The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 351, January 10, 1829 — John Shaqi
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 351, January 10, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 351, January 10, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Sunday night was employed in enthusiastic rejoicing. The
tri-coloured cockades had all disappeared, and the British colours were
hoisted from every window. The great bell of St. Gudule tolled, to
announce the event to the surrounding neighbourhood; and some of the
English, who had only hidden themselves, ventured to re-appear. The only
alloy to the universal rapture which prevailed, was the number of the
wounded; the houses were insufficient to contain half; and the churches
and public buildings were littered down with straw for their reception.
The body of the Duke of Brunswick, who fell at Quatre Bras, was brought
in on Saturday, and taken to the quarters he had occupied near the
Chateau de Lacken. I was powerfully affected when I saw the corpse of
one, whom I had so lately marked as blooming with youth and health; but
my eyes soon became accustomed to horrors. On Monday morning, June 19th,
I hastened to the field of battle: I was compelled to go through the
forest de Soignês, for the road was so completely choked up as to be
impassable.--The dead required no help; but thousands of wounded, who
could not help themselves, were in want of every thing; their features,
swollen by the sun and rain, looked livid and bloated. One poor fellow
had a ghastly wound across his lower lip, which gaped wide, and showed
his teeth and gums, as though a second and unnatural mouth had opened
below his first. Another, quite blind from a gash across his eyes, sat
upright, gasping for breath, and murmuring, "De l'eau! de l'eau!" The
anxiety for water, was indeed most distressing. The German "Vaser!
vaser!" and the French "De l'eau! de l'eau!" still seem sounding in my
ears. I am convinced that hundreds must have perished from thirst alone,
and they had no hope of assistance, for even humane persons were afraid
of approaching the scene of blood, lest they should be taken in
requisition to bury the dead; almost every person who came near, being
pressed into that most disgusting and painful service. This general
burying was truly horrible: large square holes were dug about six feet
deep, and thirty or forty fine young fellows stripped to their skins
were thrown into each, pell mell, and then covered over in so slovenly a
manner, that sometimes a hand or foot peeped through the earth. One of
these holes was preparing as I passed, and the followers of the army
were stripping the bodies before throwing them into it, whilst some
Russian Jews were assisting in the spoilation of the dead, by chiseling
out their teeth! an operation which they performed with the most brutal
indifference. The clinking hammers of these wretches jarred horribly
upon my ears, and mingled strangely with the occasional report of
pistols, which seemed echoing each other at stated intervals, from
different corners of the field. I could not divine the meaning of these
shots, till I was informed, that they proceeded from the Belgians, who
were killing the wounded horses.
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