‘420 
may easily be conceived that these labo- 
Fious and tedious operations do not ex- 
clude those which are easier, such as 
searching granaries, barns <wicdls, heaps of 
manure, &c. and ripping up feather-beds. 
Indeed, so very successful are they in 
their infernal arts of systematic plunder, 
that no instance is known of their having 
failed to discover any thing that had been 
hidden previous to their arrival. We 
are not to imagine that any place is held 
sacred by them. During their last cam- 
paign in the north of “Germany, they 
regularly plundered churches and chur¢h- 
yards in all little towns and villages. 
“The following happened to a friend 
of the narrator :— Having been plundered 
of every thing except the cloaths he had 
on, four soldiers entered his despoiled- 
house, demanding money. He could 
give them nothing ; ; but they not credit- 
ing his < assertion, ‘began a new search, 
and forced him to accompany them, 
During this transaction, one of them kept 
his eyes fixed on the master of the house, 
in order to discover, from any change in 
his countenance, where money might be 
concealed, while the three others were 
with their ‘sabres thrusting and knocking 
against ceilings, walls, floors, &c. for the 
purpose of judgi ing by the sound whether 
they had any chance. Whenever the 
unfortunate man from some cause or 
other turned pale or red, his observer en- 
couraged the rest to persevere in their 
endeavours on that particular spot, as the 
wan had manifested uneasiness. 
“* Nothing is so horrid as the personal 
searchings, No one is exempt from them. 
They sometimes add the most cruel in- 
sults to their robberies. A young wo- 
man at Eckartsborge, deformed in her 
person and poor, was suspected by them 
to have an artificial high shoulder, and to 
have concealed in it some valuable pro- 
perty. On finding it, however, a natural 
defect, they most unmercifally and inhu- 
manly beat the unfortunate girl. 
“ It would be unfair to say that such 
scenes are approved of by all officers in 
the French army. ‘The truth is, they 
cannot prevent them but in their own 
rooms; and even there not without diii- 
culty. Some French officers told the 
narrator, that, in order to keep off the 
horrors of depredation from the rooms 
inhabited by themselves, some of their 
number were obliged to stand before them 
all night with their sw ordsdrawn, Thus, 
indeed, they accomplished their object, 
but perhaps at the peril of their lives, as 
the disappainted robbers would wait for 
System of Pillage practised by the French Armies, 
‘sums. 
quarters, 
[Dec. 1 
the confusion of the next battle, in order 
to take vengeance on such olficers as had 
deprived them of some of their perdgui- 
sites. 
“ But how is it possible that the Freneh 
soldiers should act otherwise, when it is a 
fact, that all small towns and ‘all villages, in 
hostile countries, are given up to them for 
plunder from necessity! During the war 
they receive no pay, but are referred to 
the inhabitants of the countries in which 
they may happen to be. Previous to the 
breaking out of the war last year (1806), 
they had received no pay for the space of 
err months! They therefore will often 
exclaim, ‘ Unless we plunder, we must 
starve, and go naked; our officers, too, 
must either plunder themselves, or be 
supplied by us with plunder; for they 
have nothing ‘neither.’ This, is abso- 
lutely ‘the fact. The very chiefs of 
French armies receive no pay in time of 
war; to make themselves: amends for 
which, they fix on some city, which they 
drain by requisitions, the confiscation of 
English merchandize, &c. Their extor- 
tions amount frequently to incredible 
Moreover, it isa matter of course 
for every French general to carry off the 
plate, the table-linen, the sheets, &c. 
from every house where he set up his 
The last-mentioned objects, 
in common with horses and carriages, are 
considered as the exclusive property of 
officers of rank, who seize them every 
where. 
*“* To accommodate the private soldier, 
every army is followed by an execrable 
sort of men, called traineurs, who are the 
carriers of the pillaged preperty, which 
they buy from the soldiers for a mere 
trifle. But their waggons contain, be- 
sides, plunder of their own; for after the. 
regular pillage, these miscreants. glean 
from the robbed houses such effects as 
the troops cannot conveniently take off. 
They also make plundering excursions to 
those villages that lie out of the maim 
road, and to visit which would be pro- 
ductive of too great delay to the troops.” 
=a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. — 
SIR, 
Bec exists a very favourite sui bea 
ject of historical discussion, viz. 
that which relates to the character and * 
conduct of the celebrated Mary Queen 
of Scots, on which much has been said, 
and on which much more must yet be é 
said, before those morose adherents of — 
truth who are unwilling to exchange his- — 
¥ 
| Pw 
ae ds rT 
