Florez describes the dress of the bride at her espousals: it was a robe of murray velvet embroidered with fleurs de lys of gold trimmed with ermine and jewels, and with a train of seven ells long; the princesses of the blood had all long trains, but not so long, the length being according to their proximity to the throne. The description of a Queen's dress accorded well with the antiquarian pursuits of Florez; but it is amusing to observe some of the expressions of this laborious writer, a monk of the most rigid habits, whose life was spent in severe study, and in practices of mortification. In her head-dress, he says, she wore porcelain pins which supported large diamonds, .. "y convertian en cielo aquel poco de tierra;" and at the ball after the espousals, "el Christianissimo danzó con la Catholica." These appellations sound almost as oddly as Messrs. Bogue and Bennett's description of St. Paul in a minuet, and Timothy at a card-table.

This poor Queen lived eight years with a husband whose mind and body were equally debilitated. Never were the miseries of a mere state-marriage more lamentably exemplified. In her last illness, when she was advised to implore the prayers of a personage who was living in the odour of sanctity for her recovery, she replied, Certainly I will not; . . it would be folly to ask for a life which is worth so little. And when toward the last her Confessor enquired if any thing troubled her, her answer was, that she was in perfect peace, and rejoiced that she was dying, . . " en paz me hallo Padre, y muy gustosa de morir." She died on the 12th of February ; and such was the solicitude for an heir to the monarchy, that on the 15th of May a second marriage was concluded for the King.

1 The inscriptions in the church are as follows:

Sacred

to the Memory
of

Lt. Col. Edward Stables

Sir Francis D'Oyley, K.C.B.

Charles Thomas

William Miller

William Henry Milner

Capt. Robert Adair

Edward Grose

Newton Chambers

Thomas Brown

Ensign Edward Pardoe

James Lord Hay

the Hon. S. S. P. Barrington of

His Britannic Majesty's First Regiment of Foot Guards, who fell gloriously in the battle of Quatre Bras and Wateloo*, on the 16th and 18th of June, 1815.

The Officers of the
Regiment have erected this
Monument in commemoration
of the fall of their
Gallant Companions.

To

the Memory

of

Major Edwin Griffith,

Lt. Isaac Sherwood, and

Lt. Henry Buckley,

Officers in the XV King's Regiment of Hussars

(British)

who fell in the battle of

Waterloo,

June 18. 1815.

This stone was erected by the Officers of that Regiment,

as a testimony of their respect.

Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori.

The two following are the epitaphs in the church-yard: D. O. M.

Sacred to the Memory of Lieutenant-Colonel Fitz Gerald, of the Second Regiment of Life Guards of his Britannic Majesty, who fell gloriously at the battle of La Belle Alliance, near this town, on the 18th of June, 1815, in the 41st year of his life, deeply and deservedly regretted by his family and friends. To a manly loftiness of soul he united all the virtues that could render him an ornament to his profession, and to private and social life.

"Aux manes du plus vertueux des hommes, généralement estimé et regretté de sa famille et de ses amis, le LieutenantColonel Fitz Gerald, de la Gard du Corps de sa Majesté Britannique, tué glorieusement à la bataille de la Belle Alliance, le 18 June, 1815.

R. I. P.

The word is thus mis-spelt.

Ici repose le Colonel De Langrehr, Commandant le premier Bataillon de Bremen, Blessé à Mort à la Bataile de Waterloo, le 18 June, 1815, et enterré le lendemain, agé, de 40 ans. R. I. P.

Lord Uxbridge's leg is buried in a garden opposite to the inn, or rather public-house, at Waterloo. The owner of the house in which the amputation was performed considers it as a relic which has fallen to his share. He had deposited it at first behind the house, but as he intended to plant a tree upon the spot, he considered, that as the ground there was not his own property, the boys might injure or destroy the tree, and therefore he removed the leg into his own garden, where it lies in a proper sort of coffin, under a mound of earth about three or four feet in diameter. A tuft of Michaelmas daisies was in blossom upon this mound when we were at Waterloo ; but this was a temporary ornament: in November the owner meant to plant a weeping willow there. He was obliging enough to give me a copy of an epitaph which he had prepared, and which, he said, was then in the stone-cutter's hands. It is as follows:

"Ci est enterrée la Jambe de l'illustre, brave, et vaillant Comte Uxbridge, Lieutenant-Général, Commandant en Chef la Cavalerie Angloise, Belge, at Hollandoise; blessé le

18 Juin, 1815, à la mémorable bataille de Waterloo; qui par son héroïsme a concouru au triomphe de la cause du Genre humain, glorieusement décidée par l'éclatante victoire du dit jour."

1 A detachment of the French was entrenched at Waterloo Chapel, August 1705, when the Duke of Marlborough advanced to attack the French army at Over Ysche, and this detachment was destroyed with great slaughter. (Echard's Gazetteer.) The Sieur La Lande says, “On donne la chasse à un parti François qui étoit à Waterloo." Marlborough was prevented by the Deputies of the States from pursuing his advantage, and attacking the enemy, at a time when he made sure of victory. Hist. de l'Empereur Charles VI., t. ii. p. 90.

