14th April 1831 to Lt General Sir Hugh Halkett:
“I went over to London in charge of my fourth boy Lionel to get him pass (sic) his exam for admittance into Sandhurst where he is quite happy in his red coat. I also parted with my third son William about fourteen days ago for Rotterdam where I have opened a mercantile house same as here under the guidance of my old clerk Bertram. So you see I do not allow my boys to rust under my roof. My eldest son Charles is my assistant here after having been at ……….for ten years. Thank you for the compliment you pay my Eliza and to your profession, indeed I know, I assure you, how to value my good wife in these times of real distress and trouble. It is perfectly impossible to describe what I suffered by sheer anger and provocation at the dastardly proceedings (alluding to the night of the 31st March) The perpetrators were evidently not Antwerpians, except a few of the leaders, but agents of the Black gang and sorry am I to state that the Generals, after giving me in the morning the most unqualified assurance that they and there troops would act with determination to keep the peace, did just the contrary and the Generals who replaced van der Smissen have to account for their extraordinary conduct. Since that period they have put the forces under their command (probably eight to nine hundred men) properly en avant and everything has been perfectly tranquil. My wife, who I wished should leave with the younger children, refused to leave me and we are then together watching, as it were, the enemy. My situation, and that of most persons here, is far from satisfactory. I have a 12lb cannonade in my court loaded facing the grand entrance and my rooms on the first floor are barricaded in a manner that neither the windows nor the doors can be forced open without the greatest violence. Our lower windows, as is the case generally here, are completely guarded outside with iron railings and my porte cochere, or house door, is doubly barricaded every night and closed at 10 o’clock. I have six muskets and fusils besides six pistols and swords all ready charged and hung about the rooms and I never lay down without three loaded arms close to my bedside. This is a melancholy and sad picture of this once prosperous and happy town in which I certainly could not remain but do as many of my friends have done before me, quit I not. Property in it, and my official duties, kept me here; for besides all this danger which threatens my habitation by aggression, we have all the guns of the Citadel and the heavy forts, opposite to us, filled with Dutch troops.”
Up to the middle of May things remained pretty much in the same position when the Belgians trespassing upon the arrangements entered into with General Chassé commenced raising batteries in the vicinity of the Citadel and the Tete de Flandre in such a way that in the event of a resumption of hostilities they could molest the Dutch ships communication with the Citadel and cut off supplies. The Dutch remonstrated and the town, fearing reprisals on their part, was kept in a state of alarm.
On the 18th May, my father writes to Lord Ponsonby:
“Since your Lordship quitted we have been here in a dreadful state. I was sent for and explained to General Belliard and Mr White, when here on Monday evening, all the circumstances relative to the affair of the Citadel. Nobody can or ought to doubt General Chassé right to …….
In all directions household furniture and merchandise is moving out of this City which is now considered by almost none safe and would, I am sure, be deserted by almost everyone (except myself) as I am determined to remain and if necessary take refuge in my cellars when the first few guns are fired by either party.”
Irritated by the progress of the works undertaken by the enemy and which his representations did not serve to stop, General Chassé wrote on the 19th May to General Du Failly commanding the Belgians troops that within six hours, if the works had not been stopped, he would be forced to commence hostilities. Not Trusting Du Failly, General Chassé sent a copy of the letter to my father in order that he might communicate with the authorities and see that the danger be averted. My father explains the object of Chassé in a report which he addressed on the 3rd June to the Hanoverian Government (Here follows a long German letter which I do not translate. ( French letter here)
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