LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
In Whig Society 1775-1818
Lady Caroline Lamb to Lady Melbourne, [June?] 1815
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Introduction
Contents
Forward
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Index
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Brussels, 1815.
Dearest Lady Melbourne,

Your letter is the only one of any sort we have receivd. & very acceptable it was—I cannot describe to you how totally cut off from news of every sort. It is said that Buonaparte & his Brothers having delivered themselves up to the protection of England are gone there & Madame de la Ruilliere (?) to our great regret & hers set out this morning with the Prince de Condé for Cambery by Louis orders. The English name stands so high from Ostend here that it makes one feel proud. The moment they see you every one pulls off their hats & caps,—& if they ask yr. Country & you say “English” they answer “that is passport enough.” . . .

The great amusement at Bruxelles, indeed the only one except visiting the sick, is to make large parties & go to the field of Battle—& pick up a skull or a grape shot or an old shoe or a letter, & bring it home. W[illia]m has been, I shall not go—unless when Fred [Ponsonby] gets better, &
172THE CLOSING DAYS OF 
goes with me. There is a great affectation here of making lint & bandages—but where is there not some? & at least it is an innocent amusement. It is rather a love making moment, the half wounded Officers reclining with pretty ladies visiting them—is dangerous. I also observe a great coxcombality in the dress of the sick—which prognosticates a speedy recovery. It is rather heart-breaking to be here, however, & one goes blubbering about—seeing such fine people without their legs & arms, some in agony, & some getting better. The Prince of Orange enquired much after all his acquaintance; he suffers a great deal, but bears it well. The next door to us has a Coll Millar, very patient, but dreadfully wounded. Lady Conyngham is here—Lady C. Greville—Lady D. Hamilton, Mrs. A. B. c. d. Smith, Lady F. Somerset, Lady F. Webster most affected—& Lady Mountmorress1 who stuck her parasol yesterday into a skull at Waterloo. Perhaps a certain rivalship makes me see her less favourably, but indeed Lady F. Webster is too ridiculous. Mr. Bradshaw, an amiable Dandy close by me, says it makes him ill for 2 hours after he has seen her. I conclude that you have heard that the D[uke] of Wellington fell desperately in love with her & 2 others, which was the cause of his not being at the Battle in time. The D[uche]ss of Richmond’s fatal Ball has been much censured; there never was such a Ball—so fine & so sad—all the young men who appeared there shot dead a few hours after.