MAY-JUNE, 1815

Passage from Ceylon to England--Napoleon's return--Ostend--Bruges--Ghent--
The King of France at Mass--Alost--Bruxelles--The Duke of Wellington very
confident--Feelings of the Belgians--Good conduct of British
troops--Monuments in Bruxelles--Theatricals--Genappe and Namur--Complaints
against the Prussian troops--Mons--Major-General Adam--Tournay--A French
deserter--General Clinton's division--Cavalry review--The Duke de
Berri--Back to Bruxelles--Unjust opinions about Napoleon and the
French--Battle at Ligny--The day of Waterloo in Bruxelles--Visit to the
battlefield--Terrible condition of the wounded--Kindness of the Bruxellois.


BRUXELLES, May 1, 1815.

I proceed to the fulfilment of my promise, to give you from time to time
the details of my tour, and my reflections on the circumstances that occur
at this momentous crisis.

To me, who have spent the greatest part of my life out of Europe, the whole
scene is so new that I am quite bewildered with it; and you will, I am
afraid, as I write on the impulse of the moment, find my ideas at times
rather incoherently put together. What changes have taken place in Europe
within the last two years! and how great were those which occurred during
the interval of my passage from Ceylon last year, which island I quitted
about the time that we received in that part of the world intelligence of
the battle of Leipsic! Having had a long passage from distant Taprobane, it
was only on my arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, that I learned, to my
utter astonishment, the news of the capitulation of Paris to the allied