A considerable number of wounded remained, both of French and natives; among the latter I found a most interesting young girl, who had suffered amputation of the thigh: she had been hit by one of our shells, while in bed. Hundreds of the inhabitants were dug out from the ruins, dying and dead; tears and groans and desolation were to be met with at every step. “Alem! Vlissengen!”[13] was muttered by every tongue; and Flushing, one of the prettiest towns in Zealand, was now prostrate in the dust. The drunken war-fiend had feasted there, and all around were to be seen the fragments of his revelry. In a few days after the capitulation, we were ordered to Middleburg, where we relaxed a little from the severities of the siege. With the exception of the dread of sickness, which pervaded all Englishmen at that time, every thing to us was enjoyment in this city. It was fair-time when we arrived: delight was in every body's countenance; and this hilarity in one of the prettiest little cities on earth, where hospitality was lavished on us, removed a great deal of our dread of the prevailing fever, which was then daily destroying fifty or sixty of our men. The officers were quartered at the houses of the principal inhabitants, who behaved with the most praiseworthy kindness to all, furnishing not only quarters of a superior kind, but excellent tables and wine. I have particular reason to remember gratefully the people of the house in which I was myself quartered, because their kindness appeared even more disinterested than the rest, as will be seen by the following circumstance:—I had arrived late at Middleburg, having been detained behind the regiment, and on one of the most rainy and thundering nights that ever visited a hot summer. By some of the people I was directed to the _straad_ where the best hotel was situated, and after a long search found the house, and rang at the door. I was admitted by a very pretty and interesting young lady, who said in French that her father would be down stairs immediately, and politely showed me into the parlour.