commands the Light Brigade of General Sir H. Clinton’s division.  This brigade is quartered here and in the adjacent farmhouses.  General Adam, though he has attained his rank at a very early age, is far more fitted for it than many of our older generals, some of whom (I speak from experience) have few ideas beyond the fixing of a button or lappel, or polishing a belt, and who place the whole Ars recondita of military discipline in pipe-clay, heel-ball and the goose step.  Fortunately for this army, the Duke of Wellington has too much good sense to be a martinet and the good old times are gone by, thank God, when a soldier used to be sentenced to two or three hundred lashes for having a dirty belt or being without a queue.  To the Duke of York also is humanity much indebted for his endeavours to check the frequency of corporal punishment.  The Duke of York, with all his zeal for the service, never loses sight of the comfort of the soldier and is indefatigable in his exertions to ameliorate his conditions.  We had a pleasant dinner party at General Adam’s, and at night I went to sleep at the house occupied by Captain C., one of the aides-de-camp of the General,[10] an active, intelligent officer who had formerly served in the marines, which service he had quitted in order to enter the regular army.

May 16.

Yesterday morning we paid a visit to Tournay, which is distant from Leuze about ten miles, and we breakfasted at the Signe d’Or.  We then proceeded to pay our respects to the Commandant General V.[11] The garrison consists of Belgians.  General V. had been some time in England as a prisoner of war.  He was made prisoner, I think he said, at Batavia.  He received us very politely, and not only gave us permission to visit the works of the citadel, but sent a sergeant to accompany us.  The new citadel is building on the site of the old one, and, like it, is to be a regular pentagon.  The fortifications of the city itself are not to be reconstructed; these of the citadel, which will be very strong, rendering them superfluous.  The sergeant was a native of Wuertemberg and had served in the army of his own country and in that of France in most of the campaigns under Napoleon.  He was a fine old veteran, and very intelligent, for he explained to us the nature of the works with great perspicuity.  With true Suabian dignity he refused a five franc piece which I offered him as a slight remuneration for the trouble he had taken, and as he seemed, I thought, rather offended at the offer, I felt myself bound to apologize.  From the number of workmen employed in repairing the citadel, it will not be long before it is placed in a respectable state of defence.  Tournay is a large handsome city and the spacious quais on the banks of the Scheld which runs through it add much to the neatness of its appearance.  It is only ten miles distant from Lille, but all communication from France is stopped.  We learned that some of the Hanoverians