3-011-487 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"After the Battle", by P. H. Calderon, A.R.A., 1864. Engraving of a painting. 'A battle has raged in and around a Flemish village; the English have been victorious, and are marching through the street of the little place in pursuit of the foe. They find time, however, to enter the deserted, battered, and smouldering houses, in search of booty. A party of Grenadiers, some of them already laden with plunder...enter the poor abode, eager to find what they may think lawful spoil even in this humble tenement. But here they see what at once diverts them from their purpose - a poor little, weeping child...Of course, there is no true soldier who could treat such a child as an enemy, and who would not relent before this defenceless and innocent figure...The oldest and most hardened veteran, therefore, is the first to approach the child with the reassuring gentleness of a woman; and we may fancy that we hear him coaxing the little one to lay aside his fears. This soldier's comrades are evidently no less touched with the same feeling of compassion. We...[point out] the expression of this kindly interest in their faces, and especially in that of the sympathising drummer-boy, who is himself a mere child'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.