432 FRANCE.

whereas the Prussian territories were so circumseribed by other powers, that had it fallen to that nation, his manufac- tory would have been ruined. As to any feelings of patriotism or liberty, with him, like most of the people of his country, they were out of the question, and seemed not to enter into any of his causes of liking or aversion.

This man had suffered in his peaceful occupation, by the different military who had been quartered on him. He said, the troops of Buonaparte behaved worse in their own country, than the Cossacks had done; that if the latter had sufficient to eat and drink, and that they must have, they practised no plunder and committed no acts of cruelty; but that he had found the insolence and cruelty of the French intolerable, and very different from what their conduct had been when he was a soldier.

My companion, though speaking freely on all other subjects, was very reserved on every thing relating to the Bourbons. He expressed, by looks, more regard to his old commander than he chose to utter; seemed proud to have partaken of his triumphs in Italy, and rather lamented than blamed the licentiousness which he permitted in his troops, and his attempts on Spain and Russia He contended that the battle of Wa- terloo was gained by a great superiority of numerical force, and lost owing to the great fatigues which the French had endured, and the want of food on the previous days. I had no inclination to dispute this with him, because I wished rather to ascertain the feelings of my companion, and of his coun- trymen, than to correct his information. He asked me, with much earnestness, if[| was sure that Buonaparte was still at St. Helena, because he said most of his old soldiers believed he was now in North America.

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