618 A Day at the Camp of St. Omer. [DEC. 



dious looking persons just named, are sitting, or rather spreading their lank 

 forms abroad in all directions, a company of paysans from some of the 

 neighbouring villages, lingering over their second bottle of Eierre Mottss- 

 euse, with an empty gravity peculiar (in this country at least) to the class 

 to which they belong. The next table is occupied by a knot of persons 

 who evidently belong to the bourgeoisie of St. Omer ; we may safely fix 

 their residence at that town, for there is no other within several miles of the 

 camp ; and to suppose that a French shopkeeper would take the trouble of 

 going a dozen miles from home to see " a sight," would be to do him great 

 injustice. It is true, " shews " are as necessary to the French people aa 

 " bread :" but they must be brought home to their doors, or go unattended 

 to. Though it costs but a few sous to go from Dunkirk to St. Omer by 

 the barque that navigates the canal, not half-a-dozen additional passengers 

 arrived by it, during the two days previous to that on which was to take 

 place, what everybody said (and truly), would be one of the finest sights 

 of its kind that ever was witnessed ! If the same scene had taken place on 

 Salisbury Plain, all the idle and half the busy of London, would have been 

 there to see it. 



But what is that bustle at the bar, and at the door of the salon, whic h 

 attracts the attention of all the above-named parties, and silences for a 

 moment even the indefatigable tongues of the ecarte players themselves ? 

 It must be the arrival of nothing less than either the king, or a coach- 

 load of English ladies and their chaperons. It is the latter I see where 

 they enter, attended by a rustling of silks, a flapping of Leghorn bonnets, 

 and a flying about of whispers, that for the moment arrest all other sounds. 

 -.They cannot of course breakfast in the public salon ; for, whatever the 

 younger members of the party may think, there is an elderly one who 

 insists that it would be highly " indecorous/' And luckily the entrepreneur 

 of the place has anticipated the arrival of such guests, and has provided for 

 them a cabinet particulier, into which they are presently ushered ; and 

 for the next ten minutes all is preparation for their refection. But, hark ! 

 the drum is beating to roll-call ; so that we have no more time to spend 

 upon collateral matters, but must turn our attention, at once, to those grand 

 military movements which chiefly brought us here to-day, and which aro 

 now about to commence. 



The manoauvresof the day are to consist of a general attack and defence 

 of the camp, the attacking party consisting of a large body of troops 

 which are stationed at St. Omer, arid the neighbouring villages; and the 

 defending one, the encamped troops themselves. The latter are now all 

 drawn up in line, in front of their encampment; end the magnitude of the 

 after movements of the day may be judged of by the fact, that though the 

 plain on which the defending troops are drawn up, is nearly a dead level, 

 the extremities of the line cannot be distinguished by spectators standing 

 opposite the centre. In order to gain any thing like a clear and intelli- 

 gible notion of what we are now to see, we must take the pains to imagine 

 something of what we do not see. It will be worth while for us to do so ; 

 since by this means the scene will be made to differ in no material respect 

 (but its innocence of bloodshed) from the one which it is intended to repre- 

 sent. The encamped troops then, are supposed to have been called to 

 arms, from information just received that the enemy is approaching to 

 attack the camp : and as soon as they have been drawn up in line, as wo 

 have just seen them, they are marched off, drums beating ond colours flying, 

 to await and repel the attack in the plain below, Following the last of 



