ADVENTURES 
 
 OF A 
 
 FRENCH SOLDIER, 
 
 EXEMPLIFYING THE 
 
 EVIL, CRIME, AND 
 
 V 
 
 SUFFERINGS OF WAR. 
 
 "/ 
 
 
 BY 
 
 PHILANTHROPOS, 
 
 Author of " The Sword," " Howard and Napoleon," &c. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 JAMES LORING, 132 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 SABBA.TH SCHOOL BOOK-STORE. 
 
 1831. 
 
f^tv 
 
 ^ 
 
 V 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1831, / 
 
 by James Loring, in the Clerk's Office of the 
 
 District Court of Massachusetts. 4 
 
 ,^ iy' y 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The two little books which I composed for 
 children of the Sabbath School, viz, " The 
 Sword or Christmas Presents," and " Howard 
 and Napoleon contrasted," having been very 
 well received by the Christian public, I have 
 been induced to make a third attempt. Although 
 topics suitable to my purpose are not wanting, 
 I have made choice of the " Adventures of a 
 French Sergeant," as a medium, whereby mucli 
 of the evil, crime and suffering of war may be 
 exemplified. This, to be sure, might have been 
 done by a work of fiction, altogether original ; 
 but, beside my repugnance to books of that 
 kind, there are, alas ! too many facts on hand, 
 to leave any occasion to resort to fiction, to give 
 an interest to such relations. Would to God, 
 there were no more truth in the journals of mili- 
 tary men than there are in works of fancy ; but 
 we are constrained to admit the truth of the 
 many horrible relations, which have been laid 
 before the public in private^ military journals. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 A new era has commenced in history. For- 
 merly, we knew but little of the operations of 
 Mar, except by the general orders and bulletins 
 of the belligerents, in which all was victory and 
 splendour and glory. As the survivors of a 
 victory are moved off from the scene of carnage 
 and corpses, and leave their dead companions 
 to the wolves and the vultures, or, at best, cover 
 them up in shallow graves where the dogs soon 
 find them out, or whelm them in pits, and leave 
 the wounded to suffer and groan in hospitals, 
 or on the field, and the widow and the fatherless 
 and the childless to weep in secret, while they, 
 with *' all the pomp and circumstance of glorious 
 war," in new and splendid uniforms, with great 
 bands of music, and flying colours and trophies 
 of victory, make their triumphal entry into great 
 cities, and* turn the heads of the youth of either 
 sex; so the histories of war, as they have been 
 written, leave out all the disgusting forms of 
 misery, which each individual experiences in a 
 thousand nameless ways, while they dwell at 
 large on the dauntless courage of the combat- 
 ants, tlie brilliant charges of the cavalry and in- 
 fantry, the play of the artillery, and the pursuit 
 of the enemy,- Indeed, if a great man falls, his 
 fate is much lamented ; but lamented in such a 
 way as to make thousands of thoughtless youth 
 envy his fate. But the death and sufferings of 
 the privates are passed over in the aggregate, 
 and no other account is made of them, than that 
 the force of the army is weakened by so many 
 
PREFACE. Vli 
 
 thousands of killed and wounded, whose place 
 must be supplied by new levies. '* When princes 
 play for provinces, men's lives are the counters." 
 
 To make up for this defect in history, a num- 
 ber of subaltern officers and privates have, since 
 the last wars in Europe, undertaken to write 
 their private adventures, and these come home 
 to our feelings. We have been so long used to 
 hear of the thousands and tens of thousands 
 slaughtered in a battle, that the very magnitude 
 and frequency destroy the effect ; but we enter 
 into the feelings and sufferings of individuals, 
 though w'e cannot multiply them by the number 
 of sufferers. 
 
 Among these private memoirs I have chosen 
 " The Adventures of a French Sergeant" for the 
 theme of this volume. I have followed the author 
 through all the vicissitudes of his fortune, leaving 
 out such particulars as were the least interesting, 
 or least to the purpose of showing the nature of 
 war. I have also, as far as practicable in an 
 abridgment, followed the exact language of the 
 English translator. When I have altered the 
 personal pronoun and made considerable omis- 
 sions, still retaining the language of the transla- 
 tor, I have used single marks of quotation, but 
 when I have used his exact words, without any 
 alteration except abridgment, I have put double 
 marks. I have inserted the reflections of the 
 author and added many of my own, in order to 
 make the facts stated useful to the youthful read- 
 er. I have also added many facts, pariicularly 
 
Vlll PREFACE, 
 
 concerningr the character and death of lord Nel- 
 son and the Russian campaign, in which the 
 book was deficient. These I have taken from 
 authors of high repute, and have no doubt of their 
 correctness. Should any one doubt my conclu- 
 sions, or the justness of my reflections, I entreat 
 him to lay aside the prejudices of early educa- 
 tion, and take the Gospel for his standard, and, 
 after a prayerful examination of the subject, I 
 think he will be convinced that I am right. 
 
 In hopes that my little book may help to bring 
 on that glorious era when nations shall learn 
 war no more, I remain 
 
 The Christian public's much obliged and 
 grateful servant, 
 
 PHILANTHROPOS, 
 
 August, 1831. 
 
TfH5 
 
 ADVENTURES 
 
 OF A 
 
 FRENCH SOLDIER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1805, Conscription — Departure for the army—Arrival 
 at Cadiz. 
 
 Robert Gutllemard was born about the 
 year 17S5, at Sixfour, a small town, or vil- 
 lage, of about fifty houses, near Toulon, in 
 France. His father was the Mayor of Six- 
 four, and had brought up Robert to no occu- 
 pation, without even thinking of a trade or 
 profession, until he was eighteen years old, 
 when he inclined to enter the French na- 
 vy, from hearing an uncle of his, who was 
 a master's mate in a French man-of-war, 
 relate his adventures. This desire became 
 stronger by having a friend of his, by the 
 name of Rymbauld, appointed a midshipman. 
 2 
 
iO ADVENTURES OF A f 
 
 Robert went on board several times to dine 
 with him and his companions. The author- 
 ity which these young men, scarcely out of y^ 
 their boyhood, possessed over grown up men, 
 their gaiety, their future prospects, the dan- 
 gers to which they were exposed, and, more 
 than all this, the elegance of their uniforms, 
 made him regret that he had not sooner em- 
 braced a profession, for which he fancied 
 himself very well fitted. 
 
 Such things often determine giddy young 
 men in the choice of a profession, without 
 any regard to the dangers to which they ex- 
 pose, not only their health and life, but the |^ 
 salvation of the immortal soul. The love of 
 authority over his fellow-creatures, especially 
 over men older than himself, and the love of 
 the glitter, tinsel, and show of the uniforms | 
 are the most common among the motives 
 v/hich induce a thoughtless young man to 
 choose a soldier's life. What motives for a 
 Christian I It is our duty to imitate Christ. 
 Did Christ, or any of his apostles, ever ap- 
 pear dressed up in the gewgaws and foppery f 
 " of a military uniform .'' Could any one re- 
 cognize a child of Christ, with the humility 
 and gentleness which characterized the 
 "Lamb of God /^ bedecked with the ditterins: ^ 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 11 
 
 trappings of war, and wearing a burnished hel- 
 met, inscribed with 'Victory or Death.' The 
 followers of Mahomet, and the false prophet 
 himself, might have been dressed so, for it 
 became their bloody rehgion ; and 1 do not 
 say that a real Christian may not be decked 
 out in so ridicidous a manner, but I do say, 
 that there must be an awful difference be- 
 tween the outer and the inner man. It is 
 well known to kings and conquerors and war- 
 like statesmen, that this love of finery is a 
 great inducement for vain young men to en- 
 list, and, therefore, they encourage it, for as 
 the celebrated Doctor Rush used to say, " If 
 there were no uniforms, there would be no 
 armies," What a satire on the boasted dig- 
 nity of human nature ! 
 
 , Robert had his name entered on the books 
 of a man-of-war, in spite of his father's op- 
 position to it, but, before he could be exam- 
 ined as a midshipman, he was drafted as a 
 conscript to serve in the army. 
 
 My young readers, perhaps, do not know 
 what the word " conscript" means. I will 
 tell them. During the wars which followed 
 the French revolution, the destruction of life 
 was so great, that men could not be found in 
 sufficient numbers, who would voluntarily 
 
12 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 enlist into the army. So they were drawn 
 by lot from fourteen years old and upwards, 
 and sometimes the waste of life was so great 
 and the demand for men so urgent, that the 
 classes of conscription were called out in 
 advance, and hoys of twelve or thirteen years 
 of age were forced into the army, where 
 great numbers of them perished by fatigue, 
 without ever having seen any other enemy 
 than their own countrymen. How happy 
 ou2;ht the children of these United Stales 
 to be, and how grateful to God, that this 
 dreadful scourge never visited this coun- 
 try. But all nations, that love war and mil- ' 
 itary glory, must submit to conscription and 
 impressment, and other equally cruel, and 
 often even more wicked, means of recruiting \ 
 the army and navy. This calamity falls 
 heaviest on the poor ; for rich men's sons 
 often escape their lot, either by bribing the 
 officers, or procuring a substitute to go in 
 their place ; but this requires a great deal of 
 money. ' Robert's father wished to procure ^ 
 a substitute, but they were extreniely dear, 
 and the purchase would have made a con- 
 siderp.ble breach in his fortune.' So he was 
 compelled to march. How cruel it must be, \ 
 to take from a poor old man his only hope 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 13 
 
 and support in his old age ! What induce- 
 ment has a father, in such countries, to edu- 
 cate a son to a trade or profession, when he 
 is hable, every moment, to be dragged away, 
 to end his life, on some distant shore, and 
 spill his blood in a war, waged by the avarice 
 or ambition of some despot or statesman, in 
 which the poor conscript has no interest, and 
 of which he frequently does not know even 
 the cause ! 
 
 The conscripts were assembled at Toulon, 
 May 1, 1805, and were then sent to a dis- 
 tant regiment. ' At the moment of their de- 
 parture, the colonel made them a very fine 
 speech upon their zeal for the service, and 
 the ardour with which they flew to the de- 
 fence of their country !' What a mockery ! 
 It was to conquer other countries, and not to 
 defend their own, that these conscripts were 
 dragged from their peaceful homes. ' Mean- 
 while, all the newspapers and all the procla- 
 mations of the head of the government spoke 
 of nothing but the emulation of the young 
 conscripts, who, on all sides, took arms of 
 their own accord, presented themselves be- 
 fore they were called, and covered every 
 road on their march to join the different corps 
 to which they were appointed.' It is by false- 
 
 9* 
 
14 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 hoods such as these, that militarf govern- 
 ments deceive the people. Falsehood is 
 always allowed in war, notwithstanding the 
 curse denounced against all liars. There is 
 no exception made in favour of generals or 
 statesrnen. 
 
 ' At the first halt, Robert was quartered 
 with the other conscripts of the detachment. 
 His surprise was great, when he heard his 
 companions, in the evening, bitterly regretting 
 their country, complaining, in \\o measured 
 terms, of the law which forced them to leave 
 it, and always forming plans for desertion. 
 The nature of their conversation did not 
 much agree with the colonel's address, the 
 language of the newspapers, or the procla- 
 mations of the government;' for the conscripts 
 told the truth, but the others told falsehoods, 
 for war is from beginning to end, a game of 
 deception. 
 
 The young conscripts were marched to 
 Port Vendres, and were ordered on board 
 men-of-war, ' not without murmuring, but, in 
 spite of their murmurs, they were obliged to 
 put, as the saying is, " their foot in the shoe," 
 the officers assuring them, that they should 
 be but a short time on board, and that they 
 were going only so far as the coast of Brit- 
 
FRENCH SOLDIERi 15 
 
 tany, to join a camp :' another falsehood, for 
 they were carried to Cadiz, in Spain, and 
 Robert's company was put on board the Re- 
 doutable, a ship of seventy- four guns, to take 
 the place of marines. 
 
 Here Robert found his old friend Rym- 
 bauld, and wished to be familiar with him, 
 but was soon repulsed by his former friend, 
 who was an officer, while Robert was only a 
 private. There is no friendship in war, 
 every one is for himself; and officers fre- 
 quently rejoice at the fall of their superiors, 
 because it forwards their own promotion. 
 
16 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1805. Battle of Trafalgar— Death of Nelson— Capture 
 and destruction of the combined French and Span- 
 ish fleet. 
 
 The Spanish and French fleets sailed to- 
 gether, out of the harbor of Cadiz, Oct. 2 1st, 
 and engaged the British fleet, ofFcape Trafal- 
 gar. Robert's ship began the action, by firing 
 a broadside into the ship of the British admi- 
 ral. Lord Nelson, called the Victory, f The 
 British vessel returned the fire, and, at the 
 same moment, there began, along the whole 
 of the two lines, a fire of artillery, which was 
 not to cease, except by the extermination of 
 one of the squadrons. Already cries of suf- 
 fering and death were heard on the decks of 
 the Redoutable. By the first discharge, 
 one oflicer and more than thirty soldiers and 
 sailors were killed and wounded. This was 
 the first time Robert had been in action, and 
 an emotion, he had never felt till now, made 
 his heart beat violently. All the men in the 
 main-top had been killed, when he was or- 
 dered, with two sailors and four soldiers, to 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 17 
 
 occupy th^ir places. While they were go- 
 ing aloft, the cannon balls and grape shot 
 showered around them, struck the masts and 
 yards, knocked large splinters out of them, 
 and cut the rigging to pieces. One of his 
 companions was wounded by his side, and 
 fell from the height of thirty feet upon the 
 deck, where he broke his neck.' 
 
