like it; it's Jerusalem fine fun. Well, then, I wind up by touchin' the back of her head hard, (you know, squire, what they call the amative bumps are located there,) and then whisper a bit of a joke to her about her makin' a very very lovin' wife, and soon, and she jumps up a-colourin', and a-sayin' it's no such a thing. You missed that guess, anyhow. Take that for not guessin' better! and pretendin' to slap me, and all that; but actilly ready to jump over the moon for delight. Don't my clocks get fust admired and then boughten arter this readin' of heads, that's all? Yes; that's the beauty of phrenology. You can put a clock into their heads when you are a-puttin' other fine things in, too, as easy as kiss my hand. I have sold a nation lot of them by it.

The only thing ag'in phrenology is, it's a little bit dangerous. It's only fit for an old hand like me, that's up to trap, for a raw one is amazin' apt to get spooney. Taking a gall on your knee, that way, with one hand on her heart, that goes pitty-pat, like a watch tickin', and the other a-rovin' about her head a-discovering of bumps, is plaguy, apt to make a fool of you without your knowing of it. Many a bird has got fascinated so afore now, that, do what it would, it couldn't get away. It might flutter and struggle a little; but at last it would fall as helpless as anything, right down. But then a fool is a fool all the world over. For my part I am not afeerd of none of them. This, squire, is what I call reason, and knowin' the world. A wise man is never taken at a nonplush. But Bill Dill Mill is a noodle, and such a one too as it would take seven fools and a philosopher to make, and even then they wouldn't make no part of a primin' to him. He has got everything to larn yet, that feller, for a crittur that is "too knowing by half" may know too much for other folks' good, but he don't know "half enough" for his own, that's a fact.

DUMALTON, THE CHELSEA VETERAN.*

BY THE REV. G. R. GLEIG.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1793, UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK. THE Austrian corps, with which we were associated, though not very numerous, seemed to me to be singularly compact and wellarranged. I do not recollect the precise number of companies which composed a battalion, — I think that in each there were not more than four; but I remember that a company consisted of one hundred and eighty rank and file; so that, assuming my supposition to be a right one, they had seven hundred and twenty men to a battalion. We, on the other hand, consisted of two brigades of infantry, the Guards, and the 14th, 37th, and 53rd foot, of which General Fox was at the head. We had, besides, some cavalry detachments from the 11th, the 15th, and the 16th, with General, afterwards Lord Harcourt, at their head; while over all was the Duke of York,not, I believe, as commander-in-chief of the allied armies, but himself * The Editor regrets to have been obliged to postpone so long this interesting narrative. It will now appear regularly until completed.

controlled by the Prince of Cobourg; and, as the result proved, by the Prussian General Knobelsdorf also. These, however, were matters which very little concerned us, whose mere business it was to execute the orders that might be issued to us, and to live as well and as gaily as the state of the country would permit. Accordingly, when we received instructions early on the 7th to pack our baggage, and prepare for an immediate advance, we obeyed them without once pausing to inquire whither they might hurry us; and, long before sunset, were ready to move in any direction which the commander-in-chief might point out.

It was close upon midnight when the march began. No intimation, of course, had reached us touching either the object of the movement, or the point to which it was directed, yet we guessed that now, at length, we were going to measure ourselves with the enemy, and the anticipation produced its natural effect on the spirits of the boldest. He who has never come under fire may rely upon it that the game for life or death is a very serious one; and that the most careless never addresses himself to play it without being conscious of sensations different from those which generally affect him. And if, as chanced to be the case with us that night, he make his advances towards the seat of danger under the influence of a glorious moonlight, his spirit must be dull and sombre indeed, if it fail to be stirred within him. I plead guilty to the charge of having performed that night-march in a state of excitement, which, though abundantly comprehensible by him who may have experienced similar agitation, I should find it very difficult to describe; and, though weariness and the desire to sleep would from time to time interfere with it, I cannot say that the feeling had entirely evaporated when we made our first halt, long after daybreak.

