tea.

He came in to us half frozen, clothed all over in thick flannel, praying for a cup of hot He was so buttoned up, we were not aware of the dignity of our frozen, half-starved visitor. As the tea was preparing, he told us he had lost his way on Deventer Common, that prodigious waste, and had been seventeen hours on horseback, neither he nor his horse having had any sort of refreshment. He told us that when daylight appeared he beheld a most heart-breaking sight, 800 men, women, and children frozen to death, and covering the snow two or three feet deep. The following night, 900 lives were lost in the same way. No route had been given to the retreating army. Few officers were with them; the men were led by sergeants only; all they knew was that they were to fly eastward. No man of the army or commissariat knew of Deventer Com

mon.

The prince gradually unfastened his coats, when we discovered a British star on his

breast, and our soldiers hinted who our guest was. Soon after his arrival, the troops came

crowding up to our cottage. So exhausted were the women and children, so famished, so cold, that, what with them and the men of all sorts calling to each other, women weeping and imploring for food and tea, few, if any, scenes could surpass it. Orders had been given to our Hussar and valet to scour the scattered village and buy all the tobacco-pipes to be had, and all the tobacco, which cost the captain £20.

Others of our men hauled by ropes several loose trunks of trees and made a vast pile, with heaps of faggots, straw, etc., and shortly a blazing fire was made and soon surrounded. A distribution was made of the pipes and tobacco, which to numbers was equal to food.

Hussars and Hulans marched past us, their horses' noses all frozen, and long icicles hanging from their chins. Every trooper had his whiskers and moustachios frozen thick from their breath.

arms.

Suddenly a violent scream of joy was uttered by a soldier's wife, who had an infant in her A son of hers, one of our drummers, supposed to have been shot three weeks before, had wandered with the flying soldiers, and stood at our door.

||

What with the sound of lamentations, the greetings of friends who had supposed each other shot or frozen to death, the shouts of inquiry for this or that troop, etc., etc., the scene was altogether simply indescribable. clare, had a great-coat. Many had a worn-out None of our men, not one, I truthfully deblanket skewered across their shoulders. I saw not one man with whole shoes; all had scarcely a shoe left; numbers had their toes. frozen off, numbers their noses; exhaustion was universal. The march continued all day and all night, for three days, every creature asking in what direction stood the town of

Deventer.

Our valet and the Hussar-courier were sent the next day to Deventer for provisions, and on their arrival found all the bakers' shops closed, as well as most others, from the dread of pillage. The soldiers roared out to the bakers that if they refused any longer to furnish them bread, they would set fire to their houses. From the windows the alarmed bakers promised to have a large batch ready by midday. The hurly-burly in the streets was terrific. Twelve o'clock came; the doors were opened,

when a furious rush was made to seize the hot

bread and devour it. Those who were in could not get out for the rush and pressure

outside.

Confusion indescribable followed. Those who got the bread devoured it voraciously, and many, very many, soon died in consequence.

To clear the way and open a passage, bread was thrown out, which caused a riotous scramble. In a few minutes all the bread was carried off, and the bakers, to save pillage, engaged to make more as fast as it was possible.

It was about this time, or perhaps rather earlier, that the young artist was despatched alone to Amsterdam, probably

on some business connected with the "Emigrant Corps."

He travelled by the canal, the ice of which, though broken by the frequent passage of barges, had been frozen together again, and was now tossed and piled up in the most fantastic manner possible.

he travelled was most terrific, as it crashed The noise made by the barge in which through the ice, and resembled "ten thousand roaring claps of thunder all at once, with now and then a roar of cannon."

This noise continued all the way, and as it grew dark the barge came more frequently in collision with huge masses of ice, which seemed to threaten instant destruction.

Reaching Amsterdam after nine hours' travelling, he set out in search of the hotel or tavern to which he was instructed to go, and after running about all over the city for two hours, found it. Though situated in one of the principal streets, it

seemed that "no one had ever heard of it."