 When he reached the top, he saw ' for 
 more than a league extended, a thick cloud 
 of smoke, above which, was discernable a 
 forest of masts and rigging. Thousands of 
 flashes penetrated this cloud, and a rolling 
 noise, similar to the sound of continued thun- 
 der, but much louder, rose from its bosom.' 
 He w^as left alone in the top ; his comrades 
 had all been killed or wounded. He looked 
 at the two vessels engaged. ' The smoke 
 which enveloped them was disengaged for a 
 moment, and returned thicker at each broad- 
 side. The. two decks were covered with 
 dead bodies, which they had not lime to 
 throw overboard. The captain was wound- 
 ed. He saw on the poop of the English ship, 
 a man with but one hand, gorgeously deco- 
 rated with stars, orders and garters.' It was 
 Admiral Lord Nelson. Robert fired off his 
 gun, and he supposes, killed Nelson. The 
 
18 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 fire ceased for a while, on board the Eng- 
 lish ship, but was soon renewed with re- 
 doubled fury. Another English ship engaged 
 the Redoutable, and another French ship the 
 Victory, so that the two ships were firing on 
 both sides at once, and probably many men 
 were killed, or wounded, by the balls of their 
 own countrymen. There was then seen a 
 sight, hitherto unexampled in naval warfare, 
 and not since repeated — four ships all in the 
 same direction, touching each other, dashing 
 one against another, intermingling their yards, 
 and fighting with a fury which no language 
 can express. 
 
 Here, my dear young reader, you may, 
 perhaps, be inclined to ask. Are they Turks? 
 Are they savages ? No, my dear child. They 
 are not Turks. The Mahometans do not 
 destroy one another like Christians. They 
 are not savages. They call themselves men. 
 Christians, civilized. The sign of that cross, 
 on which your blessed Redeemer poured out 
 his life for his enemies, floats above this 
 ocean of fire and smoke, and over these decks 
 strewed wnth the mangled bodies and dis- 
 jointed limbs of those for whom He died; 
 and, probably, there were chaplains, minis- 
 ters of the gospel of peace, on board some of 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 19 
 
 these ships, praying to God, for Christ's sake, 
 for power to destroy their fellow-creatures. 
 Oh, what a scene for a Christian indeed to 
 be engaged in ! When he fires his gun, or 
 pushes his boarding pike into the bosom of his 
 fellow-creature, he is either sending a poor 
 sinful soul to that place " where the worm 
 dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," or 
 else, he is killing his brother-christian ; and, 
 if he should himself be killed in the action, 
 how can he appear before the judgment seat 
 of Christ, red with his brother's blood ? or 
 how can he meet his slaughtered brother 
 there, slain by his hand ? Or, if he appears 
 there alone, after having sent a poor sinful 
 creature to endless perdition, and God shall 
 demand of him, " Where is thy brother ?" 
 will he answer in the words of Cain, " I 
 know not ; am I my brother's keeper !" Oh 
 that such scenes should ever disgrace Chris- 
 tendom ! Surely, when Christians come to 
 think of it, they will abolish the custom of 
 war ; or, if nominal Christians will engage 
 in it, the Christian indeed will come out from 
 among them, and be separate. I do not 
 say, that a nation should not defend itself 
 against actual invasion, but I do say that, 
 if Christian governments put more con- 
 
20 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 fidence in God and less in iheir own arm, 
 they would be in but little danger of invasion. 
 It is related of Jelioshaphat, king of Judah, 
 that he sent priests and Leviles "through all 
 the cities of Judah ; and they taught the peo- 
 ple ; and the fear of the Lord fell upon all 
 the kingdoms of the land that were round 
 about Judah, so that they made no war 
 against Jehoshaphat." 2 Chronicles, chap, 
 xvii. verses 6 to 9. 
 
 ' Amidst nearly four hundred pieces of 
 cannon, all firing at one time in a confined 
 space — amid the noise of the balls, which 
 made furious breaches in the side of the Re- 
 doutable — among the splinters, which flew 
 in every direction with the speed of projec- 
 tiles, and the dashing of the vessels, which 
 w^ere driven by the waves against each oth- 
 er, not a soul thought of any thing but de- 
 stroying the enemy, and the cries of the 
 wounded and dying were no longer heard. 
 The men fell, and, if they were any imped- 
 iment to the action of the gun, one of their 
 companions pushed them aside, with his foot, 
 to the middle of the deck, and, without utter- 
 ing a word, placed himself with concentrated 
 fury at the same post, where he soon expe- 
 rienced a similar fate.' What a heart-rending 
 scene ! 
 
FllENCH SOLDIER. 21 
 
 * In less than half an hour, the Redoutable, 
 without having hauled down her colors, had, 
 in fact, surrendered. Her fire had gradual- 
 ly slackened, and then ceased altogether. 
 The mutilated bodies of Robert's companions 
 encumbered the two decks, which w^ere cov- 
 ered with shot, broken cannon, matches still 
 smoking, and broken timbers. One of the 
 thirty-sis pounders had burst, toward the 
 close of the contest. The thirteen men, 
 placed at it, had been killed by the splinters } 
 and were heaped together around the broken 
 carriage. Not more than one hundred and 
 fifty men survived out of a crew of more than 
 eight hundred, and most of these were more 
 or less severely wounded.' He says, ^' I 
 went over the ship, where every thing pre- 
 sented a prospect of desolation. Calm de- 
 spair was painted on the countenances of 
 those who had escaped from this terrible 
 scene. Among the dead, I saw the ill-fated 
 Rymbauld, the friend of my infancy. At the 
 utmost, he was not more than eighteen. His 
 sword had been broken in his fall, he was 
 wounded, by a chain-shot, in his right breast, 
 and fell against the wheel of a cannon. The 
 disordered state of his features indicated that 
 his sufferings had been great. His disfigur- 
 
22 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 ed remains inspired me with painful reflec- 
 tions, and brought to my mind a host of bit- 
 ter recollections. 1 left the spot, and I must 
 confess, that my eyes filled with tears. 1 
 had not yet been able to acquire that indif- 
 ference, which a soldier displays, from a 
 constant habit of witnessing similar scenes." 
 War hardens the heart and blunts the feel- 
 ings ; and the time will come, when Robert 
 will think no more of killing a man, than a 
 butcher does of killing a calf. He miist do 
 that, or never become a brave soldier. Be- 
 fore a man can delight in war, he must put 
 off all feelings of humanity, and all the Chris- 
 tian graces, particularly " the ornament of a 
 meek and quiet spirit," which is worth infi- 
 nitely more than the ornament of an epaulet. 
 Alas, poor Kymbauld ! How short was his 
 career in the race of glory ! How many 
 thousands and myriads of yoimg men have 
 experienced the same fate,. and had all their 
 fond expectations cut off in their first battle ! 
 Not one in ten thousand ever arrives at the 
 summit of his hopes — perhaps, not one in 
 an hundred thousand. Yet how many are 
 willing to risk their lives and limbs and im- 
 mortal souls to gain a fleeting transitnr)' prize, 
 with at least ten thousand chances to one 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 23 
 
 against them. Of all lotteries, the lottery of 
 war is the greatest cheat. 
 
 The great Lord Nelson was killed in this 
 engagement, as Robert supposes, by him, 
 but, in this, he indulges that sort of vain 
 glory which is common to soldiers of all 
 ranks, for it was the Santissima Trinidada, or 
 Most Holy Trinity, (what a most blasphe- 
 mous name for a man-of-war,) a Spanish ship 
 of four decks and one hundred and thirty- 
 six guns, that engaged the Victory, and was 
 even lashed to her, so that the muzzles of the 
 guns, when run out, nearly touched the 
 sides of the opposing ships. It is true, the 
 Redoutable was also engaged with the Vic- 
 tory, and even run foul of her, but the honor 
 of killing Lord Nelson has always been giv- 
 en 10 a Spaniard, who fired from the main 
 top of the Santissima Trinidada, and who has 
 since received great honors and a pension 
 for life, for the deed. Had he saved a great 
 man's life instead of destroying it, probably, 
 he would have had neither honor nor pension. 
 
 Nelson did not die immediately on receiv- 
 ing his wound, but lived about an hour in 
 great pain, but in the full enjoyment of his 
 faculties. It does not appear, that, in his 
 last moments, he thought of heaven or hell, 
 
24 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 to one of which he was going ; he only 
 thought of victory and fame. When Capt. 
 Hardy told him, that fourteen or fifteen of 
 the enemy had struck, he answered, " That's 
 well, but 1 bargained for tw^enty." With 
 whom did Nelson bargain ? It is not for 
 ine to say whether he was a pious man or 
 not. He was the son of a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, and, one would suppose 
 from that circumstance, that he was piously 
 educated. He was always remarkable for 
 an insatiable thirst for praise, and was never 
 satisfied with the distinctions bestowed on 
 him, great and uncommon as they were. If 
 he was a man of piety, there is no rcQord of 
 his conversion. Nelson was very profane 
 in his language, especially in a battle, a thing 
 so common, both in the army and navy, as 
 scarcely to be noticed. His conduct, in al- 
 lowing the republicans of Naples to be mas- 
 sacred under his own eye, in violation of the 
 most sacred treaties, speaks but little for his 
 morality, or humanity, to say nothing of pie- 
 ty ; and his infamous connexion with Lady 
 Hamilton during the lifetime of her husband 
 and of his own wife, though he had long lived 
 happily with her, looks much like adultery. 
 Some of his last words to his wife were, '^ I 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 25 
 
 call God to witness, that there is nothing in 
 you, or your conduct, that I wish otherwise." 
 Yet he left her entirely, and took up with an 
 abandoned and profligate woman.' I know, 
 that such things are tolerated in great warri- 
 ors, and, when a man has caused the de- 
 struction of a great many of his fellow-crea- 
 tures, it is ihought to be wrong to look into 
 his private life, and very illiberal to doubt his 
 piety. " On the morning of this his last con- 
 lest, for what the world calls, glory and 
 immortality, he wrote a prayer in his journal, 
 and solemnly bequeathed Lady Hamilton to 
 his king and country." — (Rees.) Al! Nel- 
 son's public despatches had an air of piety, 
 which, it is to be feared, was but a sort of 
 official hypocrisy. 1 repeat it, it is not for 
 me to say, whether Nelson was pious ; God 
 only knows the heart ; but we see nothing of 
 his piety at the hour of death. He asked no 
 intercession of Christ. He expressed no 
 hopes in a Redeemer. There was no pray- 
 er offered up as his soul departed. The 
 cannon still roared on deck : blood was 
 flowing in torrents, and thousands of souls 
 were winging their doleful flight to the re- 
 gions of despair. Nelson, though, according 
 to the estimation of the world, a 2;reat man, 
 3* 
 
26 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 was far from being, I fear, either a pious man 
 or a happy one. It is said, that he wished 
 to die in this battle, and, therefore, put on all 
 his stars, orders, and epaulets, and other 
 gewgaws, which exposed him, particularly, 
 to be fired at by the men in the enemy's tops. 
 He was requested, by his friends, to take 
 them off, or at least, to cover them up ; but 
 he refused ; and probably died with them on. 
 Could he hope, with trinkets like these, to 
 appease an angry Judge ? Did his stars an4 
 garters and epaulets procure him any dis- 
 tinction at the bar of God ? Alas, no ! There 
 his distinctions fail : they cease forever. 
 Though men may pay divine honors ,to his 
 earthly remains, erect statues to him, and 
 emblazon his tomb, all this cannot keep the 
 soul from the worm that never dies, and the 
 fire that never shall be quenched. Oh how 
 many wish to die the death of a hero: but 
 " let me die the death of the righteous, and 
 let my last end be like his,^^ 
 
 *A very strong gale arose in the evening, 
 and blew through the night with extreme vi- 
 olence ; and soon scattered the wrecks of the 
 vessels which covered the sea. The Santissi- 
 ma Trinidada was sunk : the Spanish Admi- 
 ral was taken off, but died of his wound. The 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 27 
 
 Aigle, a French seventy-four, lost almost all 
 its crew, was taken, and was cast on shore 
 during the night, on the Spanish coast, where 
 both French and English were drowned to- 
 gether. The Indomptable foundered at sea, 
 with fifteen hundred wounded men on board, 
 not one of whom was saved. The Achille 
 was set on fire during the action. The Eng- 
 lish, who were fighting it, sheared off, and of 
 eight hundred men, who formed the crew, 
 not more than twenty found an opportunity 
 of escaping. When all hopes of stopping the 
 progress of the flames were gone, and death 
 seemed inevitable, to avoid waiting for it, 
 several officers blew out their brains. Oth- 
 ers threw themselves into the flames. Se- 
 veral sailors went to the store room, gorged 
 themselves with brandy, and, by the most 
 complete drunkenness, endeavored to throw 
 a veil over the disaster which was about to 
 close their existence.' What a preparation 
 for eternity ! Towards six o'clock in the 
 evening, the fire reached the powder maga- 
 zine, the vessel blew up, and every thing dis- 
 appeared. On most other occasions, these 
 unfortunate men could have been saved ; but 
 'without troubhng themselves about their fate, 
 the two fleets thought of nothing but the de- 
 
2o ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 struction of each other. The combined fleet 
 was annihilated, and, of all those vessels be- 
 longing to it which were engaged in this ac- 
 tion, the English could save but one single 
 vessel, the rest of the prizes all perished at 
 sea, on the coast, and by fire ! 
 
 Surely, this was a dearbought victory. 
 The remains of Nelson were carried to Lon- 
 don, and buried with the greatest' funeral 
 pomp ever displayed in England. If 1 re- 
 member rightly, the city of London was illu- 
 minated for this victory, and thanks offered 
 in the churches to God. 1 was once present 
 in London at k similar procession for victory, 
 and the pomp, parade and show beggared all 
 description. Being tired of standing, 1 re- 
 tired to a church, in which, besides the min- 
 isters and officers of the church, and a few 
 charity scholars, there were not lialf a doz- 
 en hearers. The pomp and' splendor were 
 all outside the church, and that was wiiat 
 the people niost cared about. It is by these 
 processions and rejoicings, and this pomp, 
 parade, and show, that Christians are recon- 
 ciled to all the horrors and abominations of 
 war : the rich are content to pay half their 
 income to support it, and the poor to be taxed 
 on the very necessaries of life, and to give 
 
FRENCH SOLBIER. 29 
 
 the bread out of their niouths, and send their 
 children supperless to bed, that they may 
 participate in these general rejoicings, at the 
 destruction of their fellow-creatures- They 
 complain, indeed, loud enough, against their 
 taxes, but still, from the prince to the beg- 
 gar, are fond of military glory, the cause of 
 all their sufferings. 
 
