620 A. Day, at the Camp of St. Omer. [DEC. 



present a picture than which nothing can be more characteristic. The 

 incessant firing, too, both of musketry and artillery, and the ten-fold echoes 

 of it, all among the surrounding hills, complete the reality of the effect. 

 After the above scene has continued to attract, and fix the attention for 

 .another half hour, we gradually lose sight of all the troops, who take their 

 way (one party retreating, and the other following) round the base of the 

 hill. Following the slackening sound of their fire in the same direction, 

 but still keeping our commanding position on the heights on which the 

 camp is situated, we presently gain sight of another plain, still more exten- 

 sive than that on which the movements of the day commenced. The first 

 object that attracts the attention is, the brilliant body of horsemen who are 

 gallopping through the skirts of the village, on the left of the plain just 

 named, and have now gained the open country, and are making their way 

 towards a height that rises abruptly on the opposite side. This is the king 

 and his suite, who have hitherto been occupying some spot out of sight of 

 the spectators on the camp hill. By the time they have gained the height 

 opposite to that on which we are standing, the troops have defiled through 

 the village into the open plain ; and, in the course of half an hours inter- 

 regnum, the whole scene puts on a new appearance, and represents the pre- 

 paration for a general battle on level ground, in which the cavalry and 

 artillery are also brought into action. The first manoeuvre is more grand 

 and striking than anything we have seen yet, as it brings all the infantry 

 into view and action at the same moment. It consists of drawing up the 

 opposing parties in two lines, at musket -shot distance, and making each 

 receive the other's fire for a considerable space of time, during the whole 

 of which the artillery are also playing over the heads of their own party, 

 and upon that line which is posted nearest to where we stand. In the 

 midst of this scene the cavalry reach the field, and then, after a variety of 

 other movements, the effects of which, though very striking to look upon, 

 are not susceptible of a precise description, one of the parties forms itself 

 into those solid squares, of which we have heard so much in connection 

 with the battle of Waterloo. In this form, and with the angles of the 

 square turned towards the point at which the cavalry approach, they re- 

 ceive and repulse the charges of the latter, reserving their fire till the 

 cavalry reach to about half gun-shot distance, and then receiving them 

 with vollies which turn them at once. This movement is repeated many 

 times ; and nothing can be more beautiful in its way than the effect it 

 produces, seen from the height and distance at which the spectators are 

 placed. The bodies of cavalry form opposite to the solid squares, but at a 

 considerable distance, and advance towards them slowly at first, and in- 

 creasing their pace as they near; till, at rather more than about a gun-shot 

 distance, they press into a full gallop, and seem as if they were about to 

 overwhelm the little phalanxes upon which they are advancing. But as 

 the latter are on the point, as you expect, of being scattered in all direc- 

 tions by the seemingly resistless force that is bearing down upon them, vol- 

 lies of tire and smoke burst out from every point of their motionless body, 

 and the attacking party wheel round in an instant, and hasten to regain 

 their former position. This movement takes place in several parts of the 

 field at the same time ; and probably its effect on the distant spectator in 

 no material degree differs from that of the actual charges of the French 

 cuirassiers on the English infantry at Waterloo. 



The imitative movements of the day being now completed, the whole 

 body of the troops that have been engaged in them arc formed into columns 



