Ath reminded me of the wars of
King William III and my Uncle Toby's sieges.[9] There was so little
remarkable to be seen at Ath that we proceeded to this place shortly after
breakfast and arrived at one o'clock, it being only ten miles distance
between Ath and Leuze.
We took up our quarters with Major-General Adam, who
commands the Light Brigade of General Sir H. Clinton's division. This
brigade is quartered here and in the adjacent farmhouses. General Adam,
though he has attained his rank at a very early age, is far more fitted for
it than many of our older generals, some of whom (I speak from experience)
have few ideas beyond the fixing of a button or lappel, or polishing a
belt, and who place the whole Ars recondita of military discipline in
pipe-clay, heel-ball and the goose step. Fortunately for this army, the
Duke of Wellington has too much good sense to be a martinet and the good
old times are gone by, thank God, when a soldier used to be sentenced to
two or three hundred lashes for having a dirty belt or being without a
queue. To the Duke of York also is humanity much indebted for his
endeavours to check the frequency of corporal punishment. The Duke of York,
with all his zeal for the service, never loses sight of the comfort of the
soldier and is indefatigable in his exertions to ameliorate his conditions.
We had a pleasant dinner party at General Adam's, and at night I went to
sleep at the house occupied by Captain C., one of the aides-de-camp of the
General,[10] an active, intelligent officer who had formerly served in the
marines, which service he had quitted in order to enter the regular army.
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