The Barns Are All Burned Down, And In The Court-Yard It Is Said
They Have Been Obliged To Burn Upwards Of A Thousand Carcases, An Awful
Holocaust To The War-Demon.
As nothing is more distressing than the sight of human misery when we are
unable to silence it, I returned as speedily as possible to Bruxelles with
Cowper's lines in my head:
War is a game, which, were their subjects wise,
Kings should not play at.
I hope this battle will, at any rate, lead to a speedy peace.
June 28.
We have no other news from the Allied Army, except that they are moving
forward with all possible celerity in the direction of Paris. You may form
a guess of the slaughter and of the misery that the wounded must have
suffered, and the many that must have perished from hunger and thirst, when
I tell you that all the carriages in Bruxelles, even elegant private
equipages, landaulets, barouches and berlines, have been put in requisition
to remove the wounded men from the field of battle to the hospitals, and
that they are yet far from being all brought in. The medical practitioners
of the city have been put in requisition, and are ordered to make
domiciliary visits at every house (for each habitation has three or four
soldiers in it) in order to dress the wounds of the patients. The
Bruxellois, the women in particular, have testified the utmost humanity
towards the poor sufferers. It was suggested by some humane person that
they who went to see the field of battle from motives of curiosity would do
well to take with them bread, wine and other refreshments to distribute
among the wounded, and most people did so. For my part I shall not go a
second time. Napoleon, it is said, narrowly escaped being taken. His
carriage fell into the hands of the Allies, and was escorted in triumph
into Bruxelles by a detachment of dragoons. So confident was Napoleon of
success that printed proclamations were found in the carriage dated from
"Our Imperial Palace at Laecken," announcing his victory and the liberation
of Belgium from the insatiable coalition, and wherein he calls on the
Belgians to re-unite with their old companions in arms in order to reap the
fruits of their victory. This was certainly rather premature, and reminds
me of an anecdote of a Spanish officer at the siege of Gibraltar, related
by Drinkwater in his narrative of that siege.[17] When the British garrison
made a sortie, they carried the advanced Spanish lines and destroyed all
their preparations; the Spanish officer on guard at the outermost post was
killed, but on the table of his guard room was found his guard report
filled up and signed, stating that "nothing extraordinary had happened
since guard-mounting."
Mr L. of Northumberland, having proposed to me to make a tour with him to
Aix-la-Chapelle and the banks of the Rhine, I shall start with him in a day
or two.
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