found elsewhere, and cut out of their frames with his penknife. This certainly is not justifiable, but his argument is a specious one--better save them at any rate than leave them to be destroyed by the Belgians. At the back of the house, on the same floor, had been a handsome library, but here as elsewhere the genius of destruction had been busy. The furniture was broken to pieces, the books pulled from their shelves, scattered over the floor, many of them torn to pieces, and many, thrown out of the windows, lying in heaps on the pavement of the court below. The foreigners were not the only busy people in Garges--our own troops were not idle. Leathes’ servant in this very house has found a magnificent work in three folio volumes, splendidly bound--a series of views of the principal buildings and scenery in France, in the best style of line-engraving. This appears to have been considered the greatest treasure in the library, being the only work attempted to be hidden. He found it under a cask in the wine-cellar, where he had no business. In the gardens and shrubberies the foreign troops were searching for plunder very systematically. Armed with watering-pots, they proceeded regularly over the ground, watering as they went, and whenever the moisture was quickly absorbed, dug. In this manner I understand they have already found many valuable things--certes, whilst I was at this chateau they found a batch of very fine wine buried under a flower-bed. Our men are not so indefatigable; they certainly take what they want when it presents itself, but do not give themselves much trouble in hunting things up. A party of Dutch (Protestants) broke into the church this morning, and after amusing themselves for a time with dressing themselves in the priests’ garments, &c., and turning into ridicule the Roman Catholic ceremonies, finished by breaking to pieces the altar and destroying everything they found in the church or vestry. Our allies are by no means an amiable set, nor very cordial with us. If an English corps (as Bull’s troop) occupy a chateau and its grounds, still they leave free ingress and egress to any others so long as they do not interfere with them. On the contrary, a single Dutch, Nassau, or Belge, will sometimes (if a commanding officer) occupy a whole place himself: sentinels are placed at every gate, and the place strictly _tabooed_. They are a brutal set. The Dutch appear the best. They are all uncommonly insolent to us. _July 5th._--Our conjectures as to the business which took the Duke to St Denis yesterday prove to be correct. It is rumoured this morning that the preliminaries of peace are signed, and that the _war is at an end_! So terminates, then, our campaign--short, but active, brilliant, and honourable to all concerned. Another fine but hot day.