Hsie to Antwerp at the Capitulation of 1833. 23 1 



sent occasion had added scarcely any thing to the extreme desolation of 

 the scene ; for, it should be remembered that all present damage done to these 

 buildings was accidental, and caused by such only of the French balls as 

 fell beyond their mark. But few shot, probably not half a dozen, struck 

 the more distant quarters of the town. The streets, however, especially 

 those towards the citadel and the river, were carefully barricadoed; that 

 is to say, a mound of earth was thrown np across them, defended by 

 wooden chevaux de fr'ise and a ditch, a narrow passage permitting the 

 ingress and egress of foot-passengers. The cellar windows, opening, as in 

 England, upon a level witli the pavement, were almost all stopped up with 

 baulks of wood and loose earth, to defend the cellars, the last refuge of the 

 inhabitants, from the bombs which they had momentarily expected. Two 

 or three severe tumbles soon made the unwary stranger awake to this 

 precaution. 



Between the town and the river, the public promenade had been turned 

 into a rampart, which was amply supplied with artillery of all kinds ; 

 across the river was the coupure, or place where the dyke had been divided, 

 and by which that extremity of poldre, or meadow, behind the Tete de 

 Flandres, had been inundated. 



On Wednesday, at noon, we saw the forts on this land strike their co- 

 lours. Having, by the kindness of a friend, obtained a pass from Gerard's 

 aid-du-camp, we left the town by the Mechlin gate, and having gained the 

 outside of the fortifications, took the high road to Berchem ; but, after a 

 few hundred yards, arriving at the part which had suffered from Chass^'s 

 fire, we turned aside to view its effects upon a cherry orchard. The trees, 

 planted at the usual distance, had suffered severely, and it was curious to 

 trace the passage of a ball from tree to tree, falling gradually, until it 

 buried itself in the soft black soil of some celery beds below; the trees 

 were small, and many of the trunks, through which balls had passed, had 

 absolutely closed up again so completely, that not even a small stick could 

 be introduced. It appeared ns though a knife had been passed throu'di in 

 all directions, each time splitting the tree. 



The cottages near were decidedly the worse for the cannonade, and one 

 or two once gay summer-houses were in a woeful plight j here was a fine 

 blumcn-garten, with a painted tust-haus, the burgomaster's delight very 

 much discomposed by its treatment. The cottages in this direction were 

 not absolutely destroyed j so the poor people had returned to them, and 

 were then surveying the damage, with a view to its repair. 



Passing across the road towards the trenches, wc perceived a vast num- 

 ber of large holes in tlie earth : these were made by the shells, and many 

 of them would have held three or four loads of earth. VViien a shell falls 

 if the ground be soft, it buries itself deeply, and then explodiii"-, blows 

 about the soil in all directions. Where it falls blind, that is to say without 



