234 f^isit to Antwerp at the Capitulation of 1 833. 



Ills retreat before the enemy were at all aware of the matter. The powder 

 soon exploded, and the greater part of the front or salient angle of the 

 lunette was blown into the ditch. The breach thus made was instantly 

 scaled, and the grenadiers meeting with two other companies which had 

 charged round by the rear or gorge, joined them, and took the garrison 

 prisoners. No lives were lost, and the only serviceable gun found was in 

 ten minutes turned against the citadel. 



We entered the lunette by the breach, rendered by that time a good road. 

 Guns, hurled from the rampart by the shot, lay dismounted beneath their 

 broken carriages; the guard-house and gorge-ivall were in ruins, and the 

 wooden palisadoes riddled by musquet balls. Either no casemate had ex- 

 isted in this fort, or it had been completely blown away, for not a vestige 

 of one could be seen. 



Leaving St. Laurent by the gorge-gate, or port de secours, we entered the 

 demi-lune, or ravelin (a work of the same nature placed immediately be- 

 hind it), in its rear, clambering over a shattered sluice. This part of the 

 work had not, it is true, been mined and blown up, but the horrors of war 

 were nevertheless far more apparent in it. The bridge communicating 

 with the citadel was cut to shivers by the shot ; guns, many in number, 

 lay buried in black mud behind the rampart ; a few remained above ; one 

 of them, a fine brass long six, had been spoilt by a ball, and the touch-hole 

 of another had been melted by hard firing. On the terre-plein, or body of 

 the place, were some suspicious looking hillocks, and an open pit or two ; 

 from one of the former a hand and arm were observed to project j they 

 looked fair and white as a lady's, as they lay imbedded in the muddy soil. 



We turned away from so sickening a sight, but it was only to behold an- 

 other : an artillery man, the upper half of whose head had been carried 

 away by a bullet, wrapped in his military capote, lay extended beneath the 

 rampart. Poor fellow ! his comrades had buried him as best they could, 

 and a shell had rendered their pious offices useless. The eloquent lines of 

 the poet rose upon our memory at a sight oftener heard of than witnessed. 

 An Englishman, standing by, detached a loose mass of the rampart with 

 his foot, and a second time sepulchred the remains of "the warrior." The 

 French soldiers looked up and applauded him. 



There was a subterranean casemate* in the demi-lune ; the doors had 

 been removed, and a mound of earth thrown up at a short distance from 

 its portal, to diminish the danger of those within ; a playing card lay upon 

 the damp floor of the vault, and we could not but regret that those about 

 to meet death face to face had not employed their short time more suitably. 



* A casemate is a vault, usually of brick or stone, very long, but in other respects 

 little beyond the dimensions of a London cellar. These are usually under ground. 

 In the citadel they were of great extent, freely communicating with one another. 

 They were damp, and usually without any furniture but a small stove and some 

 straw mattresses. 



