'This place we had got into was perhaps a hundred yards from the canal
and underneath a little brick bridge we could see the flotilla still,
and hear the voices of the soldiers. Presently five or six other barges
came through and lay up in the meer near by us, and with two of these,
full of men of the Antrim regiment, I shared my find of provisions. In
return we got tobacco. A large expanse of water spread to the westward
of us and beyond were a cluster of roofs and one or two church towers.
The barge was rather cramped for so many men, and I let several squads,
thirty or forty perhaps altogether, bivouac on the bank. I did not let
them go into the house on account of the furniture, and I left a note of
indebtedness for the food we had taken. We were particularly glad of our
tobacco and fires, because of the numerous mosquitoes that rose about
us.
'The gate of the house from which we had provisioned ourselves was
adorned with the legend, Vreugde bij Vrede, "Joy with Peace," and it
bore every mark of the busy retirement of a comfort-loving proprietor.
I went along his garden, which was gay and delightful with big bushes of
rose and sweet brier, to a quaint little summer-house, and there I sat
and watched the men in groups cooking and squatting along the bank.
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