THE PLEASURES OP MILITARY SOCIETY. 



THE quiet inhabitants of an English country town have been fur- 

 nished with matter of complaint for months, by the mere transit of a 

 regiment of militia. Soldiers have been denounced as positive pests, 

 for entering the houses where they had been billetted, without scrap- 

 ing their feet ; and their clothes smelling of filthy tobacco, was hardly 

 endurable. What would our delicate-minded friends have said, if 

 their town had been in the route of a Russian division, when their 

 houses would be no longer their own when it would require all 

 their address to secure themselves from insult arid disgrace, and their 

 property from destruction ? It has been my fortune to witness a few 

 scenes attendant on military occupation appalling scenes they were, 

 many of them : some, indeed, though unpleasant enough, yet pos- 

 sessing a spice of the ludicrous. 



Falling into possession of a large property in Germany, not a very 

 great distance from Leipsic ; and being pleased with its situation and 

 advantages, I became naturalized in the country, and resided on my 

 estate. I am speaking now of a period anterior to the last great war. 

 I witnessed the triumphant march of the Corsican conqueror, with his 

 glittering array of hundreds of thousands, into the land of the Mus- 

 covite and I saw some of them return! I beheld the bloody fight of 

 Leipsic, and saw the fair fields of Germany covered with the locust 

 swarm of barbarian victors ! 



The house belonging to my estate might be called a chateau ; for it 

 was large enough for the occupation of a nobleman's retinue, and 

 possessed all the advantages requisite. Sometimes, however, I have 

 found it too small for my numerous guests ; for I recollect once hav- 

 ing eighty-eight men quartered upon me, with three officers ! Of 

 course I shared in this kind of favours with the rest of my neighbours, 

 and contrived to get over them as decently as possible. With the 

 French I had but little difficulty ; but with the Russians God pro- 

 tect me from the Russians ! The former came as enemies, the latter 

 as friends yet rather would I welcome fifty such foes, than claim 

 one such ally. A civil word and a shew of hospitality would insure 

 the good- will of a Frenchman but nothing could satisfy the brutal 

 cupidity of the barbarian of Muscovy. Like Robinson Crusoe, when 

 I once saw the foot-print of the savage within my gates, I was in- 

 stantly on the qui vive. 



On one occasion it happened, that for some time we had been tole- 

 rably quiet ; and, remote as we were, knowing little of what was 

 passing in the great world, we began to entertain hopes of a consi- 

 derable respite. I promised myself a few days shooting, as a holi- 

 day ; and leaving my house to my steward, Belliard, and taking with 

 one a faithful servant, I set out on my expedition. Many hours, how - 

 ever, had not elapsed since our departure, when the attention of my 

 man was excited by the appearance of a body of cavalry in the 

 -distance. We watched them attentively, and found they had de- 

 bouched from a path in the wood, and entered on the high road. 



