Soon after my arrival I was visited by Captain Gerrard, to whom I had a few days before remitted some thousands of francs in cash, for the relief of the soldiers passing through Tours, and the distribution of which he had kindly undertaken.

The number of Russian prisoners I saw at Tours, exceeding ten or twelve thousand men, at first surprised me rather disagreeably; but I was soon relieved on this head, by a conversation with Mr. Wilkes, a remarkably intelligent and well informed English gentleman, whom I have already mentioned. He assured me that these prisoners were now only paraded to amuse and deceive the people, the greatest part of them having been taken near Smolensko, and in the course of the Russian campaign. This I found was now a common practice, for as even the most ignorant were so well aware of the hyperbole of the newspapers, that “faux comme les journaux,” has become a proverb, other stratagems were obliged to be resorted to, therefore the same prisoners are kept continually marching, so as apparently to be in two or three places at once. This reminds we of the well known observation of Sir Boyle Roche in the Irish House of Commons: “and you know, Mr. Speaker, I could not be in two places at once, Mr. Speaker, unless I was a little bird, Mr. Speaker.” Sir Boyle might however now observe, instead of the little bird, “unless I was a prisoner in France, Mr. Speaker.”

Having dined and passed an agreeable evening with Captain Gerrard, I proceeded the next morning on my route, after delivering a letter to General Lynch, an Irish officer, long in the French service, and now inspector of reviews. The streets were so crowded with prisoners, that I could scarce make my way through them; but at length getting clear of them, I pursued my route by an excellent road, and through a fine country, particularly in the vicinity of Tours, where are several magnificent chateaux, formerly belonging to the first families of France, but which by the effects of the Revolution have fallen into the hands of a very different class of persons. The former évêché, or bishop’s palace, is on an eminence, about two miles from Tours, commanding a fine view of the Loire and Cher, and has the appearance of a respectable English country mansion.

Crossing the Cher by a handsome hewn stone bridge, I reached Loches late in the evening, the distance from Tours being ten leagues. Here I met some English acquaintance, with whom I proposed passing the next day on a shooting party. We found the town’s people extremely civil, and in the morning a French gentleman politely offered to accompany us to the ground, where we might find plenty of snipes, the only game now to be met with. In order to arrive at it, we had to cross a rapid stream in a punt, and one of our company being a naval officer, boldly undertook to manage it, at which the Frenchman expressed his apprehensions, from the rapidity of the current; but, on being told that Monsieur was un marin Anglais, he was perfectly satisfied of his skill and address, and embarked with entire confidence. No sooner, however, was the boat cast off from the shore, than the current took her under the lee, and all the skill of le marin Anglais was of no effect, the boat being carried rapidly sideways towards a mill; when the Frenchman, seeing the danger, jumped up to his neck in the water, and having gained the shore cried out, “vous étes tous perdus!” which was far from consoling. However, by doubling our exertions, we fortunately reached the bank without accident. In conversation afterwards, the Frenchman observed that he had always entertained a high opinion of la marine Anglaise until now, but that he would never again enter into a boat of which one of them undertook the direction. This I could not help thinking was something similar to the calling on Sir Joseph Banks to regulate the paper currency of England, because he was an excellent judge of coins; for certainly it is almost impossible to conceive a greater contrast, than between an English man of war and a river punt, managed with a single pole or a paddle yet such were our French companion’s ideas on the subject, that from this trivial circumstance he formed his opinion of the whole British navy, and doubtless in all societies will in future abuse them as lubbers.

The snipes being wild we had little sport, and returned early to Loches, the castle of which I visited while dinner was preparing. It is celebrated for the long siege it sustained from the English, who were obliged to retire and leave it unconquered; as well as for containing the tomb of the beautiful Agnes Sorrel, the favourite mistress of the weak Charles the Seventh of France, and who governed this monarch until his death in 1450. This monument, which is in the prefecture, is only remarkable by the remains of the celebrated person it covers, and by the four lines on it, supposed to be written by Francis the First, after her death, and which I copied:
 

 Gentille Agnes, plus d’honneur tu mérite,
 La cause étant de France recouvrer,
 Que ce que peut dedans un cloître ouvrer,
 Close nonnaire ou bien dévot hermitte.

