three p.m. we enjoyed our dinner, notvithstanding the want of beverage; for, upon examining the knapsacks, the flasks were found broken. Whitehurst, having lost his hat in descending the first rampart, was occupied in manufacturing a cap from the skirts of his coat. It rained all the afternoon, and the weather in the evening getting worse, we were detained till about ten p.m., when, no prospect of its clearing up presenting itself, we quitted our comfortable abode, walked round the citadel, to the westward, over ploughed ground, until, coming to a turnip field, we regaled ourselves most sumptuously. By eleven, we had rounded the town and gained the north road. During the night we passed through several villages without seeing any one, and at six a.m. arrived at the suburbs of Courtray, expecting there to find as snug a retreat as the one we had left the preceding evening; but, to our mortification, the town was enclosed with wet ditches, which obliged us to seek safety elsewhere. Observing a farm house on the right, our steps were directed towards it, and thence through bye-lanes, until a mansion was discovered: this we approached, in the hope of finding an out-house which would afford us shelter for the day; nothing of the kind could be seen; but, not far distant, a thicket was descried, of about 150 paces square, surrounded by a wet ditch, from fourteen to twenty feet wide: here then we determined to repose our wearied limbs, and, it being day-light, not a moment was to be lost. The opposite side of the narrowest part of the ditch was one entire bed of brambles, and in the midst of these we were obliged to leap. Hunter, Mansell, and myself got over tolerably well; but when Whitehurst made the attempt, stiff with wet and cold, and the bank giving way, from his great weight, he jumped into the water: it was with difficulty he could be extricated, and not without being dragged through the brambles, by which he was severely scratched. We lay ourselves down in the centre of this swampy thicket. The rain had continued without intermission from the time of our leaving Tournay, and notwithstanding it somewhat discommoded us, yet we were consoled by the additional security it afforded. This little island protected us till near dark, when we walked round it to find the easiest point of egress. From the torrents of rain that had fallen during the day, the ditches had become considerably wider, and there was only one opening in the bushes, whence a leap could be made. Of this, three of us profited; the fourth obtained a passage by the aid of a decayed willow, which overhung the opposite bank.”
In this manner, and with a continuation of bad weather, our travellers pursued their course to Blankenberg, a village on the sea-coast, to the eastward of Ostend. On their arrival at the gates of Bruges (after passing through Haerlabeck and Deynse), they were all in a most deplorable condition – wet to the skin, their feet bleeding, and so swollen, that they