 " The rack'd inhabitants repine — complain — 
 Tax'd, till the brow of labor sweats in vain. 
 War layiSfa burden on the reeling state, 
 And peace does nothing to relieve the weight. 
 Successive loads succeeding broils impose, 
 And sighing millions prophesy the close." 
 
 The Expostulation. 
 
 But where were the widows and orphans 
 and the childless parents, w^hom this fatal vic- 
 tory had bereaved ? Alas ! they may retire and 
 weep in secret : the gay and joyous crowd 
 think little of their griefs. Where are the 
 wounded ? They are yet writhing in pain 
 and anguishj their limbs amputated, and ma- 
 ny of them dying a lingering and painful 
 death. Where are the dead ? They are bu- 
 ried in the ocean, and have already been de- 
 voured by the sharks and monsters of the 
 deep. And where are the souls of the de- 
 parted ^ Who can draw aside the veil which 
 
30 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 hides eternity from our view, and say how 
 many of them are already doomed to unut- 
 terable anguish ? And yet the unthinking 
 multitude rejoice, and England is a Christian 
 country ! 
 
FRENCH SOLDIEK, 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1805 to 1808. Departure for England — Return to Franc©' 
 — Death of the French Admiral — Interview with 
 Bonaparte — Campaign of Italy — Siege of Stralsand 
 —Duel. 
 
 On the evening of the 22d of October, the 
 fleet set sail for England. The voyage was 
 long and painful, especially to the French 
 prisoners. M. Villeneuve, the French Ad- 
 miral, having been wounded in the right 
 hand, inquired for a clerk among the prison- 
 ers, when Robert offered himself and was re- 
 ceived, so that he was attached to the reti- 
 nue of the Admiral, and never left him until 
 his death. After much delay, the Admiral 
 obtained leave to go to France on his parole. 
 As soon as he got there, he began operations, 
 in order to try the officers of his fleet at a court 
 martial for bad conduct in the battle, to which 
 he attributed his defeat. He was soon after 
 found dead in his bed, stabbed in five places. 
 It was generally supposed that he committed 
 
32 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 suicide; but Robert affirms that he was as- 
 sassinated, as he insinuates, by the officers, 
 to prevent their trial. Robert's suspicion got 
 to the ears of the Emperor Napoleon, who 
 sent for him, and heard his story. But, he 
 either did not believe him, or he was too 
 much occupied with other things, or chose to 
 wink at the crime. Robert was ordered to 
 join his regiment, a party of which was then 
 at Paris, and passed his time in dissipation, as 
 soldiers generally do, spending the Sabbath 
 at places of public amusement, and " fight- 
 ing sometimes." But soldiers, who can read 
 and write, hope for promotion; and Robert 
 was anxious to be engaged in battle, for 
 without battles and others being killed off, 
 there is but little hope of promotion in the ar- 
 my. It was, therefore, with pleasure, that he 
 saw his detachment ordered to the north of 
 Italy. It is wonderful, how quickly the young 
 conscript learns the manners of a soldier. He 
 soon gets to be dissipated and abandoned,, 
 forgets his family and friends, throws the reins 
 on the neck of his passions, indulges in every 
 excess, and is willing, and even desires, to 
 venture his life for the sake of plunder and 
 honor ! And it is wonderful, that a parent 
 should choose a profession for his son so full 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. S3 
 
 of danger not to his body only, that is a trifle, 
 but to his immortal soul. 
 
 Though the greater part of the time in 
 Italy was spent in idleness, or in brilliant re- 
 views, a part of the time the army was order- 
 ed to make forced marches, sometimes of 
 thirty miles a day, probably to inure the 
 young conscripts to the hardships of a sol- 
 dier's life. 
 
 Robert's regiment was next ordered into 
 Swedish Comerania, to attack the city of 
 Stralsand. Having driven in the advanced 
 posts, consisting of Swedes and English, they 
 came to the environs of the city. ' This spot 
 had not yet suffered the devastation which is 
 inseparable from a siege and a camp, and was 
 covered with charming country houses and 
 gardens, elegant pavilions, flowers and ver- 
 dure. In one moment, every thing was 
 changed ; the dead bodies and the wounded 
 of both parties dyed with their blood this spot 
 so agreeable a moment before, and the turf 
 was trodden down in every direction, and 
 strewed with the remnants of cartridges.' 
 Robert had the unhappiness to kill one of 
 the enemy, against whom he certainly could 
 have had no enmity, as the man was a stran- 
 ger and employed in defending his country. 
 4 
 
34 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 For this, Robert was made a corporal ; and 
 was ordered to take four men with him, and 
 burn a windmill, of which there were several 
 near. ' They were forced to drive in the 
 door, and were preparing to execute their 
 orders, when they were surprised by the ap- 
 pearance of a woman making a piteous lam- 
 entation, followed by two children from five 
 to six years of age. She stretched out her 
 arms, in a tone of supplication, and threw 
 herself at our feet.' But a soldier must obey 
 his orders, even if he had been commanded 
 to butcher the woman and her children. Of 
 course, he turned a deaf ear to her entrea- 
 ties, and ' collected in a corner of the mill 
 some wood and straw, set fire to it, and it 
 soon spread to the building. The poor wo- 
 man's despair was then at its height. She 
 rolled herself on the ground in convulsions, 
 and wished to throw herself into the flames. 
 Her children raised a terrible outcry, and 
 hung round their mother.' This would have 
 been rare sport for older soldiers, such is war 
 and glory ; and every man who enlists into the 
 army, voluntarily engages to do such things, 
 when he is ordered. A soldier is not allow- 
 ed to hear the voice of conscience. He 
 must obey man, rather than Grod. 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 35 
 
 Notwithstanding all the horrors of the siege 
 the French army found seasons for revelry 
 and mirth. The fete of Saint Napoleon was 
 celebrated by races, games, dances, and 
 drinking. A theatre was erected and plays 
 acted, notwithstanding the wounded, the dy- 
 ing and the dead. A fit celebration for the 
 day of such a saint. I do not believe that 
 such saints are found in heaven. 
 
 Stralsand was taken, and the Swedes com- 
 pelled to make peace with the French. This 
 was very fortunate for the French army, for 
 their situation had become very uncomforta- 
 ble. * It rained incessantly. Their hats had 
 been covered with rye straw, cut while green, 
 and long since dried up, and no longer af- 
 fording sufficient shelter. They got nothing 
 but very unwholesome food. Thousands of 
 worms produced by moisture destroyed their 
 bread, covered their clothes, and swarmed in 
 the cut and half rotten straw, which served 
 them to lie upon.' Such unwholesome food 
 and encampments frequently cause pestilential 
 diseases, which sweep away whole regiments, 
 particularly of young recruits, and destroy 
 more than the sword. 
 
 The regiment was ordered to Wismar. 
 They saw nothing but desolation and misery 
 
36 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 on their march, the inevitable consequences 
 of war. Robert had the good fortune to be 
 quartered at a village near Wismar, where 
 he was well received by the lady of the ma- 
 nor, on account of his literary acquirements, 
 though he was only a corporal. Here he 
 was also so fortunate as to save the life of a 
 Spaniard, whose name was Valdejo ; which 
 favour was afterwards returned by Valdejo 
 in Spain. 
 
 The French army had been victorious, and 
 it is wonderful to observe how victory inflates 
 the vanity and pride of a nation, and makes 
 it almost adore the conquerors. In the part 
 of France, which the army traversed on their 
 march to Spain, whither they were now or- 
 dered, fetes were given in every town ; the 
 officers were invited to balls and public din- 
 ners ; triumphal arches were raised ; and the 
 eagles crowned with laurels. It is by such 
 things, that the people of Europe keep up 
 that military spirit, which keeps them down, 
 and rivets their chains the stronger. Young 
 officers are charmed with such distinctions, 
 and they care but little for the justice of the 
 cause for which they fight, or for the liberty 
 of the people. They are very likely to sup- 
 port the man who gives them war, victory and 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. o7 
 
 glory, in preference to Him, who gives them 
 peace and liberty ; for mankind generally 
 love slavery with glory, better than they love 
 liberty with peace. But 
 
 " War is a game, which, were their subjects wise. 
 Kings could not play at." — Cowper. 
 
 All this honor, however, was not without 
 some envy from the regiments that had not 
 been in ^ction. " One Sunday afternoon, 
 Robert went into a grogshop, which was full 
 of men belonging to the different corps. Ro- 
 bert and his companions were bitterly re- 
 proached with the honors they received in 
 every town, and hints were thrown out, that 
 they were undeserved. A dispute and quar- 
 rel arose, which ended in a duel, six against 
 six. Robert was wounded and taken to the 
 hospital, but he does not say whether any 
 were killed or not. Duels are common in 
 all christian armies, but, in the American 
 service, officers only are allowed the honor 
 of fighting duels, the privates and petty offi- 
 cers would be punished for it. But any 
 young officer, who should refuse a challenge, 
 would be disgraced. Indeed, I do not see 
 how it can well be otherwise, for war and 
 duelling are just the same ; and, whether the 
 
 4* 
 
38 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 battle be between two, or twelve, or twelve 
 thousand, there is no difference in that law 
 of God, which says, " Thou shall not kill." 
 A battle is but a great duel, though some, 
 who approve of war, condemn duelling: but 
 they are very inconsistent. They say that a 
 court of honor could settle all disputes be- 
 tween individuals. And could not a court of 
 nations settle all disputes between nations? 
 However, every young man, wh<P goes into 
 the army with any hope of preferment, must 
 make up his mind to fight a duel if challeng- 
 ed ; and if his conscience will not let him do 
 that, he should not enlist. 
 
FKENCH SOLDIER. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1609 and 1 810. Battle of Wagram— Death of Colonel 
 Oudet — War in Spain — Taken prisoner by the Span- 
 iards — Sent to the Island of Cabrera — Starvation of 
 the Prisoners. 
 
 « 
 
 As Robert was detained by the wound re- 
 ceived in the duel, he could not immediate- 
 ly follow his regiment — but as soon as he got 
 well set out after it, and, on his way, fell in 
 with another regiment, which he was desir- 
 ous of joining, in hopes of more speedy pro- 
 motion ; the colonel Oudet was desirous of 
 having Robert in his regiment, on account 
 of his learning, and he got the change effect- 
 ed, and appointed him harbinger of a com- 
 pany — an officer in the French service, who 
 looks to the quarters and accommodations of 
 the company to which he belongs. He now 
 marched to encounter new dangers and hard- 
 ships in Austria. Probably he knew nothing 
 of the cause of the war, and cared but little 
 whether it was just or unjust, and would kill 
 
40 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 an Austrian as readily as he would a Swede, 
 an Englishman, or a Spaniard. He was at 
 the battle of Wagram, of which he gives but 
 little account, for, in these great battles, the 
 greater part, even of the officers, often know 
 but little of the affair, except where they are 
 immediately engaged. All that a private has 
 to do, is, to obey his officer, to advance when 
 he is ordered, to shoot and stab those he is 
 told to, and to run away when he sees oth- 
 ers run. All the rest is but carntge, death 
 and wounds, mangled limbs and headless 
 trunks, with groans, shrieks, sho'uts, curses, 
 and blasphemy, which the drums and trum- 
 pets ill vain endeavor to drown. 
 
 After the victory was W'on by the French, 
 Robert's regiment, still commanded by Ou- 
 det, though wounded, was ordered to follow 
 the enemy, and fell in w^ith one of the divis- 
 ions, who attacked the French, killed a great 
 many men, and mortally w'ounded the colo- 
 nel. Robert was wounded in the breast by 
 a musket ball, which laid him senseless for a 
 time. 'When he opened his eyes, be saw 
 the dead bodies of his companions around 
 him. Two entire battalions lay dead beside 
 him, w^ith the colonel in the midst of them. 
 The Austrians had retreated, and the silence 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 41 
 
 ■around him was only broken by the groans 
 of the dying.' He again became insensible, 
 and only recovered his recollection, when he 
 was taken to a temporary hospital. The co- 
 lonel survived some days. Robert saw him 
 die, and saw his funeral. He was buried in 
 the garden of the house which had been 
 turned into a hospital, and one of Robert's 
 friends, a subaltern, " rendered desperate by 
 his sorrow for the colonel's loss, and perhaps 
 disgusted with a life in which all his best 
 founded hopes had perished one after anoth- 
 er^ threw himself on his sword beside the 
 grave of Oudet." Suicide was very com- 
 mon in the French army. The soldiers 
 were always taught not to fear death, and 
 were kept in dreadful ignorance of a future 
 state. It was a maxim with Bonaparte, that, 
 if soldiers were not depraved, they should 
 be made so. 
 
 As Robert had fought very bravely on this 
 and some other occasions, he now expected 
 promotion, but was disappointed. Most of 
 the men of the regiment he had lately joined 
 had been killed, and it remained only a skel- 
 eton ; he was therefore desirous of going back 
 to his old regiment, which had lost only the 
 colonel, the major, and twelve other officers, 
 
42 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 and half the non-commissioned officers and 
 privates, killed in the glorious victory, beside 
 the wounded. His hopes of promotion were 
 again disappointed, and he was still but a har- 
 binger. 
 
 Robert now began to lead a dull, insipid 
 life, without any events of magnitude to arouse 
 his attention, and got heartily sick of repose. 
 Indeed, a man, situated as a soldier general- 
 ly is in time of peace, (for a peace had been 
 made between France and Austria,) without 
 a family, without connexions, or any reli- 
 gious friends, and with none of those pleas- 
 ures which flow from the social worship of 
 God, and from religious society, feels an 
 aching void when he loses that excitement 
 which war creates, and he longs for it, as ar- 
 dently as a drunkard does for his bowl, or 
 the gambler for his dice. Men used to ac- 
 tive service feel an uneasy sensation without 
 it, in the same manner as the drunkard feels 
 an uneasy sensation without ardent spirits, 
 which he knows will soon lay him in the gut- 
 ter with the swine. The ruined gamester, 
 who has lost his last dollar at dice, if be can 
 beg, borrow, or steal another, flies with it to 
 the gaming table, where he is almost sure to 
 lose it ; but he cannot overcome his propen- 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 43 
 
 sity. And the poor miserable outcast of the 
 female sex often escapes from the house of 
 refuge, to throw herself on vice and want and 
 misery. Thus war unfits a man for peace- 
 ful life, and the old soldier longs for the in- 
 dulgence, excess, vicco and excitement of the 
 camp, notwithstanding the suffering and mis- 
 ery which almost always accompany war. 
 Such creatures of habit are mankind, that 
 seldom any thing, but the grace of God, will 
 reconcile an old soldier to the sober duties 
 of peace. SufFei ing, anguish, and pain, gen- 
 erally fail of doing it. 
 
