Was it
possible that the fathers of these quiet workmen in blouses, armed
with axes and pikes, had defeated the chivalry of France, and all but
annihilated the force of the Duke of Anjou? What a number of convents
there were! The monks seemed a full third of the population, and it
was curious to hear everyone talking in French when the French were
the enemy they were going to meet. The populace were quite as
interested in their English visitors as the latter were with them. The
English scarlet was altogether strange to them, and the dress of the
men of the Highland regiment, who were encamped next to the
Twenty-eighth, filled them with astonishment.
For a fortnight the regiment remained at Ghent, then they with some
others of the same division marched to Brussels, and took up their
quarters in villages round the town. The Twenty-eighth belonged to
Picton's division, which formed part of the reserve concentrated round
Brussels. The first army corps, consisting of the second and third
divisions of Dutch and Belgians, and the first and third of the
British, extended from Enghien on the right to Quatre Bras on the
left. The first British division were at the former town, the third
between Soignies and Roeulx, while the Belgians and Dutch lay between
Nivelles and Quatre Bras.
The second army corps held the ground on the right of the first, and
extended to Oudenarde on the Scheldt.
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