fast thinning recesses of the woods.

But there was no life in the scene--'twas "Greece, but living Greece no
more,"--not a fishing--boat was near, scarcely a solitary figure crawled
along the beach.

"What is that?" after we had passed Blankanese, said the colonel quickly.
"Who are those?" as a group of three of four men presented themselves at a
sharp turning of the road, that wound along the foot of the hill close to
the shore.

"The uniform of the Prussians," said one.

"Of the Russians," said another.


"Poo," said a third, "it is a picket of the Prince's;" and so it was, but
the very fact of his having advanced his outposts so far, showed how he
trembled for his position.

After answering their hail, we pushed on, and as the clocks were striking
twelve, we were abreast of the strong beams, that were clamped together
with iron, and constituted the boom or chief water defence of Hamburgh.
We passed through, and found an entire regiment under arms, close by the
Custom--house. Somehow or other, I had drank deep of that John Bull
prejudice, which delights to disparage the physical conformation of our
Gallic neighbours, and hugs itself with the absurd notion, "that on one
pair of English legs doth march three Frenchmen." But when I saw the
weather--beaten soldierlike veterans, who formed this compact battalion,
part of the elite of the first corps, more commanding in its, aspect from