 But, under the reign of Bonaparte, there 
 was no danger that the sword would rust in 
 the scabbard, or be converted to a plough- 
 share. In order to secure his brother's usur- 
 pation of the crown of Spain, Bonaparte made 
 war on that country, and Robert's regiment 
 was ordered there, where it arrived in Jan. 
 1810. It was indifferent where he went. 
 He knew biit little of' the cause of the war, 
 and cared less. But no man can deny, that 
 he, who kills another' in an unjust war, is 
 guilty of murder in the sight of God, as much 
 as though he had killed him oh the highway, 
 or in a duel. Numbers can never justify 
 crime,, and, whether a man belong to a small 
 
44 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 crew or gang, or a large crew or gang, pira- 
 cy is still piracy, robbery is truly robbery^ 
 and murder is murder. I know, that many 
 endeavor to throw all the blame on kings and 
 statesmen, but kings and statesmen have 
 enough sins of their own to answer for. 
 That God, who has said, "Thou shalt not 
 kill," will require the life of man from his 
 murderer, be his station in society high or 
 low, for He says also, " At the hand of every 
 man's brother will I require the life of man." 
 Gen. ix. 5-. 
 
 The Spaniards resented the wanton inva- 
 sion of their country with great indignation, 
 and they were highly incensed at the perfid- 
 ious manner, in which Bonaparte had made 
 the royal family prisoners, and seized many 
 important fortresses under the guise of friend- 
 ship. " The Spaniards pretended," says Ro- 
 bert, " that we were carrying on an un- 
 just war against their country. Tins we had 
 nothing to do with. Soldiers are not fit for 
 meddling with such sort of things." But he 
 will find, at the day of judgment, if not be- 
 fore, that he has something to do with it. 
 The Christians of nearly the first three cen- 
 turies after Christ refused to take up arms 
 for the Roman government, or to fight for any 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 45 
 
 cause or any king whatever, and would rath- 
 er suffer death themselves, than inflict it on 
 others. Then " the lamp of Christianity burnt 
 bright ;" and the church increased faster than 
 it ever has since Christians began to use car- 
 nal weapons. 
 
 The Spaniards, very much enraged against 
 the French and their guerillas, or small 
 bands of soldiers, cut off many stragglers 
 from the French army. They fell in with 
 Robert^ who was going forward to provide 
 for his company with two other soldiers. 
 One of these they killed in a most shocking 
 manner, making him suffer all the torments 
 they could inflict, and they would have done 
 the same to Robert, had not one of their 
 company sprung forward and called him by 
 name. It was Valdejo the Spanish volun- 
 teer, whose life he had saved near Wismar. 
 The Spaniards took Robert and his surviving 
 companion, who was shockingly wounded, 
 prisoners, and carried them off into the woods. 
 His companion died of his wounds. The 
 next day, in their march, they saw ' the body 
 of a French soldier, stretched across the path. 
 Two others were hanging on trees, and bore 
 the marks of cruel and protracted torments. 
 A fourth, with his head cut off, was hanging 
 5 
 
46 ADVENTURES OF A » 
 
 by one foot.' The Spaniards could not re- 
 frain from displaying the ferocious joy they 
 felt at such a si2;ht. Robert could not re- 
 frain from expressing his grief, for which he 
 came near being massacred ; but Valdejo 
 saved him then, and afterward, from the pop- 
 ulace, in the towns which he passed through. 
 The French served the guerillas but little, if 
 any, better when they caught them, and a 
 system of retaliation was adopted by both 
 parties, the bare recital of which makes one 
 shudder. To return evil for evil is the prin- | 
 ciple of war, and it sometimes leads to the 
 most horrible excesses. To return good for 
 evil, is the principle of Christianity, and it 
 never fails, when persisted in, to disarm en- 
 mity. 
 
 Robert was ordered to be sent to Cabri- 
 ra, a small desert island in the Mediterrane- 
 an. Here he found six thousand of his coun- 
 trymen in a most lamentable condition. * Ma- 
 ny of them were quite naked, and as black as 
 mulattoes, with beards like a pirate, dirty 
 and out of order. Some had pieces of cloth- * 
 ing, but they had no shoes, or their legs and 
 feet and parts of their body were bare.' 
 They had no places to sleep in, but such 
 huts as they could make, without tools, out 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 47 
 
 of Sticks and grass, three or four feet b 'gh, 
 which every shower penetrated. Four or 
 five persons slept in one of these huts, into 
 which they were obHged to crawl on their 
 hands and knees, and to crawl out again feet 
 foremost. Robert here met with an old 
 friend, who invited him to lodge, for a night, 
 in his hut, which he did, with four others, its 
 inmates. This obtrusion of a new lodger, 
 into their narrow house, bred a quarrel and 
 a duel, in which Robert acted as the second 
 of his friend, who was blamed on his account. 
 For want of swords and pistols, the combat- 
 ants fought with razors tied to sticks. Duels 
 of this kind were of almost daily occurrence 
 on the island, but were seldom fatal. 
 
 The prisoners had very scant allowance, 
 and were often in a state of starvation, and it 
 is reported, that cases were known, where 
 one man had killed another, in order to eat 
 him. The provisions were sent every four 
 days, and sometimes were delayed a whole 
 day longer. The allowance was very small, 
 and some ate up the four days rations in two 
 days, and afterward fasted, or hved on roots 
 and grass, which carried off great numbers 
 of them. In a time of great distress, a gold 
 watch, which a prisoner had been able to se- 
 
48 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 Crete from his captors, was sold for half a 
 pound of bread. All kinds of amuseoients, 
 revelling and dancing were nevertheless car- 
 ried on, and Robert himself contrived to get 
 up a theatre. 
 
 At one time the provisions were delayed 
 for eight days. Many had consumed all they 
 had on the third day. On the fourth they 
 fasted. 'The next day, at the usual hour, 
 the starving prisoners covered the heights and 
 the shore, expecting every moment to see the 
 long wished for vessel. Their anxiety con- 
 tinually increasing, the day passed over and 
 night came on, while their hopes became 
 fainter and fainter. There was nothing heard, 
 but one universal cry of horror and indigna- 
 tion against the Spaniards, who had resolved, 
 said the multitude, to leave them to die of 
 hunger. On the first day of the scarcity, all 
 the provisions on the island were consumed. 
 On the second night, more than a hundred 
 and fifty persons died of hunger and debility. 
 The third day came, and the prisoners 
 crowded to the shore : their looks were di- 
 rected to the sea, but, at noon, nothing was 
 seen.' They resolved to kill the only ass on the 
 island — ahhough poor Martin was a favorite 
 with them all ; but when his flesh and bones 
 
. FRENCH SOLDIER. 49 
 
 were distributed, it amounted to only two 
 ounces for tiiree men. A storm came on 
 that night, which flooded their frail huts, and, 
 at daylight next morning, it was found that 
 three hundred persons had perished. On 
 the eighth day the vessel arrived, and the 
 sudden, though scanty, supply proved fatal to 
 many. The cause of the delay was a dispute 
 between two commissaries. What horrible 
 barbarities are witnessed in war! It hardens 
 the heart, and makes it callous to the sufier- 
 ings of our fellow creatures. In how many 
 ways does war increase the miseries and 
 shorten the life of those who are engaged in 
 it ! Doctor Johnson observes, " War has 
 means of destruction more formidable than 
 the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands 
 and tens of thousands which perished in our 
 late contests with France and Spain, a very 
 small part ever felt the stroke of an enemy — 
 the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst 
 damps and putrefaction, pale, torpid, spirit- 
 less and helpless, gasping and groaning, un- 
 pitied by men made obdurate by long con- 
 tinuance of hopeless misery, and were at last 
 whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean, 
 without notice and without remembrance. 
 By incommodious encampments, and un- 
 
50 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 wholesome stations, where courage is useless 
 and enterprise impracticable, fleets are silent- 
 ly dispeopled, and armies sluggishly melted 
 away." This is far different from the repre- 
 sentation of a soldier's life in heroic fiction ; 
 but all this may happen, and in fact, often 
 does happen to a victorious army — a still 
 severer fate awaits the vanquished. 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 51 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1810 to 1812. The French Soldier escapes — Rejoins the 
 French army in Spain — Gains the cross of honor — • 
 Falls sick and returns home — Engajjes in the Russian 
 campaign — Taken prisoner by the Russians. 
 
 Robert found means to escape from the 
 island, and again joined the French army in 
 Spain at the siege of Tortosa, where he dis- 
 played a good deal of courage, and took three 
 prisoners, for which he received the cross of 
 honor, and was made a sergeant, which grati- 
 fied his pride very much. It is by these 
 decorations and promotions, that armies are 
 kept together. Mankind are naturally proud 
 and vain, and every little distinction or pro- 
 motion over their fellow creatures, gratifies 
 their vanity, and raises their pride still high- 
 er, and, for this meed of praise, this "whist- 
 ling of a name," they " seek the bubble re- 
 putation, even at the cannon's mouth." But 
 how short is the duration of their glory ! Soon 
 they die, and carry no crosses of honor with 
 them to the world of spirits. All their glory 
 
52 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 will not save them from the doom which 
 awaits the finally impenitent. Man may con- 
 fer a short-lived fame, hut " God seelh not 
 as man seeth ; for, high as heaven is ahove the 
 earth, so high are his thoughts above our 
 thoughts, and his ways above our ways." 
 On the contrary, the Christian's crown grows 
 brighter at death, and he wears it forever in 
 heaven. But men do not go to the field of 
 battle to gain such crowns as this : they are 
 not stained with blood, and they are confer- 
 red not on tliose who destroy, but on those 
 who save. 
 
 Robert now fell sick of a fever, and though 
 he escaped with his life, was for a long time 
 unable to do duty, and obtained a furlough 
 to visit his friends. He found Miette, the 
 object of his early affections, and to whom 
 he had been engaged, married to another, 
 but he seemed to care very little about it. 
 Why should he? If a soldier marries, his 
 wife must either follow the camp, bear all 
 the hardships accompanying it, and mingle 
 with the most degraded of her sex, or she 
 must be, for most of her time, separated from 
 her husband, and in either case, it must be 
 extremely difficult for him to support her and 
 her children. 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 53 
 
 Robert was very proud of his cross of honor 
 and in hopes of further promotion, so that, 
 when his furlough had expired, he left his 
 home a second time, but now without regret, 
 and joined his regiment, which was in Ger- 
 many. He soon after engaged in the Russian 
 campaign, which he entered into gladly with- 
 out once considering the cause of the war, 
 which was nothing more or less than the de- 
 sire of Bonaparte to be emperor of the world, 
 and to subdue all other empires, kingdoms, 
 and republicks to his own sway and domin- 
 ion. Indeed, ambition, or a love of power 
 and praise, has been the greatest cause of 
 war, from the time that Lucifer first made 
 war in heaven, to this day. " From whence 
 come wars and fightings ?" asks St. James, 
 "Come they not hence even of your lusts 
 which war in your members ?" As the love of 
 praise is the greatest of all causes of war, it 
 is evident that, if men withheld their praise 
 from the bloodstained conqueror, wars would 
 cease. If great robbers and murderers by 
 wholesale met with the same detestation from 
 mankind that awaits the pirate, highway rob- 
 ber, and murderer, the race of conquerors 
 would soon become extinct. But, in the 
 opinion of the world, ''one murder makes a 
 
M ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 villain, millions a hero ;" as though the mag- 
 nitude of a crime changed its nature and 
 made it virtue. Profiting by this disposition 
 in the multitude, ambitious and artful men 
 raise themselves to power : and bring whole 
 nations into slavery, — not only foreign nations, 
 but their own. " The first king," says a 
 French author, " was a fortunate soldier." 
 Such a man erects a monument of his power 
 and glory on the ruins of his country's liberty. 
 It is built of human sculls, like the monuments 
 of Timour the Tartar, and 
 
 He deems a thousand, or ten thousand lives, 
 Spent in the purchase of renown for him, 
 An easy reckoning : and they think the same. 
 Thus kings were first invented. — Task. 
 
 Bonaparte had already conquered more 
 countries than any modern hero. He had 
 destroyed more lives, and he was the most 
 powerful monarch in the world, and had the 
 most obedient subjects and servile courtiers. 
 But it is impossible to satisfy the love of 
 praise. Alexander the great, when he had 
 conquered the world, cried, like the spoiled 
 child of Fortune, because he had not another 
 world to conquer. Oh, were men as anxious 
 to gain " that unfading crown of glory, which 
 the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to 
 
FBENCH SOLDIER. 65 
 
 all who love his appearance and kingdom,'^ 
 as they are to obtain temporal crowns and 
 that honor which is but " a pufF of noisy 
 breath,'* what a different world this would 
 be ! But men labour for perishable renown* 
 
 " The hero best example gives of toil 
 TJnsanctified. One word his history writes, 
 He was a murderer above the laws, 
 And greatly praised for doing murderous deeds." 
 
 Course of Time. 
 
 But, after all, what are these heroes and 
 conquerors, but, like the Assyrian, the rods 
 of God's anger — ^curses and scourges to a 
 guilty world ? They are doing God's will, 
 though they do not intend it, and of every 
 conqueror it may be said, as the Holy Ghost 
 said of the king of Assyria, " Howbeit, he 
 meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think 
 so : but, it is in his heart to destroy and cut 
 off nations not a few. For he saith, Are not 
 my princes altogether kings ?" Two of 
 Bonaparte's brothers and some of his gen- 
 erals and courtiers were kings, " But shall 
 the axe boast itself against him that heweth 
 therewith?" "Therefore shall the Lord, 
 the Lord of Hosts, send among his fat ones 
 leanness, and under his glory, He shall kin- 
 dle a burning, like the burning of a fire," 
 (Isaiah x.) and so he did with Bonaparte ; 
 
56 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 when he had used hira to chastise the na- 
 tions, he broke the rod and cast it into the 
 fire. 
 
