we found the man with his whole family had retired there for safety, and by the destruction of the house had been buried alive; and there they would probably have remained, but for our exertion. They were very grateful for their deliverance, and readily gave us what had been the object of our search.

The troops were all under arms the whole of that night, and before day-break took up their respective positions for the ensuing day. The town batteries recommenced firing about six o'clock, and then balls followed each other in rapid succession. During the forenoon Sir Thomas Graham entered Merxem, accompanied by the Duke of Clarence, who to witness the operations obtained a seat in the belfry of the church, and remained there until a shot from the enemy struck the steeple, giving him an intimation that his royal person was not exactly safe; he immediately descended, mounted his horse, and rode off to the rear.

Our regiment was engaged, in the face of the enemy, in constructing a sand-bag mortar battery, which is formed as follows:-Such a number of men as may be deemed sufficient are provided each with a canvas bag, which is to be filled with sand and secured at the mouth by a string. These are deposited in rows under the superintendence of the artillery-men, and in an hour or two a battery may be thus formed, which will bear a great deal of hammering. Having completed our job, the mortars were brought up, fixed, and commenced firing. It must not be supposed, however, that we had been doing all this unobserved by the enemy from the town, or that we did not receive from

them some very striking intimations of their displeasure at our bold advances. Fortunately for us there happened to be a mound of earth, which screened us from their shot while we lay down. We had to remain on this spot, not only through the day, but during the following night; and as the evening drew in, we began to dig caves to keep off a portion of the cold air, as well as to form a shelter from the shot. The ground being chiefly sand, we were enabled to do this with the aid of some pickaxes and shovels, the loan of which we obtained from the sappers and miners.

I had at this time for a comrade a Sergeant Burton, belonging to the same company, and we were attached to each other from the circumstance that we were both Cockneys. He and I contrived to form a cave just large enough to hold us, and we thought, with a little straw, and our blankets and great coats, we might contrive to pass the night without being frozen. Sergeant Burton, who was not at all soldier-like in his appearance, being on the wrong side of fifty, and served some years on board a man-of-war; afterwards he joined the Tower Hamlets Militia, and from them he volunteered into our regiment. He was one of those active, devilmay-care, rough-and-ready sort of fellows that an officer would select, if he wanted a job done off-hand without any bother. Now, while he was taking home the implements we had borrowed, one of the largest sized shells from the enemy's battery burst in the air immediately over us, and literally descended among us as a shower of iron. A large portion of the shell fell directly on the top of our cave, and destroyed in one

moment the work of an hour. On Burton's return he swore bitterly at the destruction of our work, and not knowing at the moment how it had been effected, said to me, with the utmost seriousness, “D—n it, Tom! how came you to let them do that?" As we could not again obtain the loan of the tools, we were obliged to walk or run about the whole night, to keep the blood in circulation.

As soon as daylight appeared, the firing from the town forced us again to lie down. One of the officers, who was looking over the breastwork watching the enemy's batteries, suddenly drew himself down, saying, that a gun was just fired, the shot from which would come very close to us: the observation caused a young man, reclining next the officer, to raise himself up to look, and immediately his head was taken off.

Hitherto we had been sheltered from the batteries, but this morning they took us in flank, opening on us some long forty-two pounders from fort Ferdinand, and against these shots we had no sort of shelter. About mid-day we were relieved from this very dangerous position, where we lost a great many men, and retired beyond the village, but not out of reach of the shot; one among other proofs we had of this was, that a number of us were sitting round a fire, over which was a camp-kettle containing our allowance of meat, when the pot was struck by a cannon-shot and shattered to pieces, and some of those sitting round were very seriously injured.

During the next day the enemy's fire was continuous, but ours rather languid; and as night set in, we com

menced moving the guns and mortars from their position, and before day-break we were in full retreat from the place. The author of the history of the war has attempted to account for this sudden retreat, by stating that Sir Thomas Graham was ordered to join Bulow in some operation in another quarter; but the fallacy of this excuse will at once appear, from the circumstance of our taking up the position we previously occupied. The fact is, we were compelled to retire, absolutely for the want of ammunition for the artillery.

We lost about this time a fine young fellow through the dread of the lash. He belonged to the light company, and was so remarkably clean and well-conducted, that he was generally selected at guard-mounting as orderly to the commanding officer, which not only saved him from the fatiguing duty of standing sentry, but was considered as a recommendation for promotion. For some slight crime he was confined and tried by a court martial, and sentenced to receive three hundred lashes. When the morning of punishment came, he contrived, unseen by the guard, to take one of the firelocks from the rack, (they were all loaded,) and placing the muzzle to his head, and his toe in the loop of a string which he had fastened to the trigger, he blew his own brains out. Poor fellow! he was much esteemed by his comrades, and I think, on the whole, they were not sorry that he had, even thus, freed himself from the horrors of the lash.

CHAPTER IV.

"Now are our brows crowned with vietorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments."

AFTER the retreat from Antwerp our brigade occupied a village called Putte, on the road and exactly half-way between Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, and about three miles from the river Scheldt; having obtained possession of fort Frederick Henry, on the banks of the river two miles from fort Lillo, then occupied by the French, and being on the same bank.

As there was no accommodation whatever for the lodging of troops at this place, the regiments of our brigade relieved each other in the occupation of it. It was of the utmost importance, as it completed our line of intrenchment, and enabled us most effectually to cut off all supplies to Bergen-up-Zoom, either from the country, or from Antwerp by the river.

On the 28th of February, it being our turn to take the duty of this fort, we arrived there about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and relieved the 30th regiment. At this time a French line-of-battle ship, with a number of gun-boats, having dropped down with the tide from Antwerp, anchored just above the fort, and immediately opened their fire on us. The 30th, in going away, was exposed to considerable danger from the cannon balls