Loches is said to contain between four and five thousand inhabitants, and was the residence of several English families during the last peace. Adjoining it is a little town, which having separate magistrates and separate customs, caused frequent disputes, until at last both towns referred themselves to the National Assembly, which, after mature deliberation, passed a decree that the town, so close upon Loches should be considered as being distant ten leagues from it! Whether this curious revolutionary decree had the effect of terminating their disputes I could not learn.

In the morning I pursued my journey along the banks of the Indre, and through the town of Chastillon on that river. It is a miserable place with very narrow streets and an ill-looking race of inhabitants, who seemed to gaze with astonishment at my horse, the shortness of whose ears attracted their notice, as well as that of all the persons I had lately met on the road; nor was I aware of their ignorance of their being cropt, until overtaking two decent looking farmers, one of them, after expressing his surprise, requested to know where the breed of short-eared horses was to be procured? to which I answered “that it was extremely scarce, having been originally imported from the island of Ceylon into England by the late Duke of Queensbury, who specified particularly in his will that no more of the breed should be permitted to go out of the family; and that consequently it was now become impossible to procure one of them.” The farmer expressed his thankfulness for this information, saying, “that he had always been curious in horse-flesh, and that he thought himself very fortunate in meeting so accidentally un Monsieur Anglais, en route.”

In the evening I reached the village of Buzançais, where I put up at the sign of la Tête Noir (the blackamoor’s head), a small inn kept by a mulatto of St. Domingo; who, from the little knowledge of the inhabitants of this part of the country of foreign parts, was as great a curiosity to them as my horse with short ears. Here, however, I got an excellent dinner and comfortable accommodation, and from hence I sent an express to three Russian generals, to whom I had written from Loches, informing them I should meet them at Chateauroux, and from whom I received the answer in the Appendix. [Sorry Reader, the appendix is not included in this electronic text.]

Early in the morning I resumed my journey, and arrived at Chateauroux before noon, where I put up in a miserably uncomfortable inn, called le Petit St. Jean, which I strongly recommend all travellers to avoid. Here I found General Poltoratski, who accosted me with the familiarity of an old friend, and introduced me to Lieutenant General Olsouffief and another officer. These gentlemen belonged to the corps commanded by the Prussian General Blucher, and had been made prisoners. General Poltoratski asking me if I had seen the gazette, and on replying in the negative, proposed going to the Caffé, which, being Sunday, we found crowded with a strange mixture of peasants, postillions, barbers, common soldiers, and officers with the croix d’honneur, jumbled indiscriminately, and playing at domino, backgammon and billiards, for sous. The General was quite au fait in the proper reading of the French papers, giving to every line its true meaning, though dressed up in language to deceive the people, and skewing incontestably, from the local position of the armies, that what they announced as brilliant victories were in fact complete defeats.

On returning to the inn, where I had promised to dine with the Russian officers, we found in the apartment a facetious and loquacious French gentleman, who made continual puns, and abused Napoleon and his government with the greatest freedom; at the same time expressing his attachment to Russia, and his admiration of the Russian character, which I could not help inwardly thinking was going rather too deep in the hyperbolic; for though a Russian may possess sterling good qualities, as to his amiability, according to the French acceptation of the word, it was too ridiculous. On asking the General who this person was, he assured me that he knew nothing more of him, than from his self-introduction, with the profession of his attachment to Russia, and the offer of his services. To which I observed, “he certainly could not suppose that a Frenchman, in a miserable inland town, in a very remote part of France, could appreciate the Russian character, of whose country he had probably never heard, until the events of the late campaign had so terribly forced the knowledge on him; and in this case his in formation could only be derived from the French newspapers, which it must be allowed did not place the Russians in the most amiable point of view.” Consequently I doubted much if this civil gentleman was not a spy, or at best had intruded himself into our society, knowing us to be foreign officers, with the intention of leading us to abuse Buonaparte, and of reporting our conversation to the authorities of the town, in order to ingratiate himself with them, or of denouncing us to the police. “But,” I continued, “if this is his object, let us indulge him, by turning Napoleon and his government into ridicule, and shewing our contempt for the authorities; and, if he should attempt to espouse their cause, we can shew him the short way down stairs over the balusters, or the still more expeditious route, out of the window.” The Russian, who was a lively pleasant fellow, and detested a Frenchman from his heart, cordially agreed to this proposal, and we again resumed our conversation with him. We first discussed the character of the present French, expressing our surprise at their tamely suffering themselves to be trampled on by a tyrant, and to be made the tools of his wild ambition and vanity; adding, that the authorities, who executed his atrocious designs, were, if possible, as worthy of universal detestation as himself. “In fact, Monsieur,” I concluded, “the word canaille, whose synonyme is to be found in no language but your own, and which before the Revolution was only applied to a portion of the people, has since that period become applicable to the whole nation; for none but a peuple canaille could have so slavishly borne the various species of tyranny inflicted on them by their successive rulers, during the last twenty years.” The Russian observed, it was not prudent to speak so freely before the servants, and the Frenchman agreeing with them, I replied, “that I had no fear in doing so, for the authorities must be aware of our sentiments, as prisoners, who asked no favours from them; who were constantly overlooked, and to whom the most they could do was to place us in closer confinement, by which we should be released from our parole d’honneur, and all obstacles be done away to our taking the first opportunity of escaping to our friends.”

The Frenchman observed, with much complaisance, “Monsieur a raison, and then turned the subject by contrasting the national character before the Revolution with that of the present day; which was infinitely to the disadvantage of the latter.

Having finished our dinner, we were entering our carriages to proceed; when a crowd of people, who had assembled round them, cried out, “Vive l’Empereur, Vive Napoleon;” for which it is more than probable they were paid, in order to convince us of the bons sentimens of the people. The Russian General, instead of seeming annoyed, made a motion as if paying money from one hand to another; which clearly conveyed the idea of poor devils, you are paid for this bawling!”

From Chateauroux (which is a wretched dirty town, though of eight thousand inhabitants, situated on the Indre, of which department it is the chief place) I pursued my route towards La Chatre, while the Russian officers followed the post road; they being furnished with post horses at the expense of the French government, a favour denied to the English in the same situation.

Soon after leaving Chateauroux I passed a very extensive iron forge, on a branch of the Indre; but which has been unemployed for the last ten years, the proprietors having become bankrupts from the destructive effects of Napoleon’s continental system on every species of national industry. The iron mines are at a short distance in a forest, and their produce is remarked for its extreme softness. I slept at the village of Ardente, three leagues from Chateauroux; and the following day reached La Chatre, five leagues further; where I put up at the Grand St. Germain, an excellent house, with superior Bourdeaux and other wines.

At La Chatre was a corps of disarmed German soldiers, who had been hitherto allowed their rations and a certain daily sum of money, but which were now stopped, and they were ordered to be distributed in the villages and quartered on the inhabitants, for whom they were obliged to labour for their food. The want of money, indeed, began to be most seriously felt by the French government; and a total cessation of payment of their troops, as well as of those holding civil offices, and even of the clergy, was the consequence. At the same time, all confidence being destroyed between the government and the people, no contracts could be established; those who had accepted such contracts, latterly, having been paid in government bons, which were now of no value. The bakers, therefore, refusing to furnish bread, were themselves put in requisition to bake the flour the millers were obliged to supply; and every other kind of provision for the army was procured in the same manner, until at length the people began to complain. In order to reconcile them to these requisitions, the most exaggerated reports of the atrocities committed by the allied troops, were industriously circulated in every village and hamlet, and the most forcible appeals made to the national spirit and energy, as well as to the personal fears of the people, to induce them to come forward with their last resources, as the only means of freeing their country and escaping themselves from the horrors of a visitation of Cossacks. The more enlightened of the people, foreseeing that these appeals would soon be followed by forced contributions of every kind, hastened to sell their horses and cattle for any price they could get; and their suspicions were soon realized, by a general requisition of horses, cattle, sheep, flour, &c. Such was the discontent of all classes, that had the Allies adhered to the tenour of their proclamations in respecting the persons and property of the people, they would have been every where received as deliverers, with open hands; and the downfall of Napoleon would have been soon decided.

For six leagues from La Chatre, towards Gueret, the route is almost impracticable for carriages on springs; and had it not now been hardened by the frost we should never have got over it. In this direction a new road has been marked out and commenced at intervals, which if finished as it has been begun will equal in solidity even the Roman military ways; the foundation being laid of vast stones covered with flints, limestone, and in many places a species of marble. This road is intended to open a communication, by post, between Chateauroux and Gueret, and by that means with Tours and Orleans, with which the department of the Creuse has hitherto had no other public communication, except by Limoges and Moulins, causing a round of twenty and thirty leagues.

