, I think I am fairly qualified to speak of their
merits."

We followed the enemy until dark, when, after having taken up our
ground and lit our fires, they rather maliciously opened a cannonade
upon us; but, as few of their shots took effect, we did not put
ourselves to the inconvenience of moving, and they soon desisted.

We continued in pursuit daily, until we finally arrived on the banks
of the Garonne, opposite Toulouse. The day after our arrival an
attempt was made, by our engineers, to throw a bridge across the
river, above the town; and we had assembled one morning, to be in
readiness to pass over, but they were obliged to abandon it for want
of the necessary number of pontoons, and we returned again to
quarters.

We were stationed, for several days, in the suburb of St. Ciprien,
where we found ourselves exceedingly comfortable. It consisted chiefly
of the citizens' country houses, and an abundance of the public tea
and fruit accommodations, with which every large city is surrounded,
for the temptation of Sunday parties; and, as the inhabitants had all
fled hurriedly into town, leaving their cellars, generally speaking,
well stocked with a tolerable kind of wine, we made ourselves at home.

It was finally determined that the passage of the river should be
tried below the town, and, preparatory thereto, we took ground to our
left, and got lodged in the chateau of a rich old West-India-man. He
was a tall ramrod of a fellow, upwards of six feet high, withered to a
cinder, and had a pair of green eyes, which looked as if they belonged
to somebody else, who was looking through his eye-holes; but, despite
his imperfections, he had got a young wife, and she was nursing a
young child. The "Green Man" (as we christened him) was not, however,
so bad as he looked; and we found our billet such a good one, that
when we were called away to fight, after a few days' residence with
him, I question, if left to our choice, whether we would not have
rather remained where we were!

A bridge having, at length, been established, about a league below the
town, two British divisions passed over; but the enemy, by floating
timber and other things down the stream, succeeded in carrying one or
two of the pontoons from their moorings, which prevented any more from
crossing either that day or the succeeding one. It was expected that
the French would have taken advantage of this circumstance, to attack
the two divisions on the other sid