were, indeed, galloping over the plain, kicking and
plunging, apparently mad with pain, whilst the poor
wounded wretches who saw them coming, and could not
get out of their way, shrieked in agony, and tried
to shrink back to escape from them, but in vain.
Soon after, I saw an immense horse (one of the Scotch
Greys) dash towards a colonel of the Imperial Guard,
who had had his leg shattered; the horse was frightfully
wounded, and part of a broken lance still rankled
in one of its wounds. It rushed snorting and
plunging past the Frenchman, and I shall never forget
his piercing cry as it approached. I flew instantly
to the spot, but ere I reached it the man was dead;
for, though I do not think the horse had touched him,
the terror he felt had been too much for his exhausted
frame. Sickened with the immense heaps of slain,
which spread in all directions as far as the eye could
reach, I was preparing to return, when as I was striding
over the dead and dying, and meditating on the horrors
of war, my attention was attracted by a young Frenchman,
who was lying on his back, apparently at the last
gasp. There was something in his countenance
which interested me, and I fancied, though I knew not
when, or where, that I had seen him before. Some
open letters were lying around, and one was yet grasped
in his hand as though he had been reading it to the
last moment. My eye fell upon the words “Mon
cher fils,” in a female hand, and I felt interested
for the fate of so affectionate a son. When I
left home in the morning, I had put a flask of brandy
and some biscuit into my pocket, in the hope that I
might be useful to the wounded, but when I gazed on
the countless multitude which strewed the field, I
felt discouraged from attempting to relieve them.
Chance had now directed my attention to one individual,
and I was resolved to try to save his life. His
thigh was broken, and he was badly wounded on the
left wrist, but the vital parts were untouched, and
his exhaustion seemed to arise principally from the
loss of blood. I poured a few drops of brandy
into his mouth, and crumbling my biscuit contrived
to make him swallow a small particle. The effects
of the dose were soon visible; his eyes half opened,
and a faint tinge of colour spread over his cheek.
I administered a little more, and it revived him so
much that he tried to sit upright. I raised him,
and contriving to place him in such a manner, as to
support him against the dead body of a horse, I put
the flask and biscuit by his side, and departed in
order to procure assistance to remove him. I
recollected that a short time before, I had seen a
smoke issuing from a deep ditch, and that my olfactory
nerves had been saluted by a savoury smell as I passed.
Guided by these indications, I retraced my steps to
the spot, and found some Scotch soldiers sheltered
by a hedge, very agreeably employed in cooking a quantity
of beefsteaks over a wood tire, in a French cuirass!!
I was exceedingly diverted at this novel kind of frying-pan,