Excerpt from The Bivouac: Or, Stories of the Peninsular War How often have I paused en every charm, The shelter'd cot, the cultivated farm, The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topp'd the neighb'ring hill. Goldsmith. "Sweet village! I must leave thee soon" - exclaimed a tall military personage, as he laid aside the newspaper, in which the immediate embarkation of reinforcements for the Peninsula was announced. "I must exchange thy quietude for fields of blood. Well - 'tis for the better - a longer stay would but endanger my own happiness, and peril that of another already far too dear. Would that the parting words were spoken, and the broad sea rolled once more between us!" He sighed heavily as he approached the window, and looked out upon the village street. It was, indeed, a peaceful and a lovely scene. The neat and snow-white cottages, trellised with jasmine and roses, peeped from the shading of the full-grown sycamores that overspread their roofs; while the pointed steeple of the church, overtopping the foliage of the trees, displayed its ancient weathercock. Under the open casement of "The Greyhound" some rustics were regaling. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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Excerpt from The Bivouac, or Stories of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1 of 2 Chapter XV - Opening of the Campaign - Afiir of St. Millan - The Bivouac. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.