Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/50

 would not even study the language, lest it might tend to abate his determined hatred; but such feelings were not the natural production of his benevolent heart; they had been planted there by insolence and oppression, which his noble mind could scarcely endure: all who know him will unite in declaring him worthy of the compliment of the poet:—

"The patriot virtues That distend thy thought, spread on thy front, And in thy bosom glow."

The 19th, we halted at Chalons, on the Marne; the 20th, at St. Menehould; and, on the 21st, in spite of the very bad weather, reached the end of our journey—the long wished for Verdun. Upon being escorted to the citadel, certain regulations, as the conditions of my parole, were given to me for perusal. These I signed; permission was then given me to retire into the town, where I took lodgings suitable to my finances. I found about 400 English, and a constant influx for several days.

I shall not fatigue the reader with a repetition of those occurrences in Verdun