The movement of which I am speaking was made for the purpose of dislodging the enemy from St. Amand, and driving them out of the woods which surround that place. It was to be a combined operation on the part of ourselves, of the Prussians and the Austrians; and, as the allies were understood to have concentrated more rapidly, and in greater force than the French, little doubt was entertained of its success. We were not, therefore, surprised an hour or two after dawn to find ourselves approaching a considerable encampment. It was formed with great regularity along the position of Maulde, and consisted of tents similar in their shape to our own, arranged, too, like ours, in regular streets, with cooking places at intervals in the rear of each. As we drew near, the inhabitants of these tents crowded forth to look at us. They were Prussians; and the reception which they gave us was exceedingly kind; for we no sooner halted, which we did in communication with their line, than they set about lighting fires for us, and helped us to dress our provisions. I am not sure that in point of appearance they were equal to our friends the Austrians, but they were smart fellows notwithstanding, bore themselves with a very soldier-like air, and appeared to possess, what is essential to the efficiency of an armed body, a full degree of confidence in themselves.

We came to our ground about seven or eight o'clock in the morning, and rested till noon; when, having eaten our meal in comfort, we were ordered to fall in. We formed accordingly, and the Duke of York putting himself at our head, we moved forward. St. Amand,

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we found, had already been carried, though not without a desperate resistance; for the houses were all perforated with cannon-shot, and the streets choked up with the bodies of the slain. Through these we picked our steps, not, as may well be imagined, gathering any accession to our valour from the spectacle, yet more inclined to lament the fall of our comrades than to calculate the chances of a similar fate befalling ourselves.

We pushed on, leaving the town behind, and came by and by to a thick wood, through the middle of which a carriage-road appeared to have been cut, in its course too tortuous for the eye to trace it many yards beyond the outskirts. Here we halted, that a Prussian general, who had accompanied the Duke of York on the march, might give to his Royal Highness his final instructions. Meanwhile the forest rang to the sharp reports of some Austrian and Dutch skirmishers, who were scattered through its recesses. They did not, indeed, appear to be making any progress; for the sound wavered very little; and when it did, the French, not they, appeared to have the advantage; but that was a point which we had little leisure to investigate, inasmuch as our own turn for playing the game had arrived. The Prussian having ended his conference with the Duke of York, lifted his hat, and went away; while his Royal Highness turned to us and said, " Now, Coldstreams, it is for you to show them what the King of England's guards are made of. There is a four-gun battery in that wood, which we have been desired to carry; and I give you, as my own regiment, the privilege of doing so. Forward, and win honour for yourselves and for me." We answered with a shout, and Colonel Pennington putting himself in front, away we went in column, and at double-quick, along the chaussée.

For a while we carried everything before us. The French endeavoured to stop us; but we beat them back at a rush, and a gun or two which they brought to bear upon the road did us no damage. In this manner we penetrated half through the wood, when all at once we found ourselves in an extensive open, or glade, the upper extremity of which was covered with field-works, among which was the four-gun battery. There was a wide ditch likewise, or canal, between us and the enemy's lines, which was spanned by a single wooden bridge, and towards it the right wing, which led the attack, instantly hurried. They had not rightly weighed the sort of reception which awaited them, otherwise the attack, if made at all, would have been less precipitate. Of the round and grape which fell among us we thought little; but the bridge was within point-blank range of musketry, and a long breast work, well lined with French grenadiers, faced it. No sooner were our leading files across, than they threw upon us such a tempest of bullets, that the single ground of amazement is, how anybody escaped to speak of it. We could not face that leaden storm. We fairly recoiled, and, leaving a prodigious number of our comrades dead, or dying, where they fell, retreated in little order within the cover of the wood.

Though our attack had failed, the diversion which we made enabled the Austrians and Prussians to carry their respective posts, and the French were worsted. We did not, however, follow them immediately; for that night we slept on our arms; and next morning, by a different route, began our march back to the Oak Barns. I

have already spoken of the absence of all system which characterized in those days our commissariat arrangements, and left us, on every change of position, to the mercy well nigh of chance for our daily food. Up to the present moment the evil had been one rather of theory than practice; now we were made to feel that the connection between practice and theory is in such cases as this exceedingly close. Not a morsel of food had been issued to us from the moment we quitted Maulde, and a bivouac was, in consequence, unsatisfactory enough. Yet the circumstance, if it produced no other and more fortunate result, bad at least the effect of weaning us from some of our prejudices; it caused us to accept thankfully the rations of black bread with which the Prussian commissaries next morning were prevailed upon to supply us. I need scarcely add, that the bread made use of by Continental troops in general was, at the period of which I am speaking, composed altogether of rye; and rye, -as everybody knows, however wholesome it may be, is not quite the sort of material out of which an Englishman would choose to fabricate his rolls for breakfast.

