own terms. Having such an army on foot, what line of policy
could appear so natural or so judicious as that she should
employ, if not the whole, at all events a large proportion of it,
in chastising an enemy, than whom none had ever proved more
vindictive or more ungenerous? Our view of the matter accordingly
was, that some fifteen or twenty thousand men would be forthwith
embarked on board of ship and transported to the other side of
the Atlantic; that the war would there be carried on with a
vigour conformable to the dignity and resources of the country
which waged it; and that no mention of peace would be made till
our general should be in a situation to dictate its conditions in
the enemy's capital.

Whether any design of the kind was ever seriously entertained, or
whether men merely asserted as a truth what they earnestly
desired to be such, I know not; but the white flag had hardly
been hoisted on the citadel of Bayonne, when a rumour became
prevalent that an extensive encampment of troops, destined for
the American war, was actually forming in the vicinity of
Bordeaux. A variety of causes led me to anticipate that the
corps to which I was attached would certainly be employed upon
that service. In the progress of the war which had been just
brought to a conclusion, we had not suffered so severely as many
other corps; and though not excelling in numbers, it is but
justice to affirm that a more effective or better organized
battalion could not be found in the whole army. We were all,
moreover, from our commanding officer down to the youngest
ensign, anxious to gather a few more laurels, even in America;
and we had good reason to believe that those in power were not
indisposed to gratify our inclinations. Under these