If miracles do not happen, but things proceed in an
ordinary way, which is far more likely when the com- batants are so evenly matched, Namur may well prove the anvil upon which the Belgians and the French in combination will beat out the national defence. Troops that get between a fortress well held and a gallant and aggressive field army are in a very awkward position. That is where the anvil comes in. A victorious field army, if it has a resolute foe, is often disappointed of its victories by the enemy merely falling back in good order, but if he has to fall back upon an anvil, then the assailant's stroke has, we will not say a double, but a quad- ruple value. All these speculations may, of course, be vain, but, at any rate, we can indulge the thought that Namur is once more to play a great part, and that hovering over it at this moment are the spirits of William III. and Marlborough, and last, but not least, that shade of a shade, the generous, the ingenuous, the high-souled Uncle Toby, and with him Corporal Trim, stiff as a ramrod in everything but his love for his country and his master.
