To the force in Holland was added the fifth company, second battalion, which embarked at Woolwich on the 2nd January, and landed at Antwerp the same month. This company and two others already there, were employed for several months in improving the defences of the frontiers of the Netherlands, particularly at Ypres, Tournay, Mons, Menin, Dendermond, Ath, Namur, Charleroi, and Brussels. The various works were subdivided amongst the non-commissioned officers and privates, each of whom was held responsible for the proper execution of the work intrusted to his superintendence. The peasants and women under the direction of each counted from 20 to 100, and even more, according to circumstances.[219] Sergeant John Purcell had from 300 to 400 _women_ under his orders at Ypres; and from some winning peculiarity in his mode of command, obtained from their willing obedience and energies an amount of labour that was almost astonishing. No less than about 1,800 peasants and 2,000 horses were engaged in these works, and, by all accounts, they were conducted with the greatest regularity and despatch. Sir Charles Pasley attributes no inconsiderable credit to the sappers for their assistance in the general services of the frontier;[220] and the Master-General, the Earl of Mulgrave, in a letter dated 4th April, expressed his “warm approbation of their zeal and exertions.” The Duke of Wellington also on visiting the frontier, awarded similar praise to the officers and sappers, particularly for their efficient labours at Ypres. ----- Footnote 219: Pasley’s ‘Elementary Fortification,’ i., note B, p. vi. Footnote 220: Ibid. ----- Meanwhile Napoleon, breaking his captivity in Elba, reappeared in France, and wherever he journeyed, was enthusiastically welcomed by his former legions. As by a spell, the army gathered under the wings of his eagles, and again lifted him into the imperial seat from which he had been so recently expelled. Europe was once more thrown into commotion by the event, and to crush the lofty hopes and pretensions of an intolerable ambition, war was at once declared by the Allies against the usurper. At the instance of the Duke of Wellington,[221] who requested “the whole corps of sappers and miners” to be sent to Brussels to join his Grace’s force, seven companies of the corps, instructed in their art, were hurried off to Ostend between the 24th March and 10th June, and distributed with all possible haste to those frontier posts and fortresses in the Netherlands that most required their services. Those companies were the Third and sixth of the first battalion; Second and eighth of the second battalion; First and seventh of the third battalion; and First of the fourth battalion: