from England he kept but two of the original six with him; releasing the remaining four for field service under Morgan's command with Turenne. Bergues, Dixmuyde, Menine, and Oudenarde fell in quick succession, and on the 2nd of September Turenne opened the siege of Ypres, the last great operation of the campaign and the last in which we hear of special distinction on the part of the Red coats. Unfortunately we have no longer the journal of Bussy Rabutin whereby to check our best account of the proceedings, and the newspapers also fail to give details of any great value; so we are driven to take the pamphleteer's account for what it is worth. It would appear then that some few days after the trenches had been opened Turenne obtained certain information from a spy that Condé and Don John of Austria were marching with eleven thousand foot and four thousand horse to relieve the town, and were already within three leagues of it. He accordingly ordered Morgan to keep the whole of his force under arms all night, Morgan replied "that if he did keep the army three nights to that hard shift they would not care who did knock them on the head. The Prince of Condé and Don John of Austria were great captains; and they might dodge with Marshal Turenne to fatigue his army." As an alternative, though a desperate one, Morgan suggested immediate assault on the counterscarp; on which Turenne "joined his hands and ejaculated, 'Did ever my master the king of France or the king of Spain attempt a counterscarp upon an assault, where there were three half moons covered with cannon and the ramparts of the town playing point blank upon the counterscarp.'" Eventually, however, it was decided that the assault should be delivered by three different parties, two French and one English, each of six hundred men and fifty pioneers, and that the time should be just after sunset. The major-general made the English stand to their arms and divided them into bodies: a captain at the head of the Abundance N pioneers, and the major-general [Morga himself] and a colonel at the head of th two battalions [each three hundred strong and he ordered each man . .. to take up long fascine upon his musket. Then, upo signal given, the major-general did orde six score [paces] of the stockados, to sli the two battalions, when they came withi their fascines and fall on . . . When th pioneers came in sight of the stockado they slipped the fascines down and fell on the major-general and the two battalion were close to them; and when the soldier began to lay their hands on the stockadd they tore them down for the length of si score and leaped pell-mell into the counterscarp among the enemy. the enemy were drowned in the moat, an many taken prisoners, with two Germa princes; and the counterscarp was cleared The French were in their approaches a this time. Then the English fell on upo the half-moons, and immediately the Red coats were on the top of them throwing th enemy into the moat and turning the can non upon the town. Thus the two half moons were speedily taken. After the manning of the half-moons he did rally al the English with intention to lodge then upon the counterscarp, that he might b and they left the other half-moon for Mar free of the enemy's shot next morning shal Turenne's party, which [the half moon] was even before their approaches Then the French fell upon the other halfmoon, but were beaten off. The major general considered that that half-moon would gall him in the daytime, and there fore did speak to the officers and soldiers that it was best to give them a little help. The Red-coats answered, "Shall we fall on in order or happy-go-lucky?" The major happy-go-lucky;" and immediately the general said, "In the name of God, at it Red-coats fell on, and were on the top of it, knocking the enemy down and casting them into the moat. When this work was done the major-general lodged the English on the counterscarp. (Harl. Misc.) Next morning the Spaniards beat a parley and were allowed to march out with the honors of war; with one piece of cannon, colors flying, bullet in mouth, and match lighted at both ends, according to the reigning practice of war; and Ypres received a French garrison. The capture of Comine followed before the end of September famous Protectorate army was disbanded in October, 1660, and two years later Dunkirk was sold to the French; so that men could feel little pleasure in recalling the names either of the one or the other. Lastly the lapse of another fifty years saw another and more famous army in Flanders, that which is bound up with the immortal names of John, Duke of Marlborough, Captain Tobias Shandy, and Corporal Trim. and in spite of the inclemency of the they deserve immortality, could any season, the French pushed on to within one give it them, for making so creditthree leagues of Brussels itself. But able a beginning for the Red-coats on with the capture of Ypres the most the Continent. The garrison too has brilliant