e stair, and an orderly entered with a command for me to repair to the
headquarters of the general at once. Never did the call of duty summon
me less willing, never found me so totally disinclined to obey. I was
weary and fatigued; but worse, than this, I was out of temper with
myself, the service, and the whole world. Had I heard that the Royal
forces were approaching, I was exactly in the humour to have dashed
into the thick of them, and sold my life as dearly as I could, out of
desperation.

Discipline is a powerful antagonist to a man's caprices, for with all
my irritability and discontent I arose, and resuming my uniform, set out
for General Humbert's quarters. I followed 'the orderly,' as he led the
way through many a dark street and crooked alley till we reached the
square. There, too, all was in darkness, save at the mainguard, where,
as usual, the five windows of the first storey were a blaze of light,
and the sounds of mirth and revelry, the nightly orgies of our officers,
were ringing out in the stillness of the quiet hour. The wild chorus
of a soldier-song, with its rataplan accompaniment of knuckles on the
table, echoed through the square, and smote upon my ear with anything
but a congenial sense of pleasure.

In my heart I thought them a senseless, soulless crew, that could give
themselves to dissipation and excess on the very eve, as it were, of our
defeat, and with hasty steps I turned away into the side-street, where
a large lamp, the only light to be seen, proclaimed General Humbert's
quarters.

A bustle and stir, very unusual at this late hour, pervaded the passages
and stairs, and it was some time before I could find one of the staff to
announce my arrival, which at last was done somewhat unceremoniously,
as an officer hurried me through a large chamber crowded with the staff
into an inner room, where, on a small field-bed, lay General Humbert,
without coat or boots, a much-worn scarlet cloak thrown half over him,
and a black handkerchief tied round his head. I had scarcely seen him
since our landing, and I could with difficulty recognise the burly,
high-complexioned soldier of a few days back, in the worn and haggard
features of the sick man before me. An attack of ague, which he had
originally contracted in Holland, had relapsed upon him, and he was now
suffering all the lassitude and sickness of that most depressing of all
maladies.

Maps, books, plans, and sketches of various kinds scattered