HISTORY OF ALBE:UARLE
37
t wo witb drawn swords before, and two behind. It is really laugbabJe to see him thus attended by his ragged regiment, which looks , to borrow Sha kespeare's idea, as if the gibbets had been robben to make it up; then .th e Colonel him self. notwith standing his martial spirit, has all the grave deportment as i{ he were going to a consultation. He grea tl y amused some of us calling t o see him not long since. He had just mounted his horse to ride out. and seeing us approach, and wishing to air his French. he ca lled out ve ry pompou sly to his orderly, 'Donna 1lloi-dolmez 1ltoi-citm on scabbar dl' ') In ,M ay 1779, he wrote, "A few dcl ys ago :i \1adame Riedesel, [who with her husband. Baron Riedesel, was li vi ng at Collt:=, near Simeon] with two of her children, had a narrow escape. As she was going to the barracks in her post chaise, when the carriage had passed a wooden bridge-which are of themselves very terrific, being only so many wugh logs laid ac ross beams. without any safeguard on either side-an old rotten pine fell directly between the horses and the chaise, but providentially did no other damage than cru~hing the two fore wheels to pieces, and laming one of the horses. " I am filled with sorrow at being obliged to relate the death of \\1-, a relative of Si r Watkin \Villiams 'Vynne. , H e had been drink ing peach brandy till he became insane; and rid ing from Charlottes v ille to the barracks, he contrived to esca pe his companions. and next morning was found dead in a by 路 place five miles off, being tracked uy the foot -prints of his horse in the snow." From the Barracks, to which he had rem oved in th e early part of 1780, he wrote later. " T he log huts of the men are becoming dangerous from the ravages of insects, that bear the appellation of Sawyers. and are infested with rats of enormous size. The pri so ners are desert ing in great numbers, especially the Germans, ann d uels have become very frequ ent among the German officers." On November 20th, 1780 , he wrote from Winchester, "About six weeks ago we marched from Charlottesville
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