 But are the slaves who follow such heroes 
 any better than they f What are we to think 
 of the Italians, the Dutch, the Swiss, the 
 Austrians, the Prussians, in short, of the sev- 
 enteen different nations who followed Bona- 
 parte into Russia ? Will it be said, that some 
 of these men were compelled, by the tyrant 
 of France, to follow his fortunes ? But, a 
 true hero will sooner suffer death himself, 
 than inflict it on the innocent. If the fear of 
 the consequences of a refusal was their mo- 
 tive for committing murder, they were the 
 worst of cowards. In the day of the resur- 
 rection, when the four hundred thousand, 
 who fell among the snowclad forests of Rus- 
 sia, shall be called to their last account, will 
 they be able to lay all the blame on Bona- 
 parte ? Pollok, speaking of the day of judg- 
 ment as past says, 
 
 " From battle fields, where men, by millions, met 
 To murder each his fellow, and make sport 
 To kings and heroes — things long since forgot, 
 In numerous armies rose unbannered all, 
 Unpanoplied, unpraised : nor found a prince 
 Or general, then, to answer for their crimes." 
 
 Course of 7Vm» 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 57 
 
 Robert gives but little account of Bona- 
 parte's Russian campaign. He was at the 
 battle of Borodino, where a standard was 
 committed to him, by the colonel of the 
 regiment, the ensign having just been killed. 
 The Emperor coming up at that moment to 
 encourage the troops, had a short conference 
 with Robert, who reminded him of having 
 seen him after the death of Admiral Ville- 
 neuve. Bonaparte made him an ensign, 
 which greatly raised his valour : but, as he 
 was soon after taken prisoner by the Rus- 
 sians, and sent into Siberia, from whence he 
 did not return until after Bonaparte's fall, he 
 never got his commission. 
 
68 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1812. Russian Campaign. 
 
 As Robert gives us but little account of 
 this memorable campaign, I w\\\ endeavour 
 to supply his deficiency from other authors. 
 
 On the 24th day of June, 1812, the Em- 
 peror of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
 passed the river Niemen, and entered on the 
 Russian territories, with an army of 494,000 
 men, his whole effective force including the 
 garrisons he left behind amounting to 680,000 
 men and 176,000 horses. The Russians re- 
 treated before him, leaving a country, which 
 before was but thinly settled, entirely desti- 
 tute of inhabitants and provisions. On the 
 next day, a storm came on, and ten thousand 
 horses and many of his men perished. " Their 
 carcasses were lying encumbering the road. 
 They sent forth a mephetic smell, impossi- 
 ble to breathe. Several soldiers of the young 
 guard had already perished by hunger." 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 69 
 
 (Segur.) Others had shot themselves in 
 despair. By the 10th of August, only 47 
 days after Napoleon entered Russia, he had 
 lost-near a third of his army, and yet had not 
 fought a battle. " The army had advanced 
 but a hundred leagues from the Niemen, and 
 already it was completely altered." The 
 articles for refreshment suddenly failed them 
 in their extremity, and " v^^ater was fre- 
 quently wanting. The same was the case 
 with dry provisions, and also with every 
 necessary of hfe : and in this gradual desti- 
 tution, depression of mind kept pace with the 
 successive debilitation of body. From these 
 sufferings, physical and moral, from these 
 continual bivouacs,* as dangerous near the 
 pole as under the equator, from this infection 
 of the air, by the putrified carcasses of men 
 and horses that strewed the roads, sprang two 
 dreadful epidemics, the dysentery and the 
 yellow fever. The Germans first felt their 
 ravages ; they are less nervous and less sober 
 than the French, and they were less interest- 
 ed in a cause which they regarded as foreign 
 to them. Out of 22,000 Bavarians who had 
 crossed the Oder, 11,000 only reached the 
 Duna, and yet they had never been in action. 
 
 * An encampment in the open air, without tents. 
 
60 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 This military march cost the French one 
 fourth, and the alHes one half of their army. 
 At Wilna, it was not possible to establish 
 hospitals for more than 6000 sick. Convents, 
 churches, synagogues, and barns served to 
 receive this suffering multitude. In these 
 dismal places, sometimes unhealthy, but al- 
 ways too few and too crowded, the sick were 
 frequently without food, without beds, with- 
 out covering, and without even straw and 
 medicines." Segur. 
 
 The French army, however, advanced in 
 pursuit of the Russians, who retreated, throw- 
 ing every impediment in the way of the 
 French, while famine pressed on their rear. 
 It is not my intention to follow these gigantic 
 armies in all their movements, nor to de- 
 scribe their battles, the greatest of which was 
 at Borodino, where Robert was taken prison- 
 er. The Russians still retreated, and even 
 evacuated Moscow, the capital of the coun- 
 try, which they set fire to as the French 
 entered, and that most splendid city was 
 burnt to the ground, which left Napoleon's 
 army without quarters and without provisions, 
 so that he was compelled to retreat. 
 
 Labaume, another French writer, in his 
 narrative of the campaign, speaking of the 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 61 
 
 capture and destruction of Maro-Jares-lav- 
 itz says, " The town in which we had fought 
 was no longer standing, and we could only 
 discover the line of the streets by the numer- 
 ous dead bodies with which they were strew- 
 ed. On all sides we saw human heads and 
 scattered limbs crushed by the artillery, that 
 had been raanoeuvered over them. Many of 
 the sick and wounded had quitted the fight, 
 to take refuge in the houses, which were 
 now reduced to a heap of ruins, and under 
 the burning ashes appeared their half con- 
 sumed remains. The few, who had escaped 
 the flames, having their faces blackened and 
 their, clothes and hair burnt, presented them- 
 selves before us, and, in an expiring tone, 
 uttered the cries of deepest anguish." 
 
 "As we advanced, the country appeared 
 yet more desolate. But the most horrible 
 sight was the multitude of dead bodies, 
 which had been fifty-two days unburied, and 
 scarcely retained the human form. My con- 
 sternation was at the height, on finding, near 
 Borodino, the 20,000 men, who had been 
 slaughtered there, lying where they fell. The 
 half-buried carcasses of men and horses cov- 
 ered the plain, intermingled with garments 
 stained with blood, and bones gnawed by the 
 6* 
 
62 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 dogs and birds of prey, and with fragments 
 of arms, drums, helmets, and curiasses." 
 
 " As we marched over the field of battle, 
 we heard, at a distance, a pitiable object 
 who demanded our assistance. Touched 
 with his plaintive cries, many of the soldiers 
 drew near to the spot, when, to their great 
 astonishment, they observed a French sol- 
 dier, stretched on the ground, with both his 
 legs broken. ' I was wounded,' said he, ' on 
 the day of the great battle, and, finding ftiy- 
 self in a lonely place, where I could gain no 
 assistance, I dragged myself to the brink of 
 a rivulet, and have lived near two months on 
 grass and roots, and some pieces of bread I 
 found among the dead bodies.' " 
 
 Segur not only confirms this account t)f 
 Labaume's, but adds to its horrors. He 
 says, the field of battle " had all the appear- 
 ance of an extinguished volcano. The ground 
 was covered all around with fragments of 
 helmets and cuirasses, broken drums, gun- 
 stocks, tatters of uniforms, and standards 
 dyed with blood. On this spot lay 30,000 
 half devoured corses. The Emperor passed 
 quickly, nobody stopped ; cold, hunger and 
 the enemy urged us on ; we merely turned 
 our faces as we proceeded, to take a last, 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 63 
 
 melancholy look at the vast grave of so many 
 companions in arms uselessly sacrificed." 
 
 " Further on we beheld the great abbey 
 or hospital of Kolotskoy, a sight still more 
 hideous than the field of battle. At Borodi- 
 no, all was death, but not without its quiet. 
 At Kolotskoy, it was still raging. Death here 
 seemed to be pursuing his victims, who had 
 escaped from the engagement, with the ut- 
 most malignity ; he penetrated into them, by 
 all the senses, at once. They were destitute 
 of every thing for repulsing him, except or- 
 ders which it was impossible to execute." 
 They had neith-er lint, tow, nor linen, to bind 
 up the wounds, but were obhged to use the 
 parchment they found in the hbraries of the 
 convents. 
 
 These hospitals were sometimes deserted 
 by their attendants, and hundreds of sick and 
 wounded were left to perish by debility and 
 starvation. 
 
 The sutlers, and other usual attendants on 
 camps, were compelled to transport the 
 wounded ; but they often took occasion of the 
 darkness of the night, to tumble their unpro- 
 fitable loads into the ditches, that they might 
 save some of the plunder of Moscow. 
 
 They had yet a few Russian prisoners, 
 
64 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 and, being unwilling to release them, they 
 were shot through the head by their guard, 
 probably without orders from Bonaparte, 
 though 1:^6 did order a similar barbarity in 
 Egypt. 
 
 Hitherto, however, their sufferings were 
 light, in comparison with what was to follow. 
 Winter now set in, and the ground was cov- 
 ered with snow and ice, with intense cold. 
 The French were destitute of provisions and 
 clothing, harassed and surrounded every 
 where by hordes of Cossacks, with the Rus- 
 sians pressing on their rear, and impeding 
 their flight. Their miseries daily increased. 
 Sir Robert Ker Porter says, 
 
 "Multitudes of these desolate fugitives 
 lost their speech, others were seized with 
 frenzy, and many were so maddened with 
 the extremes of pain and hunger, that they 
 tore the dead bodies of their comrades to 
 pieces and feasted on the disgusting remains." 
 Sir Robert Wilson says, "In the hospitals of 
 Wilna were above 19,000 dead and dying, 
 frozen and freezing; the bodies of the former, 
 broken up, served to stop the cavities in win- 
 dows, floors, and walls ; but, in one of the 
 corridors of the great convent, above 1500 
 bodies were piled up transversely, as pigs of 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 65 
 
 lead or iron. In the roads,, men were col- 
 lected around the burning ruins of the cot- 
 tages, which a mad spirit of destruction had 
 fired, picking and eating the burnt bodies of 
 fellow men." 
 
 Segur, speaking in the language of the 
 French Commissary General, says of the re- 
 turn of the army to Smolensk, " Meanwhile, 
 the dead bodies in the houses, courts, and 
 gardens, and their unwholsome effluvia, in- 
 fected the air. The dead were killing the 
 living. The civil officers, as well as many 
 of the military, were attacked. Some had 
 become, to all appearance, idiots, weeping 
 and fixing their eyes stedfastly on the ground. 
 There were some, whose hair had become 
 stiff, erect, and twisted into ropes, and who, 
 amidst a torrent of blasphemies, a horrid con- 
 vulsion, and a still more horrid laugh, drop- 
 ped down dead." 
 
 Such were some of the disasters of this 
 ever-memorable campaign, sketches of which 
 I have taken from many different authors, 
 some of them actors, and all of them specta- 
 tors of the scene. But I have related but a 
 small portion of the sufferings of the grand 
 army, and must pass entirely the passage of 
 the Beresina, by far the most horrible of all ; 
 
66 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 for there the French killed one another, hi 
 disputing for a passage across the bridges, 
 while eighty pieces of Russian cannon were 
 pouring death, night and day, on the suffer- 
 ing and unresisting multitude, who were three 
 days in passing. 
 
 Of the seventeen nations, who followed 
 Bonaparte into the frightful deserts of Russia, 
 500 thousand men and 300,000 horses per- 
 ished in 173 days. For, beside the army 
 with which he first crossed the Niemen, he 
 had received great reinforcements of men 
 and horses. But accuracy cannot be expect- 
 ed in detailing the movements and losses of 
 such vast bodies of men : therefore, we find 
 authors varying greatly in the numbers killed, 
 but the lowest estimate will altogether exceed 
 the comprehension of the juvenile reader, or 
 of any except the conductors of such vast 
 armies. It is said, that not more than 30,000 
 ever returned to their " beautiful France," 
 and many of them after a long term of cap- 
 tivity. 
 
 But we are not to expect that all the suf- 
 ferings fell on the invaders. Probably they 
 caused as much as they suffered. Cities and 
 villages were burnt, harvests and provisions 
 destroyed. Thousands were killed and wound- 
 
JFRENCH SOLDIER. 67 
 
 ed, and perished without a shelter or a home, 
 which had been destroyed either by the in- 
 vaders or their own countrymen. It is said, 
 that the Russians lost 100,000 men, and 
 probably this is not more than half the 
 truth. 
 
 Nor are these sufferings peculiar to the 
 Russian campaign, excepting the intense 
 cold ; the detail is nearly the same in all wars. 
 The retreat of the British from Spain, ex- 
 hibited horrors equal, in their intensity, if not 
 in their extent, to the sufferings of the Rus- 
 sian campaign. But what matter is it to 
 an individual, or his relations, whether he 
 be slaughtered in a skirmish, or a battle ? 
 except, indeed, that warriors and their 
 friends seem to prefer much company, in 
 their misery, and think that glory is in- 
 creased in proportion to the extent of suf- 
 fering. 
 