We returned to our quarters at Orque, where for some time we continued in a state of inaction. The war, meanwhile, was carried on elsewhere with vigour; for Condé was blockaded by the Prince of Cobourg; and the enemy, in order to cover Valenciennes, intrenched themselves strongly on the hill of Famars. At the same time there arrived from England large reinforcements, so as to place our contingent, in point of numbers, on a respectable footing towards its allies; and his Royal Highness was in consequence intrusted with the conduct of a separate and very important operation. He was directed to push with his own people, supported by two brigades of Hanoverians and Austrians, upon Famars,-to drive the enemy from his intrenched camp, and forcing him back into Valenciennes, to lay siege to the place. Accordingly, on the 23rd of May we moved once more from our quarters, and, after a sharp skirmish, carried our point. The enemy retreating from Famars, left us in possession of their works, and the investment was completed. Not then, however, nor for some days afterwards, was ground broken. On the contrary, we were satisfied to watch one another, while the Prince of Cobourg executed certain movements, of which I know nothing more than that they had for their object the more effectual severance of the garrison from all such supplies as the open country might have afforded. Yet were we not without certain petty adventures, if such they deserve to be called, which hindered us from absolutely forgetting that ours was something more than a mere game of war. Once or twice the French attacked our outposts, though never in such force as seriously to disturb them; while we in our turn would from time to time make a demonstration, as if we intended to confine them within the circle of their defences. All this, however, was mere pastime; and I am bound to add that, in carrying it forward, the best and most generous temper was exhibited on both sides.

We lay all this while in the intrenched camp at Famars, the highest ridge of which in some degree commanded the town. It was surmounted by an obelisk, which the French had erected to the memory of General Dampierre, a brave officer, whose leg was shot away at St. Amand, and who died soon afterwards. Whatever our

faults may be, it cannot be charged against us as a nation that we ever seek to exhibit our hostility to the living by waging war against the tombs of the dead. To preserve this monument, therefore, from violence became a point of honour with the British contingent; and their care was the more needed, that the Austrians appeared to harbour a design towards it diametrically the reverse. The very first day an Austrian picquet mounted there, the men began to chip and deface the pillar. It was to no purpose that the act was condemned as unmanly and barbarous in general orders; the same results followed on the next occasion, when the Duke found it expedient to commit the post to the guardianship of his allies, till, in the end, the very existence of the monument seemed to be endangered. This was too much for the good-nature even of our good-natured commander-in-chief. He placed the obelisk under the protection of a British guard, and neither Austrians, nor Hanoverians, nor the soldiers of any other nation, were permitted, except under surveillance, to approach the hill.

At length, on the 2nd of June, at ten o'clock at night, ground was formally broken. The operation was performed by a working-party of about three hundred men, which a second party, accoutred and ready for action, covered; and as the men preserved a strict silence, and there was no moon in the heavens, considerable progress was made ere the enemy caught the alarm. No sooner, however, was our purpose made manifest than they opened a fire from every gun that bore upon the point, and night and day, till the parallel was finished, were our men exposed to its fury; yet the casualties were much fewer than from such a cannonade might have been expected. I do not recollect that anybody belonging to our regiment was killed, except one man; and I am mistaken if the wounded comprised more than the Earl of Cavan, whom the splinter of a shell struck on the head when he was standing in the trenches.

It is not worth while to give a minute and particular account of the progress of the siege, which lasted from the 2d of June to the 29th of July. In all essential points the details of one such operation will be found to resemble those of another, that is to say, working parties are out for ever; and the greatest precautions are used, sometimes to no purpose, to guard against the risk of sorties, or to repel them when hazarded. Into the mysteries of these matters we were fully initiated. We worked, we watched, we patrolled,—we gave as well as received alarms, and became by degrees so accustomed to the whistle of shot and shells, as scarcely to regard it. Yet we had our little varieties too, of which the following may be received as specimens. About a week after the siege had fairly begun, there came from the town an officer with a flag of truce, to report that an English lady was just then taken with the pains of labour, and to beg an armistice of six hours, that she might be removed to a place of safety. The request was acceded to, of course, and out the lady came; but I am sorry to be obliged to add, that the French totally forgot the nature of the engagement into which they had entered. Round the town, and in front of our lines, there were some magnificent gardens, the cherry-trees in which were at this season laden with fruit, and often had they been gazed at by us with longing eyes, such as men generally turn upon the good things which they may not even hope to possess. We were no sooner informed of the