to make ready, were to march at eight o'clock. Without ufing literary privileges, which allow authors to blot out the fun, or command him to fend forth his most effulgent beam (having, you know, a charter from Parnaffus to do as we please with the elements) I affure you, in the profe fimplicity of truth, that, really "The dawn was overcaft, the morning low'r'd, Nay more, thofe clouds, very foon after the Stadtholder reached the parade, broke on his unfheltered head, for the indifpenfible ceremonies of a field-day were to be exchanged, and his Royal Highness (princes not counting amongst their prerogatives the liberty of controlling the fkies to their purpofe) got a ducking more fevere than that I have recorded in a former letter. One would again be led to think that "there was more in these matters than philofophy can find out:" for really had the clouds been in combination against him, they could not have spouted down a more inaufpicious torrent. It was not, however, of sufficient vehemence to damp his martial attention: neither had it the force to chill public curiofity: confequently it was fet at defiance by powers ftronger than either curiofity, or martial ardour. Never, on any public occafion, did I fee P3 I fee fuch a collection of human beings. Every paffion of the heart, and every feeling of nature, were here met together. In the form either of patriots, princes, men, wives, miftreffes, children, officers, or foldiers, you might have obferved hate, allegiance, love, hope, and defpair. You might have remarked also a few fmiles of heroifm, amidst many bitter tears of apprehenfion. The difafters of the laft campaign were had in bleeding remembrance, and there were thofe amongst the difaffected inhabitants, who exclaimed, "See what a brave "fhew of fellows are waiting orders to march "to the fhambles !" * Infidious whisperings of this kind had been in circulation for fome time, and several de fertions had taken place in confequence; upwards of twenty on the night immediately preceding their march. Nor was this the worst: a dispiriting kind of alarm pervaded the foldiery, * Alas! this exclamation has fince proved, in fome late inftance, fo late as the 15th and 16th of April laft, but too prophetic; and, although the military entré of the young Imperial Monarch has been marked with glory, one cannot but regret it has been marked with fo much of the blood of his allies, Many of the very men whom the Gleaner beheld that day leaving their country have bade it an eternal adieu. It is the fate of war: but one fhrinks from the thought; and I wish I had not een them all alive. It is weakness, perhaps, but forgive me. who Others who performed their military preparations with reluctant delay. I had noticed many of them standing, the day before their departure, by the fide of their baggage waggons, as if they were taking a furvey of their hearfes, filling them with their beds, &c. as if they prefaged they would prove their beds of death. were following these vehicles with all their marching apparatus, not with eyes that anticipated victory, but with downcast looks, and folemn fteps, to dirge-like measure, as if they were moving after the coffin of a comrade; and the beat of the drum that acts fo wonderfully upon the spirits in certain moments, now feemed to found in their ears the dead march. Examples of every kind are known to be contagious; in no inftance, perhaps, more than in their influence upon our hopes and fears courage and cowardice are communicated in a moment: they are even transferred with electric rapidity from one man to another; the bofom of the brave, catching an unwonted apprehenfion, and the breaft of the daftard, glowing with even an unnatural ardour, as the poisonous breath of difaffection, or the exhilarating powers of loyalty, are diffused amongst them. It is a lamentable thing when private houfes or public empires are fet against themfelves. D4 felves. States are only large families, united by the same laws, and bound by the fame in tereft. The connexions of the nearest ties in private life are fcarce more clofe, nor ought they to be more facred. As the welfare of man and wife, fo the profperity of nations, my friend, "When those whom heav'n ordains to will the fame Unfortunately for the well being of thefe United States (which, by the bye, is, and has long been, a mifnomer) the two parties that are difmembering it are in perpetual counter-action." While the one is diligently labouring to knit the provinces together, the other, perhaps more induftrious, for mifchief is a very active power, works day and night, though working often under-ground, to render that honeft diligence ineffectual: and vigilant malignity will always be more or lefs fuccefsful. On this important morning, however, the Stadtholder rallied the half-feduced energies of his foldiers; he faluted them first generally, then particularly; he complimented, and with great justice, their martial appearance, cheered them them with a prince's fmile, diftributed amongst them a prince's bounty, bestowed, with welltimed addrefs, a prince's eulogy on their known valour, &c. &c. "A little flattery fometimes does well." He manifefted, by fifty little attentions, that he confidered them as the faithful defenders of the Republic, and, in short, put in motion every. wheel of a good general, a good-natured prince, and a good man. His deportment had a visible effect on the troops, into whofe countenances there came, as if by reflection, a fudden and promifing brightnefs: the morning itself began to look more cheerfully, and the officers withtheir men duly equipped, from the orange branches in their hats, to the neat knapsack at their backs, took their march through the. ftreets leading to Schedam-their first day's march-accompanied to the outer gate of the town by tens of thousands of spectators. If fome few of thofe thousands heaved a fincere figh of loyalty for the return of the troops, victorious and uninjured, how many, fecretly, or, to say the truth, openly, desired and hoped, they might be vanquished and cut to pieces! How ftrange does this feem, how unnatural does it found? " Is |