The sun shone brightly the next morning, and Mr. Reinagle was out early and went down to the canal, where his attention was arrested by a very shocking spectacle. A poor old woman had missed her way in the darkness, and had fallen over the edge of the street into the canal. At that time it was the law in Amsterdam that when any case of drowning was discovered, the person who first found the body should tie a rope round one of the wrists and raise it half out of the water, as close to the parapet as possible. Having tied the rope to the nearest tree or pile, he was immediately to go to the hospital and give information; then the authorities would send for the unfortunate person, who would be taken to the infirmary, and the informer would receive a rix-dollar (about 4s. 4d.). If the body should be claimed by relations or friends, it would be given up to them on payment of twelve guilders (about a guinea).

No one dared take the drowned person out of the canal until the hospital authorities had been communicated with, unless it was evident that life was not extinct.

In that case any one might act, and the owners of the nearest hotel were obliged instantly to warm a bed, in a room with a fire, and keep the body warm until the arrival of the nearest surgeon, who was bound to come with all possible speed and do his utmost to restore animation. Such were the police regulations ninety years ago; and accordingly when Mr. Reinagle saw the poor woman mentioned above, she was tied by the arm to a tree, the person who had found her being gone to give

information.

On his return journey, Mr. Reinagle travelled by land in a post-chariot, so called, which was "nothing so good as a light wagonone of the most infernal machines ever made by man, and the very best to overturn his senses." He had hired "what was called the roof or best seat," which exposed the passenger to all the inclemency of the weather except downright rain, against which the tarpaulin covering offered some protection. "The day was cloudless, the air all glittering;" and they travelled against the wind, which seemed to extract every particle of heat from their bodies. The carriage was open at both ends, and the wind whistled round them fiercely. "All was loose and rattling, as if no one part" of the vehicle were firmly joined to another. Under the wooden axle were fas

tened two hollow brass pans of large size, like cymbals, the noise of which, added to all the rest, seems to have driven the unfortunate artist well-nigh distracted, and completely baffled all his powers of description.

He was told that these brass pans were only allowed to "posting-wagons, " and were intended to warn other travellers of their approach, and he writes:

I feel sure that we inside could not have

heard a cannon had it been fired close to us ; and so this maddening mass of noises continued all night.

I who was in vigorous health and naturally strong, was so weakened and made so feeble that I literally could not walk; such were the effects of jolting, twisting, turning, together with the intensely cold wind whirling round my head. My inside was so shaken, that I was in severe pain, had violent headache, and was so feeble that when seated in a chair I was

quite unable to rise again.

was an

Matters being now arranged with the Prince of Waldeck, the travellers once more set out on their terrible journey. 'Here," says Mr. Reinagle, English army sent to protect Holland which never waited to be fired on. No wonder we were despised, scoffed at, and scouted."*

These unfortunate, ragged troops, not a man of whom had a great-coat, had to march in the teeth of a furious northeasterly gale, which made the cold more intense, and whirled the dry, powdery snow and sand aloft in dense clouds, sweeping the ground almost bare in some places, and piling up drifts from ten to twenty feet deep in others. Snow fell for several days together, or rather hardly seemed to fall at all, owing to the fierceness of the wind, though the air was filled with it. Women and children were screaming from the intense cold and want of food, and the miserable troops, after halt

above, General Dundas drove the French back across This is hardly a correct statement. As mentioned the Waal on December 30th. Pichegru with seventy thousand men attacked the English forces between Nimeguen and Arnheim early in January, and as the latter were greatly outnumbered, they had no alternative but to retreat, which they did on the 14th. They reached Deventer on the 27th, having, with the utmost courage and perseverance, succeeded in conveying thither all the ammunition, artillery, and military stores, which, as it was impossible to carry them farther, were then destroyed to save them from falling into the hands of the enemy. The retreating army was pursued at all speed by fifty thousand of the French, who hoped to compel it to surrender. After a two months' march, during which the men were frequently up to the middle in ice, snow, mud, and water, Bremen was reached at the end of March, and the unfortunate troops were received and entertained with the utmost kindness by the inhabitants, whose conduct formed a marked contrast with that of the Dutch.

had so many proofs of the extreme severity of the weather.