 I must again remark, lest the reader should 
 forget it, that these nations are called Chris- 
 tian nations, in distinction from Mahometans 
 and Pagans. And there are many who, I 
 hope, are Christians, who admire the cha- 
 racter of Bonaparte, hold him up as an ex- 
 ample to their children, and name their sons 
 after him ; but, will these persons tell us, what 
 
68 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 there is in the character of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte which resembles that of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, or how any man can 
 consistently approve of characteristics so to- 
 tally dissimilar ? 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER« 69 
 
 CHAPTER Vlt 
 
 1812. Carried to Moscow— Sent to Siberia— Story of^' 
 Daria and Wassili — Russian recruits for the army. 
 
 We must now return td our hero. He had 
 been led on to the charge by his major, his 
 colonel having been killed, and fell wounded 
 by two thrusts of a bayonet. ^ Crushed un- 
 der the feet of the Russians, overwhelmed 
 by numbers, unable to draw his sabre, he 
 could not get up,' and when he did, was drawn 
 along by the enemy in their retreat, and was 
 made prisoner. He was sent back to the 
 rear of the Russian army, and three days 
 afterward entered Moscow, with 2000 other 
 prisoners, almost stripped to the §kin. The 
 governor of the city ordered the most indis- 
 pensable part of their clothing to be restored 
 to them, and, after giving them the most vio- 
 lent abuse, in presence of the populace, be- 
 cause they had left their own country to 
 ravage his, for no offence whatever, he sent 
 7 
 
70 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 them to a barrack, which served them for a 
 prison, where they remained but twenty-four 
 hours, and were then assembled in haste, as 
 the city was evacuated on the approach of 
 the French army. They were conducted 
 by Cossacks to WJadimiz, and thence into 
 Siberia, and separated into small parties 
 among the iron mines. They marched five 
 hundred leagues, and their journey lasted 
 two months and a half; and for a long and 
 dreary period, they were destined to hear 
 nothing from their friends or their country. 
 Though their lot was a hard one, it was per- 
 fect happiness, when compared with the suf- 
 ferings of their countrymen in their retreat 
 from Russia. 
 
 Robert's division consisted of a colonel 
 Laplane, eight privates, and himself: and 
 they were so fortunate, as to be appointed to 
 a mine^ the captain of which was a French- 
 man. He had known the colonel's family in 
 France, and had received favours from them, 
 and he therefore treated him and Robert and 
 his companions in captivity very civilly. Rob- 
 ert had recommended himself to the colonel 
 by his good education, for learning never 
 comes amiss, and often is an advantage to a 
 man where he least expects it. The colonel 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 71 
 
 and Robert were allowed a house by them- 
 selves ; for Robert passed himself off for an 
 officer, and the privates were put in work- 
 shops where the work was least fatiguing. 
 It is not common, in these enlightened days, 
 to put prisoners of war to hard labour, which 
 is a remnant of barbarism, now only practised 
 by Turks and Russians, but other uncivilized 
 people. Formerly, even among the pohshed 
 Greeks and Romans, prisoners of war were 
 put to death. But, avarice getting the better 
 of revenge, they were afterwards sold for 
 slaves. In later years, they were only kept 
 at work during the war, and were released 
 at the return of peace. But now, no civilized 
 nation compels prisoners of war to work, but 
 they are often kept on very small allowance, 
 and their situation is very miserable. The 
 prisons on shore are often damp, unwhole- 
 some, and crowded : and prison-ships are 
 still worse, and thousands pine away and die 
 in them, far from home and friends, or any 
 one to take care either of their body or their 
 soul, and their corpses are thrown into the sea, 
 or buried on shore with the burial of a dog. 
 Robert, having nothing to do, busied him- 
 self with the affairs of the simple people at 
 the forge. He tells an affecting story of 
 
72 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 Daria, the daughter of a shopkeeper in the 
 neighbourhood, who was privately engaged 
 to Wassili, an honest man, and an under offi- 
 cer of the forge, against her father's consent, 
 who wished her to marry Asphanassi, one of 
 the wandering shepherds of the Baskin fami- 
 ly, belonging to the Nomadic tribes who in- 
 habit that part of Asia, and travel, with their 
 flocks and herds, over the vast steeps and de- 
 serts, to the North, in summer, and return 
 home again in the autumn. The sequel of 
 the story we will tell in Robert's own word:>i» 
 " At this period there came to Tchornaia," 
 as the forge was called, " two Russian offi- 
 cers, with several sergeants, who were much 
 more like Cossacks than regular soldiers. 
 Their appearance was the signal of universal 
 mourning — they came to recruit. They pro- 
 claimed, in the Emperor's name, that, on a 
 certain day, all the men in the district, what- 
 ever their age might be, were to assemble in 
 the public square, there to be inspected. At 
 the appointed day, every one was on the 
 spot: but, it was easy to see, by their looks, 
 that it was with the utmost repugnance they 
 had obeyed. All the women were placed on 
 the other side, and anxiously waited for the 
 result of the inspection, and some of them 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 73 
 
 were crying bitterly. We were present at 
 this scene. The ofiicers placed the men in 
 two rows, and passed along the ranks very 
 slowly. Now and then, they touched a man, 
 and he was immediately taken to a little 
 group, that was formed in the centre of the 
 square. When they had run over the two 
 rows, they again inspected the men that had 
 been set apart, made them walk and strip, 
 verified them, in a word, such as our recruit- 
 ing councils did, in our departments, for 
 many years. When a man was examined, 
 he was allowed to go, and then the crowd 
 raised a shout of joy, or he was immediately 
 put in irons, in presence of his family, who 
 raised cries of despair — this man was fit for 
 service. These unfortunate beings, thus 
 chained up, were kept -out of view, till the 
 very moment of their departure. No claims 
 were vahd against the recruiting officer ; age, 
 marriage, the duties required to be paid to 
 an infirm parent, were of no avail. Some- 
 times, .indeed, it happened, and that but 
 rarely, that a secret arrangement with the 
 officer, for a sum of money, saved a young 
 man, a husband, or a father, from his caprice ; 
 for he was bound by no rule. It often hap- 
 pened, also, that he marked out for the army 
 
74 ADVENTURES OP X 
 
 a young man, whose wife or mistress was 
 coveted by the neighbouring lord, or whom 
 injustice had irritated and rendered suspect- 
 ed. Such is the mode of recruiting in 
 Russia." 
 
 " Wassili was at the review. The recruit- 
 ing officer thought he would make a hand- 
 some dragoon, or a soldier of the guard, and 
 having looked at him from top to toe, he de- 
 clared him fit for the army. While his fami- 
 ly were deploring his fate and preparing to 
 make every sacrifice to obtain his discharge, 
 some one cried out that the officer would 
 allow him to get off, because he was wealthy, 
 but that the poor must inarch. The Russian 
 heard this, and perhaps, on the point of making 
 a bargain, felt irritated, and would listen to 
 no sort of arranger^ent. Wassili was put 
 in irons and destined to unlimited service, 
 that is, to an eternal exile, for the Russian 
 soldier is never allowed to return to his 
 home." His term of service is twenty years, 
 which \s generally for all his life." 
 
 " Daria fell a victim to her grief, and only 
 recovered some portion of her vigour when 
 the recruits were to set out. On that day, 
 the recruiting party gorge them with meat 
 and brandy, till they are intoxicated ; they 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 
 
 are then thrown into sledges, and* Carried 
 off, stiil loaded with irons. A most heart- 
 rending scene now takes place. Every 
 family follows them with their cries, and 
 chaunts the prayers for the dead and the 
 dying, while the unfortunate conscripts them- 
 selves, besotted with liquor, remain stupid 
 and indifferent; burst into roars of laughter, 
 or answer their friends •with oaths and im- 
 precations." 
 
 " Notwithstanding the force that had been 
 shown to him, Wassili had drank nothing, and 
 preserved his judgment unclouded. He 
 stretched out his arms toward Daria and his 
 friends, and bade us adieu with many tears. 
 Amidst the mournful sounds that struck upon 
 her ears, the young girl followed him rapidly, 
 and had time to throw herself into his arms, 
 before the sledge set out, but, the moment 
 he was beyond her reach, she fell backward, 
 with violence, on the ice. No one paid the 
 least attention to her; tliey all rushed forward, 
 and followed the sledges of the recruiting 
 party, which soon galloped out of sight. I 
 lifted up Daria ; i did not attempt to restrain 
 her grief, but took her back to her father's, 
 where she was paid every attention her situ- 
 ation required.'' 
 
76 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 " Abftut the middle of June, Asphanassi 
 returned, more in love and more eager than 
 ever ; and as soon as he appeared, Daria was 
 attacked by a burning fever that never left 
 her. In a few days, she was at the gates of 
 death. All the care bestowed on her was of 
 no avail, and she died pronouncing the name 
 ofWassili." 
 
 Such has been tbe story of thousands, and 
 this is but one of the pictures of war, as it 
 appears in all despotic countries. How much, 
 my dear young reader, you ought to thank 
 God, that he has appointed " the bounds of 
 your habitation" in a land of liberty. None 
 but the poor negroes are used in this manner 
 in the United States. Even in England, the 
 press-gangs take men away from their family 
 and friends, to serve in the navy, much in the 
 same way as is done in Russia for the army ; 
 and in France, they have the conscription. 
 In our country we practise differently. A 
 rendezvous is opened, where intoxicating 
 liquors are liberally distributed, the worst 
 part of the female sex are freely admitted, 
 and dancing and licentiousness prevail, until 
 the poor foolish recruit, long baited, is hook- 
 ed at last. But when he has once signed the 
 muster-roll, the delusion vanishes ; he has 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 77 
 
 swallowed the gilded bait, and he must now 
 feel the barbed hook, from which death is 
 gener|lly the only release. Thus war al- 
 fr 
 
 >rings with it a train of other evils, and 
 it is as deleterious to the moral habits of a 
 people, as it is destructive to their lives and 
 property. 
 
78 ADVENTtJRES OF A 
 
 *m 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 1814. Peace — Return to France — Bonaparte's escape 
 from Elba — His second abdication — Robert joins 
 Murat in his attempt on Naples, which fails — Tried 
 for desertion, acquitted, and returns to France — In- 
 vasion of Spain — Taken prisoner, escapes, and is 
 dismissed from the service. 
 
 Peace having been at length concluded, 
 Robert set oiit on his return home with co- 
 lonel Laplane, who had received money and 
 a passport for two, from his friends. Hither- 
 to they had been ignorant of the defeat of 
 Bonaparte, and the retreat and disasters of 
 the grand army. They were extremely 
 anxious for news, but found few who were 
 able, or willing to gratify them. Robert 
 says, 
 
 " We passed rapidly through Russia Pro- 
 per, where, two years before — — ! The 
 fields seem to have been cultivated and the 
 villages rebuilt. We scarcely recognized, 
 under the snow, the spot where the battle of 
 Borodino, so important to us, had been 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 79 
 
 fought. We passed over the bloody fields 
 of Smolensko. without perceiving them, but, 
 as we harassed with our questions all the 
 postmasters and peasants whom we met, 
 we learned, on approaching the Beresina, 
 that the greatest disaster of the French army 
 had taken place at the very spot where we 
 were. Nothing could then overcome the 
 sadness that oppressed, us ; we thought we 
 were still in 1812, with our unfortunate 
 brothers in arms, struggling with the elements, 
 and falling under the attacks of the enemy. 
 Amidst the snow that surrounded us, we 
 could easily judge of the disasters of that 
 terrible day. I felt an extraordinary oppres- 
 sion of heart 5 we alighted a moment to honor 
 the memory of our companions. Upon a 
 bush which had caught my cloak, I perceiv- 
 ed a leather sword belt hanging, almost worn 
 away, but still retaining a plate of copper 
 with an eagle on it. This sight powerfully 
 affected me, but seemed to have still more 
 influence on the colonel's mind. His gaiety 
 did not return, even after we had left the 
 banks of the Beresina far behind us." 
 
 At length, Robert arrived in France, 
 where he learned the particulars of the de- 
 feat of Bonaparte, the annihilation of the 
 
80 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 grand army, the most powerful that ever en^ 
 tered the field, Napoleon's abdication of the 
 throne, and his banishment to the Island of 
 Elba. He had always thought Bonaparte 
 invincible, and that it was impossible, in the 
 nature of things, that a French army should 
 be defeated ; and no wonder, for Robert 
 never took into account the power of God. 
 
 Robert endeavoured to get himself ac- 
 knowledged as an ensign before he visited 
 his friends, and for that purpose, immediate- 
 ly joined his regiment: but most of its offi- 
 cers had been killed off many times over, 
 and all those who could have borne evidence 
 to the truth, had perished in the retreat from 
 Russia, and he could scarcely find a single 
 soldier who had known him, so that his fond 
 expectations of appearing before his father's 
 family, with an epaulet on his shoulder, were 
 disappointed, and he took his place in the 
 regiment as a sergeant, as he was before. 
 He wrote to his father, and received an an- 
 swer, informing him of the death of his 
 mother, who, worn out with domestic cares 
 and the thought that her son had fallen in 
 the Russian campaign, had fallen into a sort 
 of helplessness that brought her to the grave, 
 after much suffering.' Alas, of how many 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER, 81 
 
 mothers, whose sons have perished in battle, 
 is this the melancJioly fate ! but how sel- 
 dom do their sufferings and death appear in 
 history ! 
 
 Robert wrote again and again to the war 
 office, in hopes of obtaining a commission, but 
 without an answer, and he became every day 
 more restless and uneasy, and often desired 
 a new war to break out, that he might merit, 
 a second time, the rank he had once obtain- 
 ed, but which he now found it so difficult to 
 get confirmed. His desires for a new war 
 were soon gratified, for Bonaparte returned 
 from Elba, and the events of " The Hundred 
 Days" succeeded each other so rapidly, that 
 he scarcely noticed them. He, at first, fought 
 against Bonaparte, and then for him, chang- 
 ing sides according to his hopes of promotion, 
 Bonaparte abdicated a second time, and was 
 sent to St. Helena, where he died. Intes- 
 tine commotions continued in France, and a 
 man did not always know on which side he 
 was, himself; but all were willing to fight on 
 one side or the other. Robert had a narrow 
 escape from being killed as a Protestant^ 
 though he was a Catholic. His life was 
 saved by a Protestant woman, whose hus- 
 band was killed by the Catholics while 
 8 
 
82 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 Robert was in her house. He, however* 
 escaped, after having run many risks, and, at 
 length, arrived at his father's house at Six- 
 four, still but a subaltern, after all his dangers, 
 privations, and fatigues. 
 
