LITMIR.BIZ

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miles. The road from Bruges to Ghent or Gand is perfectly straight, lined with trees and paved like a street. The country is quite flat, and though there is nothing to bound the horizon, the trees on each side of the road intercept the view.

      We arrived at Ghent about six in the afternoon of the 4th and had some difficulty in finding room, as the different hotels were filled with officers of the allied army; but at length, after many ineffectual applications at several, we obtained admission at the Hotel de Flandre, where we took possession of a double-bedded room, the only one unoccupied.

      Gand seems to be a very neat, clean and handsome city, with an air of magnificence about it. The Grande Place is very striking, and the promenades are aligned with trees. We inspected the exterior of several public buildings and visited the interior of several churches. In the cathedral we had the honour of seeing at High Mass his most Christian Majesty, Monsieur and the Comte de Blacas, Vicomte de Chateaubriand and others, composing the Court of notre Père de Gand, as Louis XVIII is humorously termed by the French, from his having fixed his head-quarters here. A great many French officers who have followed his fortunes are also here, but they seem principally to belong to the Gardes du Corps. A number of military attended the service in the cathedral in order to witness the devotions of the Bourbon family. Monsieur has all the appearance of a worn out debauchee, and to see him with a missal in his hand and the strange contrite face he assumes, is truly ridiculous. These princes, instigated no doubt by the priests, make a great parade of their sanctity, for which however those who are acquainted with their character will not give them much credit. But religious cant is the order of the day intra et extra Iliacos muros, abroad as well as in England. The King of France takes the lead, having in view no doubt the advice of Buckingham to Richard III:

      A pray'r book in your hand, my Lord, were well,

       For on that ground I'll make an holy descant.

      and M. de Chateaubriand will no doubt trumpet forth the devotion and Christian humility of his master. Those, however, who are at all acquainted with this prince's habits, and are not interested in palliating or concealing them, insinuate that his devotions at the table are more sincere than at the altar and that, like the Giant Margutte in the Morgante Maggiore of Pulci, he places more faith and reliance on a cappone lesso ossia arrosto than on the consecrated but less substantial wafer.[2]

      After contemplating this edifying spectacle, we returned to our inn, and the next morning after breakfast we set out on our journey to Bruxelles. The road is exactly similar to that between Bruges and Gand, but the country appears to be richer and more diversified, and many country houses were observable on the road side. We passed thus several neat villages. At one o'clock we stopped at Alost to refresh our horses and dine. At the table d'hôte were a number of French officers belonging to the Gardes du Corps. On entering into conversation with one of them, I found that he as well as several others of them had served under Napoleon, and had even been patronised and promoted by him; but I suppose that being the sons of the ancient noblesse they thought that gratitude to a parvenu like him was rather too plebeian a virtue. Some of them, however, with whom I conversed after dinner seemed to regret the step they had taken. "If we are successful," said they, "it can only be by means of the Allied Armies, and who knows what conditions they may impose on France? If we should be unsuccessful, we are exiled probably for life from our country." During dinner, two pretty looking girls with musical instruments entered the hall, and regaled our ears with singing some romances, among which were Dunois le Troubadour and La Sentinelle. They sang with much taste and feeling. I surmise this is not the only profession they exercise, if I might judge from the doux yeux they occasionally directed to some of the officers. These girls did not at least seem by their demeanour as if likely to incur the anathema of Rinaldo in the Orlando Furioso:

      meritamente muoro Una crudele,

      but rather more disposed to

      dar vita all'amator fidele.[3]

      Alost is a neat, clean town or large village, and the same description will serve for all the towns and villages in Brabant and Flanders, as they are built on the same plan. We arrived at Bruxelles late in the evening and put up at the Hotel d'Angleterre.

      This morning, the General and myself went to pay our respects to the Gran Capitano of the Holy League, and we left our cards. He is, I hear, very confident of the result of the campaign, and no doubt he has for him the prayers of all the pious in England against those atheistical fellows the French; and these prayers will surely elicit a "host of angels" to come down to aid in the destruction of the Pandemonium of Paris where Satan's lieutenant sits enthroned. The reflecting people here are astonished that Napoleon does not begin the attack. The inhabitants of Belgium are in general, from all that I can hear or see, not at all pleased with the present order of things, and they much lament the being severed from France. The two people, the Belgians and Hollanders, do not seem to amalgamate; and the former, though they render ample justice to the moderation, good sense, and beneficent intentions of the present monarch, who is personally respected by every one, yet do not disguise their wish to be reunited to France and do not hesitate to avow their attachment to the Emperor Napoleon. This union does not please the Hollanders either, on other grounds. They complain that their interests have been sacrificed entirely to those of the house of Orange, and they say that from the readiness they displayed in shaking off the yoke of France, and the great weight they thereby threw into the scale, they were entitled to the restitution of all their colonies in Asia, Africa, and America. The colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon are what they most regret; for these colonies in particular furnished ample employment and the means of provision for the cadets of patrician families. If you tell them they have acquired the Belgic provinces as an indemnification, they answer: "So much the worse for us, for now the patronage of the colonial offices must be divided between us and the Belgians."

      The preparations for the grand conflict about to take place are carried on with unabating activity; the conscription is rigorously enforced and every youth capable of bearing arms is enrolled. Almost all the officers of the Belgian army and a great proportion of the soldiery have served with the French and have been participators of their laurels; one cannot therefore suppose that they are actuated by any very devouring zeal against their former commander; nor have I found amongst the shop-keepers or respectable people with whom I have conversed, and who have been falsely represented as having suffered much from the tyranny of Napoleon, any who dislike either his person or government, and certainly none either high or low express the cannibal wish that I heard some English country gentlemen and London merchants utter for the destruction of Paris and of the French people, nor would it be easy to find here men of the humane and generous sentiments professed by some of our aldermen and contractors when they welcomed with ferocious acclamations of joy and were ready to embrace the Baschkir or Cossack who told them that he had slaughtered so many French with his own hand; nor would the ladies here be so eager to kiss old Blucher as was the case in London.

      This city is filled with British and Hanoverian troops. Their conduct is exemplary, nor is any complaint made against them. The Highland regiments are however the favourites of the Bruxellois, and the inhabitants give them the preference as lodgers. They are extremely well behaved (they say, when speaking of the Highlanders) and they cheerfully assist the different families on whom they are quartered in their household labour. This reflects a good deal of credit on the gallant sons of Caledonia. Their superior morality to those of the same class either in England or in Ireland must strike every observer, and must, in spite of all that the Obscuranten or Chevaliers de l'Eteignoir and others who wish to check the progress of the human mind may urge to the contrary, be mainly attributed to the general prevalence of education a la portée de tout le monde. Wherever the people are enlightened there is less crime; ignorance was never yet the safeguard of virtue. As for myself I honour and esteem the Scottish nation and I must say that I have found more liberal ideas and more sound philosophy among individuals of that nation than among those of any other, and it is a tribute I owe to them loudly to proclaim my sentiments; for though personal gratitude may seem to influence me a little on this subject, yet I should never think of putting forth my opinion in public, were it not founded on an impartial observation of the character of this enterprising and persevering people. A woman who

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