r were gathered; what
bold hearts; what high hopes; what indefatigable perseverance; what
accomplished intelligence! a force inferior to the one before me had
more than once changed the fate of the world. It might be now on its way
only to change that fate once more. The cause, too, was a noble one. It
was sustained by no aggression, perfidy, or desire of change. It was to
protect a friendly nation, and to sustain an inspired cause. There was
no taint of cruelty or crime to degrade the soldiership of England. We
were acting in the character which had already exalted her name as
protectors of the weak and punishers of the powerful.

On the second evening we reached the flat and uninteresting coast of
Holland. But if the coast was repellent, nothing could exceed the
eagerness of the inhabitants to welcome our arrival. On our first
approach to the land every boat that could swim came off, crowded with
people, some to take refuge on board the fleet, but thousands to urge
our speedy landing. The ferocious plunder which had become the principle
of the republican arms had stricken terror into the hearts of the
Hollanders: a people remarkably attached to home, and fond, or even
jealous, of the preservation of the most trivial article of property
connected with that home. The French troops, often pressed with hunger,
and adopting the desperate maxim of "making war support war," had
committed such wanton ruin of property in the Netherlands, that, at this
distance, the common effect of exaggeration described them as rather
demons than men.

War is of all things the most picturesque, and there never was a gala on
the waters of the Adriatic more gay or glittering than our landing. But
we had infinitely the advantage in the numbers, the brilliancy, and,
what gave a higher feeling to the whole, in the reality of all its
objects. This was no painted pageant; it was real strength, real
soldiership; the cannon that roared above our heads, as we descended
into the boats, were the thunderers which had shaken many a battlement;
the flotilla of launches, long-boats, and cutters which covered the sea,
was manned with the soldiers and sailors sent forth to fight the battle
of human freedom on every shore of the globe. The ships were that
British fleet whose name was synonymous with the noblest exploits of
war, and which it would have been well worth going round the
circumference of the globe to see.

On this night we bivouacked; the shore o