half a minute upon any of them. The tenderest heart became torpid and
insensible. One tale of woe followed on the heels of another,--"Such a
person too has been plundered!--Such an one's house has been set on
fire!--This man is cut in pieces; that has been transfixed with the
bayonet!--Those poor creatures are seeking their children!"--These were
the tidings brought by every new fugitive. If you asked the French when
the march would be over, you received the consolatory answer--"Not
before six o'clock in the morning." During the night the sound of drums
and trumpets incessantly announced the arrival of fresh regiments. At
length, about midnight, the bustle somewhat subsided, at least so far as
regarded the marching of troops. I now seized the favourable moment, and
felt myself as it were a new creature; when, having made my way through
the crowd of horses with extraordinary courage and dexterity, I once
more set foot in the city. _Thus the morning and the evening completed
the first day of horror._

Notwithstanding the unpleasant circumstances in which my curiosity had
involved me on the preceding day, I had in fact seen and heard nothing
as far as related to my principal object. It was no battle, but merely
an indecisive, though warm, affair. The first act of the piece concluded
with aft illumination extending farther than the eye could reach, and
occasioned by the innumerable watch-fires which were kindled in every
quarter, and gradually spread farther and farther, as the lines of the
bivouacking army were lengthened by the arrival of fresh columns. By way
of variety, the flames rising from a number of burning houses in the
distance formed as it were points of repose. Scarcely was the night over
when all eyes and ears were on the alert, in expectation that the
sanguinary scene would commence with the morning's dawn. All, however,
remained quiet. People, therefore, again ventured abroad, and there
thought themselves more secure than the preceding day, because they