Star.
London, England, 1828-09-05 00:00:00

baik in all directions. I passed close by. the Marshal
and his Generals, who eyed me with a look of grave
cut iosity.
" At last I arrived in the town, which exhibited such
a scene of confusion as I never witnessed. Almost the
whole French army occupied the streets ; the house-
tops were covered with cro.vds, and the windows seemed
bursting with the population. All was terror and ex-
citement ; for Soult seemed determined to make a stunt
even in the town, and Wellington commanded a po•i
tion from which he could reduce it to ashes. I had no
I sooner entered the streets than I became so faint and
exhausted from fatigue and loss of blood, that I sunk
down upon the ground. In a few minutes a French
surgeon made his appearance, and examined my wound,
which he laid open with the knife at both orifices; but
so much was my arm deadened by the ball, that I
scarcely felt the operation. As soon as it was over I was
escorted by a file of gens d'armes to an hospital pre-
pared for the reception of the wounded. As we passed
along the streets crowds of Ladies rushed out from their
houses, and presented me with wines and cordials ; and
being much exhausted and parched with thirst, I drank
largely of every thing they offered me.
" Upon asriving at the hospital, I was ushered into
an immense room, which was crowded from end to end
with the wounded and dying carers of the French
army. I was then given in charge to two fat ro.y sick-
nurses, who, withoit any coy delays, or the sligbtes►
attempt at a blush, script off my clothes and put me to
bed. In a short time afterwards I received a visit from
an English physician, who had been long resident in
Toulouse. He info: med me that the French army
would be obliged to retire, and that the inhabitants of
Toulouse were well affected towards the English. 1
expressed a fear that, in the event of the Fiench army
retiring, they might carry me along with them; but he
set my mind at ease, by informing me that he had suf-
ficient i tNel %WI the medical department to prevent
any thing of that sort; and after promising to repeat
his visit, he took his leave.

66 Tow ,rds night I began to fAll into a slumber, but
was every now and then startled out of it by the cries
of the wounded, especially of such as were undergoing
amputations.

In the bed neat to mine lay an English officer who'
had been wounded and taken prisoner; but he was then
I speechless, and died during the night. On my other
side lay a German, an officer in the FrenCh service,
whose skull bad been fractured. He sung and con-
versed to himself in the wildest manner imaginable;
and about midnight stinted out of bed, and snatched
up and down the room in a suite ot delirium. quite
alarming to the rest of us. He also died lila shott time.
Slcep tame upon use at last, but it was a sleep of
horrors. The various scenes of the preceding day,
mixed up with the phantoms if imagination, passed in
dire review before me. My friends teemed f4lling
around me, the thunders of battle were in my ears, and
we seemed.reireating and closely pursued by the ene-
my's cavalry. From these imaginary horrors a return
to real pain was a relief. I awoke towards morning
with a burning thirst, and the taste of sulphur in my
throat, in consequence of the smoke which I had
'breathed the preceding day. I was amply supplied
with lemonade; but my Lair attendants allovied me
scarce any thing to eat, fur fear, as they informed me,
of fever. • . .

" About ten o'clock at night I observed several Os-
cm: enter the hospitat, and bid adieu to their wounded
conipanions, by which I guessed that the French army
were about to evacuate Toulouse. Shortly afterwards
there were symptoms of commotion without—the move.'
meat of a great army, infantry, cavalry, and artillery,
through the narrow streets, with the confusion attend-
ing such a scene, produced a great noise, like the roar
of the sea after a storm. I listened to the wild sound
for hours, till at last it began to wax faint, and die away
through the night, when I again' sunk into a slumber.
Ou awakening in the morning I observed a number of
priests in the act of administering extreme unction to
the dying men by whom I was surrounded ; and the
moment any of them expired he was carried out, to
make room for some other wounded man, by whom
his bed was immediately occupied.
"Yet, even in that house of mourning, tbere oc-
curred one circumstance, which I still think of with pe-
culiar pleasure. About mid-day a young lady entered
the hospital, probably to see some friend or acquaint.
ante among the wounded. In proceeding along the
room, the paused opposite to the place where I was
lying, and, being informed by one of the sick nurses in
attendance that I was an Englishman, she stepped up
to my bed-side, and gazing on me with a look, in which
curiosity was mingled with pity—all at once, yielding
to the impulse'of her feelings, she bent over me, and,
throwing her arms around my neck, pressed her cheek
to mine: it was a ber4 of nature, and but the action of
a moment ; for she raised herself hastily. glided away,
and I never saw her again. Yet, trivial as this cir-
cumstance nisi seem, it remains lair and fresh in my re-
collection, while weighties matters have been long for-'
gotten; and there are times, even yet, when, in the
silencer f the night, and far away amidst the dream-
ing land, my couch seems spread in the hospital of
Toulouse; and when, itridst that scene of suffering.
my ear is tortured with shrieks of agony, and my sealed
eye blasted with heart-rending sights—then, too, smiling
away these horrors, the vision of the young French girl
breaks upon my dreams, and in all the vividness of
reality do I behold her, like a ministering angel, bend,
ing over my couch—till once more 1 feel her dark
tresses clustering oier my brow, and the pressure of bet
sofeviarm cheek to mine. But to return:
was not till the mists had cleared away, on the
Morning of the 12th. that the British army discovered
the retreat of the enemy. and began to feel their way
towards Toulouse, which they entered very quietly ;
Mid it War only by hearing their bands of music that I
was made aware of their approach. About noon 1 was
tisited by some of my brother officers, who ga' e me an
account of the termination of the battle, and the names
ur those who had laden. Though I was no longer a
prisoner, the state rf My he4lth was such as to prevent
my removal from the hospital, where I remained for
.teri days. On the 12th I heard the sound of cannon at
idistance, and must own I felt a kind of pleasure in.
tOpposiog that it proceeded from some of our artillery,
"41u, had come up with the enemy.
" For Several succeeding days. hour after hour. I
'hard our bands of music playing dead Marches tfirout,h
the•streets;-to numerous were the deaths after the battle;
arid 'gsehrle, froth the• room in *lnch I lay. I had a
t' ,liltipie of the bright blue sky, undteord from without