Their inclosures were burnt where they were capable of becoming fuel, and in many cases thrown down where they were not. Their fields were covered with a rank growth of weeds and wild grass. Amid all this appearance of desolation, nothing struck my eye more forcibly than the sight of the high road. Where I had heretofore seen a continual succession of horses and carriages, life and bustle -- lending a sprightliness to all the environing objects, -- not a single, solitary traveler was seen from week to week or from month to month. The world was motionless and silent, except when one of these unhappy people ventured upon a rare and lonely excursion to the house of a neighbor no less unhappy ; or a scouting party, traversing the country in quest of enemies, alarmed the inhabitants with expectations of new injuries and sufferings. The very tracks of the carriages were grown over and obliterated ; and where they were discernible resembled the faint" impressions of chariot wheels said to be left on the pavements of Herculaneum. The grass was of full height for the scythe ; and strongly realized to my own mind, for the first time, the proper import of that picturesque declaration in the Song of Deborah : '• In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Joel, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through by-paths. The inhabitants of the villages ceased ; they ceased in Israel."

The fearful depredations in the Neutral Ground were viewed by the higher military authorities on the British side with entire approval, and on the American side, it must be admitted, generally without any acute disapprobation. The command of the American troops " on the lines " was always particularly coveted by officers of unscrupulous inclinations, because of the opportunities it afforded for plundering transactions, which their superiors were pretty certain not to discountenance.