636 SKETCHES IN THE TRENCHES. 



confusion and panic among the working parties. But the night 

 passed off without even a demonstration the French prosecuted 

 their labours with an admirable ardour, marked by their national 

 gaiety of character. Bon mots and military sallies succeeded each 

 other, in a low tone of voice, almost as regularly as the blows of 

 their pickaxes. During the night Marshal Gerard, accompanied by 

 the Dukes d'Orleans and de Nemours, appeared in the trenches : 

 their presence added singularly to the general satisfaction, and pro- 

 duced a prodigious effect. But, for the sake of truth, we must say 

 that they were not, as it was said in the columns of The Times, re- 

 ceived with loud acclamations, from this very obvious reason, that no 

 acclamations are allowed to be uttered under such circumstances. 



The regiments specially charged with the attack were encamped 

 very near the citadel the others occupied the villages in the rear, 

 from which they pushed forward their detachments, almost under 

 the guns of the place. Every regiment in turn took its station in 

 the trenches, and shared in the labours of the siege, which were 

 numerous and fatiguing. In the environs, the smallest cottage was 

 crammed with soldiers : a door still standing a window, with only 

 half its panes of glass broken a roof, which the projectiles of the 

 enemy had not pierced in several places, were objects of luxury. In 

 the centre of a beautiful grass plat, in an elegant saloon, stripped of 

 all its portable ornaments, at the foot of a mutilated statue, you might 

 behold a bivouac fire, surrounded by immense marmites filled with 

 potatoes, cauliflowers and celery, borrowed from the proprietors of 

 the abandoned gardens. The greatest activity, that noisy, indefa- 

 tigable military activity of which no adequate idea can be formed, 

 prevailed on every side. The different routes leading to the citadel 

 were crowded with detachments of every arm. At one moment a 

 staff officer, or an orderly, would gallop past you ; at another you 

 heard the deep lumbering roll of heavy guns, or the more measured 

 tread of infantry, varied but too often by the groans of the wounded 

 whom they were transporting to the " ambulance," established in 

 those country houses that were situated beyond the range of fire. In 

 the trenches, in the batteries, at the most dangerous posts, the most 

 serious affair was treated as a joke. Everything was laughed at 

 even the manner in which some poor unfortunate devil was hit ; but 

 on the other hand, every succour was immediately lavished upon him 

 by his comrades. So true it is, that in the camp a lofty indifference 

 to personal danger is closely allied to the noblest feelings of humanity. 



In Antwerp, there was a lack of merry faces ; for at the com- 

 mencement of the siege, the apprehension of a bombardment was 

 very general, and a few shells that fell by accident and exploded in 

 the streets, producing some casualties, were riot calculated to re-assure 

 the inhabitants. The aspect of this beautiful old city was gloomy in 

 the extreme; the silence of its streets contrasting forcibly with their 

 quondam bustling activity. The spacious quays that used to be 

 covered with the rich productions of every clime, were bristling with 

 batteries; the shops and every public establishment, with the excep- 

 tion of the hotels, which swarmed with foreign officers and amateurs, 

 come to study the operations of the siege, were shut ; but towards its 



