We Heard At The Inn And In The Shops Which We Visited The Same
Complaints Against The Prussians.
The country in the environs of this place
is exceedingly diversified, and it presents the first mountain scenery we
have yet met with.
The banks of the Meuse hereabouts present either an
abrupt precipice or coteaux covered with vines gently sloping to the
water's edge. Namur is distant thirty-four miles from Brussels, and there
is water conveyance on the Meuse from here to Liege and Maastricht.
MONS, May 14.
We started yesterday morning at four o'clock from Namur. The whole road
between Namur and Mons presents a fine, rich open country abounding in
wheat, but not many trees. We stopped to breakfast at Fleurus, at an inn
where there were some Prussian officers. One of them, a lieutenant in the
2nd West Prussian Regiment, had the kindness to conduct us to see the field
of battle where the French under Jourdan defeated the Austrians in 1794. It
is at a very short distance from the town; he explained the position of the
two armies in a manner perfectly clear and satisfactory to us. The Prussian
officers all seem very eager for the commencement of hostilities, and their
only fear is now that all these mighty preparations will end in nothing;
viz., either that the French people, alarmed at the magnitude of the
preparations against them, will compel the Emperor Napoleon to abdicate, or
that the Allies will grow cool and, under the influence of Austria, bring
about a negotiation which may end in a recognition of the Imperial title
and dynasty.
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