 He was very coolly received by the in- 
 habitants of the villa2;e. No one bid him 
 welcome, except his own family. He was 
 viewed with suspicion and distrust as a 
 Bonapartist, and, after two days, left Sixfour 
 for Toulon, in search of his regiment; but, 
 as the new royal authorities were not yet set- 
 tled, and the imperial officers were hardly 
 out of place, he knew not to whom to apply, 
 and was ready for any adventure which should 
 offer. He did not wait long, before he was 
 engaged in the escape of Murat, ex-king of 
 Naples, from France, in an open boat. Wliile 
 in this boat, Robert quitted the service of his 
 native country, and entered into Murat's, 
 who appointed liim captain on the spot ; — an 
 appointment, which was of as little use to him 
 as his former one of ensign by Bonaparte. 
 The plan was, to put IMurat on board of any 
 vessel bound abroad, but, particularly, on 
 board the mail boat, bound to Corsica. After 
 waiting four days in great danger and dis- 
 tress, and after having been ncarlj'run down 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 83 
 
 by a brig, which they had attempted to board, 
 they finally succeeded, in getting on board the 
 packet, and telling the captain, that they had 
 sailed on a party of pleasure from Toulon, 
 and had been driven out to sea, and that as 
 the boat had been damaged, they had con- 
 cluded to abandon it, and go with him to 
 Corsica. Falseliood and deception are so 
 common in war, and so much justified by 
 too many, that military men get used to 
 it, and it troubles their consciences but 
 little. The captain of the mail boat believed 
 them, or appeared to do so, and consented to 
 take ihem. 
 
 Murat, with Robert for his chief officer, 
 arrived safely at Corsica, where, though he 
 was known, he was allowed to remain at 
 peace, but not without frequent alarms. 
 Robert now got a sword by his side, and an 
 epaulet on his shoulder, of which he was 
 very proud, though he was the only officer 
 and the only soldier then under the command 
 of the ex-king of Naples. But Mui?at made 
 out to procure 400 followers in Corsica, with 
 whom he made the rash attempt to regain the 
 crown of Naples. He had diamonds and 
 valuable jewels about him, by the sale of 
 which he defrayed the expense of the arma- 
 
84 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 ment, which consisted of five small vessels, 
 three of whicli, however, were dispersed by 
 a gale, or voluntarily left him at sea, leaving 
 him but two small vessels an.d fifty men. 
 Robert was left on board, with some valuable 
 documents which Murat entrusted to his care, 
 while he himself, with twenty-nine men, at- 
 tempted to invade the kingdom of Naples. 
 Murat landed in a splendid uniform, and, at 
 first, had some to hail him king, but was soon 
 opposed, overpowered, taken, condemned, 
 and shot, with all his company that landed. 
 Thus ended the career of " Joachim Napo- 
 leon, King of the two Sicilies," as he styled 
 himself, alias Joachim Murat, ex-king of 
 Naples. And thus ended this mad expedi- 
 tion. And thus too ended the commission of 
 Robert, who, if he was yet a captain, had no 
 king to fight for. He returned to Corsica, 
 and kept himself secreted for about a year, 
 when his money failing, he delivered himself 
 up to the French government, was tried by 
 a court-martial for desertion, and acquitted, 
 and was ordered to join a regiment then in 
 Corsica. This regiment was soon after or- 
 dered to France, Robert landed at Toulon, 
 and once more visited his native village. He 
 found his father dead, and he was very cool- 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 85 
 
 Ij received by his brother. He now en- 
 deavoured again to get his ensign's com- 
 mission, and after having harassed himself 
 with writing many memorials and petitions, 
 he gave over the pursuit. 
 
 Robert was next ordered to Spain, in the 
 war which France undertook for the purpose 
 of supporting the king of that country against 
 his subjects ; where he was wounded and 
 taken prisoner. In his captivity, he found 
 many of his old companions in arms, fugitives 
 from France, and now fighting against the 
 armies of their country, expecting, if taken, 
 to be condemned to death as rebels and de- 
 serters : they, therefore, fought with an in- 
 fatuated courage and desperation, until they 
 were nearly all destroyed. " Such was the 
 deplorable end of these unfortunates, who had 
 assembled from the extremities of Europe 
 upon a foreign soil." We may add, such is 
 too often the patriotism of the soldier. Used 
 to bloodshed and carnage, and uneasy in a 
 time of peace, and unfitted for its pursuits 
 and enjoyments, rather than not fight at all, 
 they sometimes fight even against their native 
 country. They seem to be given over to a 
 judicial blindness, and experience the denun- 
 ciation of our Saviour, when he says, " All 
 
 8^ 
 
86 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 they that take the sword shall perish by the 
 sword." 
 
 Robert escaped from his prison, and after 
 much suffering and danger, rejoined the roy- 
 alist army, where he was near being shot as 
 a spy or a deserter. His wounds became 
 much inflamed, and he fell sick of a fever. 
 He began now to be disgusted with the mili- 
 tary service. He had sought for worldly 
 glory and distinction, and he had, after near- 
 ly twenty years of hardship and perils, got 
 nothing higher than a sergeant's warrant, and 
 was now very unceremoniously dismissed 
 from the service, without having requested it ; 
 but he left it without regret, and returned 
 once more to Sixfour. 
 
 Thus, though not deficient in learning, 
 with an undaunted courage, and a strong 
 constitution, Robert had fought and suffered 
 for nearly twenty years in vain. Instead of 
 complaining, he ought to have thought himself 
 fortunate that his Hfe and limbs were yet pre- 
 served, that he had not been killed in his first 
 engagement, like his friend Rymbaud, and 
 that he was not a cripple and a beggar. 
 Thousands and ten of thousands, who had 
 been dragged from their peaceful homes 
 like him, by the conscription, or, voluntarily 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 87 
 
 entering the army, had started with him in 
 the same career of glory, had, long since, 
 been laid dead on the gory field, and their 
 bodies become the food of wolves and vul- 
 tures : or had languished out a painful ex- 
 istence in hospitals and prisons, " pale, 
 torpid, and spiritless," living without conso- 
 lation, and dying without hope. A few, per- 
 haps one in ten thousand, rise to an enviable 
 distinction, and, by giving up the comforts of 
 this life and all hope ^ in the next, have ob- 
 tained a fleeting, transitory glory, and this 
 has been the ignis fatuus, which has lured 
 them to their ruin. 
 
S8 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1823. Conclusion. 
 
 I shall close the memoirs of Robert in his 
 own words, leaving out, however, things of a 
 less interesting nature. He says, 
 
 " I am now at Sixfour, and shall never 
 again leave ray native place. Here my lot, 
 so long precarious and uncertain, is fixed at 
 last. I shall perhaps enjoy, in the course 
 of time, the peace 1 have so much need of: 
 but nothing can ever fill up the void, which 
 so many emotions have left in my heart. 
 
 "Many prospects of fortune and glory have 
 opened upon me during my military career, 
 and the moment 1 thought they were on the 
 point of being realized, the whole edifice 
 disappeared before my eyes. I had also left 
 pleasing illusions at Sixfour, and on my re- 
 turn, find they also have disappeared, and 
 that every thing has undei'gone a change. 
 
 " I left my family happy and flourishing, 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 89 
 
 and it is nearly extinct at the present day. 
 My worthy father followed my mother to the 
 grave, and left but little property to his 
 children. 
 
 " My brother is devoted to the mean labours 
 of husbandry, and speaks a language foreign 
 to my heart. He is quite absorbed by his 
 daily habits, and despises a soldier who can- 
 not sow a field of grain. Yet my father had 
 educated him for labours somewhat more 
 important. He contemptuously calls me his 
 learned brother, or the officer, and is, p(g|^ 
 haps, the only man in existence, who never 
 found any thing amusing in the stories of an 
 old soldier." 
 
 Reader, let us stop here a moment to con- 
 sider the condition of these two brothers, 
 whose occupations and views are so different, 
 and inquire which of the two is the most 
 eligible, and most conducive to happiness 
 here and hereafter. 
 
 Robert, like most soldiers, thinks husband- 
 ry and the mechanic arts mean and contempti- 
 ble, as though the raising of a harvest were 
 not more noble than trampling it down, and 
 the support of life more honourable than its 
 destruction. For my own part, I consider 
 the man who has made an improvement m 
 
90 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 husbandry or manufactures, a greater bene- 
 factor to his s|)ecies, and therefore more 
 deserving of honour, than he who has -con- 
 quered a kingdom : and when the pure and 
 peaceful principles of the Gospel shall be 
 generally received, the sword shall be beaten 
 to a ploughshare, and successful husbandmen 
 will be more highly esteemed than conque- 
 rors. But it is time to resume the words of 
 our disappointed hero. He further observes, 
 
 *' Of the group, which old friendsliips had 
 gShered round our family, I find that' very 
 few remember me at all. M. Hymbauld died 
 long ago ; I saw his son killed at Trafalgar ; 
 Miette is the mother of five children, and 
 cares about as little as I do for the remem- 
 brance of our former love. She is, in my 
 eye, nothing more than the good housewife 
 of a retired citizen. 
 
 " Thus, wherever my heart turns for conso- 
 lation, it finds a dreary void, and 1 can obtain 
 no other subject for my thoughts, than the 
 melancholy recollections of the past. 
 
 " 1 have been the perpetual sport of events, 
 and have been placed too low to command 
 any of them. 1 have been borne involunta- 
 rily along by the movements of the multitude, 
 and have never been able to raise myself 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 91 
 
 above the sphere into which I was thrown 
 bj chance, in spite of the constant efforts of 
 twenty years, and tlie concurrence of a host 
 of circumstances that were all favourable to 
 my elevation. 
 
 "How great and glorious did France appear 
 to me on my first return home ! How far 
 did I then think misfortune from my country 
 and from me, Vv^hen, with 600,000 fellow 
 soldiers, we entered the Russian territories, 
 gained the famous battle of Borodino, and I 
 was appointed an officer by the Emperor in 
 person ! 
 
 " Yet a few hours afterward, I fell, never to 
 rise again. I became a prisoner to the Rus- 
 sians, and two disastrous campaigns took 
 place without its being in my power to share 
 in their perils or their glory. 
 
 " The trade of a soldier is the only one I 
 ever knew, and now i can carry it on no 
 longer. I learned to judge of mankind, and 
 this knowledge is totally useless to me. In a 
 word, during the wholeof the last twentyyears, 
 I have been an alien to the affections of my own 
 family, and a stranger to the feelings of the far- 
 mer, the citizen, in fact, to every one of the in- 
 dustrious classes, and wherever 1 go, I am out 
 of place. Yet 1 cannot -make up my mind to 
 
92 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 be totally useless — My recollections may not 
 be wholly uninteresting, at this moment, when 
 every one is looking back with avidity to that 
 brilliant period which will long claim the at- 
 tention of the present generation. The pro- 
 found impression it left on my mind forms 
 the leading object of my thoughts : I feel a 
 strong necessity of communicating them to 
 others ; and it is this impulse, which has led 
 me to compose the unimportant, but authen- 
 tic memoirs, which I now submit to the can- 
 dour of the public." 
 
fken(3h soldier. 9S 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Reflections of the Compiler. 
 
 Thus end the memoirs and reflections of 
 the French sergeant, Robert Guillemard, and 
 with a few more reflections I too will close 
 this abridgment"of his book. 
 
 Let the juvenile reader beware, when he 
 reads books of chivalry and romance, and 
 even sober history, in which war is represent- 
 ed as a sort of brilliant display and parade^ 
 where there is nothing but feasting and 
 dancing and victory 5 and let him look at the 
 other side of the picture, and see the miseryy 
 distress, and anguish; the tears, sighs, and 
 groans ; the murder, horror, and desolation ; 
 the robbery, theft, and Sabbath-breaking j 
 the intemperance, lewdness, and profanenessj 
 the crime, sin, and wickedness, which always- 
 accompany all wars even the least objection- 
 able ; and let him, with the Bible in his hand^? 
 
 9 
 
94 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 form a deliberate opinion of the probable 
 fuluie stale of that class of men who are en- 
 gaged in war ; and let him peflect, that all 
 these things, even the misery and anguish, 
 both temporal and eternal, the victors share 
 with the vanquished. 
 
 If he should go to see a military reviewer 
 a sham-fight, let him not be dazzled by the 
 pomp, parade, and show, nor covet the gHt- 
 tering epaulet, the gaudy dress, the burnished 
 helmet, the nodding plume, nor any of the 
 fascinating accompanmients of war; for they 
 are but the gilding of a poisonous pill — the 
 fair outside show of the grapes of Sodom and 
 the clusters of Gomorrah, while all within is 
 bitter ashes, fatal to the taste. " The path 
 of glory leads but to the tomb." 
 
 Let him examine into the lawfulness of 
 war by the light of the Gospel. Let him 
 take ihe precepts of the Prince of Peace as 
 his guide, and see how far he is warranted in 
 engaging in war, for any cause, save the 
 most absolute self preservation. Wars waged 
 to acquire glory, or wealth, or pov^'er, or ter- 
 ritory, are all, in these enlightened days, 
 condemned by the greater part of the pro- 
 fessed disciples of Christ ; and the careful 
 reader will find, on examination, that the 
 
FRENCH SOLDIER. 95 
 
 Gospel condemns almost, if not quite, all 
 those wars which have been called defensive, 
 such as wars of retaliation and revenge for 
 some real or supposed injury, and wars made 
 under the pretence of preventing war, or 
 jealousy of a rival's growing power. Even 
 if the Gospel does not, in principle, condemn 
 wars of self defence, which is at least doubt- 
 ful, it condemns the manner in which they 
 have almost, if not quite, always been carried 
 on. What say the precepts of our blessed 
 Saviour f " Love your enemies, bless them 
 that curse you, do good to them that hate 
 you, and pray for them that despitefully use 
 you and persecute you." " Whatsoever ye 
 would that men should do to you, do ye even 
 so to them," he. The Apostles preached 
 the same doctrines, " Recompense to no 
 man evil for evil." " Avenge not your- 
 selves." " If thine enemy hunger feed him, 
 if he thirst give him drink." " Be not over- 
 come of evil, but overcome evil with good." 
 " Let nothing be done through strife or vain 
 glory. Follow peace with all men," fee 
 The primitive Christians, who followed in 
 the steps, and were the immediate success- 
 ors, of the Apostles, considered war unlaw- 
 ful for a Christian, and refused to bear arms 
 
96 ADVENTURES OF A 
 
 in any cause, and suffered death themselves, 
 rather than inflict it on others. Finally, if 
 the young reader should try to fancy to himself 
 Jesus Christ in the character of a general 
 directing a battle, and his disciples leading 
 on the charge, and pointing the cannon, 
 he will find tliat he cannot do it. The spirit 
 of war is in direct opposition to the Spirit of 
 Christ, and " unless ye have the Spirit of 
 Christ in you, ye are none of his." 
 