work of the English contin- a claim to be remembered as the first gent was done. In November it moved English troops that were ever quarinto winter quarters; and on the tered in barracks, the Spaniards having twenty-fifth of that mouth Morgan left some ready built in Dunkirk. But was knighted at Whitehall by Richard for the most part the memory of their Cromwell. For the great Protector achievements has passed away. The had died on the 3rd of September while the siege of Ypres was in progress, and much had died with him. We hear all through the winter of 1658-9 of nothing bat complaints from the unhappy garriSon of Dunkirk; of men ill-lodged, illfed, and unpaid, and fortifications going to pieces for want of money. Early Dext year too (1659) the Cromwells fell, so that a new oath to a new government had to be sworn, which of course meant anxiety for commanding officers. A suspension of arms between France and Spain followed in May; and in Juue commissioners from the English Committee of Safety came over at last to report on the condition of Dunkirk; which, however, they could not do without going out of their way to insult the two old colonels in command. In Angust the House of Commons re solved to recall Morgan's famous regi- Men J. W. FORTESCUE. NOTE. The pamphlet, "A Relation of Sir the advertisement to have been drawn up by MorThomas Morgan's Progress in France," is said in gan himself at a friend's desire, and to have been confirmed by him paragraph by paragraph when read over to him. Originally designed for publication in James the Second's reign, it was held over for obvious reasons, and printed in 1698 in refutation of Bussy Rabutin's memoirs (1696) and the memoirs of Ludlow. Some of the interviews therein recounted between Turenne and Morgan, and the excessive partiality shown for the English require that portions of it should be received with caution; but on the other hand the account of the capture of St. Venant is borne out by the contemporary relations in the newspapers, and the broad lines of the action at Dunkirk are confirmed by Lockhart's letters, Bussy Rabutin, and other it in the details of actual fighting. authorities. Hence I have not hesitated to follow From Chambers' Journal. Further the senior MARKET-DAY IN AN ITALIAN COUNTRY And here we take leave of the six thousand, the immortal six thousand as they were termed in the admiring language of their own day. In a sense TOWN. BELLUNO is a small town in Venetia, at the foot of the Italian Dolomites. It stands on a steep promontory, formed by the rush of the great torrent-river Piave, as it sweeps round the lesser hills on its first issuing from the rocky. gorges of Cadore. Being only four hours by train from Venice, it is an easily accessible place of refuge from the sultry heat of the lagoons. The cool blue of the mountains- varied here and there with a touch of snow on | and occasionally amongst the cheeses the higher peaks and the rich green and the eggs sat the old granny, less fit. than she once was to make the whole journey on foot. Others carried on their shoulders the graceful corba — the basket of this part of the countryfull of fruit and vegetables; whilst the husbands and brothers drove along the sheep and oxen. of the well-cultivated and fruitful country, refresh the eyes and repose the brain, tired and aching with the glare of sunshine reflected from red brick churches and white marble palaces. We arrived late in the evening, and at once went out to explore the town. All was silent and dark. We went All this commotion made us anxious through an ancient gateway, and to see Belluno alive in the morning threaded cautiously the roughly paved, after having seen it dead at night; so winding streets, for the wide, project- we hastened to follow the crowd.. ing eaves of the lofty, massive houses Going down the narrow lane that leads shut away from us even the faint light from our hotel, we came out from that came from the stars. The dark under overhanging houses, supported, ness seemed to be made only the more on Gothic stone brackets, into the Camprofound by the feeble glow of an old pitello, the chief business centre of the petroleum lamp slung out, here and town. It is a long and spacious piazza, there, at the end of a long iron arm. once the exercising-ground of the garriNot a ray of light shone from door or son, in the old warring days when Belwindow, and not a creature was to be luno boasted of a castle and walls; and seen or heard, though it was not yet it forms, so to say, the base of the trinine o'clock. We began to think we angle on which stands the old town. had dropped into a city of the dead. Some traces of the walls can yet be Once, indeed, through the open door of seen, though they have been built up a church, and by the light of a flicker- into houses; and the two great double ing taper, we discerned an indistinct gateways, Porta Doina and Porta figure bending before a shrine; but Dante, with their massive