After The Storm | Page 7

by
their demeanour as if likely to incur the anathema of Rinaldo in the Orlando Furioso:
meritamente muoro Una crudele,
but rather more disposed to
dar vita all'amator fidele.[3]
Alost is a neat, clean town or large village, and the same description will serve for all the
towns and villages in Brabant and Flanders, as they are built on the same plan. We
arrived at Bruxelles late in the evening and put up at the Hotel d'Angleterre.
This morning, the General and myself went to pay our respects to the _Gran Capitano of
the Holy League_, and we left our cards. He is, I hear, very confident of the result of the
campaign, and no doubt he has for him the prayers of all the pious in England against
those atheistical fellows the French; and these prayers will surely elicit a "host of angels"
to come down to aid in the destruction of the Pandemonium of Paris where Satan's
lieutenant sits enthroned. The reflecting people here are astonished that Napoleon does
not begin the attack. The inhabitants of Belgium are in general, from all that I can hear or
see, not at all pleased with the present order of things, and they much lament the being
severed from France. The two people, the Belgians and Hollanders, do not seem to
amalgamate; and the former, though they render ample justice to the moderation, good
sense, and beneficent intentions of the present monarch, who is personally respected by
every one, yet do not disguise their wish to be reunited to France and do not hesitate to
avow their attachment to the Emperor Napoleon. This union does not please the
Hollanders either, on other grounds. They complain that their interests have been
sacrificed entirely to those of the house of Orange, and they say that from the readiness
they displayed in shaking off the yoke of France, and the great weight they thereby threw
into the scale, they were entitled to the restitution of all their colonies in Asia, Africa, and
America. The colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon are what they most regret;
for these colonies in particular furnished ample employment and the means of provision
for the cadets of patrician families. If you tell them they have acquired the Belgic
provinces as an indemnification, they answer: "So much the worse for us, for now the
patronage of the colonial offices must be divided between us and the Belgians."
The preparations for the grand conflict about to take place are carried on with unabating
activity; the conscription is rigorously enforced and every youth capable of bearing arms
is enrolled. Almost all the officers of the Belgian army and a great proportion of the
soldiery have served with the French and have been participators of their laurels; one
cannot therefore suppose that they are actuated by any very devouring zeal against their
former commander; nor have I found amongst the shop-keepers or respectable people

with whom I have conversed, and who have been falsely represented as having suffered
much from the tyranny of Napoleon, any who dislike either his person or government,
and certainly none either high or low express the cannibal wish that I heard some English
country gentlemen and London merchants utter for the destruction of Paris and of the
French people, nor would it be easy to find here men of the humane and generous
sentiments professed by some of our aldermen and contractors when they welcomed with
ferocious acclamations of joy and were ready to embrace the Baschkir or Cossack who
told them that he had slaughtered so many French with his own hand; nor would the
ladies here be so eager to kiss old Blucher as was the case in London.
This city is filled with British and Hanoverian troops. Their conduct is exemplary, nor is
any complaint made against them. The Highland regiments are however the favourites of
the Bruxellois, and the inhabitants give them the preference as lodgers. They are
extremely well behaved (they say, when speaking of the Highlanders) and they cheerfully
assist the different families on whom they are quartered in their household labour. This
reflects a good deal of credit on the gallant sons of Caledonia. Their superior morality to
those of the same class either in England or in Ireland must strike every observer, and
must, in spite of all that the Obscuranten or Chevaliers de l'Eteignoir and others who
wish to check the progress of the human mind may urge to the contrary, be mainly
attributed to the general prevalence of education _a la portée de tout le monde_.
Wherever the people are enlightened there is less crime; ignorance was never yet the
safeguard of virtue. As for myself I honour and esteem the Scottish nation and I must