found no fault with it, a chair or two, and a small dressing-table in the single window, constituted its whole furniture. Having made arrangements for establishing our mess here, I set off to visit my people, who, as before mentioned, were scattered by threes and fours all over the commune amongst the farmers; and with these good and simple people I found them already quite at home. In most houses I found them seated at dinner with the family--at all they had been invited so to do; and everywhere the greatest good-humour and best possible understanding prevailed between the host and guests. When I asked, “Ist der meister content mit den Soldaten?”--gibberish coined for the occasion, as they understood no French, and I no Flemish--the answer was always a hearty “Yaw, mynheer--yaw! ist brav--ist goot”--at the same time goodnaturedly slapping one of them on the back, and leering archly round at the others. Boys, women, and children would all swarm round me, exclaiming “Goot, goot, goot!” Then, anticipating my wish to see the horses, one of them would invite me to the stables, which, though dark, were all warm and comfortable. Here I found our cattle stowed away, perhaps, amongst half-a-dozen of their elephants of horses, literally living in clover, for their racks and mangers were full of it (the finest I ever saw), and their stalls of clean straw up to their bellies. These good people seemed quite proud of having made the lucky brutes so comfortable. I found afterwards from our Juge de Paix that this bounty was in some measure repaid by the dung, which is here so valuable that the production of one horse in four-and-twenty hours is worth at least three or four pounds of hay, and perhaps four times the quantity of clover.