United States or British Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Amand, whose place I was to take, to lie in his coffin with his name on the plate above my breast, and with a ton of clay packed down upon me; to waken from this catalepsy, after I had been for hours in the grave, there to perish by a death the most horrible that imagination can conceive.
We were discussing the matter like generals, and we scanned the position of the Prussians around the villages, in the orchards, and behind the hedges, which are six feet high in that country. A great number of their guns were grouped in batteries between Ligny and St. Amand, and we could plainly see the bronze shining in the sun, which inspired all sorts of reflections.
All had left, many other squads had received no orders, and in the vicinity of St. Amand the streets were full of soldiers. Several companies remained behind, and reached the road by crossing the fields on the left, where we could see the rear of the column as far as the eye could reach caissons, wagons, and baggage of every sort.
I was, of course, nothing loth to spend a few hours with such a charming companion as La Valentine; therefore in the Avenue des Champs Elysées I pulled up, and consulting my road-book, decided to go by way of Arras, Douai, St. Amand, and Ath. Quickly we ran out beyond the fortifications; while, driving in silence, I wondered what this latest manoeuvre was to be.
Though the majority of these were veterans, there was a considerable leaven of inferior troops, hastily raised from the Westphalian and Rhine militia. Between this town and Quatre Bras lay the Prussian line of defence, Sombreffe being the centre, with Ligny and St. Amand in front of it, and rather on the south-west.
With the exception of the sentries, who were changed every hour, the rest slept until late in the afternoon; then the horses were again fed and groomed, and another meal was eaten. At sunset the armour was buckled on again, and they started. They crossed the Creuse at the bridge of Argenton about midnight and, riding through La Chatre, halted before morning in a wood two miles from Saint Amand.
"Tomorrow night," she said, "my husband will attend the remains of his cousin, Monsieur de St. Amand, to Pere la Chaise. The hearse, he says, will leave this at half-past nine. You must be here, where we stand, at nine o'clock." I promised punctual obedience. "I will not meet you here; but you see a red light in the window of the tower at that angle of the chateau?" I assented.
Amand, under Hucbald, acquired a world-wide reputation. Everywhere new monasteries were established, new churches and palaces built. The arts of illuminating, embroidery, carving and stained glass were brought to an unparalleled degree of perfection and refinement. Bishops and abbots competed in attracting to their courts and monasteries the best-known doctors and poets of the time.
The career of the Marshal is, I presume, well known to most of my readers, and the manner in which he was received in England proves the degree of estimation in which he was there held. He was the son of a notary at St. Amand, where he was born in 1769, being the same year which gave birth to Napoleon, Wellington, and Mehemet Ali.
The Vossian collection at the same place has other books which I suspect were once in England; most notable is its Suidas, which is said by M. Bidez to be the parent of the English copies I mentioned, and which I think must be Grosseteste's own copy. This, however, is a Greek MS. A volume containing poems of Milo of St. Amand is most likely a Canterbury book.
Word Of The Day