my neckerchief, while a gruff voice shouted in my ear.

"Rendez vous, mon cher"

Resistance was useless. I was forcibly dragged up the bank, where both
musketry and cannon were still playing on the boats, which had, however,
by this time got a good offing. I soon knew they were safe by the Torch
opening a fire of round and grape on the head of the dike, a contain proof
that the boats had been accounted for. The French party now ceased firing,
and retreated by the edge of the inundation, keeping the dike between them
and the brig, all except the artillery, who had to scamper off, running
the gauntlet on the crest of the embankment until they got beyond the
range of the carronades. I was conveyed between two grenadiers along the
water's edge so long as the ship was firing; but when that ceased, I was
clapped on one of the limbers of the field--guns, and strapped down to it
between two of the artillerymen.

We rattled along, until we came up to the French bivouac, where, round a
large fire, kindled in what seemed to have been a farmyard, were assembled
about fifty or sixty French soldiers. Their arms were piled under the low
projecting roof of an outhouse, while the fire flickered upon their dark
figures, and glanced on their bright accoutrements, and lit up the wall of
the house that composed one side of the square. I was immediately marched
between a file of men into a small room, where the commanding officer of
the detachment was seated at a table, a blazing wood fire roaring in the
He was a genteel, slender, dark man, with very large black mustaches, and
fine sparkling black eyes, and had apparently just dismounted, for the mud
was fresh on his boots and trowsers. The latter were blue, with a broad
gold lace down the seam, and fastened by a strap under his boot, from
which projected a long fixed spur, which to me was remarkable as an