This morning rode to Gonesse, the headquarters, through a country no doubt pretty enough before our arrival, but in which armed men now occupy the place of vines and fig-trees, &c.--in short, one continued bivouac. Arnouvilles, through which I passed, is a pretty village, and, although the houses were filled with soldiers, did not seem to have suffered like many other places, especially that unfortunate Garges. Four short but well-built and clean streets branch off from a pretty circus, the area of which is a nice smooth turf planted round with young elms. The shrubberies and pleasure-grounds of the Archbishop of ---- (I forget who), all untouched and in good order, added to the pleasing appearance of the place, forming, as it did, such a contrast with the desolate state of the surrounding country. Louis XVIII. occupies the palace, and his Suisses, gardes du corps, &c., the village. Gonesse is a nasty, dirty, gloomy place, and I made little stay there after getting my English letters. My garden begins already to be _home_, spite of its _désagrémens_. _July 6th._--All quiet; not a word about moving. Hitchins and I were both very ill last night after drinking some coffee. This we had brought with us, and therefore it was good: the horrible water here must have caused our illness. Passed the whole morning in idling about the street. There is a very pretty house with (apparently) delicious gardens at the upper end of the town; but some Dutch colonel has got possession, and his sentry turned me from the gate rather rudely. This evening the Doctor and I rode down to St Denis to see the lions. The French outposts had been withdrawn and their barricade removed, so that nothing impeded our progress until we arrived at the entrance of the town, and had a glimpse of the long dusky perspective of its principal street; but here we found an English guard, whose orders were to permit no one (officer or soldier) to enter the place. This was somewhat of a disappointment, but we must see it soon. Just at the entrance to the town is a very fine barrack of grey stone, with a spacious parade, separated from the road by a handsome _grille_ or iron railing. The little muddy rivulet which runs through Garges and Dugny crosses the road, just by the entrance, into St Denis, and then falls into the Seine. This feature had been taken advantage of in the intended military defence: the bridge removed and a battery constructed with earth and casks quite across the road. The approach to St Denis on this side is very fine; for at a short distance from this battery three chaussées converge to a point, and a more magnificent _coup d’œil_ cannot be conceived than that which presents itself to a person placing himself at the point of union, which at once commands three splendid avenues of the finest elms joining overhead and forming so many lofty arches. From Garges to this point our bivouacs extend; and the rich harvest of wheat which had covered the adjacent fields is