wooden and that, we agreed, might be a ghost; so iron-clamped doors, still give access to we returned to our hotel-the bright the older part of Belluno. These form and comfortable Albergo delle Alpi, the south side of the Campitello; wondering wherever the five thousand whilst along the whole extent of its inhabitants of Belluno could be! northern side are large houses with Next morning all was changed. The handsome porticoes of all styles of cheerful notes of the Bersaglieri's architecture-Gothic, Lombardic, and trumpets roused us early from our Renaissance. Though the houses above slumbers, and told us they were al- them are the most commonplace of ready back from their morning march. modern ones, these columns and capThen the hum of voices and the tramp of feet called us to our window; and we saw group after group of peasants trooping down from the neighboring hills, bringing to the town their cattle and their farm produce, for it was Here, in this big piazza, all the missmarket-day in Belluno. There were ing inhabitants of Belluno seemed to merry parties of country-women, with be congregated. It was a brilliant their stout blue or black dresses set off sight, as the morning sun streamed by snowy white sleeves and gay col-down on the busy throng. Long rows ored aprons, and with pretty kerchiefs of stalls and booths filled up one end of thrown tent-wise over the array of sil- the square, and all manner of marketver pins which framed their faces, carts were ranged along the walls. The thus shading the sun from their eyes. bright-colored stuffs and shawls with Some trundled hand-carts laden with which the stalls were stocked vied in sacks of maize, or poultry and butter; hue with the costumes of the peasants itals are very old, since, being solid blocks of stone, they have stood firm when everything else in Belluno was e shaken to pieces by frequent and disastrous earthquakes. Tho crowded round them. Behind the arches in front, with a tempting these stalls spaces had been marked display of things to suit mountain out on the ground, and here were set taste; and linen and lace, men's suits, order the goods of many a travelling and fanciful gaiters, hung like curtains merchant. One had set out his un- from the apex of the arches. In one. folded dress stuffs in little heaps, so portico waved long streamers of green that his square of ground looked as if a Alpine caps or broad-brimmed straw Cop of tulips had just been mown and hats for the men, all threaded on a made up into hay cocks, but which string like a gigantic daisy chain; and changed in color as the stuffs were sold festoons of gay ribbons to bind them. of Next this was a green field of with floated from the spiral leaves of pattery. There were earthenware pots the old carved capitals; whilst from and dishes of every conceivable shape, the stall below rose columns of the flat, each of them characteristic. Some way black felt hats worn by the women of 00 was a great array of tin and iron im- the Austrian valleys, which they raise plements and pipkins, which the peas- from their heads like men, when saas carry off in numbers to replace the luting you, and take off when they go ndsome bronze three-legged pots in- into church. Under another arch were herited from their forebears, and which piles of the gorgeous umbrellas so dear being rapidly transferred to the to Italian country people, and without halls and drawing-rooms of Eugland which they are never scen -olive and America. Next, a great pile of green, saffron, orange, bright blue, and trimson and yellow attracted our atten- crimson, and all with rainbows round tion and that of the crowd. A seller of their edges. Three consecutive arches Tonderfully colored blankets and coun- were filled with a long array of books, panes had draped his cart with them, the most modern of which must have d, dressed in a gaudy coat, was sell- dated from the days of our grandparthem by auction. Beginning at a ents' youth, all except an English book High price, he came down to such a low on children's illnesses and a bad French that one was surprised how all novel. Farther on, a silversmith's stall not go off. Such cheap-jacks are was thronged by young women anxious always more or less amusing all the to invest their latest savings, or the orld over, but there was something price of their own particular lamb just funny in this one, from the ear- sold, in another fantastic-headed, long stness he put into his face, and the silver pin to enlarge the circle of shinor with which he expatiated on the ing silver with which they love to Falities of his goods. "This blanket crown themselves. In another portico the largest ever made; it can cover we were claimed as old friends by a and your wife, your grandmother, merchant from Pieve di Cadore, whose children, the donkey, the dog, and stall was a very museum, where, becat." Another, he declared, was sides the ordinary things a Belluno 0 soft and thick that he who had shop supplies, he