Arras is very strong, and, as I am told, the chef d'oeuvre
of Vauban; but placed with so little judgement, that the military call it
_la belle inutile_ [the useless beauty]. It is now uninhabited, and
wears an appearance of desolation--the commandant and all the officers of
the ancient government having been forced to abandon it; their houses
also are much damaged, and the gardens entirely destroyed.--I never heard
that this popular commotion had any other motive than the general war of
the new doctrines on the old.

I am sorry to see that most of the volunteers who go to join the army are
either old men or boys, tempted by extraordinary pay and scarcity of
employ. A cobler who has been used to rear canary-birds for Mad. de
____, brought us this morning all the birds he was possessed of, and told
us he was going to-morrow to the frontiers. We asked him why, at his
age, he should think of joining the army. He said, he had already
served, and that there were a few months unexpired of the time that would
entitle him to his pension.--"Yes; but in the mean while you may get
killed; and then of what service will your claim to a pension be?"--
_"N'ayez pas peur, Madame--Je me menagerai bien--on ne se bat pas pour ces
gueux la comme pour son Roi."_*

* "No fear of that, Madam--I'll take good care of myself: a man does
not fight for such beggarly rascals as these as he would for his
King."

M. de ____ is just returned from the camp of Maulde, where he has been to
see his son. He says, there is great disorder and want of discipline,
and that by some means or other the common soldiers abound more in money,
and game higher, than their officers. There are two young women,
inhabitants of the town of St. Amand, who go constantly out on all
skirmishing parties, exercise daily with the men, and have killed several
of the enemy. They are both pretty--one only sixteen, the other a year
or two older. Mr. de ____ saw them as they were just returning from a
reconnoitring party. Perhaps I ought to have been ashamed after this
recital to decline an invitation from Mr. de R___'s son to dine with him
at the camp; but I cannot but feel that I am an extreme coward, and that
I should eat with no appetite in sight of an Austrian army. The very
idea of these modern Camillas terrifies me--their creation seems an error
of nature.*

* Their name was Fernig; they were natives of St. Amand, and of no
remarkable orig