It is undoubtedly but doing justice to Napoleon to observe, that his plans for the internal improvement of France were vast and judicious; particularly in opening new communications between the different parts of the empire, by roads and canals; his wild ambition has however prevented the far greater number of these projected works from being finished, and many of them from being even commenced; and as there is no spirit of private enterprise or improvement among the French, such as we find in England, these projected designs will certainly lay dormant, until the government is sufficiently recovered from its present paralized state to execute them.

The badness of the road between La Chatre and Genouillat (a poor village where I put up for the night), is in some measure compensated by the appearance of the country, which is highly picturesque; presenting a succession of hills and rallies, almost entirely under pasture, and shaded by masses of enormous chesnut-tress. The habitations are here so thinly scattered, that the deserts of America can scarcely be more solitary; and the few human beings met with, are almost as savage in their appearance, and equally unintelligible in their language, as the most uncivilized of the Indian tribes.

From Genouillat the road is finished to Gueret, a distance of five leagues, and is excellent, winding round the bases of the hills in an endless succession of curves, so that the sun is alternately before and behind you. The country still grows more romantic, and about three leagues from Gueret the road is along the side of a glen, through which runs the Creuse, and which equals almost any spot of the same kind, even in Ireland.

The difficulty of procuring lodgings at Gueret was, as might be supposed, even greater than at Blois, the town containing only three thousand inhabitants; the prices asked were, therefore, not only exorbitant beyond conception, but there was not even room for one half the dépôt; so that upwards of two hundred persons were obliged to sleep in stables or barns for several nights; and those who were lodged, were almost as uncomfortable, the houses being filthy in the extreme, and without even the most common and necessary furniture. Added to which, the inhabitants appeared to be a most uncivil race, and soon proved that they merited the character we had heard of them, of being the most litigious and ill-disposed people of France.

A friend who had arrived before me, engaged me a lodging at three hundred francs a month, for which price I was to have a small dining room and anti- chamber, a bed-room closet for a servant, and the use of the kitchen. The landlord, his wife, and daughter, were all civility on my arrival; but after I had slept one night in the house, their conduct totally changed; doubtless, from the intention of making me so uncomfortable, that I should be obliged to quit the lodging, when they would force me to pay the three months’ rent, and immediately let it to another. They began by informing me that I could not dine in the dining room; next, that my dinner could not be drest in the kitchen; and, finally, that my wine could not be put into the cellar, as it would interfere with their own. Upon inquiring into the meaning of these strange restrictions, and why they had not mentioned them previous to my entering the house, they were all so civil, and made so many bows and grimaces, that I could not tell what to make of them, nor could I bring them to any direct conclusion; I was therefore obliged to tell them that their customs and habits seemed so directly contrary to mine, that it was quite impossible I could remain in the house, to put them so much out of their way; and I concluded, by asking, “what I should have to pay, if I immediately found a house to suit me?” To which the landlord replied, shrugging up his shoulders, “Rien de tout, mon Dieu, milord, on n’en pense pas;” adding, “that I might remain four or five days, until I could suit myself, and that he should be but too much flattered by the honour I did him.” The same evening I found a house in the country, two leagues distant, which I removed to the following morning, though the greater part of the road to it was totally impassable by a carriage, being across ravines and over huge masses of rock, morasses and deep fords.

On taking my leave of the lady and her daughter, I again asked if I had any thing to pay for the two nights I had slept in the house? With abundance of compliments, she refused listening to any thing of the kind, and we parted with mutual civilities, having made a handsome present to the maid, which I thought might be considered as a compliment to the mistress. Two days after, I was not a little surprised at learning, that the landlord had called on the gentleman who engaged the lodging for nee, to demand the month’s rent; I immediately caused the fellow to be informed, that if I was to pay for the lodging, not being able to occupy it myself, I, doubtless, had a right to dispose of it as I thought proper; and therefore should put two tapageurs of my acquaintance into it, who having hard heads and good lungs, generally sat up all night, smoking, drinking punch, and singing jovial songs; and whom I should request to accommodate three or four of my favourite dogs with the use of the dining room. In short, that I would occupy the lodging in what manner I pleased, until the expiration of the month. This threat had such an effect on my extortionate landlord and his wife, that they came to an accommodation, and I agreed to pay them one hundred and fifty francs, rather than be involved in a litigious dispute with such canaille. This is only one of a thousand cases I have had occasion to know, and I mention it not only as giving an idea of French character, but as a caution to others to beware of complaisance and grimace, which generally only cover some design of imposition.