On arriving, Mr. Reinagle found that his legs were frozen, and mustered enough Dutch to explain that he wanted two pails of snow and two men to rub him. It was bitterly cold work, and the pain was intense, but after half an hour's hard rub bing circulation was restored.

The coachman, who with the grooms, Hussar, and a host of travellers, got close to the fire, imprudently took off his boots to warm his feet, and in a few days lost all his toes in consequence. Even the very brandy was frozen, and when the captain attempted to write a despatch to the War Office, not only had he first to boil the ink, but though he and his secretary sat so close into the fire that they feared their legs and clothes would be scorched, the ink froze before their pens reached the paper, and it was impossible to proceed. Cups washed in warm water froze before they could be wiped; the milk taken from a cow in a barn a hundred yards or so distant, froze solid as it was being brought to the house. Breath froze on the windows to the thickness of a crown piece, making it quite impossible to see out of them. Hot tea froze the instant it was spilt, so that cups and saucers were firmly cemented together, and the table, upon which was no cloth, was covered instead with a sheet of ice. The bread, which in its frozen state was as hard as a stone, took half an hour to thaw close to the fire, and it was three-quarters of an hour before it could be made fit to eat. Beards, moustachios, and even eye lashes were decorated with lumps of ice; and horses which arrived steaming, had no sooner halted than they were clothed in a coat of mail. Numbers of men and women who travelled on foot lost noses, ears, fingers, and toes from frost-bite.

After leaving Ghoor, the cavalcade halted next at a wretched, poverty-stricken little place, where the houses were built with conical roofs in place of chimneys, and had absolutely no windows. The upper half of each hovel was of wood, and the appearance of the village altogether was such that the travellers felt as if they had left Europe for some barbarous, unknown land, and wondered dismally what experiences might be in store for them as they advanced farther. After travelling all day at a foot's pace they reached Enchide, but it was impossible to stop there, for the troops had come up with them again, and all available lodgings were assigned to them by the chief magistrate,

who assured Captain Woodford that he would find accommodation provided for his party a league farther on.

By this time it was quite dark, and travelling was a very serious matter: for a rapid thaw had set in, and the road was under water and in such a dangerous state that the drivers of carriage, curricle, and wagon every moment expected some disastrous accident. They had indeed a very narrow escape of driving over a bank, which if they had done, it would have been impossible to rescue them till the morning; but at length they reached the village safe and sound, though it was fully double the distance they had been told, and was moreover beyond the boundaries of Holland. The magistrate had only wanted to get rid of them, and no doubt congratulated himself on his success; for the hatred to us English was universal. Every man, woman, and child was our bitter enemy, thanks to the pillaging, burning, and destroying of all that came in their way, practised by our troops. "Not a cottage within any distance" of their route was spared; for wherever the inhabitants dared to resist the plunderers, their houses were fired.

"As to our officers being present to save the harmless country-people, none came within the range of our observation," says Mr. Reinagle.

Meanwhile, the quarters promised by the magistrate of Enchide of course proved a myth, and the people of the post-house wanted to send the unfortunate travellers still farther on, declaring that they had no accommodation at all either for them or their horses. There was nothing for it but to remain in the street, and though famishing with hunger and perishing with the intense cold, they were refused permission even to prepare a meal of their own food. It was eight o'clock when they first arrived, and Captain Woodford, who had remained at Enchide with the Duc de Castries, on rejoining them some two hours later, found them still without shelter. He too was refused admission, and the people made as much disturbance as if they expected every soul to be murdered and every house pillaged; which, poor things, perhaps they did.

