the remainder of
the five gallons of whiskey, in addition to his five-guinea grievance,
but I could not shake him out of it, although the mate and I tried,
alternately, for upwards of two hours; and indeed I never heard
whether he ever got out of it,--for when I found that they had to go
outside to find another passage up to Rotterdam, I did not think it
prudent to trust myself any longer in the hands of such artists, and,
taking leave of the sleeper, with a last ineffectual shake, I hired a
boat to take me through the passage in which we then were.

We started with a stiff fair wind, and the boatman assured me that we
should reach Rotterdam in less than five hours (forty miles); but it
soon lulled to a dead calm, which left us to the tedious operation of
tiding it up; and, to mend the matter, we had not a fraction of money
between us, nor any thing to eat or drink. I bore starvation all that
day and night, with the most christian-like fortitude; but, the next
morning, I could stand it no longer, and sending the boatman on shore,
to a neighbouring house, I instructed him either to beg or steal
something, whichever he should find the most prolific; but he was a
clumsy hand at both, and came on board again with only a very small
quantity of coffee. It, however, afforded some relief, and in the
afternoon we reached the town of Dort, and, on lodging my baggage in
pawn with a French inn-keeper, he advanced me the means of going on to
Rotterdam, where I got cash for the bill which I had on a merchant
there. Once more furnished with the "sinews of war," with my feet on
_terra firma_, I lost no time in setting forward to Antwerp, and from
thence to Brussels, when I had the happiness of rejoining my
battalion, which was then quartered in the city.

Brussels was, at this time, a scene of extraordinary preparation, from
the succession of troops who were hourly arriving, and in their
formation into brigades and divisions. We had the good fortune to be
attached to the brigade of our old and favourite commander, Sir James
Kempt, and in the fifth division, under Sir Thomas Picton. It was the
only division quartered in Brussels, the others being all towards the
French frontier, except the Duke of Brunswick's corps, which lay on
the Antwerp road.

CHAP. XX.

Relative Situation of the Troops. March from Brussels. The Prince
and the Beggar. Battle of Quatre-Bras.

As our division was composed of crack regiments, u