THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE THE ^' I S ^ as soon after his birth enrolled — according to a custoia tlicu prevailmg in the o S THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Frencli army — as a private soldier iu tlie company of his father. Iu this capacity he served at the famous siege of Barcelona under the Marechal Duke of Berwick in 1714. His father being an officer of distinguished merit, and his mother being by blood allied to some of the most noble families in France, afforded young Lally every opportunity for the improvement of his mind and person ; thus at the age of nineteen he was considered one of the handsomest and most accomplished chevaliers in Paris. Without having seen much active service, he had then been appointed to a company in that gallant band of exiles whose valour contributed to win many a victory for the House of Bourbon — the Irish Brigade. His regi- ment — every member of which knew his father's worth and merit — received him with satisfaction, and his re- ception took place early in 1718. In the old French service this was an indispensable ceremony when an officer first joined. His company was drawn up in front of the regiment, with the drummers beating on the flanks. Dressed in full uniform, with his scarf, sword, and gorget, Arthur Lally was led forward by the general of division, who, when the drums ceased, raised his cocked hat, and said : — " De par le Boi ! Soldats, vous reconnoitrez Monsieur de Lally, votre capitaine de la compagnie, et vous lui obeirez en tout ce qu'il vous ordonnera pour le service du Roi, en cette quality." Another ruffle on the drums, the company fell back to its place in the line of the regiment of Dillon, and Arthur Lally was formally installed its captain. Though he was known by his education and spirit to have possessed all those qualities which were requisite for the perfect soldier, uniting a clear head and solid judgment to a light and joyous, but intrepid heart, he •was found to be equally qualified for the civil service of the State ; thus at the age of five-and-twenty he was sent by Louis XV. to the court of Russia on a political mission of importance. On this duty he acquitted himself ably. Lis fidelity on one hand securing the confidence of tho THE COUNT DE LALLY. 3 king his master, by Lis address and winning manner ; oa I'lie other, obtaining the esteem and admiration of the Empress Catharine, whose Imsband, Peter the Great, had djed about a year before. On his return to France in 1725 he proceeded to Versailles, where Louis XV., who had tlien attained his majority, and taken the reins of government from the Kegent Duke of Orleans, received him in the most gracious manner, and promoted him to the rank of colonel of infantry ; and at the head of his regiment he had the good fortune to acquit himself with distinction v/herever he was employed. He stood high in the favour of the two ministers who succeeded the Duke of Orleans, namely, the Duke de Bourbon and Cardinal. Fleury, then in his seventy-third year, a mild and amiable prelate, imder whose moderate and conciliatory counsels France enjoyed many years of peace and tranquillity. During service in France, Lally, though somewhat proud and lofty in his manner, suc- ceeded in gaining the esteem and affection of the officers of his regiment, among whom — even in those days of incessant duelling — he was fortunately successful in maintaining the most perfect union and harmony, while by his unalterable firmness subordination was equally maintained. Thus had passed the time until 1745, when' Prince Charles Edward Stuart projected his gallant and unfor- tunate rising among the clans in the Scottish Highlands. Entering warmly into the design of restoring the hapless House of Stuai-t, under which his father had served long and faithfully, and with whom he had eaten the bread of exile, Colonel Lally came boldly over to Loudon. While his ostensible object was to recover certain lands in Ire- land, to which he averred his father had a claim, his rea^ errand was to serve the young Prince of Scotland, to animate his friends, to excite the malcontents, to promise money, titles, and prepare the Jacobites of South Britain for the tempest that was gathering among the mountains of the north. By his boldness and determination Lally met with the utmost success in London ; but being some- what unwary, his plans and presence were discovered and 4 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. revealed by a spy to the Duke of Cumberland, who pro* cured immediate orders for his arrest. Fortunately, however, Lally escaped those shambles to which " the butcher " of the clans had doomed him, and escaping to France about the time Cullodeu was fought, resumed the command of his regiment. A war was then waging between France and Britain, and the fleets of the latter had swept those of the former from the ocean. Admiral Hawke had destroyed the French fleet at Belleisle, and in that year upwards of six hundred prizes were taken by our cruisei*s. Though the French armies performed some brilliant actions in the Netherlands, where the Marshal-General, Maurice Count de Saxe, defeated and covered with dis- grace the troops of the Duke of Cumberland, Louis XV. was compelled by naval disasters, and the internal dis- tresses of France, to conclude a peace, a congress for which met at Aix-Ia-Chapelle in April, 1748 ; and the definitive treaty was signed in the following October. During this period, and until his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general and commander-in chief in the East Indies, the life of Lally — who had now been created a peer of France — does not present any circumstance or incident worthy of attention. In 1749 he married. In 1750 a dispute pregnant with hostility ensued be- tween France and Britain respecting their mutual claims in North America ; various circumstances which occurred in the East Indies about the same time confirmed the idea that the short peace concluded in 1748 was about to end. Each country prepared for war ; but though many unfriendly acts were committed, and bitter recriminations exchanged between the Courts of London and Yersailles, until Britain was threatened with invasion, as a curb on her aggressive spirit, hostilities were not formally de- nounced until the month of June, 1756. The declaration made by George II. was mild and moderate in tenor and language, but the declaration promulgated by Louis XV. was full of severity and opprobrium. Prussia became the ally of the former ; Sweden and Russia joined the latter. In distant regions as well as at home the sanguinary TUE COUNT DE LALLY. O tstmggle was maintained, and in America France was stripped of all her possessions by the army of the heroic Wolfe. Immediately after the declaration of war, in the month of August, 1756, the Count de Lally, as Lieutenant- Gen eral and Commander-in-Chief of all his Most Chris- tian Majesty's forces in India, was appointed to conduct an expedition destined for those burning shores, so far distant, and even at that period comparatively so little known to EurojDeans. In support of this expedition the Court had destined six millions of livres, six strong battalions of infantry, and three ships of war, which were to co-operate with such an armament as the French India Company could furnish ; but the whole of the troops did not embark. On the 20th February, 1757, the Count de Lally, ac- companied by his brother IMichael, marched to Brest at the head of two battalions ; and though having only two millions of livres in the military chest, embarked on board the ships of the Count d'Ache, who immediately put to sea ; but being driven into port again by contrary v/inds, the squadron was detained until the 2nd of May. Meanwhile, Major-General the Chevalier des Soupirs, Lally's second in command, had already reached the Indian Ocean, having departed from L'Orient, the prin- cipal port of the India Company, on the 30th of the pre- ceding December, with two battalions and two millions of livres, with which he touched at the Isle of France, without accident. The general had very ample and important instructions given to him by the India Company. Some of these were to the following effect : — " The Sieur de Lally is authorized to destroy the forti- fications of all maritime settlements which may be taken from the English ; it may, however, be proper to except Vizagapatam, by reason of its being so nearly situated to Bemelipatana, which in that case would be enriched by the ruin of Vizagapatam ; but as to that, and the demoli- tion of all other places, the Sieur de Lally is to consult the Governor and Superior Council of Pondichcrry, and b THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. to Lave their opinion in writing ; but, notwithstanding, he is to destroy such places as he shall think proper, unless strong and sufficient arguments are made use of to the contrary ; such, for example, as the Company being apprehensive for some of their settlements, and that it would then be thought prudent and necessary to resers'e tlie power of exchange in case any of them should be lost. Nevertheless, if the Sieur de Lally should think it too hazardous t*? keep a place, or could not do so without dividing or weakening his army, then his Majesty leaves him to act as he may deem proper for the good of the service. " The Sieur de Lally is to allow of no English settle- ment being ransomed, as we may well remember that, after the taking of Madras last war, the English Company in their Council of the 14th of July, 1747, determined that all ransoms made in India should be annulled. In regard to the English troops, both otilcers and writers belonging to the Company, and to the inhabitants of that nation, the Sieur de Lally is to permit none of them to remain on the coast of Coromandel; he may, if he pleases, permit the inhabitants to go to England, and order them to be conducted in armed vessels to St. Helena. But as to the officers, soldiers, writers, and sailors belonging to the East India Company, he is to conduct them as soon as possible to the Isle de Bourbon, where the soldiers and sailors will be permitted to work for the inhabitants of that place, according to mutual agreement. It is by no means his Majesty's intention that the English officers, soldiers, and sailors should be ranscmed, as none are to be delivered up but by exchange, man for man, according to their different ranks and stations. " If the exchange of prisoners should by chance bo settled at home between the two nations, of which proper notice will be given to the Sieur de Lally, and that the islands of France and Bourbon should have more prisoners than it would be convenient to provide for, in that case it will be permitted to send a certain number to England, m a vessel armed for the purpose. No English officers, aoldiei-s, (fee, are to be permitted to remain in a plaoo THE COUNT BE LALLY. 7 after it is taken ; neither are they to retire to any other of their settlements. " The Sienr de Lally is not in the least to deviate from the above instructions and regulations, unless there shall he a stipulation to the contrary ; in which case the Sieur de Lally is faithfully and honestly to adhere to the capi- tulation. " The whole of what has been said before concerns only natives of England ; but as they have in their settlements merchants from all nations, such as Mooi*s, Armenians, Jews, Pattaners, &c., the Sieur de Lally is ordered to treat them with humanity, and endeavour by fair means to engage them to retire to Pondicherry, or any other of the Company's acquisitions, assuring them at the same time that they will be protected, and that the same liberty and privileges which they before possessed among tha English will be granted them. " Among the recruits furnished to complete the regl« ments of Lorrain and Berry, there are three hundred men from Fisher's corps, lately raised, and as it is feared there will be considerable desertions among these new recruits, the Sieur de Lally may, if he pleases, leave them on the Tsle de France, and replace them from the troops of that island."* Before leaving France, Lally had placed his son, Trephine Gerard, who had been born at Paris on the 5th March, 1751, at the College of Harcourt, intending that he should ultimately follow the profession of arms. Though impetuous and at times apt to be somewhat overbearing, Lally was eminently fitted for command. He possessed secrecy, with a ready facility for quick and judicious decision. His talent was evinced by the manner in which he established magazines, extended his posts and defences, and made himself acquainted with the character and features of the country which was to be the scene of his future operations. His lofty demeanour, talent, tact, * The MS, original of these interesting instructions was presented to Charles Grant, Viscount de Vaux, by the directors of the EDglis]!i East India Company. 8 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. aiid bravery inspired his troops with confidence and an assurance of conquest. If Lally was fond of glory, he was also fond of flattery ; and though a strict disciplinarian, he was somewhat too partial, perhaps, to levying contribu* tion on the conquered provinces; but while his enemies in after years averred that he was grasping, they never denied that he was lavish and liberal when the king's service required him by spies to obtain intelligence of the strength and designs of the enemy. The Count d'Ache, Chef d'Escadre, encountered such adverse winds that he was nearly twelve months on his voyage ; thus the Chevalier des Soupirs, having wearied of waiting at the Mauritius, sailed towards the coast of Hindostan, and reaching Pondicherry (or Fuducheri), dis- i native cavalry. The sovereigns of the Carnatic must have possessed at one period immense wealth and power, for the number and magnitude of their pagodas, and the indications that remain of ancient riches, grandeur, popu- lation, industry and art, impress the mind with wonder. At this crisis the funds and forces of the British in that part of India were so small, that they could scarcely bring one hundred soldiers into the field. Madras, one of their principal places, sixty-three miles distant, was an open town ; Fort St. David was in ruins, with a garrison ©f only sixty invalids. A fortnight would have enabled the Chevalier, with his 2000 men, to reduce the whole coast of Coromandel ; but M. des Soupirs was quite un- skilled in the art of carrying on war in a country so new to him, and remained inactive, though the French had many losses to repair, having been recently driven from all their wealthy settlements in Bengal by the victorious £nglish< THE COUNT DE LALLT. 9 Eight montlis after liis arrival, on the 25th April, 1 758, the Chef d'Escadre anchored in the roadstead before the sandy plain occupied by Pondicherry, and Lally disem- barking his troops and treasure, marched into the town, the governor of which, M. de Leyrit, received him with a salute of cannon. At the peace of Amiens, the French population of Pondicherry amounted to 25,000, exclusive of the blacks, who were treble that number. Its revenue was then 40,000 pagodas ; but it was a place destitute of natural advantages, its vicinity producing only palm-trees, millet, and a few herbs. Weary of his long voyage, and anxious to fulfil his orders, which comprehended the total destruction of every British fortification that fell into his power, the ardent and gallant Lally lost not an hour in preparing for active operations. Next day, the 26th, he returned on board to sail for Cudalore, and in one hour after a powerful British fleet assailed the ships of Count d'Ach6 in the roadstead, where a French 7 4 -gun ship was taken ; but the rest fought a passage to the seaward, and favoured by the wind, and by superior sailing, anchored off Cudalore, a town situated fifteen miles from Pondicherry, on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal. This little town, which occupies the banks of the Pen- nar, had been obtained by the English East India Com- pany from the Rajah of Gingee, so early as 1681, for the site of a factory, and had been fortified. Its garrison con- sisted only of ten invalids ; but being assisted by the in- habitants, these brave fellows made so stout a resistance, that Lally was occupied three days in taking it. From thence he marched to Fort St. David, a settlement on the Carnatic coast, obtained by the English from a Mahratta rajah in 1691, and besieging it, after being seventeen days in open trenches, exposed to the broiling sun by noon and the baleful dews by night, gained it by capitu- lation on the 2nd of June, and levelled all its fortifica- tions to the ground. On the 10th he marched back to Pondicherry, and having resolved to assail Madras, despatched an officer in & small vessel to his naval Chef d'Escadre, with instruc- 10 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. tions to return and co-operate with him. But Admiral Pocock, who commanded the British squadron in those seas, had defeated M. d'Ach6 in two engagements, and by- driving him sixty miles to the windward, had nearly cut off all communication between him and the army. And now the governor of Pondicherrj announced that the town and its vicinity could not subsist Lally's 4000 Frenchmen for more than fifteen days. On this he was compelled to march into the little kingdom of Tanjore (or Tanjowar), which lay one hundred and fifty miles southward, and there quarter his troops during the stormy and rainy season, while the naval squadron took refuge in port. The advance into Tanjowar was not made without a due pretence of wrong to adjust, for the rajah had re- fused to pay a government debt, which M. de Leyrit. assured Count Lally to be more than due. The discharge of five pieces of camion against his lilt.i: capital compelled the rajah to pay down treasure to the amount of 440,000 livres, and afibrd free-quarters to the French troops for two months, imtil tidings arrived that 800 British were marching against Pondicherry ; upon which Lally immediately abandoned Tanjowar, and ad- vanced to tlie relief of the Chevalier des Soupirs, who with a slender force was timidly preparing to evacuate the capital of French India. On Lally approaching, on the 31st of August, the British detachment fell back on Madras, and now our indefatigable Irishman, full of the most sanguine hopes of expelling them from the vast peninsula of Hindostan, at once made new preparations for investing Fort St. George, their principal settlement on the coast of Coromandel ; but scarcity of money, and the improper conduct of the naval Chef d'Escadre, retarded the operations, frustrated the bold intentions of Lally, and ultimately betrayed them to the enemy. While sparing no exertions to officer and equip a body of sepoy infantry, he seized a Dutch ship, in which he found a sufficient quantity of specie to enable him to attack Madras ; he then sent a message to the Count d'Ach6 not to leave the coast ; but the count replied, THE COUJ^T DE LALLY. 11 that he required a recruit of seamen, aud must return to France. Alarmed by such a threat, Lally ofiered him half of his soldiers for the marine service ; but deaf alike to threats and entreaties, the count sailed for the Straits of Madagascar on the 1st of September, and left Lally to cope single handed with the British forces. On summoning to his presence M. de Bussy, who com- manded the French troops in that extensive region named the Deccan (or Country of the South), and M. Moracin, who commanded at the seaport of Masulipatnam, he found these officers were somewhat influenced by the same pride and disobedience which characterized the conduct of Count d'Ach6 ; and thus, before they would obey, and march against Madras, they required that Lally should embody an additional thousand men. He immediately ordered M. Moracin to return to his post, which the British were approaching. M. Moracin dared to refuse or delay, and taken by surprise during his absence, Masulipatnam was lost to France for ever. In the month of October, Lally, with his slender force, the flower of which was the valiant Begiment de Lorraine, marched without opposition into the extensive district of Arcot (which seven years before had been overrun by Colonel Clive), and after remaining there at free-quarters for five days, n^arched back to Pondicherry. The army v/as now totally destitute of pay, and the commissariat had no supply but plimder, while the de- parture of the Count d'Ache cut off all succour or retreat by the seaward. Though numerous, the troubles of Lally were just commencing. Discouraged and disunited by the naval disasters of d'Ache, the French oflicers were alternately fired with ardour and depressed by despair. M. de Bussy offered to raise 400,000 livres in three hours, if he was permitted to re-enter the Deccan with a body of trooj)s ; but being loth to divide his little force, and believing the result to be incredible, Lally wisely declined. De Bussy then informed him that he had 240,000 livres 'lelongiug to the East India Company, which were at his jervice if he would be responsible for them ; but Lally still more wisely declined to compromise his honour hf 12 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. appropriating the money of the merchants to the service of the nation. He resumed his preparations for the siege of Madras while the British fleet was absent from its shore ; but this measure was vehemently opposed by the Governor of Pondicherry, M. Duval de Leyrit, who urged the wretched state of the commissariat and the empty military chest. Lally's Irish spirit could ill brook such disputations, and, " pay or no pay," he was for marching at once. However, he was compelled to take the opinion of the General Council of Pondicherry, some of whom adhered to De Leyrit ; but five, headed by M. le Comte d'Estaigne, offered their plate, to the value of 80,000 livres, towards the expense of the expedition. The true and generous Lally gave, from his private purse, 140,000 livres ; and having thus in some measure collected the sinews of war, with his small head-quarter force, 2700 French, and a body of sepoys, he advanced towards Madras early in December. A march of sixty-three miles brought Lally, on the 12th day of the month, in sight of the town, which, by its strength, wealth, and annual revenue in calicos and tnuslins, was of such great consequence, even then, to the growing English East India Company. The diamond mines were only a week's journey distant, and the rumour of their priceless wealth, and splendid wonders, animated the French soldiers, as in three divisions they marched across the sunny plains of Choultry. Madras, or Fort St George, was divided into two parts ; one called tlie Black, and the other the White town. The former, Madraspatam, had been totally destroyed by the French in 1744, when they levelled to the ground every building that stood within three hundred yards of the fort. The walls of the latter, which rose above the centre of the English town wer<^ — as dispatches relate — all built of hard, iron-coloured stone- and defended by four gigantic bastions. The inner fort, or citadel, had a front of one hundred and eight yards ; the outer fort consisted of half- moons, curtain-walls, and flankers, which, like the rusty- coloured ramparts of the town were studded by an incre- THE COUNT DE LALLY. 13 dible uumber of cannon. In short, the aspect of Madras, with its mansions covered by snow-white chunam, is delightful from the ocean, and magnificent from the land* On the latter, its walls are moated by a river, which falls into the sea on that flat and sandy shore, where a white and furious surf is ever rolling in mountains of foam. As he crossed the plains, Lally was briskly cannonaded by the field-pieces of the enemy, and lost many officers and men j but, advancing steadily, took possession of Ogmore and Meliapore (or San Thom^), an old town of the Portuguese, who had built there a large church above a giave reputed to be that of St. Thomas, who had been murdered by a tribe that dwelt in the vicinity, and whose right legs, after that sacrilegious act, were, ac- cording to Dr. Fryar, swollen to the size of those of elephants. Colonel Lawrence, a gallant and resolute officer, who commanded the garrison of Madras, was ably seconded by Pigot the governor, by Colonel Draper, Major Caillaud, and other gentlemen. Thus Lally encountered the most determined resistance. The garrison consisted of 5000 men; of these, 1600 were regular troops of the British line, 300 were sepoys, and 400 were servants of the East India Company. Lawrence retired to the island in order to prevent the French from obtaining possession of the island bridge, and ordered all the posts to be occupied in the Black Town, which was triangularly shaped, and sur- rounded by a fortified wall. At daybreak, on the morning of the 14th December, Lally sent forward M. de Eillon at the head of his regi- ment, which assailed the Black Town with great spirit^ and after giving and receiving several severe discharges of musketry, during a contest of some hours, gained the place, driving back the British, who retired by detach- ments into the fort or citadel of Madras. This successful movement was followed by an advance of the Regiment de Lorraine, to keep the ground De Billon had won ; but within an hour, a grand sortie was made upon them by a body of British infantry, led by Colonel Draper, who behaved with great personal bravery. 14 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Sliioiuled in smoke, lie led a charge of bayonets against the Regiment de Lorraine ; a furious melee ensued, and the French must have been driven back, or cut off, had not Lally sent forward another detachment, with some sepoys, to sustain the troops of M. de Rillon. A great number of officers and men were shot or bayoneted on both sides ; but Colonel Draper was compelled to retreat, for his grenadiers gave way in a somewhat discreditable manner. After this, the garrison of Madras contented themselves by defending their works, being too weak to engage in sorties beyond them. Colonel, afterwards Sir William Draper, was that preux chevalier who afterwards conquered Manilla, and became a paramount judge in all matters of military etiquette, and who, in his celebrated letter to Juxius, ex- pressed a hope that he would never see officers pushed into the British army who had nothing to lose but their swords. Thus encouraged, by hemming in the enemy, Lally <;ontinued to push his approaches, and build batteries. Meanwhile M. de Lequille, another Chef d'Escadre, had arrived at the Isle de France, with four ships of war and three millions of livres, destined for the service of the French India Company. When about to leave the isle for the roads of Pondicherry, he unfortunately met the discomfited fleet of the Count d'Ache, who, being his superior officer, prevented him from proceeding, and re- moved the treasure on board his own ship, taking upon himself to send only one million of livres to the Count de Lally, in a small frigate, which reached Pondicheny on the 21st December, 1758. This supply enabled Lally to press the siege with greater vigour, and to pay his French soldiers and Indian levies a portion of their arrears ; but the blacks were of little service to him during the operations. M. Lally greeted several batteries against the Black Town and Fort St. George ; one of these, called the Grand Battery, was 450 yards distance from the glacis. They opened on the 8th January, 1759 ; after which they maintained a con- iinued discharge of shot and shells for twenty days, the THE COUNT DE LALLY. 15 pioneers pushing on the trenches nntih their sap had reached the base of the glacis, within pistoi-shot of the parapets. Then Lally formed another and loftier battery, on which he i3laced four pieces of heavy cannon. It opened on the 31st of January ; but for five consecutive days the artillerists were compelled to close up their em- brasures with fascines and earth, for the superior fire of the fort was not to be withstood, and it soon compelled them to abandon their redoubt. Tlio Grand Battery, however, still continued a fire, which was so well directed, that it dismounted or broke twenty-six pieces of cannon and three mortars, beating down the wall and effecting a considerable breach. During these operations, Lally had somewhat needlessly bombarded the town, to terrify the inhabitants, and de- molished a number of their houses; but the precautions of Governor Pigot, the vigilance, valour, and experience of Colonels Draper, Lawrence, and Major Brereton re- pelled every attack ; and thus, after the 5th of February, the fire of Lally's batteries gradually diminished from twenty-three to six pieces of cannon. Money, powder, and shot became scarce together ; he had lost many of his bravest men ; two months had elapsed, and still the Bri- tish standard waved above the fort of Madras. During this period the remonstrances which Laliy sent frequently to France for succour, describe the deep anxiety he felt for the success of a cause in which his honour was impli' cated j and so keen and bitter did this feeling become, that at times, w^hen aggravated by an illness incident to the climate, his reports and dispatches are remaikable for contaiidng occasional sentences expressive of horror and distraction. His general chagrin at the conduct of Count d'Ache Vl and drive it back. The French officers had been fortunate in acquiring the favour of many of the Indian chiefs. Thus in 1755 the King of Travancore employed M. de Launay to disci« pline 10,000 Naires of Malabar in the mode of the Eu^ ropean infantry ; and thus M. de Lally, who had won the alliance of Salubetzingue, sovereign of the whole country, expected the arrival of his brother Bassuletzingue with a column of 12,000 Indians. When more than a hundred miles distant from the French army, the prince sent a Bissaldar to request that an officer of rank with a bodv of French should be sent to facilitate their junction. Lally immediately despatched the Marquis de Bussy on this service, with a detachirent which joined the prince beneath the walls of Arcot. In twelve days all that was necessary might have been done ; but the loitering mar- quis spun out the time to no less than two-and-forty. THE COUNT DE LALLY. 2S While Lally was totally unable to account for his absence, & dangerous ferment arose in the camp of Prince Bas- guletzingue, there being no pay for his soldiers, as M. d'Ache s diamonds were yet unsold ; and during the delay the British troops under Colonel Coote (aware that Lally could not begin a campaign without cavalry) sud- denly made themselves masters of Vandivash on tha 30th November, after having breached the walls. Thuai, l^y the indolence of M. de Bussy one of the most impor- tant fortresses on the coast was lost, and its garrison of 000 men taken, with forty-nine pieces of cannon and a vast quantity of ammunition. On the 10th December they took Cosangoli, which was bravely defended by a mixed garrison of French and sepoys under Colonel O'Kennely, an Irish officer ; who, after his guns were dismounted, capitulated and marched out with all the honours of war. With 100 Frenchmen he joined Lally, but 500 of his sepoys were disarmed and dismissed by Coote. The double and dangerous success of this vigilant and enterprising officer compelled Lally to attempt a decisive demonstration for the recapture of Vandivash ; but Coote, who had completely superseded Brereton in the command, was an officer who ably defended the conquests his bra- very had made. Having now somewhat recovered his health and strength, on the 10th January, 1760, the Lieutenant- General du E-oi marched towards the captured fortress at the head of 2200 Frenchmen, and about 10,000 native troops. Among the latter were 1800 blacks called the Begiment de Bussy, 300 Caffres, and 2000 cavalry ob- tained from a Mahratta chief, with whom Lally had concluded a treaty, as soon as he found himself disap- pointed by Prince Eassuletzingue. They were all clothed and armed after the picturesque fashion of their nativa country (wliich extends across the whole peninsula of Hindostan) and were led by a Ptissaldar, or commander of independent horse. He had twenty-five pieces of cannon with him. He came in sight of the British on the banks of th» 24 THE CAVALIERS OF FOliTUNE. PoHar, a broad and sandy river, the bed of which was quite dry ; though in the middle of October, when the winter usually commences, and the rain descends in tor- rents, the river is sometimes half-a-mile broad, and flows towards the ocean with the greatest fury. There the adverse hosts hovered in sight of each other, until after succeeding in destroying some magazines which were in Colonel Coote's rear (the loss of which prevented his troops from acting in the field for some days after), Lally with his 12,000 men suddenly invested Vandivash, against which his batteries opened with such efi'ect, that a broad and practicable breach was soon made in the outer bastion, and now it was hoped that by one bold assault the captured fortress would be re- won, and with it the entire disputed territory. But at the very time when Lally was about to lead on the assault, Coote with 1700 European and 3000 black troops, fourteen pieces of cannon, and one howitzer, came suddenly upon his rear to relieve the garrison. Exposed to the cannon of the fort on one side, and to the troops of Coote on the other, Lally found himself critically situated ; but, turning like a lion at bay, he di'ew off from his trenches, and rapidly formed in order of battle to face this new enemy, on the 21st of January. Both arnjies were in high spirits and eager to engage. About nine in the morning they were two miles apart. Coote having advanced with his cavalry and j&vc compa- wies of sepoys, Lally sent forward his Mahratta horse to meet them ; but these, on being galled by two pieces of cannon, retired with precipitation. During this the colonel had succeeded in completely reconnoitring the position of Count Lally, whose forces were ably and judiciously placed, till the British made a movement to the right, which obliged him to alter and extend his left flank. While the lines were three-quarters of a mile apart the cannonading began on both sides, and was continued with dc^iidly precision and effect until noon, when Lally sent forward a small party of his European cavalry to chai'ge the British left. A few companies of sepoys and THE COUNT DE LALLY. 25 two guus sent forward by Coote soon drove these in rear of their own army, and as the forces still continued approacliing, by one o'clock the roar of musketry became general along both lines from flank to flank, and that broad plain on which a cloudless sun was shining became shrouded in snow-white smoke. Undaunted by the cowardice of his cavalry, the hot* blooded Lally now threw himself into the line of his infantry, and at the head of the Regiment of Lorraine fell impetuously upon the British. Colonel Coote was on foot and at the head of his own regiment to receive them. After giving and receiving two discharges of musketry, the Regiment de Lorraine rushed on with a fury that threatened to sweep all before it. Lally was in front, sword in hand ; the bayonets crossed — the British line ivas broken ; but though a momentary confusion followed, it was not driven back. A series of bloody single com- bats ensued, with the charged bayonet and clubbed musket ; but these were of brief duration ; for in three minutes the Regiment of Lorraine was broken in turn, routed, and driven back in headlong confusion, over a field strewed with their own killed and wounded. The ex- plosion of a tumbril in rear of the French line created an additional confusion, of which Coote lost not a mo- ment in taking advantage. He ordered Major Brereton to advance with the regi- ment of Colonel Draper (who had returned to Europe for the benefit of his health), and by wheeling to the right to fall on the French left, and seize a fortified post which they were on the point of abandoning. This service was performed with the utmost bravery ; the French left was routed and driven pell-mell upon their centre. Draper's regiment was the 79th, not the present Cameron Highlanders, but a corps which was dis- banded in 1763. All had now become confusion among the enemy, but the gallant and accomplished Brereto» fell mortally wounded. " Follow — follow !" he exclaimed to some soldiers whe loitered near him ; " follow and leave me to my fate !** 36 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. He soon expired ; led by Major Monsoon, the regiment advanced impetuously on, and after a vain and des- perate attempt, made by the Chevalier de Biissy, with Lally's regiment, to repel it, the French and their allies were completely routed in every direction by two o'clock in the afternoon. The Eegiment de Lally was. almost cut to pieces ; the horse of Brigadier- General M. de Bussy was shot under him, and he was taken prisoner by Major Monsoon, to whom he surrendered his sword. Lally having brought up his fugitive cava-lry, formed them in rear of his infantry, and enabled these to make a secure though precipitate retreat, leaving on the field a thousand men killed and wounded, with fifty prisoners, including the Marquis de Bussy, Quartermaster-General le Chevalier de Gadville, Lieutenant-Colonel Murphy, three captains, five lieutenants, many other officers, and twenty-two pieces of cannon. Coote lost 260 killed and wounded. Among the former was the gallant Brereton. Marechal Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux, affirms that the losses were equal on both sides. Covering the foot by the cavalry, Lally conducted his routed forces with considerable skill and good order to Pondicherry, while Coote lost not a moment in pursuing the advantage he had gained. Dispatching the Baron Vasserot towards that place with 1000 horse and 300 sepoys, and with orders to ravage and lay waste all the French territory in and around it, he advanced in person against Chittipett, a small town and fort in the Carnatic, which, after a defence of two days, was surrendered on the 29th January, 1760, by the Chevalier de Tillie, who with his garrison remained prisoners of war. On the 2nd February he reduced the fort of Tim- mary on the Coromandel coast, and pushing on to Arcot, the capital, opened his batteries and dug his approaches within sixty yards of the glacis. The garrison, wliicli consisted of 250 French with 300 sepoys, defended the place until the 10 th, when they surrendered as prisoneit of war, delivering up twenty-two pieces of cannon and a large store of warlike munition. THE COUKT DE LALLY. 27 Thus the campaign ended gloriously for Britain by the conquest of Argot, and by hemming up the indefatigable but most unfortunate Lally in the fortifications of Pon- dicheny, the capital of French India, which was soou fated to become the last scene of his valour and achieve- ment Surat, a place of great consequence on the coast of Malabar, was taken by a Bombay detachment, which destroyed the French factory. The English had obtained a settlement there from King Jehan Jeer in the year 1020 of the Hijerah. By sea the operations had been carried on with equal vigour. On the 4th September, 1759, an engagement had taken place between the fleets of Count d'Ache and Admiral Pocock, who obliged the former to sheer off with great loss. In April, the fortress of Karical had fallen, and by that time Admirals Pocock and Cornish had united their fleets in the roads of Pon- dicherry, within the gates of which nearly all that re- mained of the French forces in India were shut up, or encamped four leagues in front of it, under the command of the Count de Lally, barring the way by which he knew the British would march to an attack. In Karical 174 pieces of cannon were taken, and to add to the disasters of the French, one of their 64-guu ships (the Haerlem) was burned in the roads of Pondi- cherry by the British cruisers. Encouraged by his long career of success, and by the pecuniary and political embarrassments of his enemy, Colonel Coote resolved on investing Pondicherry. The approach of the rainy season, together with the well- known reputation for skill, bravery, and resolution enjoyed by the general of the now almost ruined French India Company, caused a regular siege to be considered imprac- ticable ; " it was therefore determined," says the Sieur Charles Grant, "to block up the place by sea and land." Lally had only 1500 Frenchmen with him ; these were the remnants of nine difterent corps of the King's and India Company's Service ; the cavalry, artillery, and invalidi^ of the latter ; the Creole volunteers of the Isle de 2S THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Bourbon ; the king's artillery ; the Regiments of Lally, Lorraine, Mazinis, and the battalion of India. The British armaments on the coast were now much more considerable. On the land were four battalions of the line, and by sea were seventeen sail of the line, carry- ing 1038 pieces of cannon, the smallest being three 50-gun ships. As the fortress of Pondicherry was as impregnable as nature and art could make it, Coote was perfectly aware that it could only be reduced by the most severe famine. It was also his opinion that with such an antagonist as Arthur Lally, a formal siege with regular approaches woiild prove perfectly futile with any force he could assemble ; for, in addition to his French comrades, Lally had a strong force of armed sepoys, and a vast store of warlike munition, including nearly 700 pieces of cannon, and many millions of ball cartridges, all made up for service. The ramparts bore 508 pieces (independent of mortars), the walls were five miles in circumference, and had a deep broad moat before them. There were six gates and thirteen bastions. The cavalry of the French India Company openly deserted in great numbers, and were received with rewards by Colonel Coote. This exas- perated Lally so much, that he erected gibbets all round Pondicherry in order to deter others from leaving the town or the lines before it. To victual the place completely for the inhabitants and his garrison was the first care of Lally ; for the town was large, and possessed an overplus of population, which gave him infinite cause for trouble and anxiety. Pondicheriy was surrounded by a number of forts, the defence of which, in all former sieges, had occasioned the inhabitants the utmost difficulty ; but these were rapidly reduced, as all the adjacent country was in the hands of the British. The fleet of Sir Samuel Coinish came to anchor on the 17th March, and while Co-jte approached nearer by land, Lally, in order to retard him, retired from position to position, bravely disputing every inch of ground, until, in front of Pondicherry, he formed his famous lines, which he defended for three months with admirable skill and valour, thereby gaining sufficient TifE COUNT DE LALLY. 29 time to have vicbualled the town for the half of a year. While thus holding the foe in check, he concluded a treaty with the Rajah of Mysore, who pledged him- self to supply Pondicherry with provisions ; but failed to perform his promise, and departed with his people. A short time afterwards, Lally resolved to attempt a sortie, and on the night of the 2nd September, 1760, he made a furious attack on Coote's advanced posts, but was repulse"! with great loss, and had seventeen pieces of cannon taken. Coote lost but a few privates The last of the fortified boundary, or chain of redoubts, was carried by storm on the 10th September; the French were driven in, and Coote had forty killed and seventy wounded ; Major Monsoon had one of his legs torn off by a cannon-shot. A body of Scottish Highlanders, who had just been landed from the Sandimch East Indiaman, behaved with their accustomed valour in this affair. Passing Draper's grenadiers in their eagerness to get at the enemy, they threw down their muskets, and with their bonnets in one hand, and their claymores in the other, hewed a passage through a jungle hedge, fell with a wild cheer upon ths soldiers of Lally, and cut a whole company to pieces. Only five Highlanders and two grenadiers were shot. The Highlanders were fifty in number, and were com- manded by a Captain Momson. They belonged to the 89th Highland Regiment, which had been raised among the Gordon clan in the preceding year. After that night, the operations of Lally were confined to the walls of Pondicherry. Of the guns taken by the Highlanders, seven were found to be 18-pounders, loaded to the muzzle with square bars ot iron six inches long, jagged pieces of metal, stones and ^lottles. They were on Lally's strongest battery, which was formed before a thick wood, one mile in front of Pondicherry, which could no longer have any succour from the seaward, as the Chef d'Escadre had sailed for Brest, where he arrived in April, 1761. Thus a 54.