However it was impossible to remain in the streets all night, and at last, losing patience, the captain seized a pair of pistols, his secretary a sabre, and Frederick the valet, dismounting from his horse, drew his sword and uttered a volley of "Dutch thunder" in so vehement a manner, that presently room was found for all

the horses in a church, which had lately been used as a place of confinement for some French prisoners. Also a single room was allotted to them at the burgomaster's, and being made warm and comfortable, it was an exquisite delight to the wayworn party, after travelling a whole day, exposed to such cold as the English in general can form no idea of.

The cook did his best with the provisions, cleaving both bread and meat with a batchet, and they found, as they had often done before, that rough as the cookery necessarily was, anything made eatable was a perfect feast, for they felt as cold inside as out.

There were two beds for the three, and "amazingly uncomfortable" they found them; for instead of warm blankets, they had no covering but a feather-bed. It was their first experience of this variety of bedclothes; and as there was no contrivance to keep this "balloon" in its place, every "hasty turn whisked it off." Mr. Reinagle seems also to have been further disconcerted by a malicious suggestion of the captain's that the travellers they had seen below were presently coming up to take their places on the top of the said feather-beds.

All through Westphalia, until they reached Pyrmont, the beds, whenever they had any, were of this kind. Counterpanes there were none, and blankets were a rarity.

The next morning the procession started again and steered for Steinfurt, along a wretched, winding road, filled with ruts two feet deep, and large hidden holes full of snow, slush, and broken ice. The Westphalian roads were, too, often so narrow, besides being bounded on either side by banks of earth, that it was impossible for two vehicles to pass one another. Moreover, the axles of the English carriages were wider than those of the country and gave infinite trouble; one side of each carriage was always up and the other down, and as they changed places every two or three minutes, the occupants were rocked to and fro and bounced about to such a degree that they were in momentary expectation of being upset or at least of having axles and traces broken.

They passed no village on the way, but the country was dotted with farmhouses, barns, and cottages, a pleasant sight after the barren, sandy waste through which they had lately passed, where the only "view "" was a dark streak on the horizon, indicating that there were a few trees or bushes some six or eight miles off.

At Steinfurt they fell in with the Marquis d'Auticham, who was under immediate orders to march his emigrant regiment to Pyrmont, and, as the Hessian baggage-train with the sick had now come up, Captain Woodford hastened to leave the place, in order that he might keep ahead of them all.

Before they could muster their train, however, the soldiery were in advance of them, and they took another road, which, though less direct, gave them the advantage of being able to proceed at something more than a foot-pace, their usual rate of progress when preceded by the troops.

The frost was still most severe, the air glittering with frozen particles. Münster was reached at 2 P.M.

The Westphalians [remarks Mr. Reinagle] are very very ugly, and the clumsiest people we had seen in our wandering travels; to us they appeared like ugly cows dressed out in all sorts of colored ribbons, on a May-day of times long passed by.

On the day following their arrival in Münster, a sudden and rapid thaw set in, making rivers of water, and mud more than ankle-deep in all directions; and the wind from having been bitter in the extreme, now veered to the south and was as warm as if it had been blowing from tl:e mouth of an oven. The change was so seemingly instantaneous as to cause gen. eral illness, and nearly every one caught a severe cold as if by magic. At nightfall, however, there was another change; snow began to fall, and the frost returned.

After a couple of days' rest, the train started again, and travelled along wornout, deeply-rutted roads, beset with holes and half-frozen pools, where they were in constant peril from the masses of ice through which horses and vehicles had to break their way. The baggage-waggon succumbed at last, the axle-tree being broken in two by a sudden descent into an unsuspected hole full of water and ice. This happened at dusk, when they were just a league from their last halting-place, Warendorf, and had still a league to travel before they should reach Nieukerk. Under these circumstances there was no alternative for them but to retrace their steps, leaving the wagon to be repaired by a blacksmith and carpenter, who were fortunately within reach, and by dint of working all night, succeeded in making the vehicle fit for use the next day.

On their way back to Warendorf they fell in with other travellers, baffled like