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After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819. William Edward Frye
Читать онлайн.Название After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819
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isbn 4064066244941
Автор произведения William Edward Frye
Жанр Книги о Путешествиях
Издательство Bookwire
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.
[1] Sir Wiltshire Wilson (1762–1842), Commander of the Royal Artillery in Ceylon, 1810–1815.—Ed.
[2] Pulci, Morgante, canto XVIII, ottava 114–115. The Giant Morgante meets the villain Margutte and asks him if he be a Christian or a Saracen. Margutte answers that he cares not, but only believes in boiled or in roasted capon:
Rispose allor Margutte: A dirtel tosto
Io non credo pio al nero ch'all' azzurro.
Ma nel cappone, o lesso, o vuogll arrosto. …
[3] Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, iv, 63, f.—ED.
[4] A work of H, Verbruggen of Antwerp (1677).—ED.
[5] Lord Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury, caused this fountain to be erected in 1751, as a token of gratitude to the town of Bruxelles where he had lived in exile.—E.D.
[6] Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville (1741–1811), elevated to the peerage in 1802.—ED.
[7] Xenophon, Education of Cyrus, II, 4, 4.—ED.
[8] Astley's Amphitheatre, near Westminster Bridge.—ED.
[9] Uncle Toby, in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.—ED.
[10] Lieutenant R.P. Campbell, aide-de-camp to Major-General Adam.—ED.
[11] In May, 1815, the officer commanding-in-chief at Tournai was General-Major A.C. Van Diermen.—ED.
[12] Karl Friedrich Ludwig Moritz, Fürst zu Ysenburg-Bierstein (1766–1820), took service with Austria (1784), with Prussia (1804), and later with Napoleon (1806), who commissioned him as brigadier-general. The shameless conduct of this officer is exposed by B. Poten, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. XLIV, p. 611.—ED.
[13] The battle at Ligny was fought on June 16.—ED.
[14] The facts and dates here given are of course inaccurate; but this proves that Major Frye wrote his text in the very midst of the crisis, and that his manuscript has not been tampered with.—ED.
[15] Baron van Capellen, a Dutch statesman, was governor-general of the Belgian provinces, residing at Bruxelles. He was afterwards governor-general of Dutch India. Born in 1778, he died in 1848. His memoirs have been published in French by Baron Sirtema de Grovestins (1852), and contain an interesting passage on that momentous day, 18th June, 1815.—ED.
[16] Not before half past eleven.—ED.
[17] John Drinkwater, also called Bethune (1762–1844), published a well-known History of the Siege of Gibraltar, 1779–1783.—ED.
CHAPTER II
From Bruxelles to Liége—A priest's declamation against the French Revolution—Maastricht—Aix-la-Chapelle—Imperial relics—Napoleon regretted—Klingmann's "Faust"—A Tyrolese beauty—Cologne—Difficulties about a passport—The Cathedral—King-craft and priest-craft—The Rhine—Bonn and Godesberg—Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen"—The Seven Mountains—German women—Andernach—Ehrenbreitstein—German hatred against France—Coblentz—Intrigues of the Bourbon princes in Coblentz—Mayence—Bieberich—Conduct of the Allies towards Napoleon—Frankfort on the Mayn—An anecdote about Lord Stewart and Lafayette—German poetry—The question of Alsace and Lorraine—Return to Bruxelles—Napoleon's surrender.
LIÉGE, June 26.
Mr. L. and myself started together in the diligence from Bruxelles at seven o'clock in the evening of the 24th inst. and arrived here yesterday morning at twelve o'clock. I experienced considerable difficulty in procuring a passport to quit Bruxelles, my name having been included in that of General Wilson, which he carried back with him to England. Our Ambassador was absent, and I was bandied about from bureau to bureau without success; so that I began at last to think that I should be necessitated to remain at Bruxelles all my life, when fortunately it occurred to Mr. L. that he was intimately acquainted with the English Consul, and he kindly undertook to procure me one and succeeded. On arrival here we put up at the Pommelette d'Or. The price of a place in the diligence from Bruxelles to Liége is fifteen franks. We passed thro' Louvain, but too late to see anything. The country about Liége is extremely striking and picturesque; the river Meuse flows thro' the city, and the banks of the river outside the town are very riants and agreeable. Liége is a large, well-built city, but rather gloomy as to its appearance, and lies in a hollow completely surrounded by lofty hills. The remains of its ancient citadel stand on a height which completely commands the city; on another height stands a monastery, a magnificent building. There are a great many coal-pits in the vicinity of Liége, and a great commerce of coals is carried on between this city and Holland by the treckschuyte on the Meuse. We visited the ancient Episcopal palace and the Churches. The Palace is completely dismantled. This city suffered much during the revolt of the Belgian provinces against the Emperor Joseph II, and having distinguished itself by the obstinacy of its defence, it was treated with great rigour by the Austrian Government. The fortifications were blown up, and nothing now remains on the site of the old citadel but a large barrack. I remained two whole hours on this height to contemplate the beauties of the expanse below. The banks of the river, which meanders much in these parts, and the numerous maisons de campagne with the public promenades and allées lined with trees, exhilarate the scene of the environs, for the city itself is dull enough. Several pretty villas are situated also on the heights, and were I to dwell here I should choose one of them and seldom descend into the valley and city below,
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