The inhabitants in
general wish well to the arms of Napoleon, but they know that the retreat
of the English Army must necessarily take place through their town; that
our troops will perhaps endeavour to make a stand, and that the
consequences will be terrible to the inhabitants, from the houses being
liable to be burned or pillaged by friend or foe. All the baggage of our
Army and all the military Bureaux have received orders to repair and are
now on their march to Antwerp, and the road thither is so covered and
blocked up by waggons that the retreat of our Army will be much impeded
thereby. Probably my next letter may be dated from a French prison.
BRUXELLES, June 21.
Judge, my friend, of my astonishment and that of almost everybody in this
city, at the news which was circulated here early on the morning of the
19th, and has been daily confirmed, viz., that the French Army had been
completely defeated and was in full flight, leaving behind it 220 pieces of
cannon and all its baggage, waggons and _munitions de guerre_. I have not
been able to collect all the particulars, but you will no doubt hear enough
of it, for I am sure it will be _said_ or _sung_ by all the partisans of
the British ministry and all the Tories of the United Kingdom for months
and years to come; for further details, therefore, I shall refer you to the
Gazette.
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