French volunteers marching to the conquest of Great Britain [graphic]

"A mounted officer with drawn sabre heads a procession of 'Volunteers' linked by a chain to his horse and to each other. The horse is a well-bred animal with handsome trappings, but the rider is lean and has torn breeches. He is followed by a file of three whose necks are attached to the horse and whose hands or arms are pinioned. All are miserable wretches, barelegged and ragged; the last, less abject, has sabots and takes snuff. He is chained to the neck of a donkey on whose back is a pannier containing three despairing conscripts. To the animal's tail is tied a low truck on which a moribund shackled man lies on his back, his knees drawn up. To the truck is chained, in a stooping position, a man whose hands are tied behind his back, his nails being long talons. Birds, scenting carrion, fly towards the procession. Below the design: 'Dedicated (by an Eye Witness) to the Volunteers of Great Britain'."--British Museum online catalogue