We continued our journey through Charleroy and Binch to this place.  At a small village between Binch and Mons we were stopped by a sentinel at a Prussian outpost and our passports demanded.  Neither the sentinel, however, nor the sergeant, nor any of the soldiers present, could read or understand French, in which language the passport was drawn up; but the sergeant told me that the officers were in a house about a quarter of a mile distant and that he would conduct me thither, but that he himself could not presume to let us pass, from not knowing the tenor of our passport.  I went accordingly with the sergeant to this house, There I found the officer commanding the piquet and several others sitting at table, carousing with beer and tobacco and nearly invisible from the clouds of smoke which pervaded the room.  I explained to the officer who we were and requested him to put on the passport his visa in the German language, so that the non-commissioned officers at the various posts through which we might pass would be able to understand it and let us pass without hindrance.  This he did accordingly and we proceeded on our journey.

We arrived here in the evening and put up at the Hotel Royal.  We found at Charleroy, Binch and here, a number of people employed in repairing and reconstructing the fortifications.  Men, women and boys are all put in requisition to accelerate this object, as it is the intention of the Belgian Government to put all the frontier fortresses in the most complete state of defence.  On ascending one of the steeples this morning we had a fine view of the surrounding country and of the height of Genappe, which are close to Mons and memorable for the brilliant victory gained by Dumouriez over the Austrians in 1792.  The landscape presents an undulating campaign country, gentle slopes and alternate plains covered with corn, as far as the eye can reach, and interspersed with villages and farmhouses.  In Mons is a very large splendid shop or warehouse of millinery, perfumery, jewellery, etc.  It is called La Toilette de Venus, and is served by a very pretty girl, who, I have no doubt from her simpering look and eloquent eyes, would have no objection to be a sedulous priestess at the altar of the Goddess of Amathus.  A battalion of Hollanders—­a very fine body of men—­marched into this place yesterday evening; the rest of the garrison is composed of Belgians, chiefly conscripts.

LEUZE, May 15.

Yesterday morning we left Mons and proceeded to Ath to breakfast.  A multitude of people were employed there also at the fortifications.  The garrison of Ath is composed of Hanoverians.  Ath reminded me of the wars of King William III and my Uncle Toby’s sieges.[9] There was so little remarkable to be seen at Ath that we proceeded to this place shortly after breakfast and arrived at one o’clock, it being only ten miles distance between Ath and Leuze.  We took up our quarters with Major-General Adam, who