ior to the
Russians and Prussians in size and weight; but as they are almost all
young, they appear equally well fitted for bearing fatigues, and they
have an activity in their gait and demeanour, which accords well with
their general character. In travelling through the country, we could
almost always tell a French soldier from one of the allies at a
distance, by the spring of his step. They have another excellent
quality, that of being easily fed. Nothing appeared to excite more
astonishment or indignation in France, than the quantity of food
consumed by the allied troops. We found at Paris, that the Russian
convalescents, occupying the hospitals which had formerly been
appropriated to French troops, actually eat three times the rations
which the French had been allowed. Frenchmen of the middling and higher
ranks appear to have generally very keen appetites, and often surprise
Englishmen by the magnitude and variety of their meals; but the
peasantry and lower orders are accustomed to much poorer fare than the
corresponding classes, at least in the southern part of our island, and
the ordinary diet of the French soldiers is inferior to that of the
English. In garrison, they are never allowed animal food, at least when
in their own country; and the better living to which they are accustomed
in foreign countries, and on active service, is a stronger
recommendation of war to these volatile and unreflecting spirits, than
it might at first be thought.

The French cavalry are almost universally fine men, much superior to the
infantry in appearance. The horses of the _chasseurs a cheval_, and
hussars, are small, but active and hardy; and even those of the
cuirassiers have not the weight or beauty of the English heavy dragoons,
though we have understood that they bear the fatigues and privations,
incident to long campaigns, much better.

The imperial guard was composed, like the Russian guard, of picked men,
who had already served a certain length of time, and the pay being
higher than of the regiments of the line, and great pains being
uniformly taken to preserve them as much as possible, from the hardships
and dangers to which the other troops were exposed, and to reserve them
for great emergencies, it was at once an honour and a reward to belong
to them. We saw a review of the elite of the imperial guard on the 8th
of May 1814, in presence of the King of France; the regiments of
cavalry, of which a great number passed, we