- gun ship, a 3 6 -gun frigate, and four Indiamen were left behind, and hopelessly shut up in the roadstead. In the month of October, Admiral Stevens, who had 30 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNfc. relieved Admiral Cornish, sailed with his porlion of the fleet for Triiicomalee to refit, leaving five sail of the line, under Captain Haldane, to blockade Pondicherry, while Colonel Coote pressed on the investment by land. By their dispositions and vigilance, the dense population became distressed for provisions even before a siege was formally begun, and while the incessant rains rendered a closer conflict impracticable. The blockade w\^s supported by a number of batteries judiciously posted ; by these the garrison was harassed on one hand, while their supplies were cut ofi" on the other ; and these posts were gradually pushed nearer and nearer to the town, notwithstanding the deluge of rain, which had swollen the broad currents of the Chonenbar and the Gingi, two rivers that unitf near it, and roll their tides together to the sea. On the 26th November, the rains abated, and Colonel Coote directed his engineei*s to erect batteries in other places ; from whence, without being exposed, they could enfilade the works of the garrison, which was strictly closed in, and by the failure of the Mysorean rajah to fulfil his promise, was now enduring the utmost privations from scarcity of food. Lally was compelled to turn out of the town a vast multitude of native women and chil- dren ; but Coote drove them back again, and, as the batteries were firing at the time, a great number of these poor wretches were slain or severely wounded. During these operations. Captain Sir Charles Chalmere of Cults, a gallant Scottish baronet who served in Coote's artillery, died of fatigue. He possessed only the honours of his family, their estates having been forfeited for adherence to the house of Stuart about fifteen years before. On the night of the 7th October, the armed boats of the British fleet were pulled with muffled oars into the harbour, and two ships were cut out, under the very muzzles of Lally's cannon ; but not before he had killed and wounded thirty ofiicers and men. The prizes were the Balcine and Hermione, a frigate and a valuable India- man. In this afiair Lieutenant Owen, of H. B. M. shi* Sunderlandj lost an arm. THE COUNT DE LALLT. 31 To encourage the British, the Nabob of Arcot promised to divide among them fifty lacs of rupees on the day- Pondioherry should surrender, and, as each lac was valued at 12,600^. sterling, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed among the officers, soldiers, and seamen : moreover, as all the French colonists who fled from other places had stored up their effects in Pondicherry, the treasure there was reputed to be enormous. On the 26th September, Coote's forces had been mus- tered at 3500 English and Scottish Highlanders, with 7000 sepoys, all of whom were strongly intrenched, liaving taken Arcupong, Villa Nova, and every French outpost, while fifteen sail of the line and three frigates swept the ocean to the seaward, cutting of all succour ; indeed, none was ever afforded to the unfortunate Lally save by the Dutch settlers, who sent two unpretending boats ; but even these were observed, and on being seized were found to contain 20,000?. in cash and many valuable stores. Every day provisions were becoming more and more scarce, and notwithstanding the weakness of his garrison, Lally was compelled to select 200 French and 300 black soldiers, whom he contrived to despatch towards Gingi for succour ; but they were all cut off, and thus he found himself worse than before. The scarcity increased, and now gaunt starvation and death met the eye on every hand ; a thousanvl scenes of horror and distress occurred daily within the walls of Pondicherry. The soldiers of Lally and the citizens were compelled to eat the flesh of elephants, camels, and troop- hoi'ses ; after which dogs, cats, and even rats were de- voured. The count was frequently implored to surrender, but having now become sullen, revengeful, and determined, his lofty pride made him resolve to perish among tliP ruins of the French Indian capital, but never capitulate. Twenty-four rupees were given for a small dog, and in some instances as many half-crowns. On the 5th November, Lally dispatched a 54-gun ship. La Compagnie des Indes, to Trincomalee, a Danish settle- ment, for provisions ; but after eluding the watchful block- ading fleet, she was takea at sea- by IL M, ships Medway. 32 THE CAVALIKRS OP FORTUNE. and Newcastle, and with her loss all hopes of succour died away. On the 9th November, Colonel Coote erected a Hcochet battery for four pieces of cannon, at 1400 yards from the glacis (for the information of unmilitary readers, we may mention that ricochet f/ring means when cannon or mor- tars are loaded with small charges, elevated from five to twelve degrees, so that when discharged from the parapet, the shot may roll along the opposite rampart) ; this was more with a view to harass the French than damage their works ; but meanwhile four other batteries were erecting in different places to rake and batter them. One for four guns, called the Prince of Wales Battery, was formed near the sea-beach, on the north, to enfilade the great street which intersects the White Town. A second, for four guns and two mortars, was formed to enfilade tlie counterguard, before the north-west bastion, at a thousand yards' distance, and in honour of the '' Butcher of Culloden," was called the Duke of Cumber- land's Battery. A third, called Prince Edward's, for two guns, faced the southern works at 1200 yards' distance, to enfilade the streets from south to north, and cross the fire of the northern battery. A fourth, on the south-west, at 1100 yards* distance, and called Prince William's Battery, was mounted with two guns and one mortar, to destroy the cannon on the redoubt of San Thoml. Lally beheld all these preparations with calmness, and by inspiring his soldiers with something of his own fierce ardour, laboured to retard the work of the besiegers, whose batteries commenced a simultaneous fire at mid- night on the 8th December. Lally's cannonicrs replied with the utmost vigour ; they slew a master gunner, a Bubahdar of sepoys, and wounded a great many more. On the 1st of January, a violent tempest of wind, accom- panied by torrents of rain, had almost ruined the works of Coote, and blown the fleet off the coast. The French became elated by the delay this occasioned, and the conse- quent prospect of relief; but the sudden reappearance of THE COUNT DE LALLY. 33 Admiral Stcveus witli his vessels caused their hopes to fade away ; and ODce more this little baud of starving and desperate men betook them to their muskets and lintstocks ; for, still pressing on, Coote, on the 29th, formed a fifth battery, called the Hanover, at only 450 yards' distance, for ten cannon and three mortars, which opened a fire of shot and shell against the counter-guard and curtain. At last, being driven frantic by their sufferings, the soldiers and citizens demanded that the place should be surrendered. Lally was immovable, but yet feeling keenly for wdiat they endured, dissatisfied with the state of the French Indian affairs, and greatly exasperated by the disorderly conduct of his troojDS, and the baseness of their commissaries, he frequently burst into passionate exclamations which showed the keenness of his ao-ita- o tiou. '• Hell has spewed me into this country of wickedness,'* he said on one occasion, " and like Jonas I wait until tht ^yhale shall receive me into its belly !" " I will go among the Caffi'es, rather than remain longer in this Sodom," he exclaimed on another occa- sion. But, nevertheless, he still defended the town like a good soldier, and on the disappearance of the British fleet during the storm, wrote the following letter to M. de Baymond, the Besident at Bullicot : — " M. Baymond, the English squadron is no more ! Out of twelve ships they had in our roads seven are lost, crews and all ; four otliers are dismasted, and it appears that only one frigate has escaped, therefore lose not an instant to send us chelingoes upon chelingoes loaded with rice. The Dutch have nothing to fear now ; besides — according to the law of nations — they are only to send us no provisions themselves, and we are no longer blocked up by sea. " The saving of Pondicherry has once already been in your power. If you miss the present, it wdll be entirely your own fault. Don't forget some small chelingoes — offer great rewards. I expect 17,000 Mahrattas in four D 34 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. ilays ; in short, risk all ! attempt ! force all ! but send us some rice, should it be but a half garse at a time. " Lally. " Pondicherry, 2nd January, 1761." The British fleet suffered considerably ; many vessels «vhich had to cut their cables, were totally dismasted, and the Queensherry, Newcastle, and Protector were driven on shore ; while Le Due d'Acquitaine of sixty-four guns (French prize), commanded by Sir William Hewitt, Bart., and the Sunderland of sixty guns, commanded by the Hon. James Colville, both foundered, and all on board perished. Captain Colville was the son of Lord Colville, of Culross, a Scottish peer, who died on the Carthagena expedition in 1740, and brother of Alexander Lord Col- ville, who in 1764 was Commodore in North America. On the reappearance of Admiral Cornish with more of the fleet, the hope of the French sank again, and Lally, enraged at what he considered the mutinous repin- ing of his soldiers, met their remonstrances with turbu- lence and contempt, and by an unwise, and perhaps over- strained exercise of authority, at this fatal and desperate crisis, most unfortunately contrived to render himself unpopular with the Governor, the Council, and the proud chevaliers of old France, who officered his little band of troops. Still, however, the siege was pressed, and still the defence went on. On the 5th January, Coote attacked the redoubt of San Thom6, sword in hand, at the head of a body of Scottish Highlanders and English grenadiers, and won it, thus silencing four 28-pounders ; but two days after- wards, Lally retook it by 300 grenadiers, from the sepoys who were left in charge of it. On the 13th Coote sent 700 Europeans, 400 Lascars, and a company of pioneers under a major, to erect another battery of eleven guns and three mortars. Under the clear splendour of an Oriental moon, these works were carried on within 500 yards of the walls ; and this Batterie Royale was permitted to be erected without molestation, THE COUNT DE LALLT. 35 for in their sullen despair the garrison never fired a shot at it. On the 14th the Hanover Battery ruined the north-west bastion, and on the following day the Batterie Royale beat down the ravelin at the Madras gate ; thus by the 15th of January a great and practicable breach was efiected, and the cannon of the gallant Lallv were silenced or dismounted. In the evening a parley was beat, and four envoys came from the ruined walls towards the British trenches. These were Colonel Dur6 (Durie ?) of the French Royal Artillery, Father Lavacer, Superior of the Jesuits, and two civilians. These were unprovided by " any authority from the Governor," says Vicomte de Yaux ; but Colonel Coote, in his dispatch to Mr. Pitt, affirms that they came direct from Lally with proposals for delivering up the garrison. In the town, at that moment, there were only three days provisions of the wretched kind described ; thus the extremity of famine would admit of no hesita- tion. Rendered ungovernable by what they had endured, Lally's officers declared the defence to be frantic obstinacy, and murmuring aloud, also averred that illness, pride^ and the climate had disordered his imagination j and that it was criminal rather than valiant to defend an unte liable fortress. The following were the proposals of Lally, presented by Colonel Dure to Colonel Coote : — " The troops of the king and Company, by want of provisions, will surrender themselves prisoners of war to his Britannic Majesty, on terms of the cartel, which I claim equally for all the inhabitants of Pondicherry, as well as for the exercise of the Roman religion, the religious houses, hospitals, chaplains, surgeons, Serjeants, reserving and referring myself to the decision of our two Courts, in proportion to the violation of a treaty so solemn. (He refers to the treacherous capture of Chan- dernagore.) " Accordingly M. Coote may take possession of the Villenour Gate at eight o'clock to-morrow morning ; and after to-morrow, at the same hour, that of Fort St. Lewi* Ji2, S6 THE cavaltt:rs of fortune. " I demand, merely from a principle of justice and humanity, that the mother and sisters of Kaza Sahib may be permitted to seek an asylum where they please, or that they remain prisoners among the English, and not be delivered into the hands of Mohammed A li Khan, which are still red with the blood of the husband and father, ■which he has spilt, to the shame of those who gave them up to him ; but not less to the shame of the commander of the English army, who should not have allowed such a piece of barbarity to be committed in liis camp, '• As I am tied up by the caii;el, in the declaration which I make to M. Coote, I consent that the Council of Pondicherry may make their own representations to him with regard to what may concern their own private interests as well as the interests of the inhabitants of the colony. " Done at Fort Lewis, Pondicherry, 15th day of January, 1761. Lally." To these the Colonel replied biiefly by stating that the capture of Chandemagore v.^as teyond his cognizance, and had no relation to Pondicheriy ; that he merely required the soldiers of its garrison to yield as prisoners of war, promising that they should be treated with every honoiir and humanity; that he would send the grenadiers of his own regiment to receive possession of the Villenour Gate, and that of Fort St. Lewis ; and that according to the kind and humane request of M. Lally, the mothei and sisters of Raza Sahib should be escorted to Ilkladras, and on no account be permitted to fall into the hands of their enemy, the Nabob Mohammed Ali Khan. To eight articles proposed by Father Lavacer, Superior of the Jesuits, requiring that the inhabitants should be treated in every respect like subjects of his Britannic Majesty ; that they should have full liberty to exercise the Catholic religion ; that the churches should be re- spected ; that all public papers should be sent to France ; and that forty-one soldiers of the Volunteers of Bourbon should be permitted to return to their homes — Colonel Coote declined to make any reply. THE COUNT DE LALLY. 37 At eiglit o'clock on the morning of tbe IGtli July, Lally with a bitter heart ordered the standard of France to he hauled down on Fort St. Lewis, and at that hour Coote's grenadiers received the Yillenour Gate from the Eegiment de Lally, while those of the 79th Regiment took possession of the citadel.* Thus fell Pondicherry after a blockade and siege which Lally's skill and valour liad protracted under a thousand difficulties for the long period of eight months, against forces treble in number to those he commanded. Notwithstanding his fallen condition and the severe effects of a long illness, aggravated by the sultry climate, by bodily sufferings and anxiety, Lally marched out of the citadel with the air of a conqueror. " He is now as proud and haughty as ever," says an officer (who beheld him) in a letter to a periodical of the time ; " but his great share of wit, sense, and martial ability are obscured by a savage ferocit}^, and an undisguised contempt for every person below^ the rank of general." This writer was ignorant of the high qualities of Lally, and the difficulties with which he had contended, or he would never have written thus. According to the " exact state of the troops of his most Christian Majesty, under the command of Lieutenant- General Arthur Count de Lolly, when he surrendered at discretion on the ]6th of January, 1761," he marched out with the following — a miserable and famished band, hollow-eyed and gaunt — the few survivors of the Indian war : — Artillery of Louis XV., officers and men . 83 The Regiment de Lorraine, ditto . . . 327 The Regiment de Lallv, ditto (of the Irish Brigade) . . . . " 230 The Regiment of the Marine, ditto ... 295 * The 79th, or Draper's Eegiment, lost in this siege, and encounters before it, thirty -four officers, whose names were inscribed on a beau- tiful cenotaph, erected on Clifton Downs by Colonel Sir W. Drapes and which he dedicated as, ** Sacred to the Memory of those departed Wamors, Of the Seventy- ninth Eegiment, By whose Valour, Discipline, and Perseverance The French land Forces in Asia were first withstood and repuked. 38 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Artillery of the Frencli India Company . 94 Cavalry of ditto 15 Volunteers of Bourbon 40 The Battalion d'India .192 Invalides 124 In all there were only 1400. One of their first acts was to cut their commissary to pieces. Among the oflficei-s of the king's artillery was Jean Baptiste Louis Kom^e de I'lsle, the celebrated crystallographer, who was then secretary to a corps of engineers. The quantity of military stores delivered over by Lally to Coote is almost incredible. There were 671 brass and iron cannon and mortars; 438 mortar-beds and carriages; 84,041 shot and shell, round, double-headed, and grape; 230,580 lbs. of powder; 538,137 rounds of cartridge for arquebuses, muskets, carbines, pistols, and gingals ; 910 pairs of pistols ; 12,580 other firearms ; 4895 swords, bayonets and sabres ; 1200 poleaxes, and every other warlike munition in proportion. Tidings of the fall of Pondicherry occasioned the utmost joy in Britain; and on Sunday, the 2nd August, there were prayers and thanksgiving in all the English churches. On that day Lally arrived at Fort St. George a prisoner of parole. He had begged to be sent to Cudalore that he might have the attendance of French as well as British surgeons ; but the Governor of Madras insisted ui)on his removal to that place, whither he con- veyed him in his own palanquin. A regiment of Highlanders garrisoned Pondicherry, and as Lally had destroyed many of the British fortifica- tions, Colonel — afterwards Sir Eyre — Coote retaliated by blowing up the works and hurling the glacis into the ditch. The plunder acquired amounted to 2,000,000^. sterling. The quantity of lead discovered in the stores was immense. Lally found means to convey his own cash and Valuables (200,000 pagodas of eight shillings each) out of the garrison, but he was deprived of it by Coote's orders. The plunder of the magnificent palace was a subject U>v regret to the officers who beheld it. It had been THE COUNT DE LALLY. 39 built by M. Dupleix, a former resident, at the cost of one million. On the same day that Lally surrendered, hia Scottish compatriot, M. Law, on whose assistance he had fol 1 time mainly relied, was defeated by Major Carnac. M. Law was a nephew of the famous financial projector, John Law, of Lauriston, near Edinburgh, who, in 1720, was Premier of France, and Comptroller-General of Finance — the same whose desperate schemes brought the kingdom to the verge of bankruptcy. M. Law had made himself useful to the Schah Zaddah, son of the late Mogul, in supporting the young prince's hereditary claims, and enforcing his authority on the provinces of the empire. With 200 Frenchmen (principally fugitives from Lally's outposts) he persuaded the schah to turn his arms against Bengal ; and accordingly the young and rash prince entered that rich and fertile province at the head of 80,000 Indians, whose operations were directed by Law, and certain chevalieia his friends. In the eye of the British (who had then become the arbiters of Oriental thrones), the presence of the Scottish refugee and his fol- lowers was more prejudicial to the title of Zaddah than any other objection, and they joined the Subah of Bengal to oppose his progress. A battle ensued at Guy a, when Major Carnac, with 500 British, 2500 sepoys, and 20,000 blacks, cut the vast force of the young prince to pieces, and took prisoner M. Law, with sixty French officers. Soon after the fall of Pondicherry, the French settle- ment of Mahl, on the coast of Malabar, was reduced by Major Hector Munro, of the 89th Highlanders, who cap- tured there 200 pieces of cannon, and thus the whole com- merce of the mighty peninsula of India, from the point of the Camatic to the banks of the Ganges, fell under the dominion of Britain, together with the extensive trade of the vast and wealthy provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orixa. On the 3rd February, the nabob made his triumphal entry into Pondicherry, seated in a wooden castle on the back of a gigantic elephant, accompanied by twelve of his wives, escorted by British troops and by his own guards armed with lances, bows, and matchlocks. iO THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Ultimately Lally received back his property, to the amount of 100,000/. in cash, and being brought to Britain a prisoner of war in H. M. S. Onslow, landed in September, 1761. He was confined for a time to a certain limit in Nottinghamshire ; and on obtaining leave of George III. to depart, most unfortunately for himself, turned his steps 1;owards France, the land of his father's adoption. Having given his parole of honour to return whenever the British Government should require his presence, the count, on the 14th October, " after having discharged all his debts to tradesmen and servants" (as the London papers of the time state), sailed for France. Notwithstanding the long and gallant defence he had maintained at Pondichcrry, thus aflfordiug the highest proofs of firmness and fidelity, bravery and activity, he was arrested soon after his return, and committed to that prison of so many terrible memories — the Bastille — accused of many grievous things by the Government, which now instituted a severe inquiry into the conduct of the civil and military officials who had commanded in Canada, the Carnatic, and other possessions taken by Britain. Among the charges brought against Lally were, be- traying the interests of King Louis and of the French East India Company ; abusing the high authority with which he had been invested ; unwarrantable exaction:? ii'om the subjects of his most Christian Majesty, and from foreigners resident in Pondicherry ; for permitting that place to fall into the hands of the British ; and gene- rally for mismanaging the public afl:airs committed to his care. In vain did this brave and unfortunate ofiicer urge his many services, his many wounds, his grey hairs, his heal fcii broken by toil, by anxiety, and by a torrid clime, in the cause of France. In vain did he urge the numerous re- monstrances he had sent to Paris, and Count d' Ache's detention of M. de Lequille's military chest; that at Madras he had resigned a desperate command, which tlie Chevalier des Soupirs declined to accept ; in vain was the protest signed in the hall of Fort St. Lewis adduced to THE COUNT DE LALLY. 41 eIiow Low his efforts liad been baffled, and rendered more than futile, by the insubordination of Count d'Ache ; in vain did he explain how the Marquis de Bussy had loitered in Arcot ; tliat he had long and frequently been without pay and without provision for his troops ; how the Rajah of Mysore had failed in his promises ; how his soldiers had deserted, and how famine in the streets of Pondicherry was a source of deadlier fear than the British cannon-shot; how his detachment sent toGingihadbeen cut off to a man ; how Chandernagore had been taken by trea- chery, contrary to the faith of treaties and that neutrality which had subsisted between the French and British iu India, and immediately after tlie former had rendered the latter a signal service in not taking part with the Nabob of Bengal. The weak Government of Louis XV. required a victim to satisfy the people ; thus his defence was useless. Brigadier-General the Marquis de Bussy and Admiral Count d'Ache, whose honour and safety were chiefly interested in his condemnation, were the principal wit- nesses examined against him. He was detained for four years in a close prison, and, according to the cruel and barbarous lav*^s then existing in France, " the bequest of ages of violence and anarchy," was Q-epeatedly tortured. Though his infamous judges were convinced of his perfect innocence, yet it was stated that, in consequence of the severe conclusions of the Procure ur-General against the Count de Lally, on the night of Sunday, the 4th May, 1763, he was removed from the Bastille to the prison of the Conciergerie, which adjoined the Court of Parlia- ment. " Though it was but one o'clock in the morning wlien he arrived at tlie Conciergerie (to quote the report of his condemnation), he refused to go to bed ; and about seven he appeared before his judges. They ordered him to be divested of his red riband and cross, to which he sub- mitted with the most perfect indifference ; and he was then placed on the stool to undergo a new course of interro- gation." At that crisis a pang of bitterness shot through hi« heart j clasping his hands, and raising his eyes: — 42 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. " My God !" he exclaimed ; " oh, my God ! is this th reward of forty years faithful service as a soldier T The interrogatory lasted six hours, and D'Ach^ and De Bussy were successively examined against him. By nine in the evening the examination was over, and the count was re-conducted to the Bastille, surrounded by guards and several companies of the watch of Paris. At six o'clock next morning the judges delivered their opinions, which were so various, that the clock of the Couciergerie struck four in the afternoon before they came to a conclusion and pronounced their arret or decree, which contained a brief recital of the charges against De Lally, without specifying the facts on which they were respectively founded ; but for the reparation of which it was declared that he should be stripped of all his civil titles, his military rank, and dignities ; that all his pro- perty should be confiscated to the king ; and that his head should be struck from his body on the public scaffold. Without emotion the count had heard their sentence, and with the utmost resolution prepared to die ; yet he was detained, hovering as it were between life and death, until the morning of the 9th May, 1766, when he was drawn on a hurdle to the Place de Greve, and hastily, almost privately, beheaded, with his mouth filled by a wooden gag, to prevent him addressing the people — thus adding another to the manv barbarous judicial murderl which disgrace the annals of France. His son, Trophine Gerard, who had been kept at the College of Harcourt in entire ignorance of his birth and of the proceedings against his father, only learned all these secrets when the public interest and commiseration became too great to conceal them longer. On the 9 th the poor boy learned that the great General Lally, who was to die, was his father. He rushed, as he tells us, to the place of execution to bid this father, so recently found, " an eternal adieu — to let him hear the voice of a son amid the voices of his executioners, and embrace him on the scaffold when he was about to perish ;" but he arrived only in time to see the axe descending and his father's blood pouring from a dismembered trunk upon a sanded THE COUNT DE LALLY. 45 scaffold. Overcome with horror, Trephine — afterwards the great Count Lally Tollendal — swooned in the street, and was borne away insensible to the College of Harconrt. Thus in his sixty-fourth year terminated the eventful career of Count Lally, the victim surrendered by a weak and tyrannical ministry to popular clamour, affording by his fate a m-emorable instance of the injustice, ingratitude, and barbarity of the Court of Versailles. 44 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. |flljn Canimit, of Jf assifern, K.T.S., COLONEL OP THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS; SLAIN AT QUATRE-BRAS, 1815. From among the many distinguished Scottish officei-s who served under Wellington, if we could select one for the delineation of his career, it would be John Cameron of the House of Fassifern and Locheil. This brave soldier was the eldest of the seven children of Ewen Cameron, Laird of Fassifern (i.e. the Point of Alders), and his wife, Lucy Campbell, of Barcaldine, whose father succeeded to the estate of Glenure on the ■death of her uncle, Colin Campbell, who was shot at the Ferry of Ballachulish, in Appin, by Allan Breac Stewart, otherwise known as Vic Ian, Vic Alaster, — a crime for which the Laird of Ardsheil was judicially murdered by the Duke of Argyle at the Castle of Inverary. Esven Cameron was the son of John tJie Tamster, a younger brother of the great Locheil, who commenced the insurrection of 1745 j and it is said that this power- ful chief, on being summoned by Prince Charles to attend his memorable landing in Moidart on the 25th July, was predisposed to warn him against the projected rising of the clans. " If such be your intention, Donald," said John c£ Fassifern, "write your opinion to the Prince, but do not trust yourself within the fascination of his presence. I know you better than you know youi'self, and foresee that you will be unable to refuse comi^liance." But Locheil preferred an interview with the Prince, end the event proved tie truth of Fassifern's prophecy. He joined him immediately with all the clan Cameron, JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 45 and tlie gallant revolt of the clans immediately followed. Fassifern was taken prisoner after Culloden, and was long detained in tlie Castle of Edinburgh ; there he was kept so close that the year 1752 arrived, yet he heard nothing of the barbarous execution of his brother, the amiable and unfortunate Dr. Archibald Cameron, until one evening a soldier brought him a kettle with hot water. He took 00' a paper which was twisted round the handle, and found it to be the " last speech and dying confession, itc, of tlie traitor Archibald Cameron." He immediately ordered a suit of the deepest mourning, and on appearing in it before the authorities was brutally upbraided by the Lord Justice Clerk for putting on mourning for a traitor. " Alas !" sitid Cameron, " that traitor was my dear brother !" " A rebel !" retorted the judge, scornfully. He was exiled, but afterwards returned to die at Fassifern. Colonel John Cameron, the grand-nephew of the Jaco- bite chief, was born in Argyleshire, at the farm of Invers- caddle (a house which belonged to his family before the acquisition of Fassifern), on the 16th of August, 1771, only twenty-five years after the battle of Culloden, and while those inhuman butcheries, for which the name of Cumberland is still abhorred in Scotland, were fresh in the memory of the people. According to the old custom, common to Scotland and Ireland, he was assigned to the care of a foster-mother named M'Millan, who dwelt in Glendescheric, on the shore of Locharkaig. Thus, born and bred among the Gael, while the clans were unchanged and uncorrupted, and when the glens were full of that gallant race, with all their old traditions and historic memories, their military pride, and peculiar prejudices, Cameron was reared as thorough a chieftain as if had lived in the days of James lY. Educated among his nativa mountains, sharing in the athletic sports of the people, and those in which his foster-brother, Ewan M'Millan, who was a fox-hunter in Croydart, and a year his elder, excelled, young Cameron grew up a handsome and hardy Highlander, and early became distinguished by that proud, fiery, and courageous temperament for which h& 46 TEE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. was SO well known among the troops of Lord HilPs division, and which sometimes caused him to set the niles of discipline, and the aristocratic coldness of Wellington, alike at defiance, if they interfered with his native ideas of rank and self-esteem. In the " Bomance of War," a work which has made his name familiar to the reading public, a faithful descrip- tion of him will be found. He was above the middle height, had a pleasing, open countenance, curly brown hair, and bright blue eyes, which, when he was excited, filled with a dusky fire. Arms were then the only occupation for a Highland gentleman ; and thus in his twenty-second year, on the 8th of February, 1793, he obtained an ensigncy in the 26th, or Cameronian Regiment, commanded by Sir William Erskine. He never joined that corps ; but on raising a sufficient number of men in Locheil, procured a lieute- nantcy in an independent Highland company then being formed by Capt. A. Campbell, of Ard-chattan. He was gazetted on the 3rd of April ; but this company was either disbanded or incorporated with the old 93rd Regi- ment, to which he was appointed lieutenant on the 30th of October in the same year. He did not join this regi- ment either, but busied himself in raising a company to procure the rank of captain in a corps of Highlanders, which, in obedience to a letter of service^ dated 10th February, 1794, the Duke of Gordon was raising for his son, the young Marquis of Huntly, then a captain in the Scottish Regiment of Guards. This battalion was to <5onsist of 46 officers, 64 staflT, and 1000 rank and file, to be raised among the clan of Gordon. From the lands of Fassifem and Locheil Cameron drew a company, principally of his own name and kindred, all hardy and handsome young Highlanders, among whom were his foster-brother, Ewen M'Millan, who never left him ; three Camerons, Ewen, Alaster, and Angus, whom he made sergeants ; Ewen Kennedy, for whom ho pro- cured an ensigncy, and another, who died a lieutenant With these, all clad in their native tartans, he marched from the Braes of Lochaber to Castle Gordon, in Strnth- JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 47 «pey, where lie was introduced to Alexander, Duke of Gordon, the Cock o' the North, by his uncle, the Rev. Dr. Boss, of Kilraanivaig, the worthy author of the statistical account of that parish. He at once received a company in the duke's own regiment, to which he was appointed on the 13th of February, 1794, and with which he at- tended the grand muster of the whole at Aberded on the 24th of June, when the corps was named the Gordon Highlanders^ or 100th Regiment, afterwards and now the 92nd. The uniform coats and vests were scarlet, faced with yellow, and laced with silver to suit the epaulettes. The kilts and plaids were in one piece, each containing twelve yards of Gordon tartan ; the claymores, dirks, buckles, and sporrans were mounted with silver; the bonnets were plumed with black ostrich feathers, and en- circled by the old fess checque of the House of Stuart. The men were all Highlanders ; scarcely one of them, and but very few of the officers, could speak English ; the enthusiasm was so great in Badenoch that, in some instances, fathers and sons joined its ranks together. At that time, when the French Revolution menaced Europe with anarchy, and the Convention declared war against Britain and Holland, the number of Highlanders in our service is almost incredible. During a period of fifty years the clans furnished eighty-six battalions of infantiy, some of which were twelve hundred strong.* How many could the Highlands raise now ? Centrali- zation, corruption, and local tyranny of the most infamous description have turned their beautiful glens into a silent wilderness, and the very place where Cameron raised his company of soldiers is now desolate and bare. " I can point," says the author of a letter to the Marquis of Breadalbane, on his late ruthless clearings ^ " to a place where thirty recruits that manned the 92nd in Egypt * As an example of the number of officers belonging to the clans, who served during the war and escaped its slaughter, we may state that there were on full and half-pay commissions, in 1816, 22 Bu- chanans; 67 Camerons; 22 Drummonds ; 26 Fergusons; 41 Forbesea; 49 Grahames; 90 Frazers ; 96 Grants; 144 M 'Leans and M'Kett* zies ; 248 Campbells ; and other names in the same proportion. A3 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. came from — men l)efore whom N'apoleon's Invincibles bit the dust — and now only t^;. - milies reside tliere together. I was lately informed by & grazier that on his form a hundred swordsmen could be gathered at their country's call, and now there are only himself and two shepherds." The brave Gael, who crowded in tens of thousands to the British ranks, saw not the reward that Avas coming ; evictions and wholesale clearings of the Scottisli poor were then unknown. God gave the land to the people — they believed it was theirw r l-ut the feudal charters have decided otherwise, and tho o^ans have been swept from Lochness to Locheil, and from Locheil to the shores of Lochlomond. The hills and the valleys are there, but the tribes have departed, and who can restore them 1 Cameron of Fassifern embarked with his regiment at Fort George, in Ardersier, for Southampton, Avhere, as kilted corps were unusual then in England, its arrival created a great sensation. From thence the battalion sailed for Gibraltar, under the command of Huntly, its colonel commandant, and disembarked at the Rock on the 27th of October. It was on this occasion that Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, composed her now popular song, " The Blue Bells of Scotland." At Gibraltar a coolness ensued between Cameron and the marquis, and from that hour they never were friends. The former having had a dispute at the mess with a Cap- tain M'Pherson on some point of Highland etiquette, high words and a duel followed. Captain, afterwards Colonel Mitchel, C.B., and Knight of St. Anne of Russia, was Cameron's second. Happily nothing serious resulted ; and next day at the mess Lord Huntly drank wine with them all, begging that in future no more such quarrels might occur, and concluded by saying — *' I may be pardoned in requiring this, as, I believe, all the gentlemen here are the tenants of my father." *'No, marquis," said Fassifern, loftily; "by Heaven, here is one who is no tenant of the house of Gordon." The young marquis frowned ; he did not reply, but never forgot the haughty retort. la sentiments and character, even in manner, FassifcrD JOHN CAMEHON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 49 belonged to a past age — to a period of time beyond our own ; for the stern pride, the Spartan spirit of clant-hip, with all the wild associations of the Gael, deeply imbued his mind, and gave a decision to his manner and a fresh- ness to his enthusiasm. Proud and fiery, like all his race, he had the defect of being quick and hasty in his speech ; but he never called aloud the name of an officer on parade, though more than one was reprehended by liim in terms of severity, which, when the gust of passion was past, his generous spirit told liim had been too great. He was a rigid disciplinarian, strict even to a fault, and yet withal he possessed a charm which won him the affection and respect of all his regiment. To English officers who did not understand him, to Wellington in particular, his pride seemed perhaps mere petulance, an(/ his Highland chivalry (the result of his education) eccen- tricity : but of these more anon. After receiving its colours on Windmill Hill, the regi- ment embarked for Corsica, and on the 11th of July, 1795, landed at Bastia, where, under the influence of Paoli, the allies had landed in the preceding year, and united the birthplace of Bonaparte to the British do- minions. After suppressing a rebellion in Corte, a town in the centre of the isle, and forming the secret expedition under their major, Alexander Napier, of Blackstone, to reduce Porto Ferrajo in Elba, the Highlanders returned to Gibraltar, where General de Burgh publicly testified his approbation of their conduct. Cameron who was now, by the death of Major Donald IM'Donald, of Boisdale, senior captain, accompanied the regiment to Portsmouth, where it landed in May, and from whence it went to Dublin in June, 1798. Here he became attached to a young lady possessed of great per- sonal attractions, and announced to his father his intention of marrying. But old Ewen Cameron had imbibed some curious prejudices against the Irish, for a false rumour had gained credence in the Highlands that Prince Charles had been beti-ayed at Culloden by his two Irish followers, Sullivan and Sheridan. There was great consternation in Fassifern and the Braes of Lochaber when it was an- C 50 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. nonnced that the young laird was about to wed a stranger ; and however absurd this prejudice may appear, old Fassi- fern set all his wits to work, and contrived to have the engagement broken off completely. A quarrel ensued between the lovers ; rumour speaks of another duel with some one ; but from that time to the hour of his death, Cameron was never known to form another serious attach- ment. At this time the Irish were in arras ; Vinegar Hill was valiantly fought and lost by them ; the Highlanders were kept incessantly on the march, and their belts were never ©ff. During these operations, when encamped near Moat, they were re-numbered as the 92nd Regiment of the line. After being quartered in Athlone, on the 15th June, 1799, Cameron embarked with the regiment for the camp at Barham Downs, where the troops destined for the ex- pedition to Holland were assembling under Lieutenant- General Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The Gordon Highland- ers were brigaded with the 1st Royal Scots, 25th, or Scots Borderers ; the 49th and Cameron Highlanders, under Brigadier Sir John Moore. The troops sailed from Rams- gate, landed near the Helder, and on that evening the Gordon Highlanders, after having fifteen men drowned, fought bravely at the battle of the Sandhills. Here they and Cameron first saw the French, for whom he felt an hereditary abhorrence, having been reared to believe, like every Highlander, that they had trifled, forty years before,, with the best interests of Scotland, and betrayed Princo Charles and the clans to England. He served at the head of his company in all the opera- tions under the gallant Moore — during the advance to Oude Sluys, the action at Crabhenden, where Captain Ramsay of Dalhousie was wounded ; the engagement with General Brune ; the attack on Alkmaai* ; the retreat to Zuype ; and the battle of Egmont-op-Zee, where it is pro- bable that his French antipathy received an additional incentive, by the infliction of a severe wound. In that decisive charge, by which twenty pieces of cannon were retaken from the enemy, a ball struck one of his knees j JOHN CAMERON, OP FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 51 and as he was falling, tlie arm of the faithful M^Millaa was the first to support him. Here the Marquis of Huntly was wounded in the shoulder ; and neither he not Cameron ever fully recovered the effect of these bullets. In this affair the Highlanders had 288 officers and men. killed and wounded. Among the latter was the henchman Ewen, who lost an ear. Rendered furious by the wound, regardless of Cameron's orders, he rushed among the French, and drove his bayonet, with a ball at the same mombrigade (which Cameron had dispatched as skirmishers in front), and gained the high rock of Maya before the 2nd brigade of infantry could come to his support. His little band ^^ere thus left to defend that steep and narrow pass against Jive times their number. On this fatal morning the strength of the Gordon Highlanders was only fifty- five staff, and 762 rank and file. To deceive the foe as to his -real strength, Cameron skilfully divided his Highlanders into two wings, in open columns of companies, thus giving the slender battalion the asj^ect of tivo regiments ; but this ruse was useless, as the traitor- muleteers, who, for the few weeks preceding, had been passing between the mountains and French out- posts, had made Soult fully .aware of the actual force left to defend the Pyrenees at every point. The momejit the action commenced, Fassifern detached the 50th to the right, where, after a desperate conflict, it was driven back and forced to leave the ridge. Under Major M'Pherson, Cameron then sent forward first the right wing, and then the left, of his brave High- landers. Then ensued one of the most appalling scenes of carnage recorded in the annals of that protracted war. The Highlanders stood like a rampart, in which, however, frightful gaps were made by the bullets of the French, who came on, in one vast mob, shouting and brandishing their eagles. Separating the 1st and 2nd brigades, they descended upon the pass of Maya from one flank, while a fresh division poured upon its front from the Urdax road. Cameron, who had repeatedly ordered a charge, which waa unheard amid the roar of the musketry, then made the whole fall back gradually upon the rock of Maya ; a move- ment which was slowly and desperately covered by the left wingsof the 7 1st Highland Light Infantry and of the Gordon Highlanders, which, by relieving each other, drenched in blood every inch of tlie ground j and there these gallant men defended the rock for ten successive