pair, and sat with her thumb
crammed over the spouting orifice the whole time, while a young man
baled with his shoes as fast as possible. This was not all. The Stream
carried us down, and our driver--no great sailor--caught crabs at every
other pull; then we got upon a bank. Really I begun to think it would be
quite as well to be safe now, but as for _fear_, it was out of the
question, the lamentations of the women, and terrors of the old lady in
particular, kept us quite in Spirits. The last event was the total
overthrow of the driver by a sudden bump against the bank. Poor fellow!
he was not only well drenched, but his head cut by falling against the
seat of the boat in his overturn. Though every nerve vibrated with
compassion, it was quite impossible to avoid laughing. Luckily a glass
of vinegar well rubbed upon the wound soon set him to rights and good
humor. Gorum and Naard were the last two towns which the French
retained, and poor Gorum suffered sadly. The Suburbs, Tea gardens,
avenues, walks, &c., were all destroyed by the French to prevent the
Prussians coming in, and their houses and heads knocked about with shot
and shells to drive the French out. Luckily the French listened to the
entreaties of the people and capitulated.

I wish they would bombard Knutsford or Macclesfield or some of our Towns
for an hour or two, just to shew them what war is. Bang, whiz, down
comes a shell and away goes a house. War and slavery have quite
reconciled the Dutch to the abdication of Napoleon. In answer to the
question, "Etes vous content de ces changements?" you meet with no
doubtful shrug of the shoulders, no ambiguous "mais que, oui"; an
instantaneous extra whiff of satisfaction is puffed forth, accompanied
with the synonimous terms, "Napoleon et Diable." On leaving Gorum we
acquired an accession of passengers--a protestant clergyman and a fat
man, who looked much like a conjurer or alchymist. A protestant
clergyman in Holland may be known by his dress--a cocked hat of a
peculiar model covers a lank head of unpowdered hair. Nothing white
appears throughout but the pipe in his mouth and cravat round his neck,
a long black coat down to his ancles, with black worsted stockings and
gold-headed cane. I must say they do not look over and above agreeable,
and as they hate all innovations few have learnt French, so that I have
been foiled in most of my attempts at conversation.

From Gorum to Utrecht the country improves; we had