CHAPTER X.

Departure from Dublin-Meeting with an officer-Author's reminiscences of the expedition to Holland in 1799-A young lady's appetite-Stage-coach conversation-Antiquity of the Irish nation-Drogheda-History and sieges-Cromwell's horrible massacre of the inhabitants.

Drogheda.

I LEFT Dublin at eight this morning in the Drogheda coach; I took my seat the day before, and was desired to be there by seven precisely they hoped I would not take it amiss, but they assured me they would not wait a moment longer for King George himself. I was punctual, and came at seven precisely, Though they would not wait for King George, they waited for a little hunch-backed passenger; and did not set off for an hour afterwards. We were surrounded by a number of beggars: every person, both on and in the coach, gave them something—a venerable personage, without a hat, and with a beard as long as a Jewish Rabbi's, divided it among the others. No doubt he made a fair division, for we heard no complaints. The country we drove through was level and tolerably fertile; the houses of the peasants had all the external marks of comfort; there were not many gentlemen's seats, but a number of gay little boxes, which looked like the summer retreats of the tradesmen of Dublin. We stopped a few moments at Swords, an inconsiderable place about seven miles from town-I got out to see it better. I was surveying it with more attention than it deserved, when a

gentleman came up and accosted me by my name. I did not at first recollect him; but when he asked me if I had not come over from Holland in the year 1799 on board a transport with two wounded officers, I immediately recognized him ;-he was then recovering from the effects of two dreadful wounds, and was as thin as a skeleton: the hospitality of Ireland had now given him the look of an alderman or a churchwarden; no wonder, therefore, I did not at first recollect him : he was a very young man then, and had been newly appointed a captain in the 17th foot. In the battle of the 19th of September, a party which he commanded attacked a French redoubt; they were on the point of carrying it, when some confusion took place, and several began to run: he was endeavouring to rally them, when he received a shot in the body and fell, but instantly got up again; his men were still retreating, and he was calling to them to stop, when he was shot a second time a little below the knee. As the bone was broken, he was then unable to move himself: he begged some of the soldiers to take him on their shoulders; but, regardless of his entreaties, they ran on without giving him assistance. A moment afterwards, the French were on him; they tore his gorget rudely from his breast, his sword from his side; they even felt his pockets for money, and took his hat from his head; in which situation they carried him into the redoubt, and laid him on the ground. About an hour afterwards, the redoubt was attacked by a fresh party, who forced their way in; and a short but desperate conflict ensued; during which he was trampled on both by French and English. He thinks he must have been inevitably killed, but luckily a

French soldier, mortally wounded, fell over him and protected him from the tread of others. He was at length in the hands of his countrymen; by whom he was put into a hospital cart, and sent about two miles back to the surgeons: all his sufferings during the day were trifling compared to the anguish he endured from the motion of the cart-he fainted with the pain, several times. The surgeon, after surveying his broken bone, pronounced the necessity of amputation, which was performed that instant at Captain G.'s own request. During the operation, he vomited blood several times, which poured likewise from the orifices in his back and breast. His recovery was long despaired of; a mortification was apprehended in his thigh, and it was evident he was shot through the lungs :-youth, and a good constitution, however, prevailed, and when I met him first, he was almost convalescent.

This rencontre revived the memory of the time I had passed in Holland, and I amused myself on my return to the coach with the recollection of various incidents that occurred during that period. I landed in Holland the day after the Duke of York—I hope his R. H. found firmer footing than I did—the beach was a perfect puddle; and, without a bull, I might be said "to have stepped upon land to my waist up in water."What the interior of Holland may be I cannot pretend to say, not having penetrated far into the country; but I did not like its first appearance— there was too much water in the landscape: for not to mention the sea and the earth, the sky was pouring down rain in torrents. There was some novelty, however, in a regiment of Cossacks, which was encamped a little higher up on the beach; the sentinels on duty,

in front of their tents, in blankets fastened over their breasts with pins or skewers: though this had a comfortable, it could not be said to have a very warlike appearance. It is unnecessary, I believe, to mention that I did not belong to the fighting part of the army: an author is seldom a warrior; his pen is his weapon; and, like the two literary heroes who fought in London some time ago, his bullets are almost always paper ones.

of

I was one of a numerous corps young surgeons, sent over at the requisition of Sir Ralph Abercrombie: heroes might inflict the wound; mine was the humbler task to find the plaster. I spent some weeks at Hunesden, where the general hospital was; I had plenty of employment, hardly time, indeed, to take my meals: this however was of less consequence, as they were very easily taken. The world has been called a great sepulchre-with equal propriety, the village of Hunesden might have been termed one vast hospital: churches and stables, houses and barns, were filled with sick and wounded soldiers;-I was quartered in the house of an old fisherman.—I did not, however, fare much the better for this; whether it was that Englishmen were plentiful, or fish scarce, I seldom tasted any. On the 26th of September, I was ordered up to the army with several others: a great battle was daily expected, and a number of additional surgeons was necessary. We were put into an old cow-house, where, having got our tourniquets and bandages in order, "we hovelled us like swine and rogues forlorn" in short and musty straw, eat mutton when we could get it, and drank gin, and smoked tobacco, when we could get none. On the first of October, general orders were issued for the battle, which was

to take place next day. About two o'clock, the Duke of York, attended by a groom, and accompanied by a single aid-de-camp, passed by the place where we were stationed. He conversed for some time with us, and displayed the most humane consideration about the means to be used for the alleviation of the sufferings of the wounded. Early the next morning, the army took up its position: I was attached to the right wing. It was not yet daylight, and I walked for some time backwards and forwards behind the ranks. At seven in the morning day slowly broke: it was a dark and dreary morning; the rain came drizzling down, and every thing wore a look of desolation nature seemed to mourn the folly of her sons, who thus inflict such misery on each other;

"And for a fantasy, and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds."

For some moments before the commencement of the action, the scene was a most awful and impressive one: all was solemn, silent, and sad: there was neither sound of trumpet, drum, or fife: an universal stillness prevailed, slightly interrupted by the commands of the officers, delivered almost in a whisper, and the sighs that burst forth involuntarily from some of the men; reflecting, no doubt, on the change which a few moments might produce. This languor, however, was soon dissipated by a most tremendous discharge from an immense number of pieces of cannon; and the line slowly advanced, loading and discharging their muskets. To describe the noise and disorder, confusion and uproar, that followed, would be impossible; nor was I any longer permitted to be a witness of it. I