Star.
London, England, 1830-10-11 00:00:00

LITERARY INTELLIt:ENCE.

• , " UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL."

A large stock of important information and amusement, of the most
rational kind, is presented to the Public this month in two closely:printed
membets of the " United Service Journal." The publishers have this
month found it necessary, from the surplus of communications, to pub-
lish an additional, or supplementary number. The strictly professional
parts of the Journal we cannot pretend to judge of; but the military
and naval achievements and adventures, related by the actual heroes
themselves, form a species of reading of a most engaging description.
We might particularize the History of the Attack on Bergen-op-Zoom,
as a specimen of the papers to which we allude. On the whole, we are
or.v,nced this Journal must prove of national benefit, affording a me.
ilium for discussing professional subjects, and suggesting improvements-
We shall select, as our extract, an adventure of our present justly
beloved Monarch, when Dukc of Clarence. The Portrait given in Part
11. or supplementary number, is the most striking likeness, and most
liet,titifully executed portrait, we ever recollect to have seen in a
etagaxine.

" I would not have intruded on the page' of the United Service
Joursteß, had it not been to discharge a debt of personal gratitude to our
tioveveign, King William ;—to the King's contempt of danger I am
indebted for the preservation of my life.
" When the British troops, in 1814, advanced on Antwerp, for the
j.i.rp,•!-e of destroying the French fleet, we quitted the village of Bircham
about an hour before daylight, in one of the most intensely cold morn-
ing; of that rigorous winter; it was, however, a positive comfort to be
again in motion, as the march of the preceding day had been tedious,
and our roads covered with wet snow. When darkness brought us to
our halting-place, the rest we had anticipated proved to be visionary :
aft, r providing for the shelter of the men, the only place left for the
officers was a small room, without either doors or windows; I say doors,
for in addition to the door from the passage, a doorway led by a few
steps to the garden, so that Boreas had free scope for his gambols, which
he performed in such perfection, that the recollection of them always
brings on an attack of rheumatism. For our bed we had a little
damp straw, on which we were obliged to lie as close as possible, to pre-
vent suffocation from the dense smoke with which the room was filled,
tram the few green sticks it cost us much labour to collect; it was not
at all Kilkenny fashion,' for we had smoke without fire. Sleep was
out of the question, and it was only the good-humour and brotherly
affection which existed (and to which all who have served must look
Lack with ratification) that made such miseries endurable. It was,
therefore, notwithstanding the pleasantry of our Assistant. Surgeon,
who passelthe night in apostrophising a pair of shoes which he kept
greasing whenever the smoke admitted of his sitting up,) a positive
happiness to be called on to turn-out. The frost had become intense,
so we were glad to push on; snow was falling heavily when we passed
a column of Prussians drawn up on the road, having their arms most
carefully covered by their cloaks: it was destined to act on the other
side of Antwerp. Shortly after day-break, and just as we reached a
wood occupied by French pickets, the sun broke out in great splendour,
disclosing a magnificent scene : but who has not admired the splendid
appearance exhibited by trees covered with hoar-frost under the spark-
ling effect of sunshine ?
As the cheering rays of the sun reached us, our ears were saluted by
the dropping fire of the skirmishers, which the frozen earth and wood
made to reverberate with a thousand echoes. Aa our pace increased,
so did the fire, and some heavy volleys, close upon our right, told of our
tear approach to the enemy. On clearing the wood, we discovered the
village of 3lerkhem, and advanced on it in double-quick, passing the
dead bodies of several of the enemy behind low walls and hedges,
that guided us to the entrance of the village by the church. On en.
tering the main street, expecting to be saluted by the fire of the enemy,
the leading companies commenced cheering, but were checked by the
I:tir,-hearted Sir Thomas Graham's calling 'silence.' An advance of a
tew paces brought us up with the skirmishers, and exhibited the French
broken, and escaping over a sheet of ice. Numbers of them were over.
taken by the gallant 05th, and brought back, to my utter amazement,
in the highest spirits. They were certainly, to all appearance, in much
better humour than their captors, whose havreaacks they commenced
rummaging for bread; and on finding it, with an Oblige, Monsieur,'
seteLd themselves on some trees which had been felled, and commenced
eating most greedily.
" Being halted and standing at case, all quiet except a few straggling
s' sot to the right, I went to the head of the column to see how matters
were goinf on, and had just got to the extremity of the village, and
an:Oiled a glance of a road that turned off at a right angle, when a
gentleman in a blur frock coat advanced from a house on the opposite
side of the road, and laying his hand on my arm, said. ' You had better
retire, or you will be fired on.' At the moment he said so, several balls
struck the earth close to us, and went ricockeing past; 1 was so con-
founded that 1 had nut the power of thanking him, nor could I at the
moment avail myself of the hint ; when I did, I did it well, for I did it
quickly. As the gentleman moved off, smiling at my perturbation (it
was the first time 1 had seen duck.and-drake played after that
fashion,) 1 observed he had got a shot through the skirt of his great
coat. 1 was not long in getting to the rear, where I found the men
piling their arms, and was attracted to the door by seeing a crowd round
it ; I learned that the smell of new bread had brought them together ;
they were rapping in vain, when a hopeful son of St. Patrick, placing
the inutile of his fire-lock to the key-hole. said it was quite a cosecs.
nient implement for picking a lock with ; he was, however, prevailed
on to stop,and3lynheer.being told that we were friends,and that he should
be paid, we were admitted. As I saw the soldiers were paying cheer.
fully, I obtained as much as I could well carry ME to the great solace
of my brother officers, as we had subsisted the previous day on a small
quantity of b:Latl and gin. When I mentioned my blue-coated friend,
(the army at that tulle wore grey great coats) it was suggested, that
although he must have had a bellyfull of fighting by that time, yet
some new Inead,might be very acceptable ; just then an officer came up
and infonned us. that he of whom we were in search was no less a per.
nonage than the Duke of Clarence ; for, that his Royal Highness had
spent a part of the previous night with hlin in a most miserable piquet.
house ; shottlylaler his Royal Highness had 'left him, and while he
111106 lamenting having met so pleasant a person when his canteen was
empty, lie was roused from a fit of bine devils by an aide-de-camp of
Sir Thomas Graham inquiring for the person who had just left him,
and who, he stated, was the Duke of Clarence.
" It is correctly stated in the third number of the United Service
Journal, that his Royal Highness occupied the house at the extremity
of the village next Antwerp, and which was knocked about his ears;
to the right and left of it were erected the batteries, in front were the
furnace for heating shot, and the windmill and Dyke from which we had
been fired on ; from the window was obtained a view of Antwerp, the
fleet, and all that was going on, hut it was too hot a berth to attract
many visitors. It was nearly in front of this house, and on the morning
after we took possession of the village, that a singular circumstance
occurred. Three officers of the 37th regiment, walking arm-in-arm,
two of them, by the same cannon-shot, lost each a leg, the one in the
centre escaping unhurt. I shall not trespass on your pages with an
account of the occurrences of the week we remained at Nlerkhem in
the attempt to destroy the French fleet. I am, however, certain, that
the most vivid imagination among the Gentlemen of England who
live at home at ease.' cannot picture to itself what his present Majesty
must have suffered from exposure to the intense cold ; it was such as to
make me frequently wish myself in the other world. It is true, at
home they were holding fairs and roasting oxen on the 'Thames ; but
then, John had his fireside and roast beef to return to, and he and his
lady went snugly to sleep, without thinking of tools campaigning on the
Continent, unless, perhaps, to long for another list of killed and wounded.
P_ W—•"

His Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer the
honor of knighthood on Captain David Erskine, of I)ryburgh Abbey
and Royal York Rangers. The gallant knight, whose literary lucu-
brations we have often noticed in our columns, lately paid a visit to
Brighton, when he had the honor of dining twice at the Royal table,
and was treated with great courtesy by both their Majesties. Sir David,
we believe, was personally known to the King when Duke of Clarence ;
and this circumstance, conjoined with his ancestry, his military services
in Holland, and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and his
many "right plessant and merry dramas," doubtless recommended him
to his Majesty as worthy of wearing the gold spurs."—Edinburgh
Observer.

NA ROW ESCAPE.—As Serjeant Tyrrell, of L. division,
was passing up Kennington-lane, at half-past one o'clock, a few morn.
logs since, his attention was arrested by hearing some one in Vauxhall
Gardens, and to satisfy himself who it was, raised himself to look over
die fence, when he perceived a man, and on asking him who lie was,
and what be:was doing there, the man presented a gun, at the same time
stating he would shoot him if he did not get down ; Sergeant T. think.
ing he might put his threat in execution, lowered himself from the
fence, which he had no sooner done than the man fired, the charge
passing through the paling within a few feet of the sergeant. On
the circumstance being investigated, it turned out that the
man who fired the gun so incautiously and improperly was
the new watchman of the Gardens, and we certainly are led to
believe that on Serjeant Tyrrell asking what he did• there. he became
alarmed (the mitt:anon being new to him,) and thinking l'yrrcil had
dropped inside the paling Instead of the reverse, 1w up with the gun,
and, in his agitation, fired. The gun had been very heavily charged,
anti in going off it •4 kicked,4 to use a sporting phrase, and laid the
frigh weed watchman on his back, who, thinking lie had been tired
at in teium, and shot In the breast, lay groaning and moaning till some
one arrived and cleared up the business. It is, however, very fortunate
that Strgeent Tyrrell escaped, for • had he not have dropped from the
position lie was in when he addressed the watchman, he must have re-
ceived the contents of the gun in his face. tile upper part of the paling
being alio• clean:away to the distance of many yards. It is to be hoped
that the above circumstance will tend as a caution to watchmen, and
rein:tit them acting so indiscreetly for the future.