anges which a quarter of a century of rapine and
conquest had produced in the arrangements of general society,
ceased, as if by magic, to be felt, or at least to be acknowledged.
It seemed, indeed, as if all which had been passing during the
last twenty or thirty years, had passed not in reality,
but in a dream; so perfectly unlooked for were the issues of
a struggle, to which, whatever light we may regard it,
the history of the whole world presents no parallel.

At the period above alluded to, it was the writer's fortune to
form one of a body of persons in whom the unexpected cessation of
hostilities may be supposed to have excited sensations more
powerful and more mixed than those to which the common
occurrences of life are accustomed to give birth. He was then
attached to that portion of the Peninsular army to which the
siege of Bayonne had been intrusted; and on the 28th of April
beheld, in common with his comrades, the tri-coloured flag,
which, for upwards of two months, had waved defiance from the
battlements, give place to the ancient drapeau blanc of the
Bourbons. That such a spectacle could be regarded by any
British soldier without stirring up in him strong feelings of
national pride and exultation, is not to be imagined. I believe,
indeed, that there was not a man in our ranks, however humble his
station, to whose bosom these feelings were a stranger. But the
excitation of the moment having passed away, other and no less
powerful feelings succeeded; and they were painful, or the
reverse, according as they ran in one or other of the channels
into which the situations and prospects of individuals not
unnaturally guided them. By such as had been long absent from
their homes, the idea of enjoying once more the society of
friends and relatives, was hailed with a degree of delight too
engrossing to afford room for the occurrence of any other
anticipations; to those who had either no homes to look to, or
had quitted them only a short time ago, the thoughts of
revisiting England came mixed with other thoughts, little
gratifying, because at variance with all their dreams of
advancement and renown. For my own part I candidly confess, that
though I had just cause to look forward to a return to the bosom
of my family with as much satisfaction as most men, the
restoration of peace excited in me sensations of a very equivocal
nature. At the age of eighteen, and still enthusiastically
attached to my profession,