret caused the
column to fall into disorder and suffer great loss in killed,
wounded, and prisoners. The centre column was driven back by the
heavy fire of the place, but re-formed and marched round to join
General Cooke. At daybreak the enemy turned the guns of the place
on the unprotected rampart and much loss and confusion ensued.
General Cooke, despairing of success, directed the retreat of the
Guards, and, finding it impossible to withdraw his weak battalions,
he saved the lives of his remaining men by surrender.

The Governor of Bergen op Zoom agreed to a suspension of
hostilities for an exchange of prisoners. The killed were computed
at 300, prisoners, 1,800.--ED.

LETTER XIII.

HAGUE, _August 4, 1814._

Sterne pities the man who could go from Dan to Beersheba and say that
all was barren, and I must pity the man who travels from Bergen op Zoom
to Amsterdam and says that Holland, with all its flatness, is