FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  
rceived, had he wheeled up into line, the fearful interval he had left between his own and the next battalion on the left. After the review had finished we repaired to the chateau of the Prince de Ligne, then occupied by Lieut.-General Sir H. Clinton, to partake of a breakfast given by him and his lady. On the breaking up of the breakfast party, General Wilson and myself remained at the chateau to dine with General Adam _al fresco_ in the garden under the trees. The palace and garden of the Prince de Ligne are both very magnificent. The latter is of great extent, but too regular, too much in the Dutch taste to please me. Little or no furniture is in the palace; but there are some family pictures and a theatre fitted up in one of the halls for the purpose of private theatricals. In the garden is a monument erected by the late Prince de Ligne to one of his sons, Charles by name, who was killed in the Russian service at the siege of Ismail. The present prince is a minor and resides at Bruxelles. GRAMMONT, May 18. We left Leuze yesterday afternoon and arrived here at seven in the evening in order to be present at the cavalry review the next morning. We partook of an elegant supper given to us by our friend, Major Grant of the 18th Hussars, and we were much entertained and enlivened by the effusions of his brilliant genius and inexhaustible wit. The whole cavalry of the British army passed in review this morning before the Duke of Wellington, who was there with all his staff and received the salutes of all the corps like Godfrey, _con volto placido e composto_. It was a very brilliant spectacle. The Duke de Berri was present. I think I never beheld so ignoble and disagreeable a countenance as this prince possesses. I thought to myself that he had much better have stayed away from this review; for he must be insensible to all patriotism who could take pleasure in contemplating a foreign force about to enter and ravage his own country. We learn that the Duchess d'Angouleme is to have a review of the _fideles_ very shortly. She is certainly much more warlike than the males of that family; this disposition is increased by her religious fanaticism. This renders her, of course, a most dangerous person to meddle with politics; but great allowances must be made for her feelings, which must naturally be embittered by the recollection of so much suffering during the Revolution and of the barbarous and inhuman treatment experien
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48  
49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
review
 

General

 

Prince

 

present

 
garden
 
palace
 

brilliant

 
cavalry
 

morning

 

prince


family

 

breakfast

 
chateau
 

spectacle

 
composto
 
placido
 

beheld

 

disagreeable

 
countenance
 

ignoble


naturally

 

recollection

 

embittered

 
passed
 

treatment

 
inhuman
 

British

 

experien

 

inexhaustible

 

Wellington


barbarous

 

suffering

 
possesses
 

Godfrey

 

Revolution

 

received

 
salutes
 
Angouleme
 

fideles

 

shortly


genius

 

Duchess

 

dangerous

 

renders

 
warlike
 

increased

 
religious
 

fanaticism

 
country
 

ravage