had fancy glass from e troubles of a Job would find them Venice, Russia-leather bags from Vimelt away under its warmth." This euna, and needles and cotton from ald certainly have sold for four England. We were amused to be saes, if its twin one had not gone off luted by him with the familiar Pieve two and a half! phrase, "Staga pulita ?" (Are you clean ?), which to new ears sounds a little strange, but which is only the mountain phrase for " Are you well?" A break in the porticoes now made turn our attention to what was Whilst all this was going on under blaze of the sun, life was no less in the deep shade of the porticoes. Zere are to be found the chief shops the place; but to-day, as if fear us that the outside attractions might going on at the south side of the Camrert attention from them, they had pitello, and making our way through hed out temporary counters into the crowd, we found ourselves in the busiest part of the cattle-market. In |ent, and points out to a mediatore, or the shade of the houses and of the agent, those that suit him, and hands big gates were ranged, in two long over to him a five-franc piece. The rows, hundreds of pretty grey and dun- mediatore then seeks the owner, and colored oxen, chained, side by side, to learns the price, which is too high, and e long ropes fixed to staves in the ground. offers one which is too low; then tries Though small, they looked strong and to make him take the five-franc bit generally well cared for, and many had as earnest-money, the acceptance of marks on their backs, showing they had which would mean he was ready to already changed hands. At a cattle- come to terms. And now it is that the market one would naturally expect fight begins. The agent seizes the some noise and bustle, but we were man's right hand and tries to force the hardly prepared for what we found money into it. The man plunges his here. In all directions what appeared fist into his pocket and defends it there. to be free fights were going on. Surely with the other; or he holds it above malefactors were being caught in the his head; or he spreads out his hand, act, and volunteers were lugging them setting his muscles like iron rods, while off to justice — but then, why so many? the other presses the money against Here was a strong young fellow who the palm and tries to close the fingers had a shrivelled-up old man by the over it; or he tries to elude it altocollar, and was dragging him off into gether by running away. The carthe old town by the Dante Gate, whilst nest-money once accepted, then begins the old man struggled to free himself, another fight to bring the buyer face to and clutched at post, and rope, and face with the seller, who is waiting gatepost, in his efforts at resistance. quietly for him in the wine-shop. I On another side the case was reversed, remarked to a mediatore, as he stood and a tall, thin, wiry old peasant had a puffing and panting midway in one stout youth of twenty by the arm, and of the struggles, that it seemed hard was lugging him along by main force, work; but he said, laughing: "Il while the youth let himself be dragged mestiere è così" (This, is the custom of on like a log. Next came a stout man our trade). and his prisoner, who in this case walked along resolutely, as if in desperation, with an expression of resignation on his face, as he, too, was swallowed up by the Porta Dante. Sometimes the captured one would shake himself loose and dart away among the crowd, the other man rush-formed between the knots were placed ing to try to catch him again. It was very mysterious; so, profiting by a lull, we, too, went through the gateway, and there we found them all, captives and captors, seated at tables in various osterias, with cups of wine and fivefranc pieces before them, discussing the wine and their business in the most friendly manner. As we listened to their talk, the mystery was solved. The captured were those who had cattle to sell, and the captors were agents employed to make the bargain. This is how business is done a farmer requiring a pair of oxen takes stock of the animals pres แ Going farther along the Campitello, we found that oxen had given place to sheep, which were standing in semicircular groups near the wall. Two long ropes, knotted together every twelve of fourteen inches, were fastened by their ends to the wall, and into the loops the heads of the sheep, so that the loops were loose when the sheep were quiet, but tightened if they tried to get away. On carts and barrows, ranged in front of their sheep, sat the owners, in every instance looking as if they had no possible interest in their disposal. Here the same mediatorial fights were going on; and we saw that the earnest money for a single sheep was a franc, and that the price of a fine one was only about eight-and-fourpence. We watched one pretty girl, the owner of two fat lambs, whom the mediatore was evidently trying to come over by gentler means than those we have de |