Spiers: Memoranda of an autumn tour in 1836

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CONT AUG 14 SUN

Numbers of persons seemed to be employed in the capacity of guides and relic vendors but they profited little by us. After spending nearly 2 hours on this interesting spot which seems marked out by nature as a fit arena for the events it has witnessed we wended our way on to Genappe thinking much of the flight of the French army along the same pavé pursued by the Prussians whose revenge was perhaps almost excusable, considering the indignities that their country had been formerly subjected to by Napoleon. It was near the entrance to Genappe that Napoleon's carriage was taken by the Prussians; he had but just escaped from it, or his fate might have been a different one. The narrow streets of the town were crowded with carriages & soldiers in flight & many lives must have been lost in the confusion. The passage of the small bridge must have [been] a scene of awful misery & havoc.

It was just dark when we arrived at our inn. We had some delicious coffee & our appetite for it seemed inexhaustible. The landlady & the cheerful maid servant were attentive as possible. I thought the latter had a pretty face but Edward said not entirely: good nature & a lively gaiety of manner perhaps go far to deceive one sometimes. While she was making our beds (for here they do not put on the sheets until they are required) we had a long chat, in the course of which she owned that she was partial to the English because they were generally agreeable. (We did not regard this as interested flattery for we had paid our bill and given her quite a trifle.) We learned from her that she could not say 'yes' to all the questions that might be put to her. I regretted that our having the two beds in one chamber prevented my putting a question which might have been affirmed sealed lip fashion.

15 miles

AUG.15. MON:I was not aware until yesterday how the Belgians gained the appellation of Les Braves Belges which is generally applied to them ironically. It is said that at the Battle of Waterloo, on one of their regiments being ordered into a position which their coll thought

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