hours, until — . just when ammunition was falling short — the brigade of General Barnes arrived to their succour, and Lieutenant- Oeneral the Hou. Sir William Stuart, a fine old soldiei f2 68 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. whom all the troojis loved well, ordered Cameron's brigade not to charge ; but, exasperated by the slaughter they had endured, they rushed upon the French with the bayonet, and the Gordon Highlanders, '^for the first time disre- garded orders, and not only charged, hut led the charge,'' and recovered every foot of ground as far as the pass from whicli they had been driven. In this headlong advance the pipers played the " Haughs of Cromdale," and the line v/as led by Captain Seton of Pitmedden, bonnet and clay- more in hand. But the slaughter in their ranks was terrible, for 19 officers and 324 rank and file were killed, wounded, and missing. Among the wounded were — Cameron, who was shot through the thigh, and forced to leave the field ; Major Mitchel, who succeeded him ; Captains Holmes, and Bevan, who died when his arm was taken out of the socket, and Ronald M 'Donald of Coul ; Lieutenants Winchester, who commanded the light com- pany; Donald M'Donald, Chisholm, Durie, M'Pherson, and Fife, who, after having one ball turned by a button, and another by his watch, was struck down at last ; Gordon, Kerr Ross, and John Grant, who was shot through the side. Among the ensigns were Thomas and George Mitchell, Ewen Kennedy (one of Cameron's Lochaber men), who bled to death on the field, and Alaster M'Donald of Dalchosnie, a youth of eighteen, who after- wards expired of a wound in the head, and was buried by four of his brother officers in a hole outside the town- gate of Vittoria, where Holmes said a short prayer over his grave. Sir William Napier, in his history, thus alludes to Fassifern and the two regiments of Highlanders : *'And that officer (Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron), still holding the pass of Maya with the left wings of the 71st and 92nd Regiments, brought their right wings and the Portuguese guns into action, and thus maintained the fight ; but so dreadful was the slaughter, that it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped by the heaped- up mass of dead and dying The stern valour of the 92nd would have graced T/ter- mopylcey JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 69 Strange to say, Lieutenant Gordon died at EdinLurgh sixteen years after, under the hands of a surgeon who was extracting the ball received at Maya, and he lies now in the Calton burying-gronnd. Two balls grazed Cameron, but the third pierced tlie iieshy part of his right thigh. In great agony he called to M'Millan, who slung his musket, rushed to his side, and led his horse by the bridle out of the field. " The gallant Cameron, who has so frequently bled for his country," says the Pilot of 12th October, 1813, '-'received three shots in his person, his horse received three, and three more were found in his cloak, which was stra]:»ped before his saddle in the usual manner." He lost so much blood, that, being unable to reach Vittoria, which was a hundred miles distant, and to which all the wounded were ordered to repair, he re- mained at an intermediate village until the scar healed and he could rejoin the regiment at E-oncesvalles, after i^ had been engaged between Lizasso and Eguaros, and o the heights of Donna Maria, having in both aifairs 120 officers and men killed and wounded. Captain Scton brought the regiment out of the field : thus the Speaker of the House of Commons, on the 24th of June, might well say that the Spaniards of future times would point with pride to the places " where a Stuart made his stand, and where the best blood of Scotland was shed in their defence." For his bravery at the Pyrenees, his Majesty was pleased to permit Cameron to bear upon his shield the word Maya. Prom this period he was incessantly engaged in all the operations along the French Pyrenees, in daily skirmishes, and the capture of entrenched camps. The country was now covered by snow, and the troops endured many privations, which Sir William Stuart (brother of Lord Galloway) did all in his power to alleviate, by issuing extra allowances of rum, which won him the cognomen of Auld Grog Willie ; and his popularity was so great among all the troops, that his appearance was always hailed by a noisy cheer, and shouts of " God bless you, Sir William 1'* Lord Wellington disliked this, and compelled the general to refund to Government all those extra allowances of 70 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. rum sf the Turkish fleet, which had been, joined by about thirty lieutenants, who had received the permission of King Louis to enter the Sultan's service. A terrible scene of carnage ensued, and the whole conflict is admirably detailed in a letter published in the Scots Magazine for that year, by a Lieutenant Mackenzie, wh9 ■90 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUKE. served on board of her Imperial Majesty's sliip the Suntostoff. At eleven o'clock the battle began. Admiral Spiritoff ranged up alongside of the Turkish admiral, who was in the Sidtana, of ninety brass guns, and thus they fought jard-arm and yard-arm together, pouring in and receiving cannon-shot, chain-shot, hand-grenades and musketry. Spiritoff 's topmasts were shot away, his bulwarks bat- tered down, and blood ran from his scuppers into the sea. He led his sailors in an attempt to board the SultaTuij and tore the banner of the Crescent from her stern ; but the boarders were repulsed, and obliged to sheer off, for the Turk took fire, and his burning mainmast fell on board of Spiritoff's ship, which also became wrapped in flames ; and in ten minutes both ships blew up. " I leave you to judge," says Mackenzie, " of the dreadful scene of seeing so many hundreds of poor souls blown into the air, while the rest were hotly engaged." Spiritoff and twenty- four officer saved themselves in the barge. The remainder of the Turkish fleet, after being severely mauled by Elphinstone and Greig (Orloff was little of a seaman), cut their cables, and ran into the harbour of Chismeh, a small town in the Sanjak of Siglah, at the bottom of a bay one mile broad, and two miles long. Across the mouth of this bay the fleet, under Orloff, El- phinstone, and the Commodore, lay for the whole night, firing round shot, and throwing in bombs. The fire of Greig's ship was particularly destructive ; but on the Turks getting batteries established on the height between Scio and the coast of Anadoli, he and the two admirals were obliged to haul off. Two fireships were prepared ©n the 7th, under the direction of Elphinstone and Greig; and a council of war was held by the principal officers in the cabin of Count Orloff. It was there suggested by the Commodore, and resolved upon, that at midnight four ships of the line, two frigates, and the bomb-ketch, should enter the harbour, and while attacking the enemy, send the fireships on their errand of destruction ; but volunteers were required to lead, and three officers, all Scotsmen, at onpe stepced forward. These were, Commo- SIB SAMUEL GREIG. 91 dore Greig, Lieutenant Mackenzie, of the Switostoff, and Captain-Lieutenant Drysdale (or Dugdale, for this officer is called alternately by both names in many accounts oi these wars), and they made every preparation for tha desperate duty before them. At half-past twelve at night the signal was made to weigh anchor, and bear into the little bay ; Drysdale and Mackenzie had the fireships ; Greig led the ships of the line and the two frigates, which, at four hundred yards' distance, cannonaded the Turks, while the bomb-ketch plied its mortars. Greig signalled the fireships to bear down ; Drysdale and Mackenzie an- swered it, and, favoured by the wind, ran right into the teeth of the Turks, whose centre ship was at that moment set on fire by a fortunate shot from the Commodore. Drysdale's crew unfortunately left his ship before the proper time. Indeed, the Russians were so overcome with terror by the darkness of the night, the boom of the Turkish shot, and by the fireships, of which they were unable to comprehend the use, that it was only by dint of his sword and pistols that Drysdale kept them to their duty ; but when near the enemy the helmsman aban- doned the rudder, the whole crew sprang into their boat, and abandoned the brave Scotsman on board of the fire- ship ! In this terrible situation his native courage never deserted him ; he lashed the helm, and (though a boat full of armed Turks was pulling alongside) held the ship on lier course till, with his own unaided hands, he hooked the grapnel-irons to the anchor-cable of the nearest ship, which proved to be a large caravella. He then fired the train by discharging a pistol, and in doing so was severely scorched by the explosion. At the moment the Turks boarded him on one side he sprang into the sea from the other, and swam from the blazing ship. Many a shot was fired after him, but he escaped, and was saved with diffi- Jty by the boats of Greig. The fireships blew up with the most admirable effect, and the result was, beyond Greig's utmost expectations, decisive and disastrous, for in five hours the whole Turkish fleet was burned to the water-edge and totally 02 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. destroyed — all, save one ship, Giafar Bey's, of seventy guns, four row-galleys, and some gilt barges of twenty-four oars. The morning sun, as he shone upon the Isle of Scio and Anadolian shore, saw a scene of unexampled devastation — every Turkish mast had vanished from the bay, and pieces of charred and floating wreck alone re- mained ! The following were the ships destroyed by Greig :— Capitan Alebi, 84 guns. Aclimet, 86 guns. Bashaw, 90 guns. Hamisi, 60 guns. Patrona Ayckrece, 80 guns. All Eandioto, 60 guns. Reala Mustapha, 96 guns. Melehin, 80 guns. Mulensi Achmet, 84 guns. Rapislan Bashaw, 64 guns. Emir Mustapha, 84 guns. Zefirbe, 84 guns. La Barharocine, 64 guns, was towed out of the harbour by his boats. Two other large ships (names unkno^-n) were burned, with four frigates, eight 40-gun ships, eight galleys, and several row-boats. He rescued 400 Christian slaves, hauled close in shore, bombarded the town, blew np the castle, and reduced the whole place to a heap of rubbish before nine o'clock in the morning, by which time more than 6000 Turks had been shot, burned, or ^ -.owned. For this brilliant service Greig was at once made a rear-admiral by Count Orloff, while Lieutenants Drysdale and Mackenzie received the rank of captain, all of which appointments the Empress was pleased to confirm. Though the unfortunate Capitan Pacha, who commanded, was severely wounded, the Sultan ordered his head to be struck off, and appointed Giafar Bey admiral in his place. As rear-admiral Greig's pay amounted to 2160 roubles per annum. Immediately after this victory Ad- miral Elphin stone sailed with his squadron for the Isle of Tenedos, to block up the Dardanelles, where he captured forty vessels destined for Consttain Greig ; and in September, under the same gal- lant admiral, the Scottish captains Scott, Dunn, Boyle, Maclagan, Ogilvie, and Rose, commanding the Russiaii ships Alexander NewsM, 74 ; Neptune, 54 ; Rafaill, 44 ; Revel, 44 ; Minerva, 38 ; and ^t. Nicholas, 38, embarking the Russian troops at Revel ; and thus it was, that when Russia, fifteen years before, projected a new war against * In the battle with the Swedes in 1790, four Russian ships were commanded by Scottish captains, viz., Denniston, whose head was shot off; Marshal, who was drowned when leading his boarders; Miller and Aikin, who each lost a leg. The latter died under the torture of his wound. Six Russian admirals, all Scotchmen, Mac- kenzie, Ogilvie, Mercer, Mason, and the two Greigs, have hoisted their flags in the Black Sea. Mackenzie was the first naval chief at Sebastopol, — See Slade's Travels, vol. ii. h2 too THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUZO:. the Turks, in consequence of their interference with the affairs of the independent Crimea, the Empress found her fleet to consist of upwards of ninety sail at Cronstadt, JRevel, and in the Sea of A soph. By the 11th of October, 1783, Admiral Greig had ready a fleet for the Mediterranean consisting of twelve sail of the line — viz., one of 76 guns, two of 74, three of 70, four of 64, two of 60, four frigates, a sloop, three store- ships, two fireships, two bomb-ketches, and two galleys. Tlie vice-admiral of this fine armament was his old brother- officer, who had shared with him the glory of that night's desperate work in the Bay of Chismeh. All these ships were in the best condition, and British officera were judi- ciously distributed among them ; but the poor Khan of the Crimea, Sahim Gueray — the last of the lineal descen- dants of the far-famed Ghengiz Khan — abdicated his power, which he transferred to the Czarina, and his valu- able ten'itory on the Black Sea was quietly confirmed to her by a treaty with the Sultan in 1784. Since then it has formed a part of the Russian Empire, together with part of the Kuban and all the land between the Eoog, the Dneister, and the Black Sea. The next scene of Admiral Greig's active service was against the Swedes, who became implicated in the dispute wlaich ensued between the Porte and the Czarina, against whom they rashly declared war. Hostilities ensued ; the Swedish troops advanced into Finland, and recaptured several towns. " Alexis Count Orloff, appointed to command the Me- diterranean fleet, has declined that honour, and left tlio court," says the Gentleman s Magazine for April, 1788; " and Admiral Greig, on whom it in course devolved, has jjleaded the necessity of a journey to his native country, to be excused from that service." The armament offered Greig by the Empress was on a magnificent scale ; it con- sisted of twenty-eight ships of the line, three of them carrying 100 guns and 800 officers and seamen each ; six of 90 guns, with 650 seamen each ; four of 80 guns, with 600 seamen each ; eleven of 74 guns, with 500 men each ; two of 64 guns, with 400 men each ; two hundred and SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 101 forty-eiglit sail of frigates, sloops, and transports, con- taining eleven battalions of infantry ; two carracques, with 1000 horse, and seven of marines; twenty-five victual and hospital ships, mounting in all 1194 pieces of cannon, and having 28,000 men on board. But the admiral does not seem either to have visited Scotland or sailed with this armament to the Mediter- ranean, as he assumed command of the Imperial Baltic fleet, destined to oppose the Duke of Sudermania, brother of the King of Sweden, who put to sea with twenty-ona sail, consisting of the Gustavus, 111, Soyliia, Magdalena^ and Prins Gustaf, of 70 guns each ; nine CO-gun ships, six 40-gun frigates, and three smaller vessels. Count Wachdmeister led the van, Captain Linderstedt the rear. Sweden made incredible exertions in this war, the object of which was to retake Finland and Carelia ; four 40-gun frigates were fitting out at Gottenberg, and nine ships of the line at Carlscrona. The news of these and other armaments filled St. Petersburg with some- thing very like consternation ; but Greig prepared for sea with all the vessels he could collect, and the utmost activity prevailed at Biga, where Count Brown, a veteran Irish general, was governor. Greig declared, however, to the Empress, that if the United Kingdoms of Great Britain engaged in this war antagonistic to Bussia, he would feel himself under the painful necessity of resign- ing his high rank, and returning to his former position of lieutenant in the Boyal Navy ; " that he would always exert himself to the utmost against any other power who might be in alliance with the enemy, but that he would never fire a shot in the face of his native country." He ordered the calibre of the ship guns to be altered, direct- ing that all from 24-pounders downwards should be of less weight with a larger bore. In May, 1788, while war and preparations were pend- ing, a dispute ensued between the Empress and upwards of sixty British officers of her fleet, on occasion of a rumour being spread abroad, that she meant to receive into her service Paul Jones, the celebrated Scottish rene- gade. These gentlemen^ -^arly all of whom were Scots- 1:02 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. men, waited on the President of the Admu'alty, and resigned their commissions, delivering, at the same time, a manifesto, "whereby they not only refused to serve under, but even with that oJ0S.cer." The French officei-s who were paid by the Czarina displayed the same repug- nance to have this famous privateersman for a comrade ; and by this dispute, which, however, was soon arranged, ten sail of the line were for a time completely unofficered. To the satisfaction of Admiral Greig and his compatriots, it was arranged, that "Mr. Jones should never be appointed to command in that part of the ocean where they were employed." In the meantime, a scandalous adventure of the Chevalier Paul with a girl of loose character, ended his hope of employment even under Catherine II. Greig now received from the Emperor of Germany a present of 10,000 roubles and a valuable estate in Livonia. This was just before he sailed from Cronstadt with the fleet, which consisted of one three-decker, eight 74-gun ships, eight 6 6 -gun ships, and seven frigates, to oppose the formidable force of the Duke of Sudermania, whom he overtook between the island of Schten Seaker and the Bay, of Cabo de Grund. The Duke of Sudermania states, that with thirty-one sail he was cruising in the Narrows of Kalkboden and Elkhomen in a dense fog, with an easterly wind, when, early on the morning of the 17th of July, the report of alarm guns ahead summoned his crews hurriedly to quarters, and almost before order of battle could be assumed, amid the dangers of a lee shore, enveloped in the morning mist, the fleet of the Scoto-Russian Admiral, consisting then of thirty-three sail, all in close order, were within gunshot, his van being close to the prince's centre. After considerable manoeuvring, in which the skill of Greig is praised by the prince in his dispatch, they were within musket-shot by five p.m., when the battle began in all its fury, and sixty-four ships, twenty- nine of which were sail of the line, engaged in all the carnage of a yard-arm conflict; and so thickly did the SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 103 emoke of the Russian fleet settle down upon tlie Swedes, " that it was impossible to make or answer signals," says the Duke of Sudermania, " or even to distinguish our own line." The duke was in the Charles Gustavus, a three-decker ; Greig fought his own ship, the Rotislaw of 100 guns ; and the operations of the day are thus detailed by him in his dispatch to the Empress ; — " I most humbly beg to inform your Imperial Majesty, that on the 17th of July, about noon, we fell in with the Swedish fleet, consisting of fifteen ships of the line, carry- ing from sixty to seventy guns ; eight large frigates (carry- ing 24-pounders), which were brought into the line owing to their weight of metal ; five smaller frigates, and three tenders, commanded by the Prince of Sudermania, with an admiral's flag, and having under his command one vice and two rear admirals. I immediately signalled to make sail towards the enemy ; they formed line and awaited us — our fleet, as it came up, formed also. The weather was clear, with a light breeze from the south-east. We bore right down on the enemy's line, and my flagship, the Rotislaw, engaged the Swedish admiral about five P.M. " The engagement was very hot on both sides, and lasted without intermission till six. Twice the Swedes attempted to retreat, but as it fell quite calm during the contest, and the ships would not answer their helms, the two fleets fell into some confusion, but the fire was kept up on both sides till dark, and then the Swedes, assisted by their boats, got to a distance from our ships. In this action we have taken the Prince Gustavus, of 70 guns, which carried the vice-admiral's flag. " She was defended with great bravery for more than an hour against the Rotislaw, and we had above 200 men killed and wounded on board before she struck. On board of her was the Count Wachdmeister, A.D.C. General to the King of Sweden, who commanded the van of the Swedish fleet. He came on board of my ship with 104 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. an officer whom I sent to take possession, and delivered to me his flag and sword. In consideration of his gallant defence, I restored to him the latter. " I am sorry to inform your Majesty, that in the nighfc, and after the battle had ceased, the Wadislaw dropped astern of our line and fell among the Swedish fleet, by whom she was taken, as the darkness of the night and the thickness of the smoke concealed her from ns. I received notice of this disaster about midnight from a petty ofiicer, who was dispatched to me before the enemy took possession. In this engagement several of your Majesty's ships have received considerable damage, and the whole fleet so much in masts and rigging, that I was not in a condition to pursue the enemy, who, favoured by the wind, crowded all the sail they could to reach the coast of Finland, to the east of Cabo de Grund, and we lost sight of them steering north-east. This action began between the island of Schten Seaker and the Bay of Cabo de Grund, the former bearing SSE. distant three German miles, and the latter NWW. about the same distance, seven and a half miles east of Hohlang. I subjoin a list of the killed and wounded. The whole fleet are now re- pairing sails and rigging. " I must say, on this occasion, that I never saw a battle maintained with more spirit and courage on both sides ; and we have nothing to boast of but the capture of the commander of the vanguard, and that the enemy left us in possession of the field of battle. All the flag officers, and the greater portion of the captains gave proofs of the utmost courage and firmness ; and the bravery of the subaltern officers in general is entitled to every praise ; BUT it is with grief, that I am obliged to declare myself very much dissatisfied with the conduct of certain cap- tains, whom I shall be under the necessity of superseding. This will be done after a more particular inquiry, the account of which I shall transmit to your Majesty. If they had done their duty like good officers and faithful Bubiects, this action would have been more completely decisive, and have produced consequences equally satis- factory to your Majesty and your glorious empire. 1 SIK SAMUEL GREIG. 105 must not fail, at the same time, to make a special report of those who, on this occasion, personally distinguished themselves by their courage and conduct. (Here follow the lists.) " SAiiL Carlo viTCH Greiq. "H. I. M. Ship Eotislmo, July 18tb, 1788." The duke says that his fleet was swept round by the current, and every ship was thus raked fore and aft by tliose of Greig ; that after a lull in the conflict, it was renewed at 8 p.m., when, after another desperate encoun- ter, the Swedish fleet, with lights at the mast-heads, bore away for Helsingfors with all sail set, leaving the JPrins Giistqf, of seventy guns, lying disabled and without a flag ; that many of the Russian ships were severely mauled, but the Swedes were riddled ; for masts, spars, and even the rudders of some were knocked to pieces, while most of them had received perilous shots between wind and water. The Wadislaw, which they took, was a copper-bottomed seventy-four, carrying 32 and 42-pounders, with 738 men. It was ten at night before the last shot was fired. The- Russians remained masters of the channel, with all their colours flying ; but had the ofiicers all done their duty, the Swedes would not have escaped so easily, if at ail. Greig had 6000 troops on board j their presence in close action greatly increased his list of casualties, for he had 319 killed and QQQ wounded, whereas the Swedes had only eight officers struck, and the number of seamen is^ not known. A dmiral Greig was soon after reinforced by four ships of the line ; but as the Duke of Sudermania received six more of seventy guns each, the fleets remained of nearly equal strength. Count Wachdmiester had yielded his sword to Greig, who returned it to him, saying, " I will never be the man to deprive so brave and worthy an officer of his sword — I beseech you to receive it." After making a suitable reply, the count sheathed it, and said, " that neither he nor any other person in Swe- 166 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE ^en believed that the Russian fleet was in so admirable a eondition as he found it." The Russian seamen had fought with incredible ardour and bravery ; when the wadding ran short, many of them tore off their clothing to clean and charge home the cannon ; but all the officers were by no means partners in their glory ; for Greig found himself under the pain- ful necessity of placing under arrest two captains, two captain lieutenants, and thirteen other officers, all Rus- sians, and sending them to St. Petersburg in the frigate La Kergopolte, of twenty-four guns, charged with having " abandoned Rear-Admiral Bergen when he was sur- rounded by four Swedish ships, and defending himself against them for two hours with the greatest bravery, till he was compelled to strike, when his ship, the Wadislaw, was completely shattered." Sir Samuel Greig added, that he had repeatedly sig- nalled to those officers " to advance and support the com- mander of their division, but that either from not under- standing the said signals, or from some other reason, they remained where they were, and saw him taken." Concerning their misconduct, and the battle of the 17th July, the Empress immediately wrote, with her own hand, the following characteristic letter to her gallant Admiral : — "to the most worthy and brave, (fee. " We should be wanting in that gratitude and polite- ness which should ever distinguish sovereigns, did we not with the utmost speed convey to you our approbation of your exemplary conduct ; and the obligations which we owe you for your intrepid conduct in your engagement with the fleet of our enemy, the Swedish king. To the constant exertion of your abilities, and your zeal for the glory of the common cause of ourselves and the whole Russian Empire, may, under God, be attributed the very signal victory you have gained ; and we have not the smallest doubt, but that every part of our dominions, to which this event shall be transmitted, will behold it in its proper view. It is with grief we read the record of SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 107 these poTCroons, who, unable to catch fire from the spirited exertions of their brother-warriors, have so signalized themselves in the annals of treasonable cowardice ! and to that cowardice the Swede has to boast that any ship ot their fleet escaped when so encountered. " It is our pleasure that the delinquents mentioned in your despatch be immediately brought to Cronstadt, to await our further displeasure. We sincerely wish you, and all with you, health, and the most signal assistance of the Almighty God, whose aid we have invoked, and of whose assistance we cannot doubt in a cause so just. " Your services will live perpetually in our remem- brance j and the annals of our Empire must convey your name to posterity with reverence and with love ! " So saying, we recommend you to God's keeping ever. Done at St. Petersburg, the 23rd of July, in the year of grace 1788. " Catherine." The punishment of the seventeen unfortunates was peculiarly Kussian in its barbarity ; for they were placed in chains, with iron collars around their necks, and doomed to perpetual slavery in the hulks at Cronstadt, though many were cadets of the noblest Muscovite families. In 1789, Professor Schloeger, of Gottingen, published in his political magazine the orders issued by the Czarina to the admiral before leaving Cronstadt ; and by these it appears, that he " was to attack, and, if possible, to carry away the Swedish admiral-general, even at the total loss of the whole fleet of Kussia." Por nearly a fortnight Greig busied himself in tho- roughly refitting his fleet; on the 6th of August he signalled to weigh anchor at dawn, and on the 7th arrived oft* Sveaborg, where he found four Swedish ships at anchor in the roads ; but they cut their cables, and, under a press of sail, retired into port in confusion. Greig followed them l3oldly, and just as his leading ship came within musket-shot of the sternmost Swede, the latter struck upon a sunken rock ; her mainmast went 108 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. by the board, and after maintaining a short cannonade with Admiral E-oslainow, she struck her colours. The other three escaped into shallow water. Greig's boats took possession of the bilged ship, which proved to be the Gustavus Adolphus, of 64 guns, commanded by Colonel Christierne, who was taken prisoner with thirteen officers and 530 men, after which Greig ordered her to be blown up. He next seized a ship laden with cables, sails, medicine, (fee, for the Swedish fleet. Meanwhile the Duke of Sudermania remained a quiet spectator in Sveaborg, where he was completely blocked up by Greig, although he had under his command sixteen ships of the line and eight frigates. Till the 9th Greig remained ofi" Sveaborg, which is strongly fortified by nature and art, and then, in tlie hope that the duke would come out, as the wind was favourable for his doing so, he sailed slowly across the Gulf of Finland towards the opposite coast of Revel, and on his approaching the isle of Margen, placed his cruisers towards the west, so as completely to cut off the Swedish fleet from all succour by way of Carlscrona, and to prevent them forming a junction with five ships laden with stores, of which they were in the greatest need. Here Greig was joined by two 64- gun ships ; and on the 14th of August he was ofi" Eevel in Esthonia. Meanwhile the Swedish and Russian troops had many fierce encounters in Finland; but the former were unsuccessful, and this expedition ended in defeat and disaster. The indefatigable Greig continued to cruise in the gulf until the month of October ; and, though sufiering from a severe illness, he completely blocked up the Swedes in Sveaborg, cut them oiF from succour, and saved St. Pe- tersburg from alarm. On the 2nd October, the weather became exceedingly stormy, and the Russian fleet were all dispersed. Then the Duke of Sudermania thought he might essay something against Greig ; but, though sick and infirm, the latter soon collected all his ships, and the blockade was resumed more SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 109 strictly than ever ; but, unhappily, his illness terminated in a violent fever, and, on the 26th of that month the brave admiral expired, in the fifty- third year of his age, on board of his flag-ship the Rotislaio, to the great sor- row of every officer and seaman in the fleet, where, by his bravery, justice, generosity, and goodness of heart, he had indeed won for himself the honourable title of the Father oftlie Russian Navy. The tidings of his death were the signal for a general mourning at St. Petersburg ; and, while Admiral SpiritofF assumed the command of the fleet, the Empress ordered the interment of her favourite officer to be conducted with a pomp, solemnity, and magnificence never before wit- nessed in Russia. The funeral took place on the 5th of December. Some days before it, the body lay on a state bed in the hall of the Admiralty, which was hung with black cloth, while the doors were festooned with white crape, and the vast apartment was lighted by silver lustres. Under a canopy of crape the body was placed on three small arches, dressed in full uniform, the head being encircled by a wreath of laurel. A t its foot stood an urn, adorned with silver anchors and streamers, inscribed — " S. G. nat. d. 30 Nov. 1735— obit d. 15 Oct. 1788." The coffin stood on six feet of massy silver. It was covered with black velvet, lined with white satin ; the handles and fringes were of pure silver, and the pillows of blonde lace. On three tabourettes of crimson and gold lay his five orders of knighthood — one of them, the St. George's Cross, mutilated by a shot in the Archipelago ; and around were twelve pedestals, covered with crape and flowers, bearing twelve gigantic candles. At the head of the bed hung all his flags ; and two staflf officers and six marine captains were constantly beside it until the day of jiterment, when Lieutenant the Baron Yanden Pahlen pronounced a high eulogy in honour of the brave de- based. 110 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. The cannon of the ramparts and fleet fired minute-guns during the procession from the Admiralty to the Cathe- dral of St. Catherine, through streets lined by the troops. The funeral pageant was very magnificent and im- pressive. Swartzenhoup's dragoons, with standards lowered ; the grenadiers of the Empress, with arms reversed ; the public schools of the capital ; the clergy of the Greek Church ; General Lehman, of the marine artillery, and two marshals bearing Greig's admiral's staff and five orders of knighthood ; eighteen stafi" officers, and three bearing naval standards, preceded the body, which was borne on a bier drawn by six horses, led by six bom- bardiers, and attended by twelve captains of ships, fol- lowed by their coxswains. Then came General Wrangel, governor of the city, with the nobles, citizens, the marshals with their staves, and a regiment of infantry with arms reversed, and its band playing one of those grand dead- marches which are peculiar to Russia. So, with a band of choristers preceding it, and amid the tolling of bells, the remains of Admiral Greig were conveyed to the great cathedral, and there lowered into their last resting-place, amid three discharges of cannon and musketry from the ramparts, the troops, and the fleet, where he was so well beloved and so much lamented. Every officer who attended had a gold ring presented to him by Catherine II., with the admiral's name and the day of his death engraved upon it ; and a magnificent monument has since been erected to mark the place where he lies — a man " no less illustrious for courage and naval skill, than for piety, benevolence, and every private virtue." His estate in Livonia is still in possession of his de- scendants. His son John died in China in 1793. Another son became Sir Alexis Greig, Admiral of the Russian fleet, and Knight of all the Imperial orders. In 1783 he studied at the High School of Edinburgh ; he served as a volunteer on board the Culloden under Admiral Trow- ST.R SAMUEL GREIG. Ill bridge, and commanded the Russian fleets at tlie sieges of Yarna and Anapa in 1828 ; though in 1801 he had been, exiled to Siberia for remonstrating with the Emperor Paul for his severity to certain British sailors. His son Woronzow Greig (also educated, I believe, at the High School of Edinburgh) was A.D.C. to Prince Menschicoff, and bore a flag of truce from Sebastopol to Lord Paglan. He died of a mortal wound on the desperate field of Inkermann. 118 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Jfalb-Pars|al Cmtnt §ro(uiT. Ulysses Maximilian Brown, Field-Marslial of the armies of the Empress Maria Theresa, Governor of Prague, and Knight of the Golden Fleece, was born on the 24th of October, 1705. His father, Ulysses Baron de Brown and Camus, the representative and descendant of one of the most ancient families in Ireland, was then a Colonel of Cuirassiers in the service of Joseph T., Emperor of Austria, and was one of the many brave Irish gentlemen who, after the untor- tunate battle of Aughrim, the surrender of Galway, and capitulation of King James's army under St. Ruth, at Limerick, were forced to feed themselves by the blades of their swords in the seiwice of foreign countries. When Marshal Catinat and the Duke of Savoy laid siege to Valenza in 1696, they had no less than six battalions of Irish exiles in their army. Baron Brown had served under the Emperor Leopold I., who died in 1703 ; and by the Emperor Charles VI. had been created Count of. the Holy Boman Empire ; while his brother George received the same exalted rank, being at the same time a distin- guished general of infantry, colonel of a regiment of musketeers, and councillor of war. In his childhood Ulysses Maximilian was sent to the city of Limerick by his father, and there, for a few yeai-s, he pursued his studies at a public school, until his uncle, Count George Brown, sent for him, when only ten years of age, to join his regiment of infantry, which was then with the army marching into Hungary, under the famous and gallant Prince Eugene of Savoy, against the Turks, "who had invaded the Imperial frontier- Wiiii this FIELD-MARSHAL COtTNT BROWN. 113 army the great Count Saxe was serving as a subaltern officer. The Turks had broken the peace of Carlovitz in 1715, conquered the Morea, declared war against Yenice, be- sieged Corfu, and spread a general alarm among the courts of Europe. The Emperor's mediation was rejected with disdain by Achmet III., the imperious Porte, whose army, 150,000 strong, hovered on the right bank of the Danube ; but Prince Eugene, with a small, well disciplined force, having passed the river in sight of the inactive Osmanli, encamped at Peterwaradin, on the confines of Sclavonia. Ulysses Maximilian Brown was with this army in the regiment of his uncle. A battle ensued on the 5th August, 1716, near Carlo- vitz, and the Turks were totally routed, with the loss of their Grand Vizier Ali, and 30,000 slain ; while fifty standards, 250 pieces of cannon, and all their baggage, were taken. Other, but minor victories followed, and in the month of June the brave Prince Eugene invested Belgrade, the key of the Ottoman dominions on the Hun- garian froDtier. For two months it was vigorously de- fended by 30,000 men, while the Turkish army, under the new Grand Vizier, was intrenched close by, in a semi- circle which stretched from the Danube to the Save, thus inclosing the troops of Eugene in the marshes between those rapid rivers. By war and disease the Imperialists sufi[ered fearfully ; fighting of the most desperate kind ensued daily ; and there, while yet a child, the little Irish boy was taught to handle his esj^ontoon, and became a witness of, if not an actor in, those military barbarities which have always blackened a war along the Ottoman frontier. It was apparent to Eugene that the Turks, by destroy- ing the bridge of the Save, might obstruct his retreat, surprise a body of his Austrians at Semlin, or cut off his artillery, which were bombarding the lower town of Bel- grade, while sickness and scarcity pressed severely upon his slender force ; thus it became evident that nothing but a decisive victory would save him from gradual destruc- tion. Already the Turks, 200,000 strong, were within I 114 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. miisket-sliot, and would soon storm his lines, which were •defended by onl}^ 40,000 men, exclusive of the 20,000 who rere blocking up Belgrade. On a dark midnight — the 16th of August — after uniting his forces by firing three bombs, he attacked the mighty host of the Sultan Achmet — the most complete that Turkey had ever equipped for battle. Favoured by a thick fog, the Austrians broke through the slow and heavy Osmanli, stormed all their intrenchments at the point of the bayonet, turned their own guns upon them, and grape-shotted the turbaned fugitives, whose unwieldy army was totally routed, and fled, leaving every cannon and baggage -waggon behind. The surrender of Belgrade, two days after, was the immediate consequence of this brilliant victory, and the Peace of Passarovitz, which, under the mediation of Great Britain, was signed in July, 1718, succeeded in establishing a twenty-five years' truce, and securing to Austria the western part of Wallachia, Servia, Belgrade, and part of Bosnia. After this battle, Ulysses Brown, then in his twelfth year, was sent to Borne, where he continued his studies at the Clementine College, for the period of four years. In 1721 he went to Prague, and in two years completed himself in the study of civil law. He then entered the Austrian army, and in 1723 became a captain in the regiment of infantry commanded by his uncle. Count George Brown ; and such was his ardour and such his knowledge in the art of war, that only two years after, in 1725, we find him appointed to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the same corps. On the 15th of August in the following year he married Maria Philippina, Countess of Martinitz, the beautiful Bohemian heiress, and the last of an ancient and noble line. In 1730 he served in the expedition to Corsica, and by his bravery and example contributed greatly to secure the capture of Callansara, where he was severely wounded in the thigh. This successful expedition caused a rumoui' that the island was to be erected into a kingdom for the Chevalier de St. Ueorge — James VIII. of the Scottish FIELD-MARSHAL C0LT7T BHOWN. 115 Jacobites ; and George II., ou being bribed by the Oenoese, prohibited his English subjects from furnishing any assistance to the troops or inhabitants. In 1732, Count Brown was made Chamberlain of the Austrian Empire : and in 1734 was appointed full colonel of infantry, and Italy was the next scene of his service. France had resolved on humbling the overweening power of the House of Hapsburg ; the venerable Marshal Villars crossed the Alps, and with a combined army of French and Spaniards, burst into Milan, overran Austrian Lombardy, and carrying victory wherever he marched, in two months' time left only Mantua under the flag of Charles VI. The latter made strenuous efforts to protect himself — to secure the passage of the Rhine against the Marshal Duke of Berwick on one hand, and to recover his power in Italy from Villars on the other. The Diet voted him 120,000 men; the Count de Merci marched 6000 of these to protect the important fortress of Mantua ; and with a force increased to 60,000 soldiers, drew towards the head of the Oglio and Po. Leaving his young wife at the court of Vienna, Count Brown accompanied this force with his regiment of German infantry ; and it was among the first of those brave battalions which effected the arduous passage of the Po near Santo Benedetto, where the Count de Merci so boldly and skilfully surprised the French troops, and drove them back at the bayonet's point, with the loss of all their ammunition, baggage, and the cities of Guastalla, Novella, and Mirandola, of which he immediately took possession. During this campaign Count Brown distinguished him- self on every occasion, but most particularly at the great battle of Parma, on the 29th of June, 1734. There a de- sperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued in front of the city^ on the high road which leads to Piacenza ; and after a struggle as deadly as Italy ever saw, the Austrians re- mained masters of the field; but the Count de Merci, their general, was mortally wounded by a musket-ball, and Count Brown and the Prince of Wirtemberg, the lieutenant-general, had their horses shot under them. The l2 116 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. French made their most desperate stand at a farmhouse, from the walls of which " they mowed down whole com- panies of the Imperialists by grape and musket-shot. This dreadful conflict lasted for ten hours without inter- mission, when the enemy retired in good order towards the walls of Parma." On the field lay ten thousand corpges ; of the Imperialists there fell the commander-in- chief, seven generals, and three hundred and forty officers were killed and wounded. Thus ended an attack which the Count de Merci risked in direct opposition to the advice of Count Brown and other officers of experience. The Imperial army now fell back upon Guastalla, where it was the good fortune of Count Brown to save it and the cause of Charles YI. from total destruction. The Austrians, under the Prince of Wirtemberg, were posted between the Crostolo and the Po, near some strong redoubts at the head of one of their bridges ; and there, on the 19th of September, they were attacked by the French, when after a hard conflict of eight hours, during which Brown, then in his twenty-ninth year, charged repeatedly at the head of his regiment, the Austrians were driven back, with the loss of four standards, while the gallant Prince of Wirtemberg, old General Colmenaro, the Prince of Saxe Gotha, and many other brave men, were slain. Count Brown made incredible exertions to preserve discipline, and with his own regiment to cover the rear of the discomfited Imperialists, who were thus enabled to fall back in good order to a new and stronger position on the northward of the Po, where they kept the field until January in the ensuing year, when the wearied French and Spaniards retired into winter quarters. One of the most brilliant feats of the campaign was the destruction of the bridge which the Marshal Duke de Noailles had thrown over the Adige. At the head of his regiment the brave Irish soldier of fortune achieved this arduous task in sight of the whole French army, under a heavy dis- charge of cannon and musketry. Thus terminated the Lombardo campaign, in which Austria, if she did not lose tir honour, won but little glory, though in the two FIELD-MAESHAL COUNT BROWN. 