The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1852-07-07

the dear lifen 1t was quite anus
ing" says one writer, who was engaged
in the battle, "to see some of the for
eign troops cut away from the angles of
their squares, and our staff-ofiicers gal
Looping after them to intercept their
fight" And Lieutenant Colonel Basil
Jackson. without finding it amusing,
says, had an opportunity of witness
ing how disgraceful had been the conduct
Of many of the foreign troops ! saw
thousands making their way to the for
est, who had quilted their colors during
the battle and fed The commanding
officer of a cavalry regiment showed me
one hundred and forty men. stating that
his loss in the battle had reduced it
to that number but very nearly the
original complement of eight hundred
men were forthcoming, few days after
wards The Duke degraded it."
In the shades of this green Soigne did
these fine fellows, that trying day. seek
" the better part of valor" NJ. Gozlan
could not find single bird in the wood,
and gravcly states that all the birds fed
in terror on the day of the roaring bat
tie, and have never since come back One
thousand acres of this wood belong to
the Duke of Wellington-a testimony
to his services from the Government of
the Netherlands,
Soon after issuing from Soigne to the
great paved road again, we began to see
the pyramidal hill, surmounted by the
Lion raised by the Belgians on the spot
where the chief fury of the battle ragged,
showing itself aloft on the opening of the
road 1t is strange what sensation
the first sight of this monument of the
grand conflict which at once terminated
the lives of seventy thousand human
creatures, and the destinies of Napoleon.
gave us A solemn brooding horror
seemed to hover about it vivid con
seriousness of the reality of the terrible
scenes which had taken place there comes
with its presence. 1t stood up like gi-
ant spectre of the past, assuring us that
We were now actually on the spot which
had, for great part of our lives, been
talked of as something afar off, and
therefore. like the things of another
world, only half real.
Waterloo is an ordinary Belgian vii
lagc, with its cottages and gardens scat.
tered on each side of the road but since
the battle. it has been continually ex
tending itself. and now nearly joins Mont
St. Jean, the village from which the
French name the fight. In this village
which has prospered and grown by the
influx of visitors and the sales of relic.
for six-and thirty-years, lie buried in the
churchyard considerable number o.
British officers who fell in the conflict
and woman presented herself to show
their monuments There. also, but in
private garden, is buried the leg of tn,
Marquis of Anglesea which the owner o
the house has honored with monnmen
and epitaph and found these, along witt
the boot belonging to the lcg,a most prof
: table possession But still more inter
esting to us was the house where tn
Duke of Wellington took up his quar-
ters before the battle and that interest
we are not ashamed to say, was create,
b not so much by the great commander. a
Nnt CDbk. DuTiD0 lllt Dul
i tie, as from hour to hour, thousands O
thousands of fugitives poured along tC
J wards Brussels, or at least towards tn
/; Forest of Soigne, crying that all was los
}, the English beaten-the French vic
q torious and coming-the incredulou
/ cook continued unmoved his preparation
&c for his masters dinner Fly" erie
c. one after another" the French are con
st ing, and you will be killed ~ But tn
st imperturbable cook strong in his fait
II of invariable victory, only replied, ''No
', | have served my master while he ha
a fought hundred battles. and he nevo
+ yet failed to come to his dinrer" An
% be cooked on, spite of flying thousand
N of brave Belges" and Hanoverians
le and the Duke came, though rather late
. In Waterloo there is an excellent h,
a tel kept by Sergeant Munday, an En-,
q lishman who was in the battle and VII
II has succeeded as guide to his brothe
=. in-law, the late well-known Sergeant. NJ,
s jor Cotton, the author of the admirabl
% little guide book, A Voice from Waite
loo" The house cannot be missed
the Englishman or American visiting I'll
" spot its name and the name of the ho,
being painted in bold letters along il
front 1t is cheering thing to an En-,
lishman who comes here, and finds hin
Il self surrounded by Belgian peasants, i
" blue slops and cloth caps, vociferous a
jack davis and voracious as horse flies. [
cicorone you over the field, of the re,
II history of which they know little, an
that little pervert most literally, to Sc
d a fine manly fellow of his own nation sic
l. forth to receive him The Belgian guide
:, are great dealers in manufactured relic
l. and one man processes to have been tn
c guide of Lord Byron-at which tim
Q the said precocious guide must hav
d been just three years old If you visi
the field, Sergeant Munday is your MAJ
t He is about sixty hale, fresh, frank VI
l. wards of six feet in height, and n gentl,
g man in manners. He has none of tn
v Snowman about him. You 90 over tn
y ground, feeling as if you had fallen
|. with well-informed yeoman of th
# neighborhood, who is delighted to col
duct you over that most impressive seen
e and tell you all that he knows of i
IS While he is jealous to state the real fact
ir of the real history. no man will ever hea
t him utter a word injurious to the homo
e of the French-on the contrary, he
1t the first to bear cordial testimony to thei
e. bravery and spirit.
ii With this excellent guide, We drov
'e on,after hearty luncheon, to Mont S
70 Jean, where we stopped a short tim
ID to examine the Museum of Waterloo r,