2 The peasant who led us over the field resided at this hamlet. Mont St. Jean was every thing to him, and his frequent exclamations of admiration for the courage of the Highlanders in particular, and indeed of the whole army. always ended with a reference to his own dwelling-place: "if they had not fought so well, Oh mon Dieu, Mont St. Jean would have been burnt."

This was an intelligent man, of very impressive countenance and manners. Like all the peasantry with whom we conversed, he spoke with the bitterest hatred of Buonaparte, as the cause of all the slaughter and misery he had witnessed, and repeatedly expressed his astonishment that he had not been put to death. 'My house," said he, "was full of the wounded: .. it was nothing but sawing off legs, and sawing off arms. Oh my God, and all for one man! Why did you not put him to death? I myself would have put him to death with my own hand."

17.

Beyond these points the fight extended not..
Small theatre for such a tragedy ! 1
Its breadth scarce more, from eastern Papelot
To where the groves of Hougoumont on high
Rear in the west their venerable head,
And cover with their shade the countless dead.

18.

But wouldst thou tread this celebrated ground,
And trace with understanding eyes a scene
Above all other fields of war renown'd,

From western Hougoumont thy way begin;
There was our strength on that side, and there first,
In all its force, the storm of battle burst.

19.

Strike eastward then across toward La Haye,

The single farm: with dead the fields between Are lined, and thou wilt see upon the way

Long wave-like dips and swells which intervene, Such as would breathe the war-horse, and impede, When that deep soil was wet, his martial speed.

20.

This is the ground whereon the young Nassau,
Emuling that day his ancestor's renown,
Received his hurt; admiring Belgium saw

The youth proved worthy of his destined crown: 2
All tongues his prowess on that day proclaim,
And children lisp his praise and bless their Prince's

name.

21

When thou hast reach'd La Haye, survey it well,
Here was the heat and centre of the strife;
This point must Britain hold whate'er befell,
And here both armies were profuse of life:
Once it was lost,.. and then a stander by
Belike had trembled for the victory.

22.

Not so the leader, on whose equal mind

Such interests hung in that momentous day; So well had he his motley troops assign'd,

That where the vital points of action lay, There had he placed those soldiers whom he knew No fears could quail, no dangers could subdue.

23.

Small was his British force, nor had he here
The Portugals, in heart so near allied,

The worthy comrades of his late career,

Who fought so oft and conquer'd at his side, When with the Red Cross join'd in brave advance, The glorious Quinas mock'd the air of France.

1 So important a battle perhaps was never before fought within so small an extent of ground. I computed the distance between Hougoumont and Papelot at three miles; in a straight line it might probably not exceed two and a half.

Our guide was very much displeased at the name which the battle had obtained in England. Why call it the battle of Waterloo?" he said,.." call it Mont St. Jean, call it La Belle Alliance, call it Hougoumont, call it La Haye Sainte, call it Papelot, . . any thing but Waterloo."

24.

Now of the troops with whom he took the field,
Some were of doubtful faith, and others raw;

He station'd these where they might stand or yield;
But where the stress of battle he foresaw,
There were his links (his own strong words I speak)
And rivets which no human force could break.

25.

O my brave countrymen, ye answer'd well
To that heroic trust! Nor less did ye,
Whose worth your grateful country aye shall tell,
True children of our sister Germany,

Who while she groan'd beneath the oppressor's chain,
Fought for her freedom in the fields of Spain.

26.

La Haye, bear witness! sacred is it hight,
And sacred is it truly from that day;
For never braver blood was spent in fight

Than Britain here hath mingled with the clay.
Set where thou wilt thy foot, thou scarce can'st tread
Here on a spot unhallow'd by the dead.

27.

Here was it that the Highlanders withstood

The tide of hostile power, received its weight With resolute strength, and stemm'd and turn'd the flood;

And fitly here, as in that Grecian straight, The funeral stone might say, Go, traveller, tell Scotland, that in our duty here we fell.

28.

Still eastward from this point thy way pursue.
There grows a single hedge along the lane,..
No other is there far or near in view:

The raging enemy essay'd in vain

To pass that line, . . a braver foe withstood,
And this whole ground was moisten'd with their blood.

29.

Leading his gallant men as he was wont,
The hot assailants' onset to repel,
Advancing hat in hand, here in the front
Of battle and of danger, Picton fell;
Lamented Chief! than whom no braver name
His country's annals shall consign to fame.

30.

Scheldt had not seen us, had his voice been heard, Return with shame from her disastrous coast:

But Fortune soon to fairer fields preferr'd

His worth approved, which Cambria long may boast: France felt him then, and Portugal and Spain His honour'd memory will for aye retain.

2 A man at Les Quatre Bras, who spoke with the usual enthusiasm of the Prince of Orange's conduct in the campaign, declared that he fought "like a devil on horseback." Looking at a portrait of the Queen of the Netherlands, a lady observed that there was a resemblance to the Prince; a young Fleming was quite angry at this,.. he could not bear that his hero should not be thought beautiful as well as brave.