 Let the young reader consider how zeal- 
 ously Robert sought that glory which is 
 "earthly, sensual, devilish," and which al- 
 ways eluded his grasp, and let him seek that 
 glory wl)ich is from above, and that charity 
 which is " pure, gentle, and easy to be en- 
 treated, full of mercy and of good fruits." 
 Instead of seeking honour in the destruction 
 of his fellow-creatures, let him seek the 
 favour of God, by doing good to all men, 
 and by obeying the commands and following 
 the example of his blessed Saviour, who 
 went about doing good to his enemies as 
 well as to his friends ; and who came into 
 the world, not to destroy men's lives, but to 
 save them. Let him do this and have faith 
 in Christ, and he will not be disappointed as 
 Robert was, but he will have the satisfaction 
 
i^iiENCH SOLDIER. Qt 
 
 6f an approving conscience in this world, 
 and a crown of glory which shall never fade 
 away, in the world to come. 
 
 Let him inquire into his duty with respect 
 to the great moral revolution which is to 
 take place in the world, and which has al- 
 ready begun, when war shall be viewed iit 
 its true light ; when that grim demon from 
 the bottomless pit shall be bound a thousand 
 years, and men shall seek the things that 
 make for peace. Were Christians really 
 desirous of permanent and universal peace, 
 they could easily cause the establishment of 
 a CongresSj or Court of nationsj that should 
 settle all disputes which might arise between 
 different countriesj by reason and judgment, 
 and not leave them to the blind fortune of 
 war, which more frequently favours the 
 wicked than the righteous. Let him throw 
 the weight of his influence into the scale of 
 peace, and do all he can to advance its cause ; 
 and finally, let him pray eidery day that God 
 would be pleased to hasten that glorious 
 period, " when wars and fightings shall cease 
 throughout the earth"— ^"when the sword shall 
 be beaten to a ploughshare, and the spear to a 
 pruning hook" — when *' nation shall not hft 
 up sword against nation, nor learn war any 
 9* 
 
98 ADVENTURES, &iC. 
 
 more" — but when every man " shall sit 
 under his vine and fig tree, and have none to 
 molest or make him afraid" — a time which 
 shall surely come — " For the mouth of the 
 Lord of Hosts hath spoken it," and He is 
 now, in His Providence, loudly calling on 
 his children to come forward and put their 
 hands to the work ; for though it will be done 
 by the power of God, it will be by the in- 
 strumentality of man, and there is no one, 
 however low may be his standing, his talents 
 or his acquirements — whatever may be the 
 age, sex, or condition, who cannot assist in 
 this joyful consumnmtion. 
 
FHATERPfAL LOVE. 
 
 BY DR. DODD. 
 
 Next to filial love, fraternal love is one 
 of the most natural propensities of the human 
 heart. The great and wise Creator, who 
 established the present mode of being, has 
 certainly implanted and interwoven in the 
 very texture of the soul, all those tender and 
 amiable charities, which are both pleasing 
 in themselves, and indispensably necessa- 
 ry to the being and good order of society. 
 And he has so directed the mode of living, 
 at our entrance upon existence^ that every 
 thing is calculated to improve and strengthen 
 these natural tendencies. Born of the same 
 parents, brothers and sisters hang at the 
 same fond breast, and drink the same milk ; 
 fed beneath the same roof, they share the 
 same united and tender cares, the same ideas 
 
100 FRATERNAL LOV£. 
 
 are impressed, and they are taught to fegarrf^ 
 each other as cemented by ties of the most 
 endearing and indissoluble sort. No wonder 
 hence, that a mutual and increasing prepos- 
 session for each other gains upon the heart ;• 
 while custom unites with nature, and both are 
 strengthened by parental wisdom and solici- 
 tude. Where that wisdom and solicitude are' 
 properly exerted, Fraternal Love is seldom 
 wanting : its deficiency, for the most part, 
 must be attributed either to the parent's care- 
 lessness and neglect to cultivate it ; or to an 
 evil, which all wise parents will most care- 
 fully avoid ; a partial fondness shown to one, 
 in neglect of other children. 
 
 It is undoubted, that some children from 
 ■nature inherit qualities, which render them 
 more amiable and engaging than others, and 
 there are circumstances in life which natural- 
 ly lead to prejudices in favour of peculiar 
 children. But, whatever the parental heart 
 may feel, it will always exert the most cau- 
 tious endeavours to conceal any such par- 
 tialities ; well assured that they are not only 
 Jblameable in themselves, but very frequently 
 the cause of breaking that golden cord of 
 (parental affection, which should always be 
 kept most sacredly united, and which no 
 
FRATERNAL LOVE. 101 
 
 jealousies should be allowed to dissolve or 
 disturb. Without these, nature rightly en- 
 couraged, and parents duly improving the 
 affection, fraternal love, for the most part, 
 will reigii amongst children ; for it is agree- 
 able to nature, and all the right tendencies of 
 nature will undoubtedly operate as they are 
 designed, if not disturbed in their regular 
 course, and if properly directed and aided by 
 the wise hand of prudence and experience. 
 And such prudence and experience will 
 always apply to religion more especially, 
 for this aid and direction : for the religion of 
 Jesus Christ, amongst a thousand character- 
 istics of its excellence, has this peculiar re- 
 commendation, that it coincides with, and 
 beautifully enforces, all the finest feelings of 
 nature. Indeed, its highest and most dis- 
 tinguishing doctrine — that, I mean, of uni- 
 versal love, — is founded upon that fraternal 
 relation, in which all men stand to each other. 
 Children of the great Father of the universe, 
 we are called ^' to love as brethren." Broth- 
 erly affection therefore is not only expected in 
 the professors of this religion, but is the best 
 foundation for the attainment of its perfec- 
 tion, and consequently, most acceptable ia 
 the sight of God. 
 
102 FRATERNAL LOVE^ 
 
 We have a pleasing proof how estimable 
 it was in the sight of our adorable Redeemer, 
 from the friendship wherewith he honoured 
 Lazarus and his sisters. " Jesus loved Mar- 
 tha, and her sister, and Lazarus :" no doubt, 
 because this happy family excelled in frater- 
 nal and sisterly affection, and, truly loving 
 each other, were worthy of the love of Jesus. 
 That they excelled in this affection, is suf- 
 ficiently evident from that anxiety which the 
 sisters showed, when their worthy and much 
 valued brother lay dangerously sick ; and 
 they sent that importunate and affecting mes- 
 sage to their friend ; " Lord ! behold he 
 whom thou lovest is sick*" Happy Lazarus, 
 blessed with such sisters! Happy sisters, 
 blessed with a brother so worthy your ten- 
 derest esteem ! Happy family, whose united 
 affection was crowned with such friendship as 
 that of the Saviour of the World ! Oh, my 
 young friends ! feel you not in your hearts a 
 laudable envy of this favoured family ? an 
 earnest emulation to be loved like them ? Be- 
 lieve me, that emulation need not be in vain. 
 ^Tis with yourselves to be blest and to be 
 favoured no less than Lazarus and his sisters : 
 Jove one another as they loved ; be as cordially 
 solicitious for each other's best welfarej and rest 
 
I'RATERNAL LOVE* lOS^ 
 
 confidently assured, that Jesus will love you, 
 as he did Martha^ and her sister, and Lazarus, 
 That fraternal love is agreeable to na- 
 ture, and well-pleasing to God, should cer- 
 tainly be its sufficient recommendation ; but, 
 besides this, it is productive of many advan- 
 tages, and attended with many comforts. 
 *' Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is 
 for brethren to dwell together in unity !" 
 That family can scarcely fail of fortune and 
 felicity, who, brought up together in love, are 
 early taught to consider each other's interests 
 as one, and continue through life mutually to 
 assist each other. Hence it is, tiiat we fre- 
 quently find those parents most singularly blest 
 in their families, who, having had the largest 
 number of children, have made it their first 
 and latest care to unite those children in the 
 bonds of brotherly love. Human policy^ 
 every consideration, incites to this care. For, 
 as brothers are to each other the best and 
 most faithful of friends, so are they, when 
 disunited, too often the most bitter and pre- 
 judicial of enemies : and that house can 
 scarcely expect much worldly success or 
 advancement, where jarring interests and 
 jarring sentiments separate those who ought 
 to be chief friends. 
 
104 FRATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 The ancients, ray young friends, conveyed 
 much of their instruction in fables. And 
 there is one, which perhaps you may know, 
 but which well deserves to be repeated, as it 
 is not only applicable to our present subject, 
 but very instructive in itself. A tender father, 
 on his death-bed, called his children around 
 him, and presenting them with a small bun- 
 dle of twigs, ordered ihem to try, one after 
 another, with all their force, if they could 
 break it. They tried, but could not. " Un- 
 bind it now," said he, " and take every twig 
 of it separately, and see w4iat you can do by 
 that means." They did so, and with great 
 ease one by one, they broke it all to pieces. 
 "Behold," said he, "my dear children, the 
 true emblem of your condition. Keep togeth- 
 er, and you will be safe, unhurt, and prosper- 
 ous. Divide, and you are certainly undone." 
 What inexpressible delight, when brothers 
 and sisters of one family live together in all 
 the harmony of friendship and good esteem ! 
 mutually delighted and charmed with each 
 other's presence and society ! — Peace dwells 
 in their bosom, and transport beats at their 
 heart. They know how to alleviate each 
 other's troubles and difficulties ; they know 
 how to impart and double each other's felicity 
 
FRA.TERNAL LOVE. ^ 105 
 
 and pleasure. And if, perchance, their aged 
 parents liv^e, who have formed thern thus to 
 love } whose early care provided for them 
 this high feast of the most delicate sensa- 
 tions ; what increasing raptures do they feel, 
 from blessing those parents with this fruit of 
 their care ! O ye happy parents, if I could 
 envy any beings upon earth, it were you ; who 
 see your youth renewed in good and worthy 
 children flourishing around you ; who see 
 those children amply crowning your days and 
 nights of past solicitude, not only with the 
 most reverential respect to yourselves, but, 
 with what you wish still more, if possible, 
 with the firmest and most respectful love to 
 each other ! who see those children, with 
 all the kindness of that love you. sought to 
 inspire, like olive branches verdant around 
 you ; blessed in you, blessed in each other, 
 blessed in themselves ; the providence of 
 God smiling upon them ; success and honour 
 attending their steps. Happy parents ! yours 
 is a chosen lot. Happy parents ! who from 
 the moment they become such, exert their 
 utmost efforts to attain that lot, and to strength- 
 en by the bonds of religion and instruction, 
 what nature so^ kindly implants, and will aid 
 so much in the rearing. 
 
 10 
 
106 FRATEENAL LOVE. 
 
 I said that success and honour accom- 
 pany those who excel in Fraternal Love : 
 they will not only feel the most pleasing com- 
 fort which the human heart can enjoy ; they 
 will not only have the greatest probability of 
 worldly succ^ess ; but they will certainly find 
 that, which is indeed one great means of world- 
 ly advancement ; they will find real honour 
 attending them : they will obtain all the ad- 
 vantages which accompany good reputation. 
 
 I dare appeal to the sentiments of any man 
 living upon this occasion. You involuntarily 
 and immediately conceive a good opinion of 
 that young person, who distinguishes himself 
 for his Fraternal and Filial Love. I join 
 both, because I conceive they can never be 
 separated. He who loves his brethren and 
 sisters, will unquestionably love his parents; 
 as he who loves his Christian brother, will 
 assuredly love his Father in heaven. Let a 
 person be recommended to you as excelling 
 in this affection ; as remarkable for his 
 tenderness and attachment to his family; 
 your heart will instantly bear testimony to him ; 
 you will esteem and honour him. Contem- 
 plate a whole family, eminent for their union 
 and affection to each other : see the brothers 
 dutiful to their parents; kind* and respectful 
 
FRATERNAL LOVE. 107 
 
 to tbelr sisters ; solicitous for, and serving 
 each other: — you cannot help admiring them ; 
 you are sure there is virtue and goodness 
 amongst them ; you think, you speak of them 
 with pleasure, and would, certainly, in world- 
 ly matters, prefer, where it is possible, con- 
 nections with them. This is the language of 
 nature, of feeling 5 it is universal, and it is 
 truly just. 
 
 Need I, my young friends, offer any other 
 arguments towards the cultivation of this vir- 
 tuous affection ? Which would you rather be ? 
 — ask your own hearts, — a Cain, stigmatized 
 by the hand of God himself for fraternal 
 hatred ; driven from society, an outcast and 
 a vagabond, unnatural, irreligious, uncomfort- 
 able, despised, hated : or a Joseph, melting 
 with Fraternal Love ; forgiving every injury; 
 blessing with prosperity all his house ; weep- 
 ing over the necks of recovered brethren ; 
 bowing the affectionate knee to an ancient and 
 venerable parent ; virtuous, fearing God, 
 abounding in plenty, in comfort, in glory ? 
 Oh I where is the heart that feels not the 
 contrast ? Yes, my young friends, while you 
 shrink with horror from the fratricide of a 
 Cain, you envy the life and salvation restored 
 by the affection of a Joseph. 
 
108 FRATERNAL LOVE. 
 
 Be it yours, like him, to cultivate in your 
 hearts that fear of God, which so remarka- 
 bly sustained him amidst all his trials and 
 temptations ; which preserved him from de- 
 filing his master's bed, wliich preserved him 
 from avenging himself on cruel and unworthy 
 brothers (for even a Joseph had cruel and 
 unworthy brethren ;) which, far from ven- 
 geance, inspired him with the most amiable 
 disposition to forgive ; — and not to forgive 
 only, but to succour and to save ! and thus 
 to melt them to his love, by heaping coals of 
 kindness on their heads. 
 
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