fair was entrusted to certain General officers who were unfortunately
killed in the beginning of the action; that no precautions appear to
have been provided against such accidents, and no remedy applied to the
confusion thereby created--the Columns knew not what to do, each on
gaining its point possibly waiting for orders to proceed; that the
darkness increased the confusion--in short, that "the right hand knew
not what the left hand did," and that the French acted with incomparable
bravery and skill. It should be added that most of their troops were
conscripts. It is an ugly story altogether, and I shall say no more. A
sketch of the works in and near the Antwerp gate will give you some idea
of the spot which has proved the grave of so many fine officers and men.
At 4 o'clock we quitted the town for Breda--the greatest part of the
road inexorably flat and uninteresting; but what is lost in the country
is gained in the Towns, villages, and people--they are _sui generis_.
For 3 hours did we toil through a deep sand between parallel lines of
willows of the same size, shape, and dimensions; then for 3 hours more
did we proceed at a foot pace over a common; this brought us to Breda
just in time for the gates, through which we trotted to the usual rattle
of drawbridges, chains, &c. By the bright light of the moon at night and
earliest dawn of the following morning we rambled through the streets.
Breda was one of the last towns which got rid of its French garrison
without a siege; it departed one night without beat of drum, and the
Cossacks came in to breakfast, leaving the trembling inhabitants to
doubt whether in escaping Scylla they were not approaching Charybdis.
However, they behaved tolerably well. "Did they pillage?" said I to a
Breda lady who travelled with us in the Diligence. "Oh non," she
replied; "seulement quelque fois ils prenaient des choses sans payer."
Thus a Cossack comes into a Shop, makes signs he wants some Cloth. The
Dutchman, delighted with the idea of accommodating a new purchaser,
takes down his best pieces. The Cossack looks them over, fixes on one,
takes it up, pops it under his arm, and walks off, leaving the
astonished vendor gaping behind his counter to meditate on the Profits
of this new verbal ceremony.

After the Cossacks came the Prussians, who remained a long time and were
little better than the French--they lodged in free quarters, domineered
without mercy, and paid for nothing. All the Prus