117 battles of Parma and Guastalla slie lost ten thousand soldiers. The French strengthened their forces, and a cruel edict was issued at Paris, ordaining all British subjects in France between the ages of fifteen and fifty to enlist in the Irish Brigade, or go to the galleys — an edict which was enforced with such rigour, that in fifteen days all the Parisian prisons were crowded with British residents, chiefly poor Scottish Jacobites ; but France soon found other and more worthy means of reinforcing her armies in Italy and on the Khine, than by resorting to such inhos- pitable tyranny. For his services in the Italian war, Count Brown re- ceived a general's commission in 1736 from the Emperor Charles VL, who, discouraged by his reverses, signified a desire for peace ; but it was scarcely negotiated, before he became involved in a new war that broke out on the confines of Europe and Asia. The rapid progress of the Russians against the Turks, and their capture of the Crimea, excited the ambition of Charles, who, by the treaty of 1726, was bound to assist Russia against the Porte ; and now that prophecy, so often propagated, was in every one's mouth, that the period fatal to the Crescent was arrived ! Again the Osmanli turned their arms against Hungary ; and to protect that ancient kingdom rather than to assist the Czarina (who demanded of Austria 10,000 horse and 20,000 foot), Charles sent 8000 Saxon infantiy, under Field-Marshal Seckendorf and General Count Brown, with whom the Duke of Lorraine went as a volunteer. By the peculation of the commissai-ies and contractors, these forces suflTered incredible hardships, and their leaders found Gradisca, Bioc, even Belgrade, and all the Hun- garian frontier fortresses dilapidated, and incapable of being defended. More troops and 600,000 florins were promised to them from Vienna, but neither came. Thus Seckendorf and Brown found themselves before the Turks with a small army of recruits, destitute of horses, caissons, and all the munitions of war. On receiving 10,000 florins, they raised 26,000 infantry, 15,000 horse^ and 118 THE CAVALIERS OP FOETUNE. . 4000 irregulars ; but tlie indecision of the Emperor, wlio interfered with all their arrangements, the nature of their forces, clamours among their soldiers, cabals among their officers, the severities they encountered, and the pressing ardour of the Osmanli, gave to the Imperial arms but a succession of humiliating defeats ; and though Brown's fiery energy captured many small fortresses, others of greater importance were lost by Seckendorf, and at last Bel- grade, the scene of our hero's earlier service, was besieged. Banjaluca, a strongly fortified town, which has two castles to defend it, and which stands on the frontier of Bosnia, at the confluence of the Verbas with the Save, was skilfully invested by the Austrians under the Prince of Hildburghausen, but he was compelled to raise the siege, and after a bloody conflict, was driven towards the Save by the Turks. Charles, alarmed for the safety of Austria, ordered Keckendorf and Brown to march through Servia, and form a junction with the prince, which they immediately did, after dispatching a reinforcement to Marshal Keven- hiiller. With only 20,000 men they fought a way through Servia, and made themselves masters of TJtzitza, after a short siege, and would have taken Zwornick, but for an inundation of the Drina. On the 16th of October they encamped on the southern bank of the Save. Thus, they arrived in time to share some of the fighting near Banjaluca, and on the retreat from thence the Austrian baggage, sick, and wounded, were only saved from the barbarous Mussulmans by the personal exertions of Count Brown, who secured that movement by his valour and example. Discouraged by the misfortunes of his army, Charles VI. resolved to end a strife in which his troops gathered nothing but disgrace ; and, leaving the quarrel to the mediation of France, he bequeathed to the Czarina the •whole brunt of the war. The ill-success of the Austrians •was attributed to the unfortunate Seckendorf, the victim of circumstances and the cabals of the Jesuits ; thus he was committed, for an unlimited time, to the gloomy Castle of Glatz, an old fortress on the mountains of PIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 11& Silesia. On the peace of Belgrade being signed, Marshal Wallace was also sent prisoner to Zigieth, and Count Neuperg was placed in the Castle of Holitz ; and as these three generals were ordered to remain captive during the lifetime of the Emperor, no part of the stigma of their ill-success fell on their Irish compatriot, Brown, who, on his return to Yienna, in 1735, was created Field Marshal- lieutenant, and a member of the Aulic Council of War. In the following year, his friend and master, Charles * VI. (having unfortunately surfeited himself with mush- rooms), died. He was the last prince of the ancient House of Hapsburg, sixteenth Emperor of Germany, and eleventh King of Bohemia ; and the grave had scarcely closed over him, ere the disputed succession to his here- ditary dominions kindled another war in Europe. By the Pragmatic Sanction his ancient possessions were guaranteed to his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa (Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and wife of Francis Stephen, Duke of Tuscany), by Britain, Russia, Holland, France, Spain, and Prussia ; but the three last- named powers fell — as an old writer says — "upon the poor distressed orphan queen, like three wolves, without mercy or equity ;" and in defiance of their solemn league, the Bavarian Elector laid claim to Bohemia ; the sove- reigns of France, Poland, and Saxony demanded all the vast inheritance of Austria each for themselves ; and all prepared for open war, while Maria Theresa quietly took possession of her father's throne. At this startling crisis Count Brown was in command at Breslau. The first blow of this new and general con- test was struck by Frederick III. of Prussia, who, having at his disposal all the immense treasure which had been accumulated by the rigid economy of his politic father, together with 76,000 idle troops, for whom he had been left to find employment, now revived an ancient claim to Silesia, based upon such pretensions as the English kings of old advanced to the thrones of Scotland and France ; and suddenly marching twenty battalions of infantry and thirty-six squadrons of horse into the duchy, he took possession of Breslau, its capital, from which Count 120 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Brown was forced to retire, having only 3000 men, with whom he retreated towards Moravia, leaving small garri- sons in Glogau and Breig, which Frederick blockaded with six battalions. This was in the January of 1741. Frederick now offered to supply the Queen of Hungary (as Maria Theresa was styled) with money and troops to support her claims against the other violaters of the Prag- matic Sanction, provided she would cede to him the Silesian province. Aware of the danger of yielding to one pretender, she sent Count Neuperg (who, since the Peace of Belgrade, had been a captive) with an army to the assistance of the faithful Brown, who, after disputing every inch of Frederick's progress, had maintained the contest with him single-handed for two months. The King of Prussia sent a detachment of infantry across the Oder to attack Brown's garrison of 300 men in Namslau, where they surrendered in a fortnight. Leaving one regiment in Breslau, he marched against Brown's next garrison, consisting of 400 men, in Ohlau, under Colonel Formentini, who finding the place ruinous, and the Prussians overwhelming, capitulated. Then General Kleist invested Breig with five battalions and four squadrons. Count Neuperg, one of Austria's best generals, being a senior officer, assumed the command of the whole force, which he had first assembled in the environs of Olmutz, and sent General Lentulus to occupy the narrow defiles of Glatz in Silesia, and thus protect Bohemia. Neuperg, meanwhile, meditated operations on the Neiss, and his hussars cut off the King of Prussia's convoys and outposts in every direction. The skirmishes around Neiss were incessant, and in one cavalry encounter Frederick was nearly taken prisoner — a stroke which would have ended the war at once. After many manoeuvres and encounters, the armies of Neuperg and Frederick drew near each other, on the 10th of April, 1741, at Molowitz, a village in the neighbourhood of Neiss, where a desperate battle was foughfc. On this inauspicious day — inauspicious for the Austrian cause — General Count Brown (or Braiinj as the Kir.g of FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 121 Prussia names him in his works) commanded the infantry. The scene of the encounter was within a league of the river Neiss, and the ground was mantled with snow ta the depth of two feet. The Prussian army consisted of twenty-seven battalions of infantry, twenty-nine squadrons of cavalry, and three of hussars. The Prussian infantry were, at that time, says Frede- rick, who had brought their discipline to perfection, " walking batteries ! The rapidity of loading tripled their fire, and made a Prussian equal to three adver- saries." They came on with such ardour, that Marshal Neuperg had to form his troops in order of battle under a cannonade from Frederick's artillery ; but the right wing of his cavalry (thirty squadrons), under Roemer, fell headlong on the Prussian left, and drove back their blue- coated dragoons. On they continued to press, with swords uplifted, until the steady fire of two grenadier battalions routed them, and slew the brave Kcemer as he led them to the charge for the third time. At this critical moment, the infantry under Brown rushed on, and, though unsupported by cavalry, made incredible efforts to break through Frederick's serried ranks ; and in this struggle the first battalion of his guards lost half its ofiicers, and no less than 800 men. For five hours the firing continued ; and, as ammunition failed, the dead were all turned on their faces, and their pouches emptied, to carry on the strife, which was only ended by Marshal Schwerin making a motion with his left, which threatened the Austrian flank. " This," says Frederick, in the History of his Own Times, "was the signal of victory, and the Austrian defeat — their rout was total." This was at six, p.m. Count Brown was severely wounded, and Maria Theresa had 180 officers, 7000 horse and foot, killed, and three standards, seven cannon, and 1200 prisoners taken, with 3000 wounded. Brown, though faint with loss of blood, never left his saddle ; but, by his efforts at the head of the infantry, covered the retreat of the whole army, which JSTeuperg, who was also wounded, ordered to retire under the cannon of Neiss, leaving Frederick 122 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. victorious on the field, where he remained for three weeks. Availing himself of this success, the victor, after a short siege, took Breig, removed his head-quarters to Strehlen, and, on driving 4000 Austrian hussars from the important pass of Fryewalde, began to recruit his army among the conquered Silesians. Ke-establishing himself in Breslau, on being joined by the Duke of Holstein, his army, con- sisting of forty-three battalions and seventy squadrons, would soon have cut off all communication between the troops of Neuperg and his supplies ; and moreover, would have formed a junction with the armies of France and Bavaria, which had now taken the field in his favour — the former under the famous marshal, Duke de Belleisle, and the latter under their Elector. The outposts of their allied enemies were now within eight German miles of Vienna, and the cause of the young and beautiful Maria Theresa seemed almost desperate. She retired to Pres- burg, where her appearance before the assembled Palatines, with an infant son in her arms, kindled such an enthu- siasm that, as one man, they drew their sabres, exclaiming •■' We will die for our sovereign, Maria Theresa !' She sent for Count Brown in 1743, to be present at her coronation, and, as a reward for his past sei-vices, made him a privy councillor of the kingdom of Bohemia. The brave Hungarian nobles now rose in arms, and old Count Palfy marched at the head of 30,000 men to re- lieve Vienna, the Governor of which. Marshal Keven- hUller, had only 12,000 men to resist the three armies of France, Prussia, and Bavaria, while the Marshals Neuperg and Brown covered the roads to Bohemia with 20,005 men, as a protection against the kingdom of Bavaria, In all the operations of the Austrians, during the many en- counters and severe campaigns of 1742-3, Count Brown commanded the vanguard or first division, and always with honour. Prince Charles of Lorraine having succeeded Marshal Neuperg m command of the army, encountered the enemy near Braunau, and a desperate, but drawn battle (in which his forces suffered most) was fought, while FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT EEOW^T. 123 Prince Lobcowitz, on marching from Bohemia, drove the French from all their posts and garrisons in the Upper Palatinate Then the combined forces of the Prince, Brown, and Lobcowitz, forced those of Marshal Broglio to abandon their strongly intrenched camp at Pladling, on the Danube, and to fall back in confusion on the Bhine, while the irregular horse, Croats, Pandours, and Poot Talpaches, harassed their rear-guard, and extermi- nated the stragglers. In this expedition Count Brown seized Deckendorf at the head of the vanguard, captured a vast quantity of baggage, and obliged the French, after immense slaughter, to abandon the banks of the Danube, which the whole Austrian army, under the Prince of Lorraine, passed in security on the 6 th of June. On this spot a pillar was afterwards erected, bearing, in the following inscription, an honourable testimony to the valour of the Irish hero : — *' Theresiae Austriacae Augustse Duce Exercitus, Carlo Alexandre Lothairingico, Septemdecim, superatis hostilibus villis, Captoque Deckendorfio, renitendibus undis, Resistentibus, Gallis, Duce exercitus Ludovico Borbonio Contio Transivit hie Danubium, Ulysses Maximilianus Brown, Campi Marashalus, Die 5<» Junii," a.d. 1743. When Marshal Broglio reached Donawert, in the Swabian circle, he was joined by 12,000 men, under the warlike Maurice Count de Saxe, afterwards Marshal General of France and Duke of Courland ; but finding his main body almost destroyed, instead of hazarding a battle, he retreated before Prince Charles and Brown to Heilbron, and there abandoning to them his artillery and baggage, retired with greater precipitation to Prague. Lorraine followed, and encamped in sight of them, along the hills of Girisnitz. The French marshals offered to surrender Prague, Egra, and all their captures in Bohemia, provided they were permitted to march home with the honours of war These offers were rejected with 124 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. disdain; Prague was invested on all sides, and though the Marshal de Maillebois marched to its relief, he achieved nothing, for the Austrians possessed all the passes of the mountains, and he was compelled to retreat as a fugitive, harassed and galled by the troops of Prince Oharles, who left Prince Lobcowitz to watch the motions of the Dukes of Belleisle and Broglio in the beleaguered city. The latter of these marshals fled from his command in the disguise of a courier ; the former abandoned the city in a dark and cold December night, and, with 14,000 men and 30 guns, made his way towards Alsace, enduring imheard-of miseries ; 900 men whom he left behind him surrendered at discretion ; and thus again the ancient capital of Bohemia reverted to the House of Austria, which, however, lost the Duchy of Silesia by the treaty •of Breslau, which ceded it for ever to the kingdom of Prussia. In the year 1743 Count Brown was sent by his Imperial Mistress to Worms as her plenipotentiary to George II. of Great Britain, with whose ministers he spared no pains to arrange the important alliance between the Courts of London, Vienna, and Turin. On this ser- vice he acquitted himself with an ability no way inferior to the courage he had displayed in so many fields. The arena of his next service was again in Italy, where the Austrian forces were still fighting against the Spa- niards, and pursuing the old war between the houses of Eourbon and Hapsburg. The Count Gages, who commanded the Spaniards in Bologna, having received instructions from his imperious queen to fight the enemy within three days, or resign, and to fight whether he was prepared or not, passed tho Parano in the beginning of February, and, on the 18th, attacked the Austrians under Count Traun, at Campo Santo, a town of Modena, where another drawn battle was fought, and both sides claimed the victory. Count Gages found himself obliged to repass the river, and retire into Romagna, where he intrenched himself, and remained undisturbed till October, when Prince Lobcowitz, having assumed command of the Austrian army, boldly advanced, FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 125 and drove him back on Fano, It was at this crisis that Count Brown was sent by Maria Theresa to join her Aiistrians, whose ultimate object was the conquest of tha Bourbonic kingdom of Naples, to punish its king for violating a Jorced neutrality, and having joined Count Gages with 25,000 men. At this time the Empress-Queen engaged to maintain 30,000 men in Italy, provided the King of Sardinia would pay another force of 45,000, while Britain was to send a naval squadron to co-operate by sea. Lobcowitz and Count Brown had established their head-quarters at Monte Rotondo, near Rome, when their final orders arrived to invade the kingdom of Naples. Breaking up the camp, and marching towards Viletri, the prince dispatched Count Brown, with a division of German infantry and another of Hungarian hussars, to pursue the Spaniards (who began to retreat) as far as the river Tronto, with the double purpose of harassing them and endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the wild mountaineers of the Abruzzo. In fulfilment of his orders. Brown distributed everywhere manifestos in the name of Maria Theresa, urging them to throw off the Spanish yoke, and place themselves under her protection, promising, at the same time, to banish for ever the obnoxious Jews from Naples ; but these proclamations were unheeded by the Abruzzesi, who evinced no inclination to revolt. Meanwhile his commander. Prince Lobcowitz, had halted in the marquisate of Ancona, being somewhat uncertain in which direction to march. Pushing on, Count Brown crossed the Tronto, which separates the kingdom of Naples from the Papal territory. Entering, he gave all to fire and sword as he advanced. His route lay along the shore of the Adriatic by the high road to Naples, which crosses the river Potenza near its mouth, and lies on the confines of Ascoli. He laid most of the small towns in the Abruzzo under contribution. Some were fined in money — others in a certain quantity of barley bread ; but his necessary severity was greatly tem- pered by mercy. His advanced guard of hussars had daily skirmishes with the Spanish cavalry. 126 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. The passes being deep witli snow, so as to be almost impassable for artillery and baggage, Lobcowitz gave up all thought of entering Naples by the coast road, which was the only clear one, and very unwisely recaired Count Brown with his forces ; and as soon as they joined, began his march by the way of Umbria and the Campagna di Koma, with 6000 horse and 20,000 foot. Among the former were 2000 hussars ; among the latter were some irregulars, or free companies of what Buonamici, in his Commentaries, styles "Condemned persons and de- serters, who, despairing of pardon, and urged by the prospect of plunder, panted for an opportunity of coming to blows with the enemy." This small army advanced in three columns, two days' inarch apart, that the people might not be oppressed. Brown commanded the first. Advancing by Spoleto, Terni, and Narni, they reached Castellana, and held a council of war, at which Brown, the Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and the Bishop of Gurck assisted. A stormy debate ensued, and nothing was decided upon. Meanwhile the alarmed King of Naples, with the com- bined armies of Naples and Spain, was encamped on the hill of Anagni, in the Campagna di Roma. The Spaniards under Count Gages consisted of eleven battalions of in- fantry, three regiments of cavalry, under the Duke of Atri, five hundred horse-archers, and three hundred of the Duke of Modena's archer-guards (archers, of course, but by name) ; with the Irish Brigade, and a regiment of hussar deserters. The Neapolitan army consisted of eighteen battalions of foot and five regiments of horse. The vanguard was composed of light-armed mountaineers. The artillery was commanded by the veteran Conte di Oazola. Lobcowitz and Brown now began their march towards Home ; crossed the Tiber at Teverone, and halted at Marino, where of old stood the villa of Caius Marius. After a great deal of severe marching, counter-marching, and skirmishing, the prince resolved on assailing the «hiefs of the allies in their head-quarters, which they had FIELD-MAESHAL COUNT BROWN. 127 established in Viletri ; and this daring enterprise he com- mitted to Brown, his most active and able general. In Yiletri, the King of Naples and the Duke of Mo- dena, with most of the nobles and officers of their troops, had quartered themselves, and taken every measure to secure and fortify the town, which is situated upon a high mountain, surrounded by deep valleys, all difficult of access, but beautifully planted with vineyards and groves of olive-trees. It had several gates, a Minorite convent, and a town-house, which crowned the summit of the hill. Charles of Naples occupied the noble palace of the Ginnetti family ; adjacent to which were spacious gardens, a lane, and a bridge, all guarded by soldiers, and barricaded, and planted with brass cannon. The gardens communi- cated with the Yalmonte road, and thereon were posted two battalions of the Walloon Guard. The custody of the Roman gate was committed to the Royal Regiment of Horse, and the Duke of Modena's Life Guards, while at the foot of the eminence, to sweep all approaches, the most of the artillery were posted near the Capuchin convent. The right flank of the town was occupied by Spanish and Italian infantry ; the left by the cavalry, the Irish Brigade, and four battalions of the Walloon Guard. The Austrians had intrenched themselves on a hill, only a mile distant ; and there, by means of spies and de- serters. Count Brown had accurately informed himself of all the arrangements which had been made in Viletri ; but, brave as he was, on Prince Lobcowitz first proposing this hazardous duty to him, he was struck by the too evi- dent desperation of the service. " The Austrian forces," said he, " are insufficient for attempting so daring an enterprise ; it is impossible to reach the Neapolitan cantonment undiscovered, and I do not think we could force it without imminent danger, and a warm reception. In my opinion, the easier and the safer way would be to make a general attack with all our strength upon the enemy's works," Brown afterwards adopted the general's opinion, that a 128 THE CAVALIERS OP PORTUNIS. night attack was best ; and the time and manner he pro posed met with the consent of all who were present at their conference. Selecting 6000 men, he chose the 10th of August for this desperate expedition ; and Lobcowitz, to conceal all knowledge of the route chosen by the count in attacking Viletri, threw a chain of picquets and videttes over a vast extent of country. In silence, and without the sound of drum or bugle, he marched from the camp ; and none of his troops, save the Marquis de Novati, his se- cond in command, were informed of the object until they reached a valley at the foot of the mountain, near a church dedicated to St. Mary. The darkness of the night (says Castruccio Buonamici) was rendered more dense by the shade of the overhanging vines. At this moment, during a temporary halt, it was re- ported to the count that a soldier had deserted, and perhaps to the enemy. The Marquis de Novati fearing they were betrayed, urged a retreat, but Brown ex- claimed: — " No ; I am determined to advance. The die of war has been thrown !" And promising his soldiers ample rewards, he exhorted them to behave like brave men. Pushing on with ardour, the attack was commenced just as day began to break, by the cavalry outposts being cut to pieces, and the left flank of Viletri being furiously assailed, the infantry pushing on through walls and vineyards, and the Htmgarian horsemen with lance and sabre hewing a passage to the streets. A regiment of Italian dragoons were put to flight. The brave Irish Brigade attacked the advancing Austrians with such fury, as to hold them in check for half-an-hour, but in the end were nearly cut to pieces at the Neapolitan Gate. Marsiglia of Sienna, a Knight of Malta, defended a cottage with fifty dismounted dragoons, and displayed incredible bravery. The Walloon Guards were unable to assist the Irish until they were nearly all slain. Colonel Macdonel, eleven captains, thirty subal- terns, and a heap of Irish dead, blocked up the gate they had defended. The fury, the firing, and the slaughter oa FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 12S all sides of the hill were frightful. The King of Naples put himself at the head of his guards, crying, '- Remember your king and your ancient valour." But his efforts were vain ; the gates were all forced, his troops driven out, and nine of their standards taken. The street which led to the Ginnetti palace was set in flames : the Duke of Atri was nearly burned alive, and General Count Mariano was captured in bed. Brown's second in command, the Marquis de Novati, was taken prisoner, and finding his troops, who were busy plundering, about to be sur- rounded by those of Count Gages, he ordered his drums to beat a retreat, and retired to the intrenched camp of Lobcowitz. In this expedition he killed and captured 3000 men, hamstrung 800 horses, and brought off oOO more laden with plunder ; one general, one hundred other officers, twelve standards, and three small colours. His own loss was only 500. Disheartened by the partial failure of this affair — for the King of Naples had escaped them — destitute of forage for their cavalry and artillery, and encumbered with many sick and wounded men, Lobcowitz and Brown find- ing themselves unable to hazard a general engagement, and that autumn was at hand, became desirous of retreat- ing j and after pillaging Valmonte and cutting the Duke of Portocarrara's Italian corps to pieces, transporting their baggage and sick by sea to Tuscany, they threw a pontoon bridge across the Tiber beside the Ponte MoUe, and commenced a retreat in the night, demolishing all bridges as they left them behind, to bar pursuit. The count was named " the right hand" of Lobcowitz during the arduous operations which ensued ; and, by his usual activity and bravery, he frequently repulsed the pursuing Spaniards on the retreat from Yiletri, during the fortification of the Austrian camp at Viterbo, the retreat from thence through the forests of Orvietto, with a force now diminished to 13,000 men ; the assault upon Nocera, where Count Soro and 900 Italian deserters fell into the hands of Count Gages, who sent them in chains to San Giovanni, where every fifth man was shot — and many other similar affairs, until the Imperialists reached 130 THE CAVALIKP.S OF FORTUNE. their winter quarters at Rimiui, Cesano, and Forli, on wliicli the Spaniards and Neapolitans retired to Pesei'o and Fano. In the beginning of the following year, 1745, he was recalled from Italy by Maria Theresa, and sent into Ba- varia at the head of a body of troops against the youi; Elector, who was in alliance with France. He took tho town of Vilshosen by assault, and captured 3600 pri- Boners : 2000 were slain on both sides, and 6000 Hessians were forced to lay down their arms, and enter the British service for the campaign against the unfortunate Prince Charles Stuari. The count would have peribrmed many other feats of equal brilliance, had the war against Bavaria not been terminated suddenly by the terrified Elector, who, at the same time that Vilshosen was taken, lost Pfarrkirchen, Landshut, and had all his magazines de- stroyed, which compelled him to sign the treaty of Fussen, and in April to conclude a peace with the Empress-Queen. In the same year Count Brown was appointed General of the Austrian Ordnance. Though peace had been made with the Bavarian Elector, there was no rest for the soldier of fortune, who was im- mediately dispatched a third time to Italy, with 18,000 men, against the Spaniards, by Maria Theresa, whose hus- band had now been elected Emperor of Germany. He joined the Prince of Lichenstein, who was carrying on the war against the still -allied French and Spaniards under the Marshal de Maillebois ; and one of his first essays in the new Italian campaign was to attempt the recovery of the Milanese, out of which, solely by his activity, the allies were ultimately driven. He also formed a daring scheme to cut off the commu- jiication between the main body of the Spanish army and their forces under the Marquis de Castellar, by detaching General Nadasti along the left bank of the Po, with orders to amuse the enemy by countermarches, and by- pretending to lay a pontoon bridge across the river at Casale-maggiore, a town in Lombardy. While the de- ceived Spaniards were busy watching these feigned mo- '"^lifl, their guards, who occupied the right bank of the FIELD-MAESHAl. COUNT BROWN. 131 Po, were surprised and utterly cut to pieces by the Aus- trian irregulars ; and then Count Brown crossed the river at Borgoforte, near the strong Venetian castle, and pushing on from thence, captured Luzzara, a Parmese town four miles north of the scene of his services twelve years before — Guastalla, which he immediately invested, and took by assault, when Marshal Count Corasin sur- rendered, with 2000 prisoners. At this very time Cas- tellar, with 7000 Spaniards, hovered on one flank of the count's little force, and Gages was advancing on the other ; two movements by which his division must have been overwhelmed, had not the Prince of Lichenstein advanced to his support ; and on uniting they took Parma. At the battle of Piacenza Brown performed one of his most brilliant deeds, by destroying the right wing of the allies under the Marshal de Maillebois. This great en- counter took place in front of the city, which stands (m an extensive plain near the right bank of the Po ; earthen ramparts surround, and a castle protects it. Count Gages' army abounded in cavalry ; and besides its natiu'al strength, his position was defended by the cannon of the city ; so there was no hope of starving him out of his trenches — but battle was given on the 16th of June. The French, who had encamped without the Antonian gate, formed in three lines, and were the right wing of the enemy, with sixteen battalions of Spaniards under Lieutenant-General Arambure ; the centre consisted of nine battalions, the flower of the Spanish infantry ; the left were the regiments of Naples and Genoa. The battle began at daybreak, and the Spaniards charged with such fury that an Austrian battery, consist- ing of twenty-six pieces, was taken by Arambure, who was dangerously wounded. Count Gages broke their left, when 250 gallant men of Prince Eugene's dragoons bore them back, and struck a panic into the French, amongst whom the Marshal de Maillebois was fighting on foot. These dragoons were led by Count Brown, and by their charge the Spanish and Walloon Guards were routed, trampled under hoof, and destroyed. The allies made a precipitate retreat. Two days after the battle thej- k2 133 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. v/eve reviewed, and found to Lave lost 3220 who were killed, 4460 wounded, and 915 prisoners. The Count de Brostel, General of the French artillery, the Chevalier de Tesse, two Spanish lieutenant-generals, and the com- mander of the Swiss, were among the slain. Ten pieces of cannon and thirty pairs of colours were left upon that sanguinary field, where the Austrians buried 3.500 of their own dead. The King of S[)ain survived these tidings but a few days. On the 9th of August the combined French, Spanish, ind Neapolitan armies attempted to cro.-s the Po at the Lombra and Tydone. Count Sabelloni, with 7000 Aus- trians, made a noble stand against them, from nine in the evening till ten the next morning, when General Botta and Count Brown hastened to his relief, and the conflict began again with renewed fury ; and after a terrific cross fire of cannon and musketry, and a furious melee, in which Spaniard, Frenchman, Swiss, Italian, and Austrian soldiers were all mingled, with musket, sword and bayonet — no man valuing life or limb when compared with the glory of the day — the three allies were driven back, leav- ing 8000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, with nineteen guns and twenty standards, on the field. The Austrians lost General Barenclau (whose courage was ever rash) with 4000 men. Counts Brown and Pal- lavicini were wounded. The Spaniards lost the flower of their officers, and among them the young and noble Colonel Don Julio Deodato of Lucca, an accomplished cavalier and scholar. Marshal Maillebois and Count Gages retreated to Genoa, from thence to Nice, and from thence to Parma ; aban- doning Piacenza, of which the Austrians took immediate possession, and wherein they placed 9000 men, most of whom were suffering from wounds received in previous battles. Despite his wound. Brown remained at the liead of his division and with the army which pursued the Bourbon allies towards Genoa, taking every place by storm or capitulation on their route, except Tortona and the mandamento or fortified town of Gavi. On the Austrian vanguard under Count Brown (who FIELD-MARSnAL COUNT BROWN. 133 commanded during the absence of Count Botta, tlie new commander-in-chief) reaching Santo Pietro d' Arena, a suburb of Genoa, the city became filled with consterna- tion, and the senators sent the Marshal di Campo Esceria to learn from him on what conditions he would receive the city. But for some private reason Brown declined trmed KafFa. After these triumphant operations, Lacy entered the 146 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Ukraine, joined Marshal Munich, and together, in 1737, they laid siege to Oczakow, at the mouth of the Bory- Bthenes. Oczakow, or Dziar Crmienda, had then about 5000 houses, a mosque, a palace, with a number of tombs of the Crimean khans, which stood among their gardens and orchards. It had a castle, built by Vitolaus, Duke of Lithuania, and therein a Turkish garrison had been esta- blished since 1644. Munich and Lacy assailed the town and castle on the landward side ; but towards the seii they were attacked by the cannon of eighteen galleys. The Muscovites carried all their approaches with such impetuosity and perseverance, that, in a few days, the Turks and Tartars became filled with terror. Among those who distinguislied themselves particularly in this service were, General the Honourable James Keith (brother of the exiled Earl Marischal of Scotland), who was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and another Jacobite exile, Colonel Count Brown, a brave Irishman — " A Catholic," says Tooke, " who was compelled to seek his fortune in foreign countries, by the exertion of those talents which he would willingly have dedicated to the service of his own."" The garrison, which consisted of 3000 Janissaries and 7000 Bosniacs, stoutly defended themselves; but Oczakow was carried by assault. A bomb set lire to the town, and blew up its magazine ; Lacy and Munich seized this op- portunity to lead on their stormers, and, pressed by the foe before them and the flames behind, the Mussulmans were nearly all cut to pieces ; but not before they had slain 11,000 regular troops and 5000 Cossacks by bayonet and scimitar. The rapid success of these two generals against the Crim Tartars awakened the restless ambition of Austria ; ^nd the Emperor believing that, if he a-ssailed the Porte by the Hungarian frontier while the Czarina pressed her victorious arms along the shores of the Black Sea, the Empire of tlie Osmanlies would be finally subverted, declared war, and to co-operate with his troops, the Count THE LACYS. 147 Brown* left Lacy and Munich, and marched into Hungary at the head of a Kussian column. But the hopes of the Emperor were frustrated ! The Turks turned all their vengeance against him, defeated his generals, and besieged Belgrade. The Austrian Field-Marshal Wallace was defeated at Crotska, and the gallant Earl of Ci^aMford who served under him as a volunteer, received a wound from which he never recovered. The troops of Brown were also routed, and he was taken prisoner. The bar- barous Osmanlies stripped him quite naked, and bound him back to back with another prisoner for forty-eight hours. He was four times exposed for sale as a slave in the common market-place, and four times was bought by different masters, who treated him with the greatest cruelty. He gave out that he was a captain to lessen the price of his ransom, and in this deplorable condition was dis- covered by an Irish gentleman, who communicated his story to M. de Villeneuve, the French ambassador at Constantinople, by whom he was generously ransomed for three hundred ducats, and sent back to Russia, where h© died a general and governor of Biga, in 1789, in hia eighty-eighth year. The reverses on the side of Hungary overbalanced the success of Lacy against the Crim Tartars ; the Emperor lost heart, and the Czarina, though victorious again at Choczim in Bessarabia, where, on the 31st August, 1739, the forces of Munich defeated the Turks and swept the right bank of the Dneister, fearing that she was about to lose her ally, concluded a treaty of peace, by which. Austria ceded to the Porte, Belgrade, Sabatz, the island and fortress of Orsova, with Servia and Wallachia, while the Danube and the Saave were to be the boundaries of their empires ; but the Czarina retained Azoph, the im- portant conquest of Marshal Lacy, who, in obedience to her orders, demolished the walls and fortifications of the * This is not the same Irish officer of whom a memoir is given elsewhere. l2 8 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. city. To commemorate the exploits of him and Munich, she ordered a medal to be struck, having direct reference to the war in the Crimea, which was thenceforward to be an independent state. On one side of this medal was the legend — "ANNiE IVANOWNA, D.G., RUSSLE IMPECUTBIX," On the other was an eagle, with the words — "pace EUROPE PROMOTA, TARTARIS, VICTIS, TANAI LIBERATO, ANNO 1736." Marshal Lacy ended his days in honour, and a noble monument was erected to his memory ; but his less for- tunate compatriot, Marshal Munich, incuiTed the displea- sure of their capricious mistress, and was banished for twenty years to the most northern confines of Siberia. Kecalled in his old age by the Czar Peter III., he was made Governor of Esthonia and Livonia ; but died at Biga almost immediately after receiving that appoint- ment, in his eighty-fifth year. Joseph Francis Maurice Count Lacy, one of the great captains of the Seven Years' War, was the son of the preceding. He was born at St. Petersburg, in the year 1718, and learned the art of soldiering imder the eye of his father, and in the camp of Marshal Munich, in the service of the Czarina Anne, during her Crimean and Bessarabian cam- paigns At the age of twenty he was a captain, and to his knowledge and love of the art of war united a polished education, gained under the best masters in Germany. In 1740, on the accession of Maria Theresa to the Aus- trian throne, he entered her service, with the permission of the Czarina, and there, by his talents, courage, and gentle bearing won the esteem of his soldiers ; thus he Koon attained a majority, and then the rank of colonel He served in the Italian cam])aign as aide-de-camp to ' Count Brown, and at Viletri, had throe horses shot under nim. He distinguished himself still more at the siege of Maestricht, and obtained command of a regiment. THE LACYS. 1 if) In the war of the Hungarian Succession, after the co- wardice and extraordinary mismanagement of the Duke of Cumberland had covered the British army with dis- grace in the Low Countries, by allowing it to be out- flanked at Khloster Seven, by failing to defend the position at Maestricht, and forcing it shamefully to ca- pitulate, on the 8th of September, 1757, and thus abandon our ally, Frederick the Great of Prussia, that warlike monarch only pushed on the war witli greater vigour. In this disastrous contest the activity and Hgilance of Count Lacy soon recommended him to the notice of Leopold Count Daun, a native of Bohemia, and son of Philip Lorenzo, Prince of Tiano, the pupil oi Kevenhuller ; and he improved the good opinion of that great soldier by his fascinating manner and courticr-like behaviour. The friendship of Daun soon won him the rank of major-general ; and as such he commanded a brigade in his division, when, in 1757, conformable to the defensive system taken by Russia, Austria, and Sweden, the army of the Empress-Queen was broken into four great columns, to prosecute the war against the Prussians, French, and Bavarians, the violators of the famous Prag- matic Sanction. One column, under the Duke d'Aremberg, was jjosted at Egra ; a second, under Marshal Count Brown, was posted at Budyn ; a third, under Count Konigsegg, held Reichenburg j a fourth, under Marshal Daun, occupied Moravia. In his column were the brigades of Lacy and Lowen- stein, whom Frederick of Prussia styles " two young officers who ardently sought to distinguish themselves." Lacy was then in his thirty-eighth year. In Lusatia, during the winter of 1756 and the spring of 1757, these officers had given infinite trouble to the troops of Frederick. They had frequently attacked, sword in hand, his post at Ostritz, a Saxon town on the Queiss ; at other times, his intrenchments at Hirschfelde, a manufacturing town on the left bank of the Keisse, and also at Marienthiel. Hirschfelde, which was garrisoned by one battalion of Prussians, they assailed at four 150 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. o'clock one morning, with 6000 men ; two redoubts, which stood without the gates, each defended by two pieces of cannon, were repeatedly taken and retaken ; but after losing 500 men, Lacy and his brother-brigadier retii'cd, bringing off the Prussian guns as a trophy. These assaults were ineffectual, and many men were slain. Among others fell Major Blumenthal, of the Prince Henry's regiment — a brave officer. The Prus- sian corps of Lestwitz at Zittace, and of the Prince of Bavern at Gorlitz were harassed by perpetual alarms ; and such was the activity of young Lacy and Lowen- stein, that they kept them continually under arms, if not in action, during the winter months. As a brigadier, Lacy bore a distinguislied part in the battles of Reichenberg and of Prague, and in all the operations consequent to the invasion of Bohemia by Frederick the Great, whose policy it was ever to keep the scene of his wars as far as possible from his own territory ; thus his army entered the Bohemian frontier in four columns, from Saxony, Misnia, Lusatia, and Silesia, Tinder himself and Marshal Keith ; Prince Maurice, of Anhalt Dessau; Prince Ferdinand, of Brunswick- Bavem ; and the aged Marshal Schwerin. The division of the latter entered in five brigades, at five different places, and won the dangerous defile of Gulder Oelse from the Pandours, at the point of the bayonet. Everywhere the Austrians were driven back before this sudden torrent of Prussian soldiers, who advanced against the position of Count Konigsegg at Beichenberg, where 28,000 men were formed in order of battle, under cover of strong redoubts, and among steep mountains covered with dense forests. But the lines were stormed and the Austrians defeated, with the loss of 1000 killed, among whom were two counts, a prince, and a general, while twenty officers, four hundred soldiers, and three standards were taken as an augury of greater victories. On hearing of this defeat, Leopold Daun marched with all speed from Moravia to reinforce the main body of the Austrians, which, when joined by the regiments of Prague and Bavern, mustered 100,000 men. Making a THE LACYS. 15" feink towards Egra (which drew off 20,000 Austrian s in that direction), the King of Prussia and Marshal Keith marched against the other troops of the Empress-Queen ; and, crossing the Moldau on the 5th May, turned i\\o jBank of the Imperialists, under the famous Ulysses Count Brown, whose steady defence made the Prussians waver and fall back. On this the venerable Marshal Schwerin, then in his eighty-second year, stung by the unmerited reproaches of the king, who urged him to advance, dismounted in the marshy ground, and taking an infantry standard in his hand, cried, " Let all brave Prussians follow me /" But at that moment an Austrian bullet pierced his breast ; and falling thus, covered with years and glory, he closed a long career of faithful military service ; but the Prussian foot pressed furiously on, and after three cliarges totally routed the Austrians, whose general, Count Brown, also received his mortal wound, as already related. Finding the day irreparably lost, Count Lacy, Prince Charles of Lorraine, the Princes of Saxony and Modena, and the Duke d'Aremberg, with the remnant of their in- fantry, in all 50,000 men, took refuge in Prague, where the gallant Brown expired of his wound, on the 6th May. Meanwhile 16,000 cavalry fled to Marshal Daun, who had encamped at Bohmishbrodt the night before the battle. The Prussians followed up their victory with ardour ; Prague, with 100,000 souls within its walls, was invested closely ; Frederick pushed the blockade on one side, and Marshal Keith on the other. In four days they had it completely surrounded, and cut off every means of supply, agreeably to the last words of Marshal Brown, who, when dying, said : " Tell Prince Charles of Lor- raine instantly to march out and attack Marshal Keith, or all is lost." Lacy and others proposed to assail the Prussians in th^ night, with 12,000 Austrians, who were to be sustained by all the Pandours and Hungarian Grenadiers ; and thus to hew a passage, sword in hand, through Frederick's lines, and relieve Prague of the multitude of soldiers who were rapidly consuming the provisions of the people. An in- 152 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. famous desert(^r informed the Prussians of this gallant design, and thns they were all on tlie alert, when about two o'clock, in the darkness of a misty morning, a fiery tide of armed men rolled out of Prague, and assailing Marshal Keith at the bayonet's point, pressed desperately on towards the Moldau ; but, after a fierce and desul- tory conflict, in which Prince Henry (Frederick's youngest son) liad a horse shot under him, the Austrians were routed, and Lacy and other brave leaders were forced to fall back into Prague, with the loss of many killed and wounded. After this the Prussian batteries opened, and in twenty- four hours threw 300 bombs, besides many fire-balls into the town ; its streets were soon sheeted with fire, and men, women, and horses, with the sick and wounded, perished in vast numbers. The city burned for three days j flames and starvation drove the citizens to despair. Seeing their loved Bohemian capital on the verge of destruction, they besought Lacy, d'Aremberg, and other commanders, in the most moving terms, to surrender ; but war had hardened their hearts, and instead of com- plying, they drove out 12,000 persons who were considered as a mere incumberance. These unfortunates were hurled back by the Prussians to the walls of Prague, and thus the Austrians were soon reduced to eat their troop and artillery horses, forty of which were shot daily, and cut up for rations, or sold at four pence per pound to the wretched people, who still perished hourly by fire, shot, and famine. Two other sallies were made, and the Prussian camp was kept in a state of perpetual alarm. In this defence, so disastrous to the city. Lacy Wtxs of incalculable service in harassing the Prussian trenches, by his vigilance and restless bravery. Contrary to the advice of Keith, the king, on the 13th of June, left a small force before Prague, and, drawing off" his main body, marched against Dauii, who defeated him in battle at Kolin, and forced him to leave Bohemia — a movement by which the blockade of Prague was abandoned ; and the imprisoned Austrians received their deliverer with inexpressible joy. Lacy and THE LACYS. 153^ other generals issued out, with their breasts full of ardou? and vengeance, and followed the retreating Prussians over the Saxon frontier, sabring all stragglers who fell into their power. To narrate all the military operations in which Count Lacy bore a part, would be to rehearse the history of the Seven Years' War. He owed his elevation and high consideration as much to his own bravery and skill as to the patronage and friendship of Daun, who consulted him. on every occasion, and employed him in the execution of the most delicate measures. Though by his vigour and decision he frequently urged Marshal Daun on many a bold enterprise, he was possessed of great coolness and presence of mind. " His ardour,** says the historian of the House of Hapsburg, " never ex- ceeded the bounds of prudence, or hurried him into attempts which might incur the censure of his patron." He was of great service in drilling and training the Austrian forces to perform those new and difficult manoeuvres of which Daun was the inventor; he was a strict disciplinarian, a friend to order, and by his precept and example succeeded in introducing a degree of eco- nomy into every branch of the Austrian military servica In 1758 the King of Prussia commenced the new cam- paign, and entering Moravia, invested Olmutz. General Lacy was then of great service in protecting the roads which led to Upper Silesia ; and, when posted at Gibau with a large body of Austrians, he sent a detachment of grenadiers to Krenau, where they harassed the Prussian rear-guard, till they were driven back by Wied. When Frederick retired from Konigsgratz, Lacy and St. Ignan followed him with 15,000 men, and had many sever© encounters with the Putkammer hussars, who formed the rear-guard of the Prussians. He served valiantly at the great battle of Hochkirchen, when the good old Marshal Keith, Knight of the Black Eagle, and Governor of Berlin, a general second to none in the Seven Years War, was slain that day, when fighting on foot at the head of the Prussian infantry; and here ensued an affecting incident. Afier the battle, hh 154 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. body was shamefully abandoned by the routed Prussians, and stripped by Austrian stragglers. Thus it lay long on the field, undistinguished from the thousands of others which covered it. In this degrading situation it waa found by "Lacy, who was riding over the ground, and with whose father (old Marshal Lacy) the venerable Keith had served in Russia, and by whose side he had been wounded in the Crimea. The count recognised the body, says Dr. Smollett, by the large scar of a dangerous wound which General Keith had received in his thigh at the siege of Oczakow, and could not refrain from tears on seeing his father's honoured friend lying thus at his feet, a naked, life- less, and deserted corpse ; and it must have been an inter- esting scene to witness these two exiles — the young Irish Jacobite weeping over the old Scottish Cavalier — on that sanguinary field. Lacy had the body immediately covered, ^nd interred with the honours of war, in the adjacent chui'chyard, from whence it was afterwards removed to Berlin. Lacy, with Daun and Loudon, bore a conspicuous part in the campaign of 1760, particularly in those manoeuvres by which the King of Prussia, notwithstanding all his skill and cunning, was frustrated in his Silesian ope* rations. Proposing to invade the Duchy again, he crossed the Elbe, on the 15th June, and was joined by the Prince of Holstein. On this. Lacy, who had been watching them, signed in February, 1763, by which it was agreed that a mutual restitution of conquests and oblivion of injuries Bliould take place ; and that Prussia and Austria should be put in the same position as when the hostilities began ; and thus happily ended this truly atrocious strife, in which nearly nine hundred thousand soldiers perished. Prussia fought ten pitched battles, and lost 180,000 men ; Russia, four great battles, and lost 120,000 men ; Austria, ten battles, with the loss of 140,000 men ; France lost 200,000; Britain, 165,000; Sweden, 25,000; and the Circles 28,000 ; while Austria found herself encumbered by one hundred millions of crowns of debt ! For fourteen years Lacy led a life of peace, devoting himself to the development of discipline in the Austrian army, till the death of the Bavarian Elector, on the 30th December, 1777, opened up a new prospect of aggrandize- ment to the Imperial Government, and again lighted the torch of war in Germany. The Elector Palatine, the Elector of Saxony and Duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin laid claim to the vacant Electoral hat ; but their voices were lost when the formidable and covetous House of Hapsburg also put forth a demand, and the Emperor Joseph and Marshal Lacy appeared with 100,000 men, and an immense train of artillery, at the celebrated posi- tion of Konigsgratz, above the confluence of the Adler and the Rhine. The Prussians and Saxons broke into Bohemia, and compelled Loudon to retreat^ and a year of the old manceuvring war and devastation followed, till the Con- gress of Teschen, by which Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine of the House of Neuberg, obtained the Bavarian hat, on the 13th May, 1779. The Emperor was com- pelled to relinquish his unjust claims, and tranquillity was restored to Germany, enabling Count Lacy, then in his sixty-first year, once more to sheath the sword ; and this command which he held in the Bavarian dispute was the last act of importance performed by him in the service of Austria. He had now the rank of Field-M!arshal which at the 162 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. age of tliirty-six he had declined, on the plea that his achievements were unworthy of it. He had the Grand ^ross of Maria Theresa ; he was a member of the Aulic Council, Chief of the Staff, and General of the Ordnance. During his command-in-chief of the Austrian ai*my, the following romantic incident occurred. A young Neapolitan noble, who, by war or gambling, had been reduced to poverty, became anxious to obtain military employment in the service of Austria ; and on being furnished with a letter of introduction to Lacy from another soldier of fortune who served in the army of Ferdinand IV., he travelled on foot towards Vienna. He reached the Austrian territories almost penniless, and one evening found himself at a poor way-side inn, not far from the capital. In the drinking room he met three officers who were also travelling towards Vienna ; and they, with the frankness of German soldiers, invited the stran- ger to sup with them, and in the course of the evening he told them what were his views and wishes, and that all his hopes depended upon Lacy. " I regret to say that your plan is a bad one," said one of the Austrian officers who wore the cross of Mai*ia Theresa ; " we have had a long peace, and so many of our young nobility are crowding to Vienna in search of mili- tary employment, that I fear there is little likelihood of Marshal Lacy being able to befriend a stranger." Undeterred by this, the young Italian said that he was iesolved to persevere; and he added an account of himself, of his family, their past importance and services in war, of his present necessity and circumstances ; and all this was related with a candour and modesty which so pleased Mm who appeared the senior officer, that he said, — " Well, sir, since you are resolved to try your fortune at Vienna, I will give you a letter to the Marshal Lacy ; it may prove of use to you, for he knows me well." Furnished with this additional credential, the Italian reached Vienna. He waited on Lacy and presented his papers ; all, at least, save the Austrian officer s letter, which unfortunately he had mislaid. Lacy read them, and THE LACYS. 163 frankly told him that to grant what he wished was impos- sible. Crushed by this, the Italian retired in desperation, for the state of his funds could ill brook delay. Three days elapsed, until chancing to find the letter he had ob- tained so peculiarly at the inn, he again presented himself at the levee of Lacy and delivered it. The marshal opened it, and on reading the contents, his face expressed the utmost astonishment. " How comes it, sir," said he, with severity, " that you did not deliver this letter to me sooner ?" " Because it was mislaid ; and from the casual manner in which it was received, I deemed it of little value." " Do you know from whom it comes 1" " No," replied the Italian ; " but the writer wore the gold cross of Maria Theresa." " That ojBficer with the gold cross was the Emperor — Joseph II. You ask me for a subaltern's commission, and he desires me to give you the rank of captain in a newly-raised regiment, and I have much j^leasure in obey- ing his orders." This young volunteer died a colonel of Hussars, and fell in battle against Custine, on the Upper Rhine, in 1792. Lacy's plans of military reform won him a high renown in the Empire, to which he extended the mode of defence previously employed with such success upon the frontiers of Bohemia. He established the great fortress of Konings- gratz, and strengthened the defences of Theresienstadt and Josej)hstadt, which are still the admiration of all engi- neers. He regulated the war finance by a system of economy, still remembered with gratitude in Austria. True and faithful to the land he served, he was ever ready to sacrifice his personal interests and feelings for the good ^ of the State. Of this he gave a prominent example in 1788, when Joseph II., having experienced only reverses in his contest with the Porte, was recommended by Lacy to entrust all to Baron Loudon (with whom he had ever been on terms of coldness), as being the only general capa- ble of repairing the misfortunes of the war. Finding his health failing, he visited the Spa at Baden, n 2 164 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. and on his return to VienDa died, full of years and honours, on the 28th November, 1801. He bequeathed to the Archduke Charles an extensive park in the environs, with a request that the people should have free use of it. He had enjoyed the trust and confidence of Maria The- nesa, of Francis I., and of Joseph II., to the full ; and lint) I he became enfeebled by time and wounds, he had more State patronage than any other subject in the em- ))ire. Frederick the Great had the highest esteem for his character as a soldier, and pronounced him the first tac- tician of the age, and assuredly the King of Prussia was no mean authority. They had often met in the field. With his characteristic acuteness, Frederick thus spoke of the two greatest generals against whom he led the Prussian armies. " I admire the dispositions of Lacy, but I tremble at the onset of Loudon !" Loudon, his companion and rival — of whom elsewhere — ended his career victoriously, after defeating the Turks and capturing Belgrade with the same soldiers whom Lacy had led to many a battle-field. Francis Anthony Count de Lacy, the celebrated Spanish general and diplomatist, was the next member of this Irish family who attained an eminent position in the history of Europe. He was born in Spain, whither his father had followed the Duke of Berwick, in 1731, and after receiving the usual rudiments of education, commenced his military career at the early age of sixteen, in the brave old Irish regiment of Ulster infantry, then in the service of his Most Catholic Majesty Ferdinand YL, who had succeeded his father, Philip Duke of Anjou, on the Spanish throne, in the preceding year, 1746. Francis Anthony Lacy served with this regiment in the Italian campaign of 1747, which was undertaken to advance the ciaims of the Spanish Bourbons to the crowns of Naples and Sicily, and to the Duchy of Milan, which had been claimed by Philip V., as successor to the House THE LACYS. 1G5 of Austria ; while he also demanded Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany", in right of his queen, though he had been obliged to relinquish them all by the solemn treaty of Utrecht ; but such is the faith kept by princes. The Irish regiment of the young Count Lacy was with the army of the Count de Gages, the Spanish commander- in-chief, who had then under his orders the combined armies of Spain and Naples. Genoa had revolted against the Austrians ; Marshal Boufflers had entered it at the head of 4500 Frenchmen, and thus encouraged, the Genoese resolved to die, rather than submit to the tyranny of the House of Hapsburg, whose armies made incredible exertions to recover it. Then ensued the passage of the Var by the Marshal Duke de Belleisle ; the storming of Montalbano and other places ; the investment of Genoa by the Austrians and Piedmontese, and other operations of that extensive campaign, in which le Regiment Irian- dais dUltonie Infanterie bore a most prominent part, more so, perhaps, than their enemies relished, till the naval victories of the British Admirals Anson and Warren in the East Indian Ocean, and those of Fox and Hawke elsewhere, forced Louis XV. and his allies to listen to those proposals by which peace was secured to Europe by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 7th October, 1748. Passing through all the successive grades with honour to himself, Count Lacy, in his thirty-first year, obtained the colonelcy of the Ulster regiment, and, at its head, served in the war against Portugal in 1762, when Charles III. of Spain added to the calamities of his unfortunate neighbour Don Joseph, by invading his small dominions with a powerful army, which threatened with still further destruction his hapless city of Lisbon — then recently ruined by the great earthquake. One Spanish column, under the Marquis de Sarria, entered Portugal on the north ; a second, under the Count O'Reilly, took Chaves ; a third entered by Beira and spread along the Tagus. This wanton invasion was suggested to Spain by France^ as a means of insulting an ally of their common foe — Britain — and also of extending by conquest the power d the Houses of Bourbon 166 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNK. Britain supplied Portugal with arms, ammunition, and 10,000 men, under Brigadier General Burgoyne, who skilfully co-operated with the Count de la Lippe, a German, and with General Forbes, a Scot, who commanded the army of Don Joseph. Two regiments of Catholics were raised in Ireland especially for this service, and these are still existing in the British line. In all the operations of this war Lacy acquitted himself with the greatest honour. In 1780, he was appointed Commandant of the Spanish Artillery, and as such was employed at the famous Siege of Gibraltar, and was present with the army which, under the Duke de Crillon (the conqueror of Minorca), made "the last desperate and unparalleled efforts" to restore the key of the Mediterranean to the hands of King Charles III. General Elliot of Stobs, in Midlothian, with 7000 men, valiantly defended the rock against 40,000 soldiers who assailed it by land with 200 pieces of cannon : and against the combined fleets of France and Spain, forty-seven sail of the line, seven three-deckers (the strongest that had ever been built), eighty gun-boats, and a swarm of frigates and smaller vessels, which opened a shower of shot from 400 pieces of cannon against him. The first shot was fired on the 12th January, 1780, and it killed a woman in Gibraltar. The Spanish camp was crowded by French noblesse and Spanish hidalgos, who had all hastened there to behold ihefall of this great fortress. Under Lacy, the Spanish artillerists fired with great precision and effect ; but the determined old Geiieml Elliot defended Gibraltar with the most obstinate bravery ; and General Boyd (his countryman) recommended, for the? first time, a discharge of red-hot balls, which had the most disastrous effect upon the Spaniards by land and sea ; for at least 1500 of them perished. The British fired 716 barrels of powder and 8300 rounds of cannon-balls (more \han half of which were red hot) between the time of firing the first cannon and the last, on the 2nd Febmary, *.783, when the French and Spaniards Avere completely THE LACYS. 167 discomfited, and a peace was signed, which ceded the fortress to Britain for ever. For his services I^acy obtained the Grand Cross of Charles III., and the rank of Commander of the Cross of San lago, an old Spanish order of chivalry instituted by King E,amiro, in commemoration of a victory over th© Moors in 1030 — their badge is a red cross in the form o| a sword. He was also made Titular of the rich Comman* derie of Las Cazas Buenas, at Merida, in Estramadura. After the peace between Spain and Britain was firmly established, he was sent successively as plenipotentiary to Gustavus III. of Sweden, and to the Empress Catherine 11. of Russia (widow of the Czar Peter III.) ; and the success he obtained in his embassies proved that he had secured for himself and his royal master the love and esteem of the courts of Stockholm and St. Peters- burg. Immediately on his return fresh honours were heapedl upon him ; he was named, par interim, Commandant General of the Coast of Granada and Member of the Supreme Council of War ; then Lieutenant-General of the Spanish Army, Commandant of the Corps of Poyal Artil- lery, and sole Inspector-General of that branch of the service. He was also made Inspector- General of the manufactories of arms, cannon, and all the munitions of war throughout Spain and the two Indies. In consequence of an unlooked-for emeute in Barcelona the governor of which had not fulfilled his trust, u March, 1789, Lacy was appointed to the important and arduous ofiice of Governor and Captain-General of the Province of Catalonia. The Catalonians, who had long resisted the authority of the kings of Spain, and had fre- quently risen in arms to assert their independence and choose princes of their own, were still liable to partial insurrections against the viceroys, to whose yoke they submitted with sullen apathy, while they treated their monarchs with hatred and contempt, till the conciliatory visit of Charles IV. But Lacy contrived to win the love and esteem even of those sullen and jealous provincials, ttnd in every step of his career gave constant proofs of 168 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. disinterestedness, skill, and devotion to the king and country of his adoption. He seconded with great energy the measures taken by the Spanish Government to prevent the principles of the Erench revolutionists from crossing the Pyrenees. " Et fut reconduire sur la frontiere le consul de France, qui avoit tenu des propos indiscrets k Barcelone. Par le meme motif," adds a French writer, " Lacy retenait dan^? catalogue les emigres Francois." The pupils of the Royal School of Artillery at Segovia obtained from Count Lacy the amelioration of their severe system of discipline, an augmentation of the numbei- of their scholars and cadets, and the increase of certain branches of knowledge relating to their branch of the military profession, by the establishment of the schools of chemistry, of mineralogy, and of pyrotechny, of all of which he urged the creation. Some have supposed that Count Lacy was more ad- mirable for his lofty spirit, his sparkling wit, and tall and handsome figure — which approached the gigantic — than for his talents as a soldier; but his amiable and conciliatory character have never been denied, while his benevolence, his Christian virtues, and patriotism were extolled even by his enemies ; for he stood too high in the favour of the Spanish King to have friends alone. Such was Francis Anthony Lacy. He died at Barcelona, in the time of Charles lY., on the 31st December, 1792, in the sixty-first year of his age. On that occasion the most universal regrets were manifested at his funeral, which was conducted with great splendour and solemnity ; and the officers and cadets of the Spanish artillery, by whom he was sincerely beloved, celebrated him in high eulogies, which were published iu all the journals of Madrid and Catalonia. Don Antonio Ricardo Carillo, of Albornoz, succeeded him as Captain-general of Catalonia. Patrick Lacy, the brother of Count Anthony Francis, was major of the Ulster Regiment of Irish Infantry in the service of Spain, and died early in life, leaving a son THE LACYS. 169 named Louis, wlio was justly celebrated for Iiis bravery, his misfortunes, and romantic history. Louis Lacy was born on the 11th January, 1775, at San Roque, a judicial partido and town of Andalusia, six miles distant from Gibraltar, after the capture of which it was founded, in 1704. His father, Major Lacy, dying while he was yet an infant, his mother married an officer of the Brussels Regiment of infantry in the service of Charles III. Young Louis, at the early age of nine years, entered this corps as a cadet, with his stepfather, and accompanied it to Puerto Rico, one of the Spanish West India islands, which was used then as a penal colony ; it had been so for two centuries before. Thus a strong garrison was maintained at the capital, San Juan de Puerto Rico. As he grew older. Lacy showed so decided a vocation for the life of a soldier, that on his return to Spain, in 1789, Charles IV. removed him into the Ulster Regiment, among the gallant Irishmen of which his family name was held in high veneration ; and in that battalion of exiles lie obtained a company in 1794. In that year, when the French Republican forces in- vadt;d Spain, and commenced those operations which ended in the capture of Fontarabia and San Sebastian, Lacy was, with the regiment of Ulster, attached to the army of Catalonia, and fighting against them. The French were 40,000 strong, the Spaniards only 20,000. In Catalonia their progress was small ; but in Gui- puzcoa many places of importance fell into their hands ; for the Court, languid and slow in all its warlike opera- tions, opposed to them forces of inferior strength, and un- happily more accustomed to defeat than victory. Belle- garde was besieged by the French, who defeated the Spaniards before it ; yet its commandant, the Marquis de Vallesantero, held out bravely. On the shores of the Bay of Biscay the arms of the invaders were successful ; they made themselves masters of Passages, and the strong old castle of San Sebastian ; they penetrated as far as Tolosa, assaulted Placentia, and besieged Pampeluna, 170 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Lacy is recorded as having personally and particularly signalized himself in battle against the French on the 5th of February, and the 5th, 16th, and 25th days ot June, 1794 ; and to these circumstances their own military historians bear honourable testimony. Driven to extremities, Bellegarde surrendered on the 17th of September; and the brave Conde de la Union, after making a desperate and futile attempt to save it, fell in battle for his country, on the heights of Figueras, where 9000 Spaniards and 171 pieces of cannon were taken. The fall of Kosas followed, and the Court of Madrid trembled for the safety of the Catalonian coast. But the war was ended in the following year by the peace of Basle ; and up to that period Lacy served, with the Regiment of Ulster, with honourable distinction, and attained great experience in the art of war — ^that arduous profession to which all the exiles of his family had so successfully and especially dedicated their lives. In December, 1795, he embarked with his regiment for the Canary Islands. While there he unfortunately had a love intrigue with a young Spanish lady, of great personal attractions; and in gaining her favour, won, also, the enmity of the governor and captain-general of the colony, who, by ill-luck, proved to be his rival. Em-aged by the success of the handsome Lacy, the proud and re- vengeful Spaniard was so weak and unjust as to exile him from his regiment and the society of his companions in arms, by banishing him to Ferro, one of the smallest and most westerly of the Canary Islands. An arid and bar- ren place, it is a mere mountain pass, composed of dark grey land, dotted here and there by sombre bushes. Indignant at such arbitrary treatment, Louis Lacy wrote bitter and fiery letters to the captain-general, who made him a prisoner, and brought him before a Consijo de Guerra, or court-martial, by sentence of which he was condemned to imprisonment as one labouring under mental alienation, and, after all his gallant services, waA deprived of his commission. After a time he was permitted to return to Spain, and was sent to Cadiz en retrait. THE LACYS. 171' At that time Spain, having made peace with France, was at war with John YI. of Portugal. This contest was productive of no important event, and was termi- nated in 1801. Lacy arrived in Europe just as the last campaign was opened against the Portuguese; and hearing of it, he vainly solicited from the government of Charles IV. the honour of being permitted to serve in the Spanish army as a simple grenadier ; but the mal-influence of his enemy, the Governor of the Canaries, still followed him, and this humble request was refused him. Poor Lacy, in bitterness of spirit and almost without a coin in his purse, resolved to push his fortunes elsewhere. He wandered on foot through the Peninsula, crossed the Pyrenees, and, like an humble wayfaring pedestrian, passed through France, and arrived at the town of Bou- logne-sur-mer in October, 1803, when Bonaparte was assembling his great army for the invasion of Britain. Finding himself destitute, and without resources, Lacy enlisted in the 6th Regiment of light infantry of the French line, as a private soldier ; but his previous mili- tary knowledge, which was soon discovered by his com- rades and officers, obtained for him, in one month, the rank of sergeant. About the same time General Clarke (who was afterwards, in 1809, created Due de Feltre)- having heard of him, related the history of Lacy, of his father and uncle, to the Emperor Napoleon. Struck by a narrative so singular, Napoleon sent for the sergeant, and being charmed by his manner and bearing, in virtue of the rank he had previously held, generously gave him the commission of captain in the Irish Legion, which was then being organized at Morlaix, under Arthur O'Connor, for the service of France. General Clarke, Minister of War under Napoleon, being of Irish descent, had the idea of gaining over some of the old Irish aristocracy; and }Tadgett, another Irishman in the Foreign Office, had a scheme for enlisting Irish prisoners in the French prisons; a scheme which proved, however, unsuccessful. Arthur O'Connor had been M.P. for Philipstown, but rebelled in 1798, and after being imprisoned at Dublin, and tried for iigh treason at Maidstone, he was acquitted. In France 172 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. he became a genera], married tlie daughter of the Marquis de Condorcet, and died at Bignon in 1852. From Morlaix Lncy marched with his regiment to Quimper-Corentin, an old manufacturing town in the departement of Finisterre ; and while there became ac- quainted with a pretty French girl, Mademoiselle Guei- mer, to whom he became attached, and whom he married, in June, 1806, although her parents — old royalists pro- bably — were bitterly opposed to her espousing a soldier of fortune in the Legion of Exiles. Lacy was then in his thirty -first year. Three days afterwards the Irish Legion marched for Antwerp, and he took his wife with him. From Antwerp the Irish went to the pestilential Isle of Walcheren; there also his young wife accompanied him, and he ■obtained a majority. In 1807, he was appointed Clief-du-Battailon of the Irish attached to the army which Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, was to command in Spain, for the purpose of ac- complishing Bonaparte's unjustifiable scheme of usurpa- tion and conquest. Lacy's generous mind became deeply agitated at the prospect of being obliged to serve against that nation among whom his exiled family had found a home; and, notwithstanding the bitterness yet rankling in his mind against those who had treated him so ill in Spain, and who had dismissed him from the Regiment of Ulster, he determined not to draw a sword against the country of his father's adoption, and with sorrow sent his young wife, with their infant son, back to her family at Quimper, there to await the settlement of the Peninsular aflfaii-s. As Chef-du-Battailon, he still remained with the army which crossed the Pyrenees, in virtue of the base conspi- racy of the Escurial, and which marched unmolested through the barrier-towns of San Sebastian, Figueras, Pampeluna, and Barcelona, in the spring of 1808 ; and in the summer of that year he found himself with the French I army at Madrid. The events of the 2nd of May— the decoying of the THE LACYS. 173 lioyal Family to Bayonne by Bonaparte — their compul- sory renunciation of the Spanish crown — and other dark transactions, decided the noble Lacy on the course he should pursue. He relinquished his command of the Irish, and quietly quitting the capital, surrendered him- self a prisoner of war to the venerable Spanish general, Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, who, in his seventieth year, still held the command of the forces to which Ferdinand VII. had apjiointed him, as Captain-General of Castile and Leon. Struck with the story and magnanimity of Lacy, and revering his character, Cuesta, the last of the old Spanish cavaliers, appointed him at once Lieutenant-Colonel-Com- mandant of the Battalion of Ledesma, which had been raised in the small province of that name, near Salamanca ; and he gave all his energy and talent to discipline this regiment. For now Spain had risen bravely against the invaders, and the sturdy Asturians and Galicians, under Don Joachim Blake, a young officer of Irish parentage, had commenced the War of Independence. In all the operations of the Spaniards Lacy fought gallantly, at the head of his new regiment ; but more particularly at Logrono, in Old Castile, and on the retreat to the Ebro, at Guadalaxara, thirty-two miles from Madrid ; after the betrayal of which, the Spanish vanguard, which, under Venegas, had saved the army at Buvierca, by so bravely defending the pass, entered the city on the night of the 4th of December, 1809. The battalions (tercios) "of Ledesma and Salamanca, under Don Louis Lacy and Don Alexandre de Hore," skirmished for three hours with the French that night, on the banks of the Henares ; but after a desperate encounter, the flower of the Spanish troops had to retire before them. He was now appointed Colonel of the Burgos Regiment of Infantry ; and in the same year defended several de- riles of the Sierra Morena — that long, steep chain of mountains which the novel of Cervantes (more even than the valour of his countrymen) has made famous in Europe, and which divides Andalusia from New Castile. At 174 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Toralva he surprised and captured 3000 Frencli cavalry, and afterwards took command of the Spanish advanced guard, with the rank of Brigadier-General. He distinguished himself again at Cuesta della Reyna, and at the beautiful old town of Aranjuez. While Venegas occupied it, he despatched Lacy with a division to drive the enemy, 2000 strong, out of Toledo, which (as he did not wish to destroy the houses from whence they fired upon him, as it was a Spanish town) did not succeed. He next occupied Puente Larga on the Zarama, which was crossed by the foe ; and the Spanish general, fearing his retreat would be cut off, ordered Lacy to de- stroy the Queen's Bridge, and rejoin him, which he skil- fully achieved ; but not before the enemy's cavalry from Cuesta della Reyna had attacked him, and driven his troops to some heights above the river, the passage of which he left Don Luis Riguelmo to defend, with three battalions and four field-pieces. He was present, also, at the engagements at Almonacid de Zoreta, on the left bank of the Tagus, where, for nine consecutive hours, he remained under fire at the head of his brigade, and where 4000 Spaniards fell ; and again he met the French at the pass of Despina Perros, and in the unfortunate battle of Ocana, where Venegas, in his chivalric attempt to save his friends, the people of La Mancha, rushed, with his cavalry only, on a force consisting of 5000 foot and 800 hoi-se, and was defeated with great loss on the 19th November, 1809. The repeated reverses of the Spaniards after the battles of Ocana and Medellin (which was lost solely by the indecision of Don Francisco de Eguia), forced Brigadier Lacy to retire into Cadiz, where, as a reward for his ser- vices, he was named successively, Sub-Inspector, Major- General, Mariscial de Campo, and Commander of the Isle de Leon, which is a triangular tract of ground sepa- rated from the mainland by the river of San Pedro. The river side was strongly fortified, and the chan- nel flanked by batteries ; the whole position, as it con- tained 50,000 inhabitants, was one of great trust and THE LACYS. 175 importance. Here he directed the increase of the fortifi- cations, and commanded in many of those desperate and sanguinary sorties which were made against the enemy, who boasted that the Insurrection was confined to this small corner of conquered Spain. And now ensued the long blockade, which was not raised until the British won the battle of Salamanca, in 1812. On the 5th of May, 1811, Lacy took an active part in the battle of Chiclana, which was fought on the eastern bank of the channel of San Pedro, and immediately oppo- site the Isle de Leon. The brave defence at Cadiz greatly encouraged the Spaniards elsewhere. In June he was appointed Commandant-General of Catalonia ; but, unfortunately, was unable to prevent the ancient seaport of Tarragona from falling into the hands of the French. Indefatigable and unwearying, he rallied the remains of tlie Spanish forces, and, with the Guerillas, organized a new army, at the head of which, for a year and eight months, he maintained a constant, an obstinate, and unequal struggle with the troops of Napoleon. His glorious courage and undying perseverance gained for him, in 1812, the chief command of the army in Gallicia, about 10,000 strong. This force joined Lord Wellington ; but, aftei' active operations ceased, marched back into the pro- vince from which it was named, and went into winter- quarters. On the new campaign being opened, he ap- peared at the head of the brave Gallegos, and continued to disj^lay the highest military talent against the enemy, until they were driven over the Pyrenees by the British ; after which, the battles of Orthes and Toulouse, and the capture of Paris by the allies, by securing the peace of 18.14, restored tranquillity to ravaged Europe, and Ferdi- nand YII. to the throne of Spain. Strange to say, this event, for which he had struggled so hard, was unfortunate for Lacy, who, in consequence of his known attachment to the constitution of the Cortes, was deprived of all his offices — a base return for his many noble services — and he was coldly permitted to retire in obscurity, with his family, to Vinaroz, in the 176 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. province of Valencia, where he spent two years in peacev though brooding over his wrongs, and planning means of redress. In 181 G, fatally for himself, he returned to active life ; for, since the death of Parlier, and other brave men, who had fallen in attempting to secure to Spain that inde- pendence for which they had struggled against France, the eyes of all the Liberalists were turned on Louis Lacy, and in him their hopes reposed. Having gone to Calvetes, in Catalonia, to drink the mineral waters, it chanced that he met there an old com- panion in arms, General Milano, and his brother, Don Eaphael Milano, with two other Spanish gentlemen, whose political sentiments coincided with his own ; and, after several secret meetings, they boldly resolved on re-estab- lishing the Cortes at the point of the sword ; for Lacy, relying on the sympathy of several regiments, and the regard they paid to his name and achievements, hoped to make them revolt in his favour, on the 5th April, 1817, and proclaim the Constitution. Denounced by two traitors, the whole enterprise fell to pieces, and the four projectors failed to save them- selves.. Abandoned nearly by all on whom he had relied, the Unfortunate Lacy was arrested, with a few faithful friends, and conveyed, under care of a strong guard of soldiers, to a prison at Barcelona, where he was hastily tried by a subservient military commission, and sentenced to death — a doom which he heard with a calmness that staggered even the stern and partial judge who pronounced it. As a rising of the Catalonians in his favour was feared and expected, the officials of the arbitrary Government at Barcelona secretly embarked him on board of a small vessel, at midnight, on the 20th June ; and, resolving not to be cheated of their victim, sailed for the island of Ma- jorca; and there he was quite as secretly landed on a solitary part of the coast, and conducted, on the night of the 4th July, to the Castle of Belver, which was ganusoned by a regiment of Neapolitan soldiers. At four o'clock next morning he was suddenly brought THE LACYS. 177 cit of tlie fortress, j ust as clay was breaking, and conducted to tlie deep fosse before the gates ; there he was barba- rously shot by a platoon of Italians, pursuant to the orders of those who had conveyed him from Barcelona. Louis Lacy had already faced death too often to receive it otherwise than with the hereditary courage and coolnesf v»-hich had distinguished him through his eventful life, ant h efell with his face to his destroyers. His body was deposited in the old cathedral chuvcli of San Dominic, at Palma, the capital of the island ; but there it was exhumed, in 1820, and conveyed, with much ix3ligious pomp and solemnity, to Barcelona, and interred near the remains of his uncle, the Captain-General Count Francis Anthony ; while the newly-established Cortes, vainly to honour the memory of one who had died for them, named his son tlie first grenadier of the Spanish army. Thus perished Louis Lacy, in his forty-second year, one who, more even than Biego, had secured, by his patriotism, the Revolution of 1820. " Lacy" says a French writer, " etait done d'une forte constitution, et d'une ame ardent, energique et genereuse. Habile g6n6ral, intrepide dans les dangers, il s etait dis- tingue par des /aits d' amies, et par un patriotisme dignea des Grecs et des RomainsF 178 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Colonel Malttr fuller, OP THE IRISH MUSKETEERS. In the army of Ferdinand II., Emperor of Austria (who succeeded his brother Matthias in 1619), then commanded by Albrecht, Count of Wallenstein and Duke of Fried- land, were two brave Irish soldiers of foi-tune — James Butler, who commanded a regiment of Irish dragoons ; and his younger brother, Walter, who was colonel of a regiment of Irish musketeers. These gentlemen were nearly related to James, then Earl of Ormond, and were driven to seek service in foreign wars by the result of a quarrel between their family and King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, who had unjustly wrested from the Butlers their valuable estates, and bestowed them upon his Scottish favourite, Sir Bichard Preston, Laird of Craigmillar (near Edinburgh), and Knight of the Bath. This gentleman, who was after- wards created Lord Dingwall in the peerage of Scotland, and Earl of Desmond in that of Ireland, 6th June, 1614, claimed Ormond in right of his wife. Lady Elizabeth Butler, who was the only daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ormond, and widow of Theobald, Viscount of Theo- phelim. Such was the undue partiality of James for his countryman, the Viscount Dingwall, that in 1614, when Sir Walter, eldest son of Sir John Butler, third brother of the old Earl of Ormond, inherited that title, the Ormond estates (wliich in ancient times were an Irish principality on the left bank of the middle Shannon, in the northern part of Munster) were bestowed upon the stranger; and the king, to enforce his claim, ^vrt;:e » very peremptory letter to the Irish Privy Council. Six- COLOXEL WALTER BUTLER. 179 Arthur Chichester, Baron of Belfast, was at that time Lord Deputy and Chief Governor of Ireland. Finding the Council averse to this injustice, James, who was no- torious for entertaining the most absurd ideas of his pre- rogative, took the matter into his own hands, and^ charging the Earl of Ormond with " non-compliance," threw him into the Fleet prison, where he remained for eight years, enduring great want and misery, while all his old hereditary possessions were seized and confiscated,, by which his family were reduced and ruined. Preston, Lord Dingwall, was drowned in June, 1621 when on his way from Dublin to Scotland. He left an only daughter. Lady Elizabeth Preston, through whom his- titles and Irish estates went afterwards to the Earls of Ossory. The trouble in which the family became involved, and the wandering spirit which possessed the Irish, like the- Scots of those days, led the earl's two cousins, James- and Walter, into the Imperial service, where they soon obtained the command of regiments, and served under John de Tscerclai, the Count Tilly, and the great "Wallenstein, in most of the battles of the Thirty Years* War. In 1631, Walter Butler, with his battalion of Irish musketeers, formed part of the Imperial garrison which defended the town of Frankfort-ou-the-Oder against the victorious army of Gustavus Adolj)hus. Frankfort was even then a large town, and being capital of the middle mark of Brandenburg, was remarkable for its fairs and university. As it stood only forty-eight miles from Berlin, the imperial generals were anxious about its safety. Hannibal Count de Schomberg, the successor of old Torquato Conti, commanded the garrison^ which consisted of ten thousand horse and foot. The town was surrounded by strong ramparts and gates, but was divided in two by the Oder. At the head of eighteen thousand men, with two hun- dred pieces of cannon, and a pontoon bridge one hundred and eighty feet long, the warlike King of Sweden marched along the banks of the river, and appeared near the towa 180 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. on the 1st day of April. No troops ever presented a finer uspect than the Swedish, as they marched in several co- lumns to the investment of Frankfort, the attack on which was planned by Sir John Hepburn, of Athelstane- ford (afterwards a marechal de camp in France), who then commanded the green brigade of Scots in the service of Gustavus. In the army of the latter were no less than fifteen thousand Scots at this time. There is an old rhyme, which says — " He who lyes before Frankfort a year and a daye, Is lord of the empire for ever and aye." But, knowing well that the fiery King of Sweden would not remain a week if he could help it, Count Schomberg, the commander-in-chief; the Count de Montecuculi, an Italian; Campmaster-General TeifTenbach, and Colonel Herbertstein, made the most vigorous preparations to defend the place ; and to Walter Butler and his Irish musketeers assigned a post of the greatest danger. "Take him in every respect," says the historian of Gus- tavus, " he was one of the bravest officers in the Em- peror's service ; but as the Imperialists envied this gallant foreigner, care was taken to place him in the iveakest part of the fortification ; or, to speak more to the purpose, in a part that scarcely deserved to be called a fortification.'* In no way either daunted or disheartened, Butler resolved to make the best of it, and ordered his Irishmen to dig a trench and form a breastwork in rear of it ; and thus, iifter incredible labour, they formed a solid rampart in one day ; but that evening he went to Count Schomberg, and represented " that the post assigned to him was almost incapable of being defended, and that unless a sally was made that very night, to prevent the Swedes and Scots from coming nearer his indifferent parapet, the j)lace would be taken." But Schomberg heard him without interest or atten- tion. " Give me but five troops of cuirassiers, Count Han- nibal," s-aid he, " and five of dragoons, and at the peril of COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 181 life aud reputation, I will undertake to make the Swedes raise the siege." Envious of the honour already won by the stranger, the Imperialist declined alike the offer and advice, though secretly he dispatched, on the very service coveted by Walter Butler, a certain German commander, whose cuirassiers failed to perform the duty required, for they were driven in by the Scottish Highlanders of Gustavus, and their leader was shot, while Major Sinclair, of Sir John Hepburn's Scots musketeers, followed them almost into the town. Covered by the Rhinegrave's cuirassiers, under Colonel Hume, of Carrolsidebrae, Hepburn's brigade of Scots in- aenched themselves before the great gate of the town ; che yellow brigade occupied the Custrin road ; and the white brigade of Swedes was spread throughout the suburbs. After a smart cannonade, on Palm Sunday, the 3rd of April, the King of Sweden ordered a general assault. " The Swedish soldiers w^anting ladders for the scalirrg of the walls, runne to certaines Boores' houses hard bye, whence they bring away the racks in the stables, and those others without, upon which the Boores used to lay their cowes' meat. With these and some store of hatchets they had gotten, to a mightie strong palisadoo of the enemies' neere the walls they goe, which they fell to hewing downe. The enemies labouring to defend the stocket or palisadoe, to it on both sides they fall ; the bullets darkening the very aire with a showre of lead. The Imperialists being at length, by main force, beaten off, retire through a sally-port into the toAvne. Being entered within the outer port, there stay they and shoottt amaine. The King calling Sir John Hebron and Colonel Lumsden unto him — 'Now, my hrave Scotts (saies he), ' re- member your countrymen slain at New Brandenburg I' '"* The Scottish infantry advanced w^ith their pikes in the front rank and their musketeers firing over their heads ; thus a terrible slaughter was soon made of the Imperial- * Swedish Intelligencer, 1632. 182 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. ists. " One Scottish man," continues the quaint record of the Swedish war, " killed eighteen men with his own liand. Here did Lumsden take eighteen colours; yea, «uch testimony showed he of his valour, that the king after the battle bade him aske what he wolde, and he wolde give it to him." This brave officer was Colonel Sir James Lumsden, of Invergellie, in Fifeshire, after- wards made Governor of Newcastle by the Scottish Par- liament, and a major-general in the army which invaded England in 1640. Meanwhile Gustavus was pressing with his own brigade Tipon the quarter occupied by Butler and his Irish mus- keteers, i^^ho defended themselves with incredible resolu- tion; so much so, that when one of them was dragged over the rampart, he was asked by the Swedish king, *' what soldiers these were who fought so valiantly f •*' Colonel Butler's Irish regiment," replied the prisoner. This was at half- past one in the day, and Gustavus, on liearing it (according to Harte), drew off his brigade, and in despair of forcing a passage through the Irish, assailed the strong Gueben gate, and about four in the afternoon loroke into the town through the Germans. The Governor, Schomberg, Campmaster-General TiefFen- bach, the Count de Montecuculi, Colonels Behem and Her- bertstein, with most of the Imperialists, fled out of the city with great baseness, leaving the faithful Butler to fight single-handed against the tides of Swedes and Scots who surrounded his almost indefensible post. Already three Irish lieutenant-colonels, O'Neil, Patrick, and Macarthy were slain, with Captain-Lieutenants Grace and Brown, and Ensign Butler, all Irish, and many of their men. At last Walter Butler was pierced by a bullet, and had his sword-arm broken by a musket-ball, and when he fell the remnant of his gallant soldiers surrendered, and resistance was at an end. Meanwhile the fugitive generals fled towards Silesia, imd eveiywhere gave out that Butler and the Irish had betrayed Frankfort, by permitting the enemy to enter by their quarter, as it was the weakest ; and had it not been for a providential accident, adds an historian, Butler might COLONEL WALTER EUTLEF. 18o have been beheaded and degraded, in spiv of all his gal- lant services ; but next day, says one of the stormers, the Scottish Colonel Munro, in his history, " It was to be seen where tlie best service was done ; and truly had all tho rest (of the Imperialists) stood to it as well as the Irish did, we had returned with great loss, and without victory." He adds, there were taken fifty standards, one colonel, five lieutenant-colonels, " and one Irish cavalier, Butler, who behaved himself honourably and well." Hundreds of Imperialists were drowned in the Oder, and a vast quantity of plunder was taken. That night the King of Sweden gave a banquet to his principal officers and colo- nels, Sir John Hepburn, Munro, Lumsden, Sir John Banier, and others ; and when they were assembling, '• Cavaliers," said he, " I will not eat a morsel until I have seen this brave Irishman of whom we hear so much ; and yet," he added, to Colonel Hume, " I have that to say to him which he may not be pleased to hear." Butler's wounds rendered him incapable of exertion ; but on a litter of pikes being formed, he was conveyed into the presence of Gustavus, who gazed at him sternly, and asked with anger — " Sir, art thou the elder or the younger Butler T " May it please your Majesty," replied the wounded man, '•' I am but the younger." " God be praised !" said Gustavus Adolphus. " Thou art a brave fellow. Hadst thou been the elder, I meant to have run my sword through thy body ; but now my own physicians shall attend thee, and nothing shall be omitted that may procure thee happiness and ease." The action by which James Butler had kindled so much indignation in the breast of the usually placid Gustavus is now unknown ; but it must have been something very remarkable to excite such angry bitterness. Had Walter Butler been a Protestant, the king would, no doubt, have endeavoured to lure him into the Swedish service ; but the wounded Imperialist was as famous for his strict adr herence to the duties of the Eoman Catholic church ai for his gallantry in the field. 184 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE, While lying thus helplessly at Frankfort, he was deeply stung and mortified by the rumour so wickedly and so industriously spread by the Imperial generals, that he had occasioned the loss of the town ; and he cast his honour under the protection of the generous Gustavus. " Sir," said the latter, " it is in my power to do your character ample justice, and in such a manner that it can never be controverted. I will bear full testimony to your faith and valour under my own hand and royal seal." Assuming a pen, he drew up a certificate, which set forth the heroism displayed by Butler in the strongest terms, and added, ^' that if the Imperial generals, instead of acting like poltroons, had performed but a fifth part of what this gallant Irishman had done, he (Gustavus) should never have been master of Frankfort, but after an obstinate siege alone." " This, sir," said the king, " is no more than is due to a brave and injured man j so every general in the room will take a pride in signing this paper with me." This was accordingly done by Sir John Bauier, the Scottish colonels, and others. James Butler, who was then at the coiu't of Ferdinand IL, at Vienna, was stung to the soul by the tidings that his brother had betrayed a post, and he wrote to Walter a letter full of the bitterest reproaches. "You have tar- nished the lustre of the Imperial arms, as well as the name of Butler," he wrote ; and Caesar's court-martial will make your name a bye-word of reproach." Walter Butler was grieved by this insolence and un- kindness, and hastened to show the letter to the King of Sweden. " Heed it not. Colonel Butler," said he ; " send our testimonial to the Emperor, and trouble yourself no more about it." Thirty thousand pounds' worth of plunder, and ten baggage waggons, with all the plate of the fugitives, were taken, and all their munitions of war ; however, they had buried in the earth a great quantity of arms. In 1850, a labourer, when digging a trench in a field near the out- works of old Frankfort, came upon a depot of old weapons^ COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 185 decaying, and covered withi-ust. Among them were 2000 matchlocks, being jDart of the munition concealed by the garrison of Count Schomberg. As soon as his wounds- permitted him to travel, Walter Butler left Frankfort, for Gustavus was too generous to detain as a prisoner one whose gallant spirit was writhing under unmerited re- proaches. He travelled towards Silesia, and sought out a Colonel Behem, wiio had commanded a regiment of German infantry at the defence of Frankfort, and to whom he was fortunate enough in tracing the first of the slanderous reports, and challenged him to single com- bat on horse or foot, with sword and pistol ; but, awed by the justice of Butler's cause, his known skill and courage, and by the formidable testimonial of Gustavus^- A dolphus, he signed a full retractation and apology. Butler then went into Poland, and at his own expense- raised a fine regiment of cavalry, all clad in buff coats, with back and breast pieces, and triple-barred helmets. While recruiting there he daily ran the risk of being murdered by the Polish peasantry, who were averse to the Imperial service ; but he mavched as soon as his new levy was completed, and on his return to the Emperor s army took possession of Prague, the capital of Bohemia. This made him more than ever a favourite of the great Wallenstein. Soon after this exploit he married the Countess of Fondowna. He was at Prague when the ambitious Wallensteitt became false to the interests of the Empire, and fell into • the deadly snare prepared for him at Egra by Colonel James Butler and others, on whoso unscrupulous fidelity the Imperial court could rely. Had Walter not been a rigidly honourable man, he might have realized a large - fortune by the death of his leader, who, being always fond of foreign troops, wished him to return to Ireland for the • purpose of raising a body of infantry to cope with the- Scottish brigades of Gustavus. For this purpose he offered him money to the amount of 32,000^. ster- ling by bills of exchange at Hamburg, and ready cash,, which was lying useless at his palace of Sagan, oa 186 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. the bauk of tlie Bober, in Prussian Silesia. But he de- clined the service with these remarkable words — " Poor old Ireland has been drained too much of her men already." This anecdote, says Walter Harte in his history, I learned at Vienna. The wild schemes and daring ambition of Wallensteiu now made him indulge in the hope of dismembering the great conquests of the Empire, and seating himself upon a new throne, to be erected by the sword in noi-thern Europe. This liope was crushed in 1634, wlien the great duke was spending the holidays of Christmas in the old castle of Egra in Bohemia. The garrison in this fortress was commanded by John Gordon, a Presbyterian, a native of Aberdeenshire, who was colonel of Tzertzski's regiment, and had once been a private soldier. Wallenstein's per- sonal escort consisted of 250 men of James Butler's Irish regiment, commanded by that officer in person. James Butler (without communicating the matter to his brother Walter), John Gordon, and Major Walter Lesley, son of the Laird of Balquhan in the Garioch, on receiving private instructions from Vienna, resolved, with- out scruple or remorse, on removing the ambitious general from the path of the emperor for ever. Butler prepared a grand banquet, to which he invited the generalissimo's attendants. Previous to the latter, Butler, who, felt some distrust of Lesley and Gordon, who were both Scots and Presbyterians, while he was a Catholic, made some remarks expressive of admiration for the duke. " You may do as you please, gentlemen, in the matter at issue," said Gordon ; " but death itself shall never alienate me from the duty and affection I bear his majesty the emperor." Thus encouraged, Butler produced a letter from Mathias Count Galas (who, after the siege of Mantua, obtained the supreme command of the Imperial army), wherein Ferdi- nand II. authorized them and all his officers to withdraw "their allegiance" from Wallenstein, for all the troops had taken an oath of obedience to him by the emperor's express order. Fully empowered ])y this document to d« COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 187 what they pleased, the three mercenaries resolved on hia immediate destruction. One proposed to poison him ; another suggested that he should be sent a prisoner to Vienna ; a third, that he should be slain after disposing of his friends at the banquet. The last was at onco adopted, and several were invited, among whom v^^ere Wallenstein's brother-in-law, Colonel Tzertzski ; Colonels Illo, William Kinski, and the secretary. Colonel Niemann. The castle was filled with soldiers on whom Gordon and Butler could rely. As the fatal evening drew on. Captain Walter Devereaux, Watchraaster Kobert Geraldine, and fifteen other Irishmen, entered the keep, and took posses- sion of a postern ; while to Captain Edmund Bourke, with one hundred more, was assigned the duty of keeping the streets quiet ; for Tzertzski's dragoons occupied the town, which is the capital of its circle, and was then sur- rounded by a triple rampart, washed on one side by the Egra. The banquet was protracted so long that at half-past ten the dessert was still on the table, when Colonel Gordon filled up a goblet of wine, and proposed the health of the shy and cunning John George, Elector of Saxony, the enemy of the emperor. Butler afiected astonishment, and said "he woidd drink to no man's prosperity who was the enemy of Ccesar.'" Pretended high words ensued, and while the unsuspect- ing friends of Wallenstein gazed about them in wonder and perplexity, the doors were flung open, and Geraldine and Devereaux, with their soldiers armed with drawn swords or partizans, rushed in. " Long live Ferdinand the Second 1" cried Deve- reaux. " God prosper the house of Austria," added Geraldine ; while Butler, Gordon, and Lesley, snatched up the candles, held them aloft, and drew their swords. Wallen- stein's friends saw that they were betrayed ; they sprang to their weapons, all flushed with wine and with fury at this treachery ; the tables were dashed over, and a deadly 188 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. combat began. Colonel Illo was rushing to Ins sword, which was hanging on the wall, wiien an Irishman ran him through the heart. Tzertzski placed himself in a corner, and slew three ; for the assailants, believing him to be proof to mortal weapons, were afraid of him. " Leave me, leave me for a moment," he continued to ciy, while fighting with all the energy of despair ; " leave me to deal with Lesley and Gordon — I will fight them both hand to hand — after that you may kill me ; but, O, Gordon, what a supper is this for your friends." -At that instant he pierced the young Duke de Lerida by a mortal wound, but was almost immediately over- ]»owered by ten strokes, and, with Kinski and Tzertzski, nearly hewn to pieces. Unglutted yet with blood. Captain Devereaux, finding his rapier broken, snatched up a partizan, and, followed by thirty soldiers, rushed to the apartments of Wallenstein ; who, having heard the uproar in the hall, had double-bolted his door within; and they assailed it with noise and great fury, while Butler stood, with his sword drawn, on the staircase below. Even the bold heart of Wallenstein was appalled by the unusual uproar — he leaped from his bed, and threw on a dressing- gown. He raised the window of the room ; but the wall of the tower was too high for escape, and he cried aloud — " Will none here assist me 1 Alas ! is no one here my friend r Upon this Devereaux knocked again, and commanded his soldiers to burst open the door. Five times their united strength failed before it, till he applied his own shoulder to it ; and, being a man of great power, he broke it to fragments, and then they beheld before them the formi- dable Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland and Prince of the Yandal Isles, standing near a table, in his shirt, pale and composed, but defenceless — for he had neither sword nor pistols ; for Schiller asserts that he was disturbed in the study of astrology. " Art thou not the betrayer of Ferdinand and the Empire V cried Captain Devereaux, as he charged his partizan j " if so, now thou must die." COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 189 "Wallenstein made no reply, but opened his arms, as if still more to expose his naked breast, into which the Irish captain thrust his weapon, and he expired without a groan, while all the soldiers shrunk back, as if appalled by the act ; yet his naked body, and the bodies of the Colonels Niemann, Tzertzski, Illo, and Kinski were carried in a cart through the streets of Egra, and tossed into a ditch. So perished the magnificent Wallenstein, the dictator of Germany ! James Butler and Devereaux hastened to Vienna, where the Emperor Ferdinand II. fastened round the neck of the former a valuable chain, giving, at the same time, his Imperial benison and a gold medal, saying, " Wear this, Colonel Butler, in memory of an emperor you have saved from ruin." He then created him a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and gave him the gold key of the bedchamber, with extensive estates in the kingdom of Bohemia ; and, to crown all, by an act of abominable hypocrisy, he ordered three thousand masses to be said for repose of the murdered general's soul. Devereaux also received a gold chain with the gold key and a colonelcy ; but he left the Imperial service, and returned home to Ireland in 1638. Colonel Gordon was created a marquis of the Empire, Colonel-General of the Imperial army, and High Chamber- lain of Austria. Major Walter Lesley, who was then a captain of the Body Guard, was created Count Lesley, and Lord of Newstadt, an estate worth two hundred thousand florins. He died Field-Marshal, Governor of Sola- vonia, and Knight of the Golden Fleece. James Butler enjoyed his countship only one year ; for he died at Wirtemberg in the early part of the year 1634, leaving a very ample fortune, and money to found a college of Irish Franciscans, which still exists in the Bohemian capital. To Laurmayne, confessor to the em- peror, he left a memorial worth twenty pounds by his will. To the Scottish and Irish colleges at Prague he bequeathed 3300^. ; to the Irish students at Prague, 500^. among them equally ; to his sister, 1000^. ; to Walter 190 THE CAVALIERS OP PORTTJNE. Devereaux whose partizan slew Wallenstein, 150^. Hi» widow, whom he left in easy circumstances, conveyed his nody into Bohemia, escorted by a troop of lancers and cuirassiers, and there she interred him near his own estates, vnth great pomp and splendour. In 1638, Thomaa Carve, an Irish priest, chaplain of Butler's regiment, and author of a minute account of these affairs,* obtained a commission as chaplain-general " to all the Scottish and Irish forces in the Imperial service." During the development and deTKmement of this daring conspiracy against the great Imperialist, his friend, Walter Butler, was in command at Prague, about seventy miles distant from the castle of Egra ; and he was filled with horror and dismay at the part played by his brother in the dark and terrible tragedy. It was, moreover, an un- fortunate event for him, as he never obtained any place at court, any military order, or rose one rank higher in the army from thenceforward — for, as a favourite of Wal- lenstein, he was an object of distrust to the emperor. In the same year his brother died. Walter served with distinguished bravery at Nordlingen in Swabia, where, on the 26th of August, 1634, a general engagement was the result of Field-Mai-shal Gustaf Home's attempt to relieve the town, then besieged by the Imperialists, who obtained a complete victory ; for the Swedish army was defeated with great loss, and had 4000 baggage-waggons, 80 pieces of cannon, and 300 stand of coloui-s taken. The Scottish brigades suffered severely. In particular the Highland regiment of Colonel Robert Munro, which by the slaughter of that fatal day was reduced to one company. By his valour a.nd example Walter Butler, at the head of his regiment, " decided the victory in favour of the Imperialists." To quote Harte — " He stood firm, with- out losing one inch of ground, for three-and-twenty hours, during a continual fire, and though 16,000 soldiers weir killed in that engagement." Soon after this great battle he died of a severe illness The descendants of his brother distinguished themselvei* * Thomas Carve (Tipperarlensis), /resent at the capture of the free city of Ulm, in the Swabian circle, on the 17th October, 1805, and at other operations, which drove the army of the Archduke Ferdinand across the Danube ; and, on the capture of Vienna by the corps of the brave Mumt and Lannes, he Avas named governor of the city and also of Upper and I,ower Austria, Ca- rinthia, Styria, Friuli, Trieste, (fee. His moderation and justice in this high command elevated him ainona; the MARSHAL CLAKKE. 203 victors, and won him the love and esteem of the van- quished. He also received the cordon of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and soon after was ordered to define the line of .demarcation between Brisgau, in the kingdom of Wirtemberg, and the Grand Duchy of Baden, Two months were spent by him in conferences and diplomacy. From the 9th to the 20th of July, 1806, he was engaged with the Russian plenipotentiary, and their interviews were terminated by the wonderful treaty v^hich opened and ceded to France, Cattaro, a Venetian territory in Dalmatia, with its capital, harbour, and cita- del ; and which maintained Gustavus IV. in possession of the ancient Duchy of Pomerania, and left to be achieved, at an early period, the junction of Sicily to the kingdom of Murat — the whole being arranged by them, without condescending to ask the advice of Great Britain, whicli was then the faithful ally of Prussia. This treaty was never ratified by the Emperor Alexander. The other conferences took place between Clarke and Lord Yarmouth, to whom Charles Fox added the Scot- tish Earl of Lauderdale ; while, to assist Clarke, the French government added Jean Baptiste Champagny, the Due de Cadore, who was only a spectator of the nego- tiations, whicli were without result, and are of no conse- quence to the reader ; but Clarke, who had displayed his usual acuteness, tact, and skill in all his meetings with the Lords Yarmouth and Lauderdale, was not a little proud of having prevailed upon M. D'Oubril to sign cer- tain clauses he submitted to him. Kussia, however, was in no haste to evacuate Cattaro, and the Emperor Alexander began to augment his army ; so from September, 1800, it became evident that if France declared war against Prussia, she would have to encounter Kussia also. In the first meeting concerning these afiairs Clarke said, "that the convention recently concluded with Russia v/as for France equivalent to a victory ; and that henceforward his master, the Emperor Napoleon, had the right of proposing articles more advantageous than those he had lately made.*' He qualified the terms of the treaty which he wished them to adopt, and in par- 204 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. ticular Vuti possedetis ; of vague conversations on tho politics of Rome, he said that Bonaparte had never adopted this uti possedetis for a basis, without which Moravia, Styria, and Carniola would have remained still in his hands. , Similar language, encumbered by diplomatic techni- | <;alities, was applied to the two envoys of Fox, but failed to succeed with them, as they were resolved not to depart in a single instance from the basis of the position taken before by the envoy of Prince Talleyrand. The death of ■Charles Fox put an end to all the hopes of peace, although Lauderdale and Champagny did not despair of procuring it until the 6th of October ; but by this time Clarke had set out for Germany, having accompanied Napoleon to the Prussian campaign. After the two battles of the 14rth October, he was named Governor of Erfurt, a for- tified city on the Gera, and capital of the Elector of Mentz. It was then crowded with Prussian prisoners, j and with sick and wounded Frenchmen. I For having been more in the palaces than in the camps I of Bonaparte, and being, moreover, of foreign blood, i - Clarke was reproached with being more of a diplomatist j than a soldier by those who were envious of the favour \ shown him by the Emperor. While at Erfurt he caused : the Saxon grenadiers of Hiindt to take arms, and sup- ; plied them with ammunition, colours, and several pieces j ' of cannon. On the 27th Napoleon summoned him to Berlin, and . appointed him governor, saying : — " I wish that in the same year you should have under your orders the capitals of two monarchies we liave con- quered — Prussia and Austria." "Thus Clarke, the inevitable Clarke, was appointed •Governor of Berlin," says De Bourienne, " and under his administration the wretched inhabitants, who could not flee, were overwhelmed by every species of impost and oppression. As in the execution of every measure there operated the most servile compliance with the orders of Napoleon, so the name of Clarke is held in detestation throughout Prussia." MARSHAL CLARKE. 205 The measures of Clarke, as Governor of Berlin, were doubtless mortifying, ruinous, and often sanguinary ; but then it must be remembered that he was comjjelled to enforce the iron will, and obey the stern orders, of his inflexible master ; though it must be acknowledged that it would have been more noble in him to have softened them to the vanquished Prussians. The military contri- butions were rigorously levied, and those were not the least of the severities exercised upon the people of Berlin. Offences were uselessly created, and then barbarously judged of by a military commission. The punishment of the unfortunate Burgomaster of Ciritz is forgotten amid the many barbarous executions •-^t which Prussia became the theatre, and against which hei people dared not protest. When the king, Frederick William, found himself seated with Clarke at the table of Louis XYIII. in 1815, he could not refrain from bitterly reproaching Clarke with what he termed "the useless murder of the father of a family." " Sire," responded Clarke, " it was an unfortunate error." " An error, monsieur ?" reiterated the king, striking his hand upon the table ; " an error — it was a crime !" Withal, it must be acknowledged that Clarke, in the high place he occupied, fulfilled, in every way, the trust reposed in him by Napoleon ; and that during his com- mand at Berlin, which occupied a year, he gave ample proof of his inflexible j)robity ; and we may perhaps believe, that many of the accusations made against him were the echoes of those comj^laints which are naturally raised by the vanquished against the troops of the victor. Doubtless he would have received greater praise had he striven to please others more, and his master less. By the ofliciai collections of Schoell, we are informed that Vendomme one day wished to appropriate to himself the magnificent furniture in the palace of Potsdam, where he resided ; but that Clarke, by his determined intervention, forced him to relinquish the idea. Clarke was again named minister of war, vice Marshal Berthier, Duke of Neufchatel and Prince of Wagram* 206 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTITKE. He acquitted himself with great credit during his admi- nistration, which was prolonged without interruption for several years ; but it was marked by two remarkable episodes — the descent upon Walcheren in 1809, and the conspiracy of Mallet in 1812. But we ought previously to have mentioned that in 1808 Clarke had been enno- bled by the title of Count Hunebourg, and in 1809 he was created Due de Feltre, from a town in Venetian Lombardy. The descent of the British upon "Walcheren took ■Olarke by surprise ; but seconded by Bernadotte and Fouche he collected, in less than five weeks, an army of 100,000 men, near the mouths of the Scheldt, to watch their operations ; but the swamps of South Beveland, and the Walcheren fever, proved more deadly to the British troops than the bayonets of France. When Napoleon was absent on his disastrous Russian campaign, the unfortunate disturbance, or rather wild enterprise of the republican General Mallet, with his ■compatriots Guidal and Lahoire, placed Paris for some hours in the hands of an armed mob. The coolness and presence of mind exhibited by Clarke during this mo- mentous crisis is above all common praise. Mallet forged «,n account of Bonaparte's death ; and on obtaining twelve hundred men from the 10th cohort of the National Ouard, made prisoners M. Pasquer and Savary, the Duke of Rovigo, and assailing General Hullin, Commandant of Paris, in his quarters, shot him through the head b}'^ a pistol-ball. Mallet led his party to seize Clarke as minister of war ; but the plot was soon discovered, and Mallet was captured and disarmed. This finished his proposed reassertion of the Republic, and fourteen of his followers were put to death, while Clarke ordered the arrest of many othei-s upon very slight suspicions. He then dispatched to Bonaparte a report, which displayed his own vigilance and acuteness in escaping the snare into which General Hullin, Colonel Soulier, Savary, and Pasquer had fallen so easily. The excessive zeal of Clarke began to relax about the end of 1813, although his language always continued th« MAESIIAL CLArvKE. 207 same ; tlius, when Napoleon, acting under tlie pressure of his disasters in Russia, proposed to make a ])eace, and yield up some of his conquests, the Due de Feltre, know- ing how to touch one of the sensitive chords in liis breast, said, "that he would consider the Emperor dishonoured if he consented to abandon the smallest village which hai been united to the Empire by a senatorial decree !" " What a fine thing it is to talk !" added old Bou- rienne. Clarke's opinion, however, prevailed with Napoleon, and the war, so fatal to him, continued ; though without doubt, in his secret soul, he had begun to see the exact and perilous position of the Emperor. Before the startling events of March, 1814, when the allies advanced upon Paris, and before the communications of Joseph had forced the determination of the Assembly, the acute Clarke had advised, very decidedly, the departure of Maria Louisa, who set out at once for Blois. The osten- tatious language with which he accompanied this advice failed to deceive any one ; but in spite of his efforts it was singularly cold and discouraging. He commenced his oration by a vivid picture of the conflicting state of parties, and of the state of Paris and its environs ; and his enemies accused him not only of exaggerating the dangers which menaced the capital, bub of concealing its actual resources ; but one fact is evident, Clarke was clearly and honestly of opinion that Paris was indefensible, and that to resist would be to destroy it 1 It is said that Bonaparte had a contrary opinion, though it was not then publicly avowed. When once Maria Louisa had left Paris, Clarke, fore- seeing its certain capitulation, did not take the necessary measures either to defend it or to check the progress of the allies. For three days he did not open the arsenals to the Parisians, nor would he allow them to transport the cannon from the Hotel des Invalides, and the Fcole Militaire to the heights about the city ; finally he clubbed all the troops of the line al)out Montmartre. '* Posterity,'* *ays a recent writer, " will decide if these measures were correct." 208 THE OAVALIEKS OF FORTUNE. Then followed the battle of Paris ; Marshal Marmoiit's return within its walls ; the nights of the 30th and 31st of March ; the capitulation ; the entiy of the allies, and the strange enthusiasm with which the vacilla- ting population received them. Napoleon was dethroned by a decree of the Senate, and a Provisional Govern- ment was formed ; and changing, like many others, in that time of change, to this new government, Clarke sent in his formal adhesion on the 8th of April, about one vjeek after Paris was taken. On the 4th of the following June he was created, by Louis XVIII., a peer of France. When Marshal Soult retired from office, King Louis appointed Clarke Minister of War — the same post he had held under the Emperor, who was then maturing plans of new operations in the little isle of Elba. It was tauntingly said of Clarke that it was his destiny and misfortune to see the affairs of both Bonaparte a,nd the Bourbons go to wreck, while entrusted to his care. The Memoirs of St. Helena assure us that Clarke, during the events of the Hundred Days, wished to retake service under the Emperor Napoleon ! If so, how differ- ent was his conduct from the faith that characterized Ney, Cambronne, and Macdonald ! A rumour of this, in 1815, led to the immediate departure of Clarke for Ghent, where, at the fugitive court of Louis XVI 1 1., he exercised his functions as Minit^ter of War; and from thence, some time after, he travelled to London, charged with a mission from the king to the Prince Regent,* afterwards George IV. During the time the allied armies occupied Paris, Clarke had a remarkable interview with the King of Prussia. On this occasion he was accompanied by M. de Bourienne and Marshal Berthier. They remained for some time in the saloon, before his Prussian Majesty appeared from his closet, and when he did so, the em- barrassment of his manner, and the cloudy severity of his countenance, was apparent to the thrcie visitors. " Marahal," said Jie to Berthier, " I should have pre^ ferred receiving you as a peaceful visitor at Berlin ; but MARSHAL CLARKE. 209 war has its successes, as well as its reverses. Your troops are brave and ably led ; but you cannot oppose numbers, and Europe is armed against the Emperor ; patience has its limits. You have passed no little time, marshal, in making war on Germany, and I have great pleasure in saying to you that I shall never forget your conduct, your justice, and moderation in those seasons of misfortune. Marshal Berthier, who deserved this eulogium, made a suitable reply ; after which the King of Prussia turned sternly to the Due de Feltre, saying, — " As for you^ General Clarke, I cannot say the same of your conduct as of the marshal's. The inhabitants of Berlin will long remenber your government. You abused victory strangely, and carried to an extreme measures of rigour and vexation. If I have an advice to give you, it is — never sliow your face in Prussia.'^ " Clarke was so overwhelmed by this reception from a crowned head," says M. de Bourienne, " that Berthier and myself, each taking an arm, were absolutely obliged to support him down the grand stair." On returning to King Louis, at Ghent, he resumed his duties of Minister for the War Department ; and as- suredly his task was both a severe and a difficult one. He had to arrange the disbanding of the Imperial and the re-organization of a Royal army ; he had to examine and decide upon the various claims presented by hundrechi of soldiers ; he had to satisfy the demands of two thou- sand officers who adhered to the king, and to send them into the interior ; he had to classify nine thousand officers of the disbanded army ; to arrange for the pay of six thousand others who were reformed — that is, continued on pay, but without being regimented : he had to examine six thousand claims for arrears of pay and pensions, claims that could admit of no delay, and which amounted to forty-six millions of francs ; he had to organize the Boyal Garde du Corp ; to reconstitute the gendarmerie ; to provide for the maintenance of th* •allied armies of occupation ; and all this he had to do, amid obstacles, disorders, and complexities without example. 210 THE CAVALIERS OP F0RTU2fE. Such was the mighty mass of labour submitted to the care of Clarke ; and of this herculean task he nobly and ably acquitted himself in leas than two years. All impartial writers unite in exculpating him from the angiy and unjust accusation of peculating with the enormous sums which were required and absorbed by the reorganization of the French army. But he was severely handled by military men for instituting those tribunals styled Les Cours Frevotales. In June, 1815, Clarke was with Louis XVIII. at Arnouville, and while there saved his friend, rran9ois Marquis de LagranQ;e, a lieutenant-general who in 1813 commanded the 3rd Regiment of Gardes d'Honneur, from great danger, if not from death. The marquis had been accused of offering his services to Napoleon, and hastily arrived at Arnou\'ille with his son, on the 30th June. As he -was about to wait upon Louis he was assailed by several soldiers, in whose hearts the love of Napoleon was fitrong. They called him a traitor, and tore away his sword, cross, and epaulettes. On becoming aware of these outrages, Clarke sent two influential officers to. repress the tumult, and himself led the marquis to Louis XVIII., who appointed him captain of the Black Musketeers. The zeal which Clarke now employed in the cause of the house of Bourbon was ultimately the means of liis downfall. Louis XVIII.. who each day conceded more and more to the enemies of his dynasty, after bestowing upon Clarke the baton of a Marshal of France, displaced him from office, and appointed Gouvin St. Cyr in his room. We know that after his dismissal all was changed in the department of the Minister of War. The i:>osition in which Clarke found himself during the last years of his stirring, active, and useful life was very painful and humiliating, especially to one of so proud a spii'it as his. Some of the more favoured personages who crowded the court of Louis XVIII., could not behold with a favourable eye this foreigner, who had been the War Minister of the great Napoleon, a confidant of his, and his co-operator in a thousand schemes of conquest ; on- MAESHAL CL\KKE. 211 the otlier hand, his old comrades of the Impeidal army affected to see in CLirke a deserter, a transferer of his allegiance, and, indeed, all but a traitor. Those whose base extortions he had repressed in other times now joined their clamours against him, and the Royalists cared not to say a word in his defence. Thus, at the end of his career, he was unjustly despised alike for his talents and virtues, as for his mistakes and weaknesses — for the good he had done as well as for evil. Clarke now found himself isolated and abandoned, and the conviction of this, together with the coldness with whioh he was treated, sank deeply into his proud and sensitive heart. It. aggravated an illness which preyed upon him, and he died on the 28th of October, 1818, in his fifty -third year. Such was the career of the Due de Feltre, one of the most famous of the Irish exiles. Clarke was master of many languages. He wrote with ease, with elegance, and with cnrrectness ; his style was often brilliant, and he knew thoroughly all that apper- tained to the details of a war administration. The state of complete disorganization in which he found the French service after March, 1814, proves the admirable tact and skill with which he could bring order out of disorder. Many of the old Imperialists, his enemies, coarsely accused him of treason and treachery, but Napoleon takea care partly to exculpate him from charges so severe. On being asked at St. Helena if he believed that Clarke had been true to him, the fallen Emperor said, with a sigh— " True to me — yes, when I was in my strength ;" and after a time he added — " I cannot boast of him being more constant to me than Fortune." This lessens the alleged drime of Clarke, while, at the same time, it lessens his nobility of conduct ; though it must be acknowledged that he did not leave Napoleon until he could no longer be of service to him. The Em- peror was not easily deceived as to the fidelity of a ibllo wer. 212 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. From Bourienne we know that, in 1796 and 1797, after all that passed between Napoleon and Clarke, the former still trusted in the latter, and never attempted to interrupt his despatches to the Directory or to the Chevalier de la Croix ; and nothing was ever found in them displeasing to the Commander-in-chief. Two great traits in the character of Clarke were, first, his hatred of all peculation and political knavery ; the other was his mania for office, and the despatches and details connected therewith. So poor was he during the earlier years of his career, that Napoleon had to portion one of his daughters ; and no instance of profusion or luxury has been cited against him. Inflated by his patent of nobility, he wished to make his genealogy great and lofty, and one day he believed that he had discovered his descent, by the female side, from the Plantagenets — an idea which exceedingly Amused Napoleon, who once said to him in a numerous company, about the time of his projected invasion of Britain, — "• Clarke, you have not yet spoken of your claims to the English throne — ^you ought now to make them good !"♦ * Biographie UuivenelUf &e. GENERAL KILMAINE. 3lS itneral pimatnt, COMMANDANT OF LOMBARDY AND GENERAL OF TnE ARMEE d'aNGLETERRE, Charles Jennings Kilmaine, a gallant and celebrated general in the French army, was born in Dublin in the year 1750, and was descended from an ancient Irish family which had always been strongly attached to the Roman Catholic religion, and opposed to the interests of England. So deep was the animosity of his father to the church and government as established in Ireland, that in 1765 he took Charles to France, and there recommended him, when only in his fifteenth year, to enlist as a private hussar in the Regiment de Lauzun, a distinguislied cavalry corps of the old French service, raised originally in the departement of the Garonne. He accompanied this corps to America, where he served in the War of Independence under the celebrated Marquis de Lafayette, Grand Pro- vost of the kingdom of France, and was present in most of those battles in which Washington and his generals so signally discomfited the troops of Great Britain. Asso- ciation with officers of the United States army, added to those impressions made upon him during his youth in Ireland and the teachings of his father, caused Kilmaine to imbibe strongly the sentiments of a revolutionist. Ho repeatedly distinguished himself in action ; and his colonel, the gallant Biron, after passing him through the more subordinate ranks, appointed him sous-lieutenant of a troop. On the conclusion of the war, the Irish hussar returned with his regiment to France, full of those ideas of liberty and insurrection which he had seen so signally triumphant in the New World j and nearly all his brother officers had 2H THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE, imbibed the same opinions. Thus it was with ill-concealed joy that the young Kilmaine and his comrades, the Hussars de Lauzun, in 1789, saw a Eevolution whicli seemed destined to achieve results like those they had witnessed in Americja, break forth in old monarchical France. In 1789 he was appointed captain of his troop, and continued to serve with the hussars, who became so much attached to him, that during the tumults of 1794 he con- tributed greatly, by his influence, presence and example, to retain under their colours nearly the whole of the regi- ment, which like the regiment of Royal Germans and tlie Hussars de Saxe, seemed disposed to desert en masse. Thanks to the patriotic zeal displayed by Kilmaine in the cause of his adopted country, the oS&cers of noble family who chose to become emigrants were alone lost to the service ; but this proved to him a new source of advance- ment, and he was soon appointed a chef cVescadre^ which in the French army is equal to the rank of a general officer, being commander of a division ; and about this time he enjoyed the friendship of his countiyman, the Corate O' Kelly, who was ambassador of France at Mayence, with an income of 30,000 livres per annum. As a chef d'escadre Kilmaine served throughout the first campaigns of the Revolution, and under Dumourier and Lafayette commanded a corps of that army which burst into the Netherlands and annexed that territory to republican France. He fought with remarkable bravery at the gi-eat battle of Gemappes, on the 6th November, 1792, and with his hussars repeatedly charged the Austrians, driving them sahre h la main along the road that leads from Mons to Valenciennes ; and so pleased was his general, the unfor- tunate Dumourier, that in the moment of victory he named him colonel ; but this nomination was not con- irmed by the minister of war. However, he was sooa after gratified by a brevet of marechal de camp, which made him, in rank, second only to a lieutenant-general. He continued to serve with this army, and to be one of its most active and able officers, during all the sufferings GENERAL KILMAINE. 215 wliicli siicceedeil the victory at Gemappes. It consisted of forty-eight battalions of infantry, and three thousand two hundred cavalry. In December, by the neglect of the Revolutionary Government, these troops were shirt- less, shoeless, starving and in rags ; fifteen hundred men deserted ; the cavalry of Kilmaine were soon destitute oi boots, saddles, carbines, pistols and even sabres ; the mili- tary chest was empty, and six thousand troop and baggage horses died at Lisle and Tongres, for want of forage. " To such a state," says Dumourier, " was the victorious army of Gemappes reduced after the conquest of Belgia !" Honourable testimony has been given to the unceasing efforts of Kilmaine to preserve order among his soldiers amid these horrors ; and w^ith other staff-officers, he fre- quently endeavoured by private contribution to make out a day's subsistence for their men, who roved about in bands, robbing the villages around their cantonments at Aix-la-Chapelle, and in revenge many were murdered by the peasants when found straggling alone beyond their out-posts. After the defection and flight of General Dumourier, Kilmaine adhered to the National Convention, and by that body was appointed a general of division ; and now he redoubled his energies to restore order in the army, which by the defection of its leader was almost dis- banded ; thus, in one month after General Dampierre took command, so ably was he seconded by Kilmaine, the discipline was completely established. He commanded the advance-guard of Dampierre in the new campaign against the allied powers, on the failure of the congress at Antwerp on the 8th of April, 1793 ; and his leader bears the highest testimony to the gallantry and noble conduct of Kilmaine, in the " murderous affairs of the 1st and 2nd May;" in which, according to the official report, he had two chargers sliot under him. Six days of incessant skirmishing succeeded, during which Kilmaine never had his boots off, nor returned his sabre once to the scabbard ; and he displayed the most reckless valour on the 8th of May, in that battle fought by Dampierre to deliver Conde. 216 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. The French were routed with great loss ; Dampierre was slain ; and on Kilmaine as an active cavalry officer devolved the task of covering the retreat of the infuriated and disorderly army, which fell back from Conde-sur- I'Escaut, which is a barrier town, and was then the nominal lordship of the unfortunate Duke d'Enghien. On General la Marche succeeding Dampierre, he sent Kilmaine with his division to the great forest of Ardennes, which formed a part of the theatre of war, on the invasion of France by the allies ; but he remained there only a Bhort time, and rejoined the main army, which he found in the most critical circumstances. The fall of Dampierre and the arrestment of Custine acted fatally on the army of the North, which was now reduced to about thirty thousand rank and file, and these remained in a disorderly state, without a proper chief, and without aim or object — its manoeuvres committed to chance or directed by ignorance ; for, with the exception of Kilmaine, its leaders were destitute of skill, experience, and energy. Quitting the camp of Caesar, they returned to their fortified position at Famars, three miles distant from Valenciennes, the approach to which it covered. Here they were attacked on the 23rd of May, driven back, and obliged to abandon the city to its own garrison under General Ferrand; a success which enabled the allies under the Duke of York to lay immediate siege to Cond^ and to Valenciennes, the two monfc important barrier towns upon the northern frontier. While the army of the North continued in full retreat towards the Scheldt, the British commander-in-chief briskly attacked Valenciennes, which General Ferrand first laid in ashes, and then delivered up ; his garrison, as the reward of their obstinate defence, being permitted to march out by the gate of Cambray, on the 28th of July, with all the honours of war. Condi had already fallen on the 10th of the same month. General Custine, who in the two preceding campaigns had rendered such essential services to the faithless Con- vention, was meanwhile brought to trial on the charge of corresponding with the enemy, and fell a sacrifice to the malice of his accusers. GENERAL KILMAINE. 2 IT Ifc was on the banks of tlie Scheldt that Kiluiain& rejoined the army early in August, with his division from Ardennes; and now his position became almost desperate. In presence of the scaffold erected by the ferocious muti- neers for all the vanquished generals, and in a camp where no suspected person dared to assume the precarious office of leader, when pressed upon him, he accepted the baton provisionally, and in the meantime said to the representa- tives who were sent from Paris to manage affairs and act iis spies upon the army, " that be vished »,3iother more skilful than himself should take the great responsibility of leading the troops of the Republic." His presence for a time appeased the tumults in the army. Though upon the banks of the Scheldt, and having before him both the Duke of York and the Prince of Coburg, Kilmaine, with only twenty-four thousand ill-appointed troops, dared not attempt to attack them ; for if he fought and lost the day, he could thereafter assume no position of sufficient strength to prevent the allies from penetrating to Paris and crushing the power of the Convention. After so many levies and enrolments, . that body had no longer a battalion to spare, and had around it only the frothy orators of armed clubs, and the refuse of prisons ; thus it dared not abandon the capital or retire beyond the Loire, for now the men of Poitou, Bretagne, and La Vendee were in arms under the white banner, and elsewhere the tides of war and politics were setting in against them. At this crisis Mayence had capitulated, after a three months' bombardment. Toulon was under the cannon of the British ; the Spaniards had- invaded Roussillon j the Austro-Sardinians menaced Pro- vence, the ancient patrimony of the House of Anjou ; and on the Alps their troops hung over Dauphine and Vienne ; finally, after the revolution of the 31st of May, which had assured the triumph of Robespierre, Lyons, Marseilles, and ail the departments of the south, with those of the west, were roused against the pride, power, and oppression of the Convention. If it was really true that the allied monarchs wished to re-establish the fallen throne of Louis XVI., — if. us 51^ THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNS. they had so proudly announced in their manifestos, it was to restore order to bleeding and desolated France, and to repress the Republic and its horrors, — they had dis- played their standards in the Netherlands, never were circumstances more favourable to them than after the retreat of Kilmaine towards the Scheldt : but the secret measures of wily diplomatists had more influence then, on events, than the arms of the allied kings. It ai)pears that, in the second campaign, when the allies were mastei'S of Cond6 and Valenciennes, and saw that the road to Paris was almost open to them, the Austrians wished to take their revenge locally for the cruel deeds of which they had been spectators in the Camp de la Lune ; j and were more intent upon gratifying this sentiment than advancing into the heart of France. ' The Prince of Coburg had shown himself from the first frank, loyal, and gallant ; he had promised to Dumourier to concur in his daring project for re-estab- lishing the monarchy, and for that purpose had engaged to form an auxiliary force to aid him, while solemnly renouncing all projects of aggrandizement for the crown of Austria. But for these engagements he had not re- ceived from his cabinet either instnictions or authority. When Thugut was supreme director of the Austrian affairs, it was to these rash promises of the prince his consent was required ; he disapproved of them so strongly, that they were cancelled by the Emperor of Austria, and a congress met at Antwerp, where, in concert with Britain, it was decided that in the result of the war the - allies ought to find indemnities fnr the past, and guaran- tees for the lature peace of Europe. These were the expressions of the protocol which the members of the congi*ess comprehended without diffi- culty; but French diplomatists loudly declared that a projected dismemberment of France was clearly an- nounced in its phraseology. One thing is certain : not a reference was made therein to the House of Bourbon, or to the throne of Louis — that throne of which Dumourier, in concert with the GEXERAL KILMAINE. 519 Prince of Coburg, liad so boldly promised the resfcora- tion in his manifesto of the 5tli April ; and not a measure was taken for the advantage or safety of the beautiful and unhappy Marie Antoinette, then languishing in prison at Paris, and over whose devoted head hung the blade of the guillotine, and whom a simple menace from her nephew the Emperor, threatening the advance of his armies, might perhaps have saved. At all events, it seemed sufficientl]?- evident to the jealous and excitable French that the allies w^ere no longer true to the interests of the fallen Bourbons ; and equally so that it was not to restore them the Austrians at least made war. It was in his own name — not that of Louis XVII., king of France and Navarre — their em- peror took possession of those fortified places and pro- vinces which his armies overran ; and after he became master of Conde and Valenciennes, he no longer cared to •define or form a frontier for those districts of the Nether- lands which once he proposed to cede to the Prussians ; but which Thugut now wished to preserv^e to the descen- dants of Rudolph of Hapsburg. At the same time the Duke of York, who from his own cabinet had received orders and instructions similar to those given to the Prince of Coburg, in the name of George III., resolved to seize upon Dunkerque, which the English had coveted of old ; but he did not wait for the departure of a British fleet prepared for this object. The naval squadron was delayed, and in the meantime the duke deliberated with the Austrian general under the ramparts of Valenciennes, to learn if, before engaging in new sieges, they might not give to the French army a final blow which would deprive Kilmaine of all power of interrupting their combined operations. This was a very simple question, yet they were four- teen days in coming to a conclusion. Though Valen- ciennes, as already stated, had capitulated on the 28th of July, it was not until the 8th of August that the Austro- British army was in motion, and its advance guard beheld the camp of Cffisar ; this on the very day after 220 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Kilmaine had wisely evacuated the fortifications and re- treated southwards. It is said that he fully anticipated the march of the combined armies ; and this was sufficiently probable, for we know that the committees of the National Conven- tion had mysterious means of procuring secret intelli- gence, not only from the cabinets of the allies, but from the staff officers of the German troops ! Kilmaine in retiring only obeyed the dictates of wisdom and necessity, and quitted a position which he could not defend, as his army was reduced by defeat and desertion, mutinous, or as the French style it, demoralized. If the allies had wished to follow and engage him. upon the Scarpe or the Somme, a last effort could easily have been made to disperse his troops completely, and then seize upon Paris, where they might have torn the Revolu- tion from its A^ery basis. But such was not the intention of the allied generals. " Their aim on this occasion," says a French writer, " was to profit by our disorders and revolutions to make themselves masters of our places and provinces after assuring themselves of indemnities and guarantees, and to leave the volcano to consume itself, as a Prussian prince said, not long ago : it must be admitted, that never had this policy shown itself more evidently in its shameful nudity 1' But the reader must bear in mind that these are the opinions of a Frenchman and a sympa- thizer with the Convention. Such was the state of matters when Kilmaine, having abandoned the untenable camp of Caesar, and fallen back beyond the Scarpe, a navigable river of French Flanders (but still a narrower barrier than the Scheldt) prepared again for retreat, and marched towards the Somme, another river which falls into the British Channel between Crotoy and Sainte Valori. This was his last position — his last asylum ; and now the chiefs of the allies, instead of pushing on in pursuit of his retiring bands to com- plete the triumphs so well begun, faced about, and wheeled off to seize Dunkerque and Quesnay. It was in autumn that the Royal Duke appeared before the former ; and there his troops received a check GENEhAL KILMAINE. 221 which proved but the commenceraent of a long series of disasters ; the latter was stormed by the Aiistrians, and retalven by the French in the following year. Bat what must astonish us, even at this epoch oi deception and duplicity, political insanity and revenge, is tlie startling fact that the brave Kilmaine, who had rendered such gallant services to that new and most faithless Republic — he who by a judicious retreat (exe- cuted against the advice of the meddling and presump- tuous representatives of the people, and in consequence thereof perilled his life) had preserved to sliattered France her most important army, was precisely for that reason denounced to the Convention, arrested by its orders, and flung into a loathsome prisons at Paris, where he passed a year ; being but too happy, in the obscurity of his dun- geon, that he had not perished on the scaffold like the gallant Custine, his predecessor in the command ; like his old colonel and protector Biron, and like Houchard, who for the brief period of fifteen days had been his suc- cessor, and who, after winning a signal and decided victory over the Duke of York — a victory alike honour- able to himself and to the arms of France, expiated by a cruel death the grave fault of having forgotten for a moment the powers of a bullying representative of the people ! Kilmaine only recovered his liberty after the fall of Robespierre ; but he still remained for some time in Paris, without military employment, though he eagerly and anxiously sought it. He found himself there at the epoch of the insurrection of the 22nd May, 1795, and with much zeal and valour he seconded General Pichegni in the struggle made by that officer to defend the National Convention against the excited mobs of the Parisian fauxbourgs. Amid a thousand dangers Kilmaine con- tinued to fight for the Convention until the 13th Vende- maire of the year following, actively co-operating with Bonaparte and the revolutionary party. Being appointed to the command of a division in the army of Italy, he marched with Napoleon across the Alps to the invasion of that country, and shared in the 222 THE CAVALIERS OF FOIITUNE. glory of his fii-st victories, and in that brilliant campaign in which the French destroyed two armies, took two hundred and eighty pieces of cannon, and forty-nine stand of colours from the Austrians, who were commanded by the veteran Wurmser, the bravest of all brave men. At the head of his division Kilmaine fought with re- markable courage at Castiglione delle Stiviere, a fortified town in Lombardy, where, in the beginning of August, 1796, several severe engagements took place between the French and Austrians, which resulted in the discomfiture of the latter. Mantua was the next scene of Kilmaine's achievements ; and in July that ancient city, after fifty yesLTS of peace, beheld the army of Napoleon before its walls, while all the country on the right bank of the Po was laid under contribution. The whole direction and charge of the siege of Mantua was committed to Kilmaine by Bonaparte in September, when Wurmser, after being successful against General Massena, was overthrown by Augereau and our Irish soldier, and after a six days' contest shut himself up in tne city on the 1 2th, after which the siege was pressed with great vigour. Twice after this did an Austrian army under Alvinzi attempt its relief, and twice were they baffled by the besiegei-s ; on the last occasion an advancing corps of seven thousand men were compelled to surrender to Bonaparte and Kilmaine within gunshot of the walls, and the position of the aged Wurmser, his garrison, and the Mantuans, became desperate in the extreme. In an action before Mantua in October, Kilmaine had his horse killed under him, and a rumour was spread through France and Britain that he was killed. Wurmser made several furious sallies, and on one occasion was se- verely routed by Bonaparte. In the Courier du Bas Rhiuy we are told that the French repulsed him with the loss of eleven hundred men and five pieces of cannon, and that "their dispositions were made by General Kilmaine, commander of the siege of Mantua." Bonaparte, in his dispatch to the Directory, dated the firat day a*^ October^ writes thus ;— GENERAL KILMAINE. 223 "On tlie 20tli of September, tlie enemy advanced towards Castellocio, with a body of horse 12,000 strong. Pursuant to the orders they had received, our advanced posts fell back, but the enemy did not push forward any further. On the 23rd September, they proceeded to Governolo, along the right bank of the Mincio, but were repulsed, after a very brisk cannonade, with the loss of eleven hundred men and five pieces of cannon. "Ze General Kilmainey who commands the two di- visions which press the siege of Mantua, remained on the 29th ultimo in his former position, and was still in hopes that the enemy would attempt a sortie to carry forage into the place ; but instead they took up a position before the gate of Pradello, near the Carthusiaii convent and the chapel of Cerese. The brave General Kilmaine made his arrangements for an attack, and advanced in two columns against these two points ; but he had scarcely begun to march when the enemy evacuated their camps, their rear having fired only a few muaket-shots at him. The advanced posts of General Vaubois have come up with the Austrian division which defends the Tyrol, and made one hundred and ten prisoners." In November a series of sanguinary actions wei-e fought between the French and Austrians at Areola, where the latter were completely overthrown ; and there fell Citizen Elliot, a Scotsman, who was one of Bonaparte's principal aides-de-camp. During this time Kilmaine was at Vi- cenza with three thousand men ; all the French cavaliy were sent there to be under his orders ; and though still commanding the operations against Mantua, he shared in the disastrous battle fought near Vicenza by the aged Alvinzi, who was advancing to raise the siege. Despair- ing to reach Mantua, the latter fell back upon the Vicenza road, and was routed after a bloody conflict of eight hours' duration. Early in December, Wurmser led a sortie, sword in hand, against Kilmaine. The Imperialists sallied out of Mantua at seven in the morning, and almost in the dark, uixder a furious cannonade, which lasted all day ; " but General Kilmaine," says Bonaparte, "made him return, as If24 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. usual, faster than he came out, and took from hiin two hundred men, one howitzer, and two pieces of cannon. This is his third unsuccessful attempt." So enerf^etic were the measures, and so able the precautions of Kil- maine, that Wurmser, seeing all hope of succour at au end, surrendered, after a long, desperate, and disastrous defence, at ten o'clock on the morning of the 3rd Fe- bruary, 1797, giving up his soldiers as prisoners of war. The following is a translation of Kilmaine's brief letter on this important acquisition : — "Kilmaine, General de Division and Commandant of Lombardy, to the Minister of War. Milan, 17 Pluviose (Feb. 5), 1797. " Citizen Minister — I avail myself of a courier which €reneral Bonaparte sends from Romagna (in order to announce to the Directory the defeat of the Papal troops), to acquaint you with the capture of Mantua, the news of which I received yesterday evening by a courier from Mantua itself I thought it necessary to announce this circumstance, because General Bonaparte, who is occupied in Bomagna annihilating the troops of his Holiness, may probably have been ignorant of this fact when his courier departed. Tho garrison are our prisoners of war, and are to be sent into Germany in order to be exchanged. I have not yet received the articles of capitulation ; but the commander-in-chief will not fail to send them by the first courier. Kilmaine." The capture of Mantua was celebrated in Paris by the firing of cannon and the erection of arches in honour of Bonaparte and the Irish Commandant of Lombardy, and a general joy was dififused through every heart in the city on the fall of what they styled the Gibraltar of Italy; while Bonaparte, loaded with the diamonds of the vanquished Pope, and the spoils of our Lady of Loretto, pushed on to seek fresh conquests and new laurels. Kilmaine remained for some time in command at Mantua after its capitulation. GENERAL KILMAINE. . 225 During tLe siege and other events, a revolutionary spirit had pervaded the Venetian States. Peschiera, a fortified town in the province of Yerona, and Brescia, a large city in the beautiful plain on the Garza, had been both seized, garrisoned, and republicanized by the French. The people rose in arms, fired by new and absurd ideas ck liberty and equality, and frightful scenes of bloodshed ensued when the more loyal and sensible inhabitants resisted these new patriots ; but the latter, on being joined by fifteen hundred banditti from Bergamo, pressed the Venetian troops, who were driven out with great slaughter. On hearing of these things, the politic Kilmaine wrote from Mantua to the French general commanding in Brescia, desiring him " not to interfere in behalf of these insurgents, lest by so doing he might infringe that strict neutrality which the generals of the French Eepublio were bound to observe." In April, however, he was compelled, by the violent proceedings of the Italians against the French garrison in Verona, to unite his forces to those of Generals Victor and La Hotze, and march to the succour of General Bal- laud, who was there assailed by forty -five thousand men, whose war-cry was Viva San Marco ! who had cut to pieces six hundred Frenchmen, taken two thousand more after a four hours' contest, and driven the rest into the castle. From its ramparts Ballaud threatened to lay in ruins the unfortunate city, which had enjoyed profound peace for ages, until Bonaparte arrived on the banks of the Adige, and added it to the new kingdom of Italy. On the 24th the insurgent Veronese capitulated, for on the approach of Kilmaine the governor, the two pro- ved itori, and the Venetian general Stratico, fled with all their cavalry ; on which he took as hostages the bishop, four of the principal nobles of the city, and several ca- valiers of distinction, and peace was thus restored for a time. He disarmed all the insurgents, and seized three thousand slaves, whom he marched under an escort to Milan. In every way Kilmaine aided Napoleon most efficiently in these operations which preceded the capture 826 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. jnad subjugation of Venice ; and thus gave his great leader a thousand causes to admire and appreciate him during those campaigns which were so disastrous to Italy, but so glorious to the arms of France. During his com- mand in Lombardy he settled or compromised the con- tested question of the free navigation of the Lake ot Lugano, in the south of Switzerland, which had occasioned many angry disputes between the jealous Switzers and the aggressive generals of the French army in Italy. By his intervention it was satisfactorily arranged that France should have the open navigation of the lake by boats of any size : but the cantons violated the treaty; on which Napoleon threatened to send a column of his troops among them, if they did not behave more amicably to- wards their faithful and ancient allies. At this time General Sir John Acton, the favourite minister of Naples at Milan, was a soldier of fortune, and the intimate friend of Kilmaine. The stoiy of Acton is rather a singular one. He was the son of a Jacobite gentleman who had emi- grated to France and settled at Besangon. An imsuc- cessful love adventure forced him to leave that city, at the college of which he was studying physic with every prospect of distinction. Repairing to Toiilon, he enlisted in a battalion of French marines. From this corps he passed into the Neapolitan service, and distinguished him- self at sea against a Barbary corsair ; on which he received a commission in the marines of Na{)les, and rose to the rank of general, Counsellor of State, and Knight of San Oennaro and Saint Stephen. He possessed a high spirit, great courage, good address, and a handsome figure ; and he soon became at the Court of Naples what the Prince of Peace was at Madrid — the favourite and lover of the Queen. He died in 1811. Another of Kilmaine's friends was the veteran general O'Cher, a cJtef de brigade, who had been upwards of forty years in the service of Louis XVI. and of the Republic, and held an important command in the army of Italy. In the Memoirs published by General Count Montholon, liud which were written by that faithful officer at St. GENERAL KILMAINE. 227 Helena, we have the following descriptive reference to the Commandant of Lombardy : — " Kilmaine, being an excellent cavalry officer, had cool- ness and foresight ; he was well fitted to command a corps of observation, detached upon those arduous or delicate commissions which require spirit, discernment, and sound judgment. He rendered important services tf the army, of which he was one of the principal generals^ notwithstanding the delicacy of his health. He had a great knowledge of the Austrian troops : familiar with their tactiques, he did not allow himself to be imposed upon by those rumours which they were in the habit of spreading in the rear of an army, nor to be dismayed by those heads of columns which they were wont to display in every direction, to deceive as to the real strength of their forces. His political opinions were veiy mode- rate." These are the words of a brother soldier, who must have known him well in the laud of his adoption. In the spring of 1798, the French Government was seriously employed in preparations for a descent upon the British Islands ; and, in the February of that year, marched to the coast of the Channel forty demi-brigades of infantry, thirty-four regiments of cavalry, two regiments of horse ai-tillery, two regiments of foot artillery, six companies of sappers and pioneers, six battalions of miners and pon- tooniers. Tliese forces were led by eighteen distinguished generals of division, and forty-seven generals of brigade — the most brave and able in France. Among the former were Charles Kilmaine, Berthier, Marescat, Kleber, Massena, " the son of Eai)ine ;" Macdonald, Ney, Victor, and otiiers whose names were to become famous in future wars as the marshal dukes of the great military empire. The brave but blustering Jean Baptist Kleber, who had originally been an architect of Strasbourg, commanded the right wing of this Armee cT Amjleterre, which was to stretch from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, while another corps assembled at Flashing. Kilmaine commanded the centre. q2 228 THE CAVAtilERSj OF FORTUNE. These forces were partly composed of troops returned from Italy, and were all experienced soldiers, the victors of Mantua, Lodi, and Areola. Headed by bands of music, the etdt-majors marched through Paris, displaying black banners, indicative of a war of extermination, and inscribed, "Descent upon England — Live the Republic! May Britain perish," &c. On St. Patrick's day, the 17th of the following month, Xilmaine, O'Cher, Colonel Shee, and all the Irishmen in Paris celebrated their ancient national and religious festival by a grand banquet, at which the notorious Thomas Paine — then a political fugitive — assisted. All the corresponding members of the Irish clubs and mal- content party at home were also present. Many fierce end stirring political toasts were drunk, amid vociferous enthusiasm ; and among these — one in particular — " Long live the Irish Republic !" and speeches were made ex- pressive of the rapid progress which republicanism had made in their native country, and of the strong desire of the Catholics and Dissenters to throw off the yoke of England — ^that yoke which Kilmaine in his boyhood had been taught to abhor and to hate. Napper Tandy, a jeneral de brigade, was in the chair ; on his left sat Tom Paine, and on his right sat Kilmaine, who, immediately after the banquet, left Paris to rejoin his column of the army on the coast. Five hundred gunboats were ordered to be prepared, and three hundred sail of transports were collecting at Dunkirk, to be protected from the British fleet by a Dutch squadron then at the mouth of the Scheldt ; and all Britain was in arms on hearing of an armament so formidable. The condition of France was then desperate ; assignats were at 6500 livres the louis ; she had to maintain a million of men in arms from an empty treasury; the ruffian demagogues and savage soldiers of the Republic^ men steeped to the lips in the blood of women and priests, nobles and aristocrats, hardened by the atrocities in La Vendee, and trained to the war in the campaigns of Austria and Italy, occupied every post and place under GENERAL KILMAINE. 229 the unstable government ; a rabble of \)rutal ministers occupied the palaces of the fallen line of St. Louis, armed with sabres and pistols, to which they resorted in every trivial dispute and on every difference of opinion, and while warring against all manner of title and form, appeared on the rostrum in cassocks and stockings oi rose-coloured silk, with knots of scarlet ribands in their shoes ; and, with that mixture of ferocity and torn-foolery which caused Paris to be characterized as a city of monkeys and tigers, debated on the cut of a coat and the massacre of a city. In April, Kilmaine repaired to Paris, after having executed, by order of the government, a survey of the coasts of France and Holland, then reduced to a province of the former ; and the chief command of this famous xVrmee d'Angleterre on which the eyes of all Europe were fixed, and the command of which had been given to the noble Dessaix, the hero of Marengo, was now bestowed upon him. A French writer asserts that this expedition was des- tined, not for Britain, but for Egypt ; and that Kilmaine re- ceived the command of it, not so much for his great military skill, as to deceive our ministry ; supposing that the name of an Irishman would cause them to believe that the armament was destined for Ireland ; and so they named him General in Chief of the Arniee d'Angleterre, which never existed at all." Unfortunately for this writer, history affords abundant proof to the contrary. The number of transports was soon increased to a thousand, and all the naval and military resources of Holland were pressed into the French service. Colonel Shee, Wolfe Tone, Generals Clarke and Kil- maine, were by this time well acquainted with the extent of the military organization of the United Irishmen, and knew that by the close of the preceding year the people were well provided with arms, and knew the use of them. In the beginning of 1797, great quantities were dis- covered and seized by the British Government, who, in Leinster and Ulster alone, captured 70,630 pikes, with 48,109 muskets. Had the Irish managed their projected 230 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. rising with the vigour which has ever charjicterized the Scottish insurrections, we cannot for a moment doubt what would have been the result, had this formidable expedition once landed in Ireland, where no yeomanry- were organized ; where the militia were not to be de- pended upon ; and where the king's troops, on whom the ministry mainly relied, were so little superior to the French in tact and skill, that Humbert, with less than a (thousand men, was able to defeat double that number, and immediately after received into his ranks 250 of the drilled and attested Irish militiamen. On the 12th April, Kilmaine, with General Bonaparte, had a long audience with the Directory at Paris, report- ing on the state of their armaments. The appointment of the former to the chief command relieved Britain of the apprehension that the conqueror of Italy would cross the Channel in person, and great was the disappointment of the malcontents at home. The duties of Kilmaine were alike harassing and ar- duous, as he had to superintend the equipment and orga- nization of this vast force, composed of men of all arms and several nations ; and he was repeatedly summoned to Paris, even in the middle of the night, by couriers who ovei-took him in his progresses ; thus, though suffering under severe ill health, the Directory once brought him on the spur from Bruges early in July, and again from Brest about the end of the same month. Citizen d'Arbois, an ojQficer on the staff of Kilmaine, in a letter published in the Parisian papers of the 7th August, 1798, states that his general "is on his return," after having made a tour of the coast, from Port St. Malo to L'Orient ; that he was well satisfied with the state of the French ports and armaments, and had enjoyed with delight the magnificent aspect of Brest, in the harbour of which he saw thirty sail of the line, with a fleet of frigates and transports. D'Arbois states that Kilmaine had been surveying Brittany, where all was then peaceful, by the " wise measures" of the consti- tuted authorities. " The eagerness with which our troops, both by sea and land, await the moment when, GENERAL KILMAINE. 231 under the brave Kilmaine, they will engage the English, is the best pledge of our approaching success, and the miu of our enemies." It is evident that Citizen d'Ai*bois had then no thoucrht of fighting in Egypt. But doubts hovered in the minds of the Directory, if there were none in the hearts of their generals, and long delays ensued. General Hoche, under whom the future Dukes of Kovigo and of Yicenza were serving as private soldiers, and who was the main spring of the projected movement in favour of Ireland, died in September, 1797 ; and Bonaparte, to whom Kilmaine, Tone, Shee, and others of the Irish patriots turned, had no sympathy with their cause, as all his views were now directed towards a war- fare in the East. By the beginning of autumn tbe Direc- tory began to break up their boasted Armee d'Angleterre, and withdrew their troops to reinforce their columns on the Bhine. Upon this, Kilmaine came anxiously and liastily to Paris to confer with the government and the Minister of Marine concerning the embarkation of the troops and departure of the fleet from Brest ; but his f|uestions were waived, or left unanswered, although the division of Bompard, consisting of the Hoche of 74 guns and eighteen frigates, filled with troops under General Hardy, destined for Ireland, remained with their cables hove short, and all ready for sea at a moment's notice. Of the forces that reaUy sailed for Ireland, and their faite, we need not inform the reader. Eor a time all Britain supposed they were led by the commander-in- chief in person ; and all the press of England and Scot- land teemed with blustering or scurrilous remarks on " Paddy Kilmaine and his followers ;" but the general never embarked, though he certainly superintended the departure of a body of troops from Rochfort. " We are assured," says a Brussels print, " that in Ciise the French republicans shall be able to make a successful descent upon Ireland, the Belgic youth will be employed in that country under General Kilmaine, who, being % native of it, will there have the command of tlie unitt^ Erench and Irish forces." Citizen Macdonagh was t4 232 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. have a high command in the corps of Irish Marines, tfe held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in France. By the end of 1798 the army of England and its ex- pedition were alike dissolved, and the Directory wished to give Kilmaine command of the forces assembled for the war in Egypt; but for the present his career finished with the military examination of the coasts of France and Holland. In 1799 the Directory appointed him generalissimo of the army of Helvetia, as they chose to designate Switzer- land ; thus reviving the ancient name of the people whom Julius Caesar conquered. The French troops already oc- cupied Lombardy on one side, and the Hhenish provinces on the other ; thus they never doubted their ability to con- quer the Swiss and remodel the Helvetic constitution. Kilmaine accepted the command with satisfaction, but his failing health compelled him to give up his baton to Massena ; and with a sorrow which he could not conceal, he saw that army march which penetrated into the heart of the Swiss mountains, and imposed on their hardy in- habitants a constitution in which Bonaparte, under the plausible title of Mediator, secured the co-operation of the valiant descendants of the Helvetii in his further schemes of conquest and ambition. In a feeble condition Kilmaine returned to Paris, where his domestic sorrows and chagrins added to the poignancy of his bodily sufferings, for his constitution was now com- pletely broken up. Struck by a deadly malady, he died on the 15th of December, 1799, in the forty-ninth year of his age, at the very moment when the triumphant elevation of Bona- p&rte was opening up to his comrades a long and brilliant career of military glory. He was interred with all the honours due to his rank and bravery, and a noble mona* meut was erected to his memory. COUNTS o'rEILLY AND O DONNEL. ETa 233 Counts §'^nlli §'§mml AND THE IRISH IN SPAIN. Ireland, says a popular Scottish writer, can boast not only of having transplanted more of her sons to the soil of Spain than either of the sister kingdoms, but of having acquired by the deeds of her exiles a degree of renown to which the others cannot aspire. True it is, that in every land brave men find a home ! The deeds of the Irish regiments in the Spanish service, during the War of the Succession, like those of the O'Don- nels in the war of the Peninsula, and the civil strife of more recent times, would fill volumes. Of the Spanish Lacys I have already given a memoir ; and of many other brave Irish soldiers of fortune, who won distinction on the soil or in the service of Spain, I can here give but the names alone. Owen Roe O'Neil, of Ulster, rose to high rank in the Spanish Imperial service and held an important post in Catalonia. He defended An^as against Louis XIII. in 1640, and when forced to surrender, he did so, says Carte, " upon honourable terms ; yet his conduct in the defence was such as gave him great reputation, and procured him extraordinary respect even from the enemy ;" and the brave O' Sullivan Bearra of Dunbuy, who fled in the days of James I., became Governor of Corunna under Philip lY. Lieutenant-General Don Carlos Felix O'Neile (son of the celebrated Sir Neil O'Neile of Ulster, slain at the battle of the Boyne), was Governor of Havannah and favourite of Charles III. of Spain ; he died at Madrid in 1791, after attaining: the great age of one hundred and ten years. 234 THE CAVALIEKS OF FORTUNE. In 1780, Colonel O'Moore commanded the Royal Wal- loon Guards of Charles III. In 1799, Field-Marshal Arthur O'Neil was Governor-General of Yucatan under the same monarch, and commanded the flotilla of thirty- one vessels which made an unsuccessful attack on the British settlements in the Bay of Honduras. In the same year, Don Gonzalo O'Farrel was the Spanish am- bassador at the Court of Berlin, and in 1808 he was Minister of War for Spain. In 1797, O'Hiorgins was A^iceroy of Peini, under Charles IV., one of whose best generals was the famous Alexander Count O'Keilly. Don Pedro O'Daly was Governor of Rosas when it was besieged by Gouvion St. Cyr in 1809 ; and General John O'Donoughue was chief of Cuesta's staff, and one of the few able officers about the person of that indolent and obstinate old hidalgo, whose incapacity nearly caused the ruin of the Spanish affairs at the commencement of the Peninsula war. He died Viceroy of Mexico in 1816. O'Higgins was Viceroy of Peru under Ferdinand VI. and the third and fourth Charles of Spain. He signalized himself with great bravery in the wars with the Aran- canos, a nation on the coast of Chili, who were ultimately subdued by him and subjected to the Spanish rule. John Campbell, a midshipman who escaped from the wreck of the Wager, one of Commodore Anson's squadron which was lost on the large island of Tierra del Fuego, and wha arrived, after inconceivable sufferings, at St. Jago de Chili, furnished O'Higgins with various notes and outlines of the coast, and other memoranda concerning the natives, all of which he had ingeniously written on the bark of trees. These obsei'vations, which were afterwards printed in England, were of the greatest value to O'Hig- gins, who was wont to affirm that by the knowledge they gave him of the barbarians under his government, " he owed the foundation of his good fortune to Camp- fct'll." In 1765, he marched against the Ai*aucanos with a l.Rttalion of Chilian infantry, and fifteen hundred horsey COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 235 uamed Maulinians. He was thrice brought to the ground by having three horses killed under him ; but the Arau- canos were routed, and the Spanish rule extended over all Peru, of which he died viceroy in the beginning of the present century, after fighting the battles of E-ancagua and Talchuana, which secured the independence of Chili. Few names bear a more prominent place in Spanish history than those of Blake, the Captain-General of the Coronilla, and O'JReilly, a soldier of fortune, who saved the life of Charles III. during the revolt at Madrid, and who reformed and disciplined anew the once noble army of Spain. Alexander Count O'Reilly was born in Ireland about 1735, of Roman Catholic parents, and when young en- tered the Spanish service as a sub-lieutenant in the Irish regiment with which he served in Italy during the wai- of the Spanish Succession, and received a wound from which he was rendered lame for the rest of his life. Ip 1751 he went to serve in Austria, and made two cam- paigns against the Prussians, under the orders of Marshal Count Lacy, his countryman. Then in 1759 he passed into the service of Louis XV., under whose coloui-s was still that celebrated Irish Brigade whose native bravery so mainly contributed to win for France the glory of Fontenoy. O'Reilly distinguished himself so much that the Mar- iitietl de Broglie recommended him to the King of Spain, with great warmth of expression, on his retiring to Madrid. The marshal's interest won him the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and as such he served in that wai- which conduced so little to the glory of Portugal, though favoured by the alliance of Britain. Nevertheless, O'Keillj found many opportunities for distinction at the head oi the light troops which were confided to him, and soon won the proud reputation of being one of Spain's most gallant otficers. He was now named Brigadier of the Armies of the King, with the post of aide TnajoQ'deTexer ti/*e. In these capacities he drilled the Spanish infantu'- 236 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. according to the best system of tactics and exercise then practised in the British service. At the peace he was appointed Mariscal de Campo, and named Commandant en Seconde of Havannah, which was to be given up to Spain by the treaty of Fontain- bleau. On arriving there, he restored and strengthened the fortifications of the colony, and soon after returned to Spain, where the king named him Inspector-General of Infantry, and desired him to assist in the manoeuvres of a great camp, of which he gave him command. He then sent him to New Orleans, where the inhabitants had scarcely become accustomed to the Spanish yoke, and where the rigorous means employed by O'Reilly to subdue them gained him many enemies. The count returned again to Madrid, and was treated with every mark of favour by Charles III., who knew all his talents, capacity, and courage ; and could never forget that it was to the strong hand and stout heart of O'Reilly he owed his life during the fiery sedition at Madrid in 1765, when the people rose in arms. Every honour Charles co\ild bestow upon a foreigner was showered upon O'Reilly, who now gave the Spanish army (which was many yeai's behind every other in Europe in the march of progression and improvement) a new spirit, vigour, and impulse. In this task he was assisted by his brother-in-law, Francisco Xavier Castanos, afterwards Duke of Baylen, Captain- General of Estremadura, Old Castile, and Galicia, whom he took with him to Prussia when he visited that coun- try, like all the principal officers of Europe, to witness and examine the manoeuvres practised by the troops of the Great Frederick. In 1774, he obtained command of the expedition against Algiers. The great means of attack were entirely con- fided to him, and he sailed from the Spanish coast with a squadron of forty sail of the line and three hundred and fifty transports, carrying an army of thirty thousand men ; but this immense armament failed to achieve its object, and O'Reilly was compelled to bear away for Spain, humiliated and mortified, and landed his discom- fited troops at Barcelona, ou the 24th of August in the COUNTS o'reilly AND o'donnel, eto. 237 same year.* Though this unfortunate result was much against his reputation as a general, it did not lessen his favour with the king, who placed him at the head of a military school which was established in Avila, at Puerto de Santa Maria, on the Adaga, in Old Castile. Soon after this, O'Reilly was named Captain-General of Andaluzia and Governor of Cadiz. In these important posts he displayed the talents of a skilful soldier and able administrator ; but he fell into complete disgrace on the death of Charles III., in 1788, and lived afterwards in a quiet retreat in Catalonia. Despite his many enemies at court, who rose into power with Charles TV., O'Reilly maintained his high military reputation in the Spanish army, and on the death of General Ricardos in 1794, the government knew of none so able as he to direct the war against the invasion of the French republican armies. He was accordingly named General of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees, and was on his way to assume that high command when he was seized by a sudden illness, and died in his sixtieth year. O'Reilly was fortunate, perhaps, in escaping thus the misery caused to Spain by the mistakes of the Conde de la Union, and the misfortunes consequent to reverse and defeat. His =age would not have permitted him to sus- tain the fatigue of a war so active ; and though he was the instructor of Blake and others who were esteemed the best officers of the Spanish army, as a foreigner he liad many envious enemies, and all his ability as a soldier, i^ith the sweetness and insinuating flexibility of his man- ner, was no guarantee to him among such a people as the Spaniards, who are ever cool and averse to strangers. His pupil, Joachim Blake, afterwards Captain-General of Aragon and four other provinces, was the son of an eminent Irish merchant who had settled at Velez, near Malaga, and was descended from an ancient family in the • The reader will remember the mistake of Donna Julia, — *' Was it for this that General Count O'Reilly, Who took Algiers, declares I iised him vilely?" Don Juan, Canto k ■238 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. coTiiity of Gal way. His mother was the daughter of ft wealthy Spanish banker named Joyes. At an early age young Blake manifested an ardent predilection for the profession of arms — a predilection inherent in his race, which had given Ireland many proofs of high valour during two centuries. While yet a boy he applied himself to the science of mathematics wdth great s access, and was soon appointed Superinten- dent of Cadets in the military school established by Oount O'E-eilly, at Puerto de Santa Maria. In 1773, Blake commenced his military career as a volunteer in the Regiment of America, for it has long been an established principle in the Spanish armies that candi- dates for commissions must learn the art of war in the ranks ; and for some years subsequent to this he served as lieutenant and adjutant to the battalion, so great was the progress he had made in his profession, and so inti- mate was his knowledge of regimental economy. At the beginning of the war waged by France against Spain, he was appointed Major of the Volunteers of Castile, without serving the intermediate rank of captain ; a favour never before granted to any officer, even to a Spaniai'd. In this capacity he led his battalion with distinguished bra- very during the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, in Rous- sillon and Catalonia, and was wounded when stoiming the heights of San Lorenzo de la Maga. He was appointed colonel in 1802, without passing through the grade of lieutenant- colonel, and obtained command of a newly-raised battalion, styled Los Volontarios de la Corona — the Volunteers of the Crown ; and from thenceforward he bore a prominent part in all the warlike and political broils of Spain. After the peace in 1802, Blake was made brigadier or Mariscal de Campo, by Charles IV., and on his volunteer regiment being numbered with the Spanish line, he was further confirmed in command of it. This position he occupied until the invasion of Spain by Bonaparte and the imprisonment of the king ; after which ensued the great contest known as the Peninsula War, during which, by the unanimous voice of the Galicians, he was sum- COUNTS o'eEILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 239 aioned to the cliief command of tLeir valuable a,nd ex- tensive province. During the second operations of Marshal Bessi^res (Duke of Istria) in Spain, the army of Blake — twenty- thousand strong — united with the ten thousand Castilian recruits of old Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, at Benevente in July, 1808, for the purpose of opposing liim ; but they soon disagreed ; for, contrary to the wishes of Blake, whose fiery energy consorted ill with the indolence of Ouesta, that ofiicer left a strong division to protect stores at Benevente, and led only twenty-five thousand infantry, a few hundred horse, and thirty pieces of cannon, towards Palencia, in the beautiful Tierra de Campos. Contrary to Ids judgment, a battle was risked (14th July, 1808) at Medina del Rio Seco, against the French under General LasoUes. There, on that day, so fatal to Spain, notwithstanding all the energy of Blake, General Lasolles, with fifteen thousand men and thirty cannon, routed the soldiers of Castile and Galicia, with the loss of seven thousand two hundred of their number, killed, wounded, or taken ; and the survivors fled with such absurd precipitation, that the French, in crossing the bed of the Sequillo in pursuit, and finding it dry and stony, exclaimed : " Diable ! Why, Spanish rivers run away, too !" The generals of the two Juntas separated in anger ; but Blake had discovered such talents in the lost battle, that he was ap})ointed Governor and Captain-General of the Kingdom of Galicia, and President of the Koyal Audience. He retreated towards the mountains, and Bessidres then entered the city of Leon. Meanwhile the Junta of that province and of Castile sided with Blake, to whom Marshal Bessieres sent twelve hundred of the prisoners taken at Rio Seco ; and believ- ing it to be a favourable opportunity to tamper with their leaders, he wrote urging them to obey the act of abdica- tion, and acknowledge Joseph Bonaparte, in whose name lie offered Blake high rank and honours if he would enter the French service, like Colonel O'Meara of the Irish 240 THE CAVALIERS OF POilTUNE. Brigade, Clarke the Dae de Feltre, General Kilmaine, Marshal MacCarthy, and other Irishmen ; while to Cuesta he very liberally ottered the Yiceroyalty of Mexico ; but both the Spanish cavalier and the Irish soldier of fortune repelled his offers with disdain. On the 17th September the latter advanced against the enemy with six columns, each five thousand strong. De- scending from La Montana towards the Upper Ebro, he sent one division to menace the French in the Castle of Burgos, and turn the flank of Marshal Bessidres ; he left another at Villarcayo to preserve a communication with Revnosa and cover his retreat. He received supplies from General Broderick, who in his despatches complained bitterly that Blake treated him with hauteur, and declined to afford any information as to the nature of his intended operations. The French having abandoned Bilbao, it was regarrisoned by Marshal Ney ; and after various evolutions, it was attacked on the 12th October by Blake, at the head of eighteen thousand men. Merlin, with three thousand French, abandoned the fortress and retreated, fighting every foot of the way until he reached Zornosa, where he was succoured by General Yerdier, who checked the fury of Blake's pursuit. The winter was now approaching, and his troops began to be in want. Seldom have soldiers endured greater privations than those suffered by the poor Spaniards of Blake. They were destitute of caps, boots, and stockings, and had been constantly in the open air for months, without tents or proper food ; yet not a murmur escaped them, nor a wish was uttered but to conquer for their country. While the well appointed forces of France were hourly increasing, Blake, fearing neither difficulty nor danger, boldly ascended the valley of El Darongo to assail two divisions of the Fourth corps (Lefebre, Duke of Dantzig's), which occupied the neighbouring villages. Full of hope, he advanced, and anticipating, if successful, to capture Marshal Ney's corps of sixteen thousand men, fearlessly, with only eighteen thousand Spaniards, and almost with- out artillery, he hastened to engage twenty-five thousand Frenchmen of all anng 1 COU^'TS O'REILLY AND O'DONNEL, ETC. 241 Favonred by a dense mist, the Spaniards entered the valley, and for a time notliing was heard but the shots of their skirmishers ringing between the mountain peaks, till Vilatte's corps suddenly fell on Blake's vanguard, and hurled it back upon the third division at the bayonet's point. Then, on came the dark columns of Se})astiani and Laval, each looming in succession through the mist, while a fire of round and grape-shot from their artillery (to which Blake could not reply) swept through the rocky vale, heaping his ranks against each other, and strewing them on the grass. Madly and bravely Blake, with his infantry and Gue- rillas, sought to defend every rock and pass of the valley ; but they were driven back in full flight towards Bilbao, and crossing the Salcedon, took up a position at Nava, watched by seven thousand French under Vilatte. After the battle of Gamonal, Soult resolved to make an effort for ever to cut off Blake, who, without cavalry, clothing, or food, had reached Espinosa with six divisions and only six pieces of cannon, which he posted in rear of the town at Aguilar del Canipo. He had now only twenty-five thousand bayonets, but strongly and skilfully posted. His left wing, composed of Asturians, and his old favourite division occupied the heights above the road to St. Audero ; another covered the road to Reynosa, and Romano's soldiers filled a wood two miles in his front. He was attacked at two o'clock on the 10th November by Marshal Victor, whose soldiers carried the wood at the point of the bayonet, forced his centre, turned his left flank, and he had the mortification to see San Romano and Don Luiz de Riquelme, his two best brigadiers, fall mortally wounded. His Spaniards were hurled in masses upon each other, and utterly routed. Romano's corps were all taken to a man ; the rest fled through Castile, Leon, Galicia, and Asturia, carrying everywhere the tidings of their defeat and the terror of the French name ; and }A)or Blake, jaded, weary, exasperated, and dis- heartt'ut'd, reached Reynosa on the 1 2th, with only seven thous; Mil men— his old division — without artillery, with- out ai 11I&, without spirit, and without hope ! Jl 242 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Such was the battle of Espinosa. Blake, in this ter- nble condition, was attacked by the vanguard of Soult, and after losing two thousand men, retired through the vale of Caburniego, and reached Arnedo in the heart of the Asturian Sierras. Spain was now nearly prostrate at the feet oi France ! In 1809, Blake was appointed Captain-General of the Coronilla, or Lesser Crown ; a title given to the union of Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia. In the latter he suC' ceeded General Romano. Gathering his forces in April, restless and indefatigable, he advanced to Alcanitz, from whence the French retired to Samper and Ixar. On this Marshal Suchet advanced against him with the third corps, and on the 23rd of May they fought the battle of Alcanitz. Blake was skilfully posted in front of the town with twelve thousand men. The bridge of Guadaloupe was in his rear ; a pool of water covered his left, but his right was without protection ; his centre occupied a hill. With only eight thousand foot and seven hundred horse Suchet attacked him, but without success. Rendered desperate by reverses, the Spaniards stood firm, and fought w^ith their ancient rather than their modern bravery. Suchet was wounded and compelled to retreat ; this retreat became a panic, and in great confusion the French reached Samper in the night. This small success was a cause for rejoicing all over Spain. " The victory at Alcanitz," was in every man's mouth, and the Supreme Junta gave Blake an estate, and added the ancient kingdom of Murcia to his command. He now hoped to recover the far-famed Zai'agossa, and turning all his thoughts to Aragon, neg- lected the defence of Catalonia. After the late victory bis little army was augmented bymore than twenty thousand men, and full of new hope .and enthusiasm he marched with these to Ixar and Samper. Suchet hovered near Zaragossa, but left a column under General Faber at Villa Muol, near the Sierra of Daroca, to watch Blake, who, hoping to cut that officer COLNTS o'eEILLY AXD o'dOXX^EL, ETC. 2 i3 off, marclied througli Carinena, so famed for its vine- yards, and sent General Arisayo with a detachment to Bottorio, with orders to capture a convoy of French pro- visions on the Huerba, This movement was successful, and lack of food forced Faber to retreat towards Plas- cencia. The advanced guards exchanged shots on the 14th of June at Bottorio, and Blake, full of confidence, made a vigorous attempt to surround the French by pushing a column to Maria on the plains of Zaragossa ; on the 15th he formed his troops in order of battle, but slowly and unskilfully, as they were raw soldiers, who had but re- cently relinquished the vinedresser's knife for the musket and sword. Occupying both banks of the Huerba, tow^ards 2 p.m. he extended his left flank to overlap the French right ; but Suchet, who was unexpectedly joined by Faber's Wigade and another from Tudela, paralysed tlie movement by a furious attack of cavalry and vol- tigeurs. Blake's left fell back at the very moment that he was triumphantly leading on his centre, and he became involved in a desperate sword-in-hand conflict, in which the leading columns of Sachet were repulsed. He would have achieved more but for a violent storm which arose at that moment, and so darkened the air that the adverse lines could scarcely see each other, and for a time the action ceased. Blake's position was ill chosen (ac- cording to the memoirs of Suchet) ; he was surrounded by deep ravines, and had only one line of retreat by the bridge of Maria, which crossed the Huerba near his right wing. Marshal Suchet observed this error, and on the storm lulling, selected some cavalry and two regiments of in- fantry, and forming them, all drenched as they were by rain, in solid column, by a vigorous effort he broke through Blake's brigade of horse, siezed the bridge, and cut off his retreat ! Undaunted by this fatal event, Blake, at all times brave and decided, formed his infantry of the left and centre into solid masses, and fought desperately for victory; but was repulsed with great loss, and defeated, leaving b2 244 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. one general, twenty-five guns, and many colon re on tliat rough and rocky field, from which he was driven about dusk, when the darkness was so dense that few prisoners were taken. Suchet had Harispe wounded and a thou- sand men slain. Favoured by the obscurity of the night, Blake's men fled by the ravines to Bottorio, where he made incredible effbi*ts to rally and remodel them next day. Then he received tidings that a French brigade, under Laval, was marching by the Ebro to cut off his retreat. To anticipate this movement Blake fell back on the night of the 1 6tli, and after skirmishing with Suchet next day at Torrecilla, again formed line of battle on the 18th, to meet him at Belchite, . a small town in Aragon. Blake had on this day only fourteen thousand men, dispirited by recent repulse and the loss of nearly all their artillery. Suchet had twenty-two battalions and seven squadrons, with a fine artillery corps, all flushed by recent success, and making fifteen thousand men ; thus the result may be anticipated — a defeat ! He had four thousand of his men taken, with the re- mainder of his artillery, all his baggage and ammunition. He had many difficulties to contend with as leader of an undisciplined army, and stung to the soul by this second defeat, he reproached the Spaniards with great bitterness Bs shameless cowards ; and, after demanding an inquir\' into his own conduct, " with a strong and sincere emotion ^f honour," restored to the Junta the estate which had been conferred upon him after the victorious battle ol Alcanitz. Following up the victory of Belchite, Marshal Suchet sent detachments as far as Morella on the Valencian frontier ; but no man in arms appeared to meet them, for Blake's dispersion was signal and complete. His march towards Zaragossa, and his attempt to wrest Aragon from the foe, were fatal to the Spanish cause in Catalonia, where St. Cyr, with more than forty thousand men, occu[)ied the country between Figueras and the city 4>{ Gerona, which was blockaded by eighteen thousand Frenchmen, who pressed with vigour one of the most COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 245 memorable sieges suffered by this ancient ducal city, which was bravely defended by its intrepid Catalans. Blake was ordered by the central Junta of Seville to succour them, as the gari-ison were defending half-ruined walls with a valour and obstinacy which filled the city with thousand scenes of horror and distress. He marched accordingly at the head of a weak and irregular force, Avhich was thoroughly dispirited by the result of the two last battles ; and thus he resolved to confine his operations simply to supplying the town with men and provisions,^ rather than risk his strength by attempting to raise a siege which, if essayed with success, would save Gerona, and with it all Catalonia. Collecting two thousand mules laden with flour, he sent them with four thousand foot and five hundred horse, under Henry O'Donnel and Garcia Conde, towards this strong and picturesque little city, which they reached after a furious encounter with the enemy during a dark and stormy night ; but the provisions received did not amount to much more than eight days' food for the starving Geronese and their garrison, which was encum bered rather than aided by Garcia Condi's reinforcement^ St. Cyr now resolved to seek out Blake and destroy him for ever ; but rendered wary by misfortune, he retired into the mountains, and thus ended his first attempt to relieve the city of Gerona. Soon after, still hovering near the French, and threat- ening them, he advanced to the position of St. Hilario ; and on St. Cyr preparing to storm the post called Calvary, Blake, from the 20th to the 25th of September, 1809, made movements as if he meant to force the blockade ; but being incapable of doing so, his whole object was merely to introduce another convoy ; and, watching an opportunity, while drawing the attention of St. Cyr towards the heights of San Sadurnia, on which he had posted a column, he sent 10,000 men under Wimphen towards Gerona. O'Donnel led the vanguard. A dread- ful contiict took place on Wimphen's attempting to force the French lines. He was defeated ; and in the twilight Blake failed to succour him ; but Henry O'Donnel, another 246 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUjSTE. gallant Insli soldier of fortune, succeeded in hewing a passage into Gerona with 1000 men and 200 laden mules. Iri'itated by Blake's second attempt to succour Gerona, St. Cyr marched a column to menace his commimication with the citadel of Hostalric, a depot of magazines on the Tordeiu. On this he was forced to retreat, leaving to its fate the noble little city of Gerona, which, as its heroic captain, General Alvarez, said, " if not succoured again by all Catalonia, will soon be but a heap of carcases and r^^ms." Again, on the 29th October, \ye find the unwearied Blake hovering on the heights of Brunola, watching the siege of Gerona, and while he was thus occupied, Hostal- ric was stormed by the French, and 2000 Spaniards, with all his magazines, were taken therein. On the 10th November Gerona capitulated, and Alvarez, its brave and veteran governor, died of a broken heart at Figueras, when on the march towards France, a prisoner of war. Blake now retired to Tarragona, leaving the remains of his army under Heniy O'Donnel, who drove Marshal Augereau into Gerona;, and received command of the troops at Yich, on Blake being called into Andalusia. In May the seaport of TaiTagona was besieged, taken, and sacked by Suchet, in a manner discreditable alike to his talents as a soldier and his humanity as a man. During the horrors of that afiair, which covered the French with infamy, Blake was in Valencia, having sailed for that province on the 16 th of May, in search for succour ; but Tarragona was lost, and then he assumed command of the Murcian army, which was 22,000 strong, and had remained inactive ever since General O'Mahy's appoint- ment. In June, 1811, the firmness and activity of Wellington formed a strong contrast to the wavering and indolent demeanour of the Spanish generals, until Blake marched to Condado de Niebla, on concerting a movement down the right bank of the Guadiana with the British general, who delivered to him the pontoons lately used at Badajoz. He marched on the 18th, crossed the Guadiana on the 22nd, at the ancient town of Mertola, where the stream firat becomes navigable : but halted at Castil legos COUNTS o'rEILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. ^47 on the 30tli, and sent liis siege train to Ayamonte by water. Then, instead of moving his whole force directly on the great city of Seville, he sent only a small column of cavalry, under the gallant Oonde de Penne Viilamur, in that direction ; and, unfortunately, consumed two entire days in besieging the castle of Niebla — a small fortress, which gave the title of count to the eldest son oi the Duke of Medina, and was garrisoned by 300 Swiss, who had deserted from the Spanish army at the com- mencement of the war, and whom he was most anxious to capture and punish. The absence of his siege train rendered the attack futile ; and Soult, on hearing of it^ sent a detachment from Monasterio to relieve the Swiss, who defended themselves with great valour, while General Conraux crossed the mountains by the Aracena road, to cut off all communication between Blake and his artillery at Ayamonte. Thus he was compelled to abandon the siege, and by a precipitate march reach a pontoon bridge which was thrown across the stream for him by Colonel Austin at San Lucar de Guadiana, from whence he took shelter in Portugal. Still indefatigable, he projected an assault upon San Lucar de Earameda ; but the sudden appearance of Soult'i advanced guard disconcerted his troops, who retreated to Ayamonte, and from thence to the Isle of Camelas, where a Spanish frigate and 300 transports fortunately arrived in time to afford him the means of escape. Early in July he embarked all his troops, and sailed to Cadiz, as the French had reinforced San Lucar and taken possession of Ayamonte. Landing at Almeria, Blake formed a junction with Freire, and proposed to invest Granada ; but deeming it necessary first to visit Valencia, where the factious Mar- quis del Palacio was acting most unwisely, he left his army, now 27,000 strong, under Freire, and before he tould return it had utterly dispersed ! After the rout of the Murcians at Baza in Granada, h© rallied the fugitives, and in virtue of his authority as regent assumed the chief direction of the war in Yalencia, where his noble efforts wei-e nearly rendered futile by the 248 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. villany of Palacio's faction, who opposed him and en» deavonred to detach the soldiers and people from liia authority, and proposed to inundate the plains that lie round the black marble mountain of Murviedro ; but on Suchet invading the province, Blake concentrated his ill- armed and undisciplined but brave horde of peasantry to meet him. Exclusive of 5000 infantry and 700 Murcian horsemen, under O'Mahy, at Cuenga, and 2000 men under Bassecour at Rigiiena, in September, he had 20,000 foot and 2000 horse ; but, as a foreigner by name and race, he was unpopular both in Murcia and Valencia, " and the regency of which he formed a part was tottering," adds General Napier, in the fourth volume of his history. '• The Cortes had quashed O'Mahy's command of the Murcian army, and even recalled Blake himself; but the order, which did not reach him until he was engaged with Suchet, was not obeyed. Meanwhile that part of the Murcian army which should have formed a reserve after O'Mahy's division had marched for Cuenga, fell into the greatest disorder ; above 8000 men deserted in a few weeks, and those who remained were exceedingly dispirited." Suchet's army entered in three columns, passed Cas- tellon de la Plana, masked Pensicola, invested Oropesa, and skirmished at Almansora, where a few French, by bravely routing a great body of Spaniards, made Blake doubt seriously the firmness of his troops ; and thus leaving four thousand men under O'Donnel at Segorbe, he retired be- yond the Guadalquiver, leaving Valencia in confusion, Suchet then invested the town of Saguntum, and again turning all his attention to destroy Blake, after much manoeuvring, they fought their disastrous battle of the 25th October, 1811. On the level and fertile plain whicli lies between Mur- viedro and Valencia, and is intersected by torrents and ravines, fringed by olive-trees, Suchet drew out his lines of battle before the ramparts of Saguntum, where Blake was defeated, with the loss of 5000 men ; and on the Em • peror Napoleon reinforcing Suchet with 15.000 men, under General Reillc (a Keilly of Irish paientage), the COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 249 position of Blake and liis Andalusians became more than ever desperate. He had now fought ^t'e pitched battles as a general, and had under his command 22,000 foot and 3000 horse. In November, Suchet advanced towards the Guadalquiver with a force diminished to 18,000 men by garrisons and detachments. Though Blake had destroyed two of the bridges, and manned the houses, and was in hourly expec- tation of a genei-al rising of the Valencians, the French fearlessly stormed his defences, crossed the river, menaced his front, and harassed his rear, until he was compelled to form an intrenched camp five miles in extent, enclosing the city of Valencia and three of its suburbs. A twelve- feet ditch surrounded this camp, the slope of which was so high as to require ladders. The battle of Valencia, fought in December, 1811, fol- lowed. O'Mahy was defeated, and fled to Alcira, leaving Blake blocked up in the fortified camp with eighteen thousand men in want of provisions, while the French were well and freely supplied by the Valencians, who, as Blake reports, "were a bad people." On the 2nd De- cember he made a bold effort to break through Suchet's lines, and sallied out at the head of ten thousand men ; but was repulsed, and Suchet pushed more vigorously than ever the siege of the city, knowing well that it was impossible for Blake to remain long in a camp which included a starving population of fifty thousand souls. The fire of sixty great guns drove Blake into the city, abandoning his camp on the 5th December to the foe, who found in it eighty pieces of cannon. In the evening Suchet summoned Valencia ; but Blake declined to yield. Then skirmishes, assaults, and bombarding continued till the 9th, when the citizens were on the point of insurging against Blake, and insisted that he should surrender. He complained bitterly of their cowardice, and required leave to march with his soldiers to Alicant with their baggage, colours, and only four pieces of cannon. These terms were refused him. The Valencians opened their gates, and the brave but unfortunate Blake was compelled to surrender his sword, '250 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. and marcli out at the head of twenty- two generals, eight hundred and ninety-three other officers, and eighteen thousand men, as prisoners of war ; leaving in the hands of the enemy eighty stand of colours, two thousand hoi-ses, three hundred and ninety pieces of cannon, forty thousand stand of arms, one hundred and eighty thousand pounds of powder, and three millions of ball-cartridges, wj-^h a vast store of other warlike munition. After the fall of Valencia he had no oppoi-tunity of achieving anything of importance ; and in May, 1812, the Regent Charles O'Donnel, Conde de Abispal, bestowed the command of the Valencian forces upon his own brother Joseph, who rallied at Alicant the I'emains of Blake's army, four thousand of whom escaped from Suchet's guards. For his last important capture, Suchet was created Duke of Albufera ; and poor Blake, as a prisoner of war too important to be exchanged, was ordered into France ■with his two aides-de-camp. The preceding has been but a brief outline of the career, services, and struggles of Blake, whose popu- larity, by a combination of circumstances over which he had no control, was almost destroyed for ever in Spain. He was accompanied to the Spanish frontier by the Adjutant-General Florestan Pipi, who was then sent to Naples. On entering France he was sent to Paris, and from thence to the strong Chateau de Yincennes, where he remained a close prisoner until the fall of the Imperial Government ; but this captivity did not prevent the Cortes from appointing him a Counsellor of State when naming the regency. The triumph of the allies having- broken his fetters in 1814, after receiving many. marks ot favour from the Emperor Alexander, he returned into Spain under the ministry of Ballasteros, and was ap- pointed Director-General of the Coi*ps of Engineers. He occupied this honourable post until the revolution of 1820. when, in exchange, he received a seat in the Council ot State. When war was threatened between France and Spain in 1823 he was appointed, on the 7th February, COUNTS O'REILLY AND O'DONNEL. ETC. 251 one of the committee of five generals who were ordered to concert measures for defending the kingdom. In the French army which entered Spain in that year, under the Marquis of Lauriston (an officer of Scottish parentage), we find two lieutenant-generals of Irish descent — Count Bourke and Yiscount O'Donoughue ; the Duke of An- gouleme was General-in-Chief, and to him, the Duke of Berwick and Alba, a Spanish grandee of the Stuart blood, gave his adherence. The restora.tion caused by the French intervention under the Marshal Lauriston was fatal to Blake ; for being suspected by the royalists of constitu- tional principles, he was only able to avoid prosecution by great care and solicitude : but his career was drawing to a close, as he died at Valladolid in 1827, regretted by all the Spanish army, and eulogized by the people in their songs and stories of " the War of Independence." The military men who had borne arms under him, says a French writer, recognised and admitted his positive talent, his great knowledge and perspicacity of tactiques ; but agreed that he failed in two essential points — the prompt coup cVoe.il which decides at once the fortune of a battle, and that art of manner by which it is necessary to excite the enthusiasm of the soldier. A distinguished branch of the old Celtic sept of O'DoNNEL has borne a prominent part in the Spanish annals during the last fifty years ; but so early as tho days of Philip of Anjou and Charles of Spain, we find an O'Donnel fighting in the ranks of their armies. Soon after the accession of James YI. to the English throne, he was engaged in the last struggle of the Crown against the houses of O'Donnel and O'Neil. An earldom was bestowed as a peace-offering upon the chief of the former ; but his plots against the king soon deprived him of it : his estates were seized, an English colony planted in the land of his tribe, and he fled to the Court of Spain, between which and the Irish there had been a close con- nexion during the animosity of Philip II. and Elizabeth. He was welcomed with all the honours of a Castilian l^randee, and attained a high rank under King Charles. f52 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. Eighty years after tLis we find his descendant, Baldearg O'Donnel, still remembering the days when the chiefs, or petty princes of his race, were solemnly inaugurated as the successors of St. Columba on the Kock of Kihna- crenan. He resigned his commission in the service o£ Philip Y., of whom he begged permission to join the Irioh, then in arms against William of Orange. Philip refused ; but the O'Donnel fled by a route so circuitous that he visited Turkey, and after enduring many priva- tions, landed at Kinsale in 1690, where seven thousand armed Ulster-men hailed him with joy, as the Red O'Donnel of an ancient Celtic prophecy. From Baldearg O'Donnel is descended General Count O'Donnel, who commanded the army of Maria Theresa on the fall of Count Lacy at the great battle of Toorgaii in 1761 ; and also General O'Donnel, Vice-Governor of Lombardy, who was attacked by the Milanese during the Austrian revolution of 1848, when his palace was stormed and himself taken prisoner. There was also a Count O'Donnel in the Hungarian service, who died at Brussels in 1767, after reaching the patriarchal age of one hun- dred and two years. Of this ancient Celtic family there are now, or were lately, four general officers of the highest rank in the service of Great Britain, Spain, Austria, and America ; but of these the most distinguished is Leopold O'Donnel, Conde dc Lucena and Marshal in the service of Donna Isabella 11. The four O'Donnels, Henry, Charles, Joseph, and Alex- ander, who attained such distinction in Spain during the Peninsula War, were the sons of Irish gentlemen who einigrated to that country during the latter end of the last century ; and of their services and honours our limits will allow but a brief outline ; while General Sai-sfield, Colonel O'Ronan, A.D.C. to the Marquis de Campo Verde, or such partisan soldiers as MacDonel, the unfor- tunate Guerilla chief who fell in action, Captain Flinter the Christino, or General O'Doyle and his brother, a captain, who were taken prisoners at the last battle of Yittoria, and shot in cold blood by Zumalacarregui, cau only be indicated here by name. COUNTS OREILLY AND o'dONNEL^ ETC. 253 Chaeles (afterwards) Count O'Donnel first became known to history in 1810, when commanding at Albu- querque, from whence, on the 14th March, he made a vigorous attempt to surprise General For, but was driven into Casceres. Marching towards the ancient city of Merida on the 2nd April, he drove back General Regnier and made an attempt to surprise Truxillo (the birth- place of Pizarro), which is situated on a mountain. Here he was repulsed, and with difficulty effected a retreat to Albuquerque ; but three months after we find him at Truxillo again, co-operating with Don Carlos de Espana, with whom he cut off the French at Rio Monte. In May he had lent two thousand infantry and two hundred cannoneers to Blake, to enable that officer to conduct the siege of Tarragona, receiving in return from Captain Codrington two thousand British muskets to equip a new levy. He allowed four thousand of his best Yalencians to embark with Miranda to fight at Tarragona, but not until he received a pledge that the British would bring back all who survived the siege. Charles served long with Blake, and was in most ot the battles just recounted ; thus, to rehearse his earlier services would be to enumerate those of Blake a second time. In September, 1811, when the latter v'as forced to retire beyond the Guadalaviar, he left Charles O'Donnel with four thousand men on the side of Segorbe ; and on investing Saguntum in October, he sent him with Villa Campo's division and San Juan's cavalry to Betera. There O'Donnel was attacked by Harispe, though well posted in rear of a canal, and having his centre protected by a chapel and some houses ; but the French advanced with such fury, that the Spaniards were swept away by the first fire. In the war of 1823, General O'Donnel commanded a corps of Royalists, which were destroyed by the troops of Torr;J*«>*, the Constitutionalist ; and soon after, his wife, the v^ondesa de O'Donnel, had a narrow escape from a party oi" the Empecinado, who were sent to Valladolid to 254 THE CAVALIERS OF TORTUXE. take hei' prisoner, but were repulsed by the troops of the Marshal Duke of E,eggio. Charles O'Donnel was now Captain-General of Old Castile, and as such, in the month of August, he sum- moned and took from its insurgent garrison, under General Jalon, the citadel of Ciudad Kodrigo. By the convention between them, it appears that the governor of the fortress undertook to obey any orders he might re- ceive dii'ect from the king ; but displayed great distrust of the royalists and the Irish commander. After this, the latter marched into Estremadura, everywhere crushing the Constitutionalists, and enforcing the supremacy of the King. In August his head-quarters were at Salamanca, and in October at Algesiras. This war, in which the absolute power of Ferdinand was fatally enforced by the bayonets of France under Marshal Lauriston, the Duke of Keggio, and others, soon ended ; but though smothered for a time, the restless spirit of the Spaniards soon again broke forth into a flame, and most fatally for the house of O'Donnel, as shall be shown in the sequel. Joseph O'Donnel, who had been serving with his bro- thers against the common enemy, was appointed by the regent, the Conde de Abispal, to succeed Blake in com- mand of the Murcians and Valencians in May, 1812. He collected the remains of these two armies, remodelled them with great energy, raised new levies, and during the illness of Marshal Suchet mustered fourteen thousand men in the neighbourhood of Alicant. These operations, with others in Catalonia, brought on the battle of Castalla in July, when, with 6000 foot, 700 horse, and eight guns, he fought General Harispe on the mountains; but on the rough pathway and a narrow bridge near Biar, the Spanish infantry were borne down by the weight and fury of the French cuirassiers, and tbrced to retreat, leaving 3000 slain on the field. O'Don- nel, who had made incredible exertions to gain the day, and had fired two pieces of cannon at the bridge with his own hands, attributed his defeat to the disobedience and inability of San Estevan, who commanded his c«\valry, and COUNTS o'reilly and o'donnel, etc. 255 who, by holding that force aloof, took no share in the battle. Pursued by the French cuirassiers, Joseph fled by the JumelJa road, and reached the city of Murcia, where he was joined by General Maitland's armament from Sicily, and thus saved from destruction ; but he unwisely required that officer to abstain from all requisi- tions for forage and rations from the neighbouring coun- try. Maitland assented, and immediately sank under the unnecessary difficulties thus created. In August, when O'Donnel was at Yecla with 6000 men, the Cortes passed a severe censure upon him for his conduct at the battle of Castalla ; so severe, indeed, that his brother, the Conde de Abispal, a proud and haughty soldier, resigned his liigh command during the campaign, which ended in Wellington's retreat from Burgos ; and then the weak- ness of the Spanish Government became more than ever apparent. On the 6th of December, when at Malaga, Joseph wrote a long letter to General Donkin, concerning the malheur at Castalla, in which we find his knowledge of English so imperfect that he was obliged, after a dozen of lines, to adopt and end it in French ; and after this un- fortunate defeat we hear no more of him. Alexander O'Donnel, the third brother, was colonel of a regiment of Spanish infantry, and served with it in the Danish Isles under Romana. Attacked there by overwhelming numbers, they effiicted their escape in 1808 ; but on being made captives at Espinosa, they entered the French ranks to the number of 4500, and served in Napoleon's Continental war, until they w^re all taken prisoners by the Russians on the retreat from Moscow, when they were brought back to Spain in British ships, under the care of Captain Hill of the Royal Navy. One of the Spanish corps which returned after this strange career of military service was the regiment of Don Alexander O'Donnel, which had been fully equipped by- the Emperor Alexander in 1812, and for which the daughter of General Betancourt embroidered a pair of colours. It was styled the hnperial Alexander ReginieiU, %5Q THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. and under O'JDonnel distinguished itself in the national cause till after the disasters of 1823. Henry O'Donnel, Conde de Abispal, who, like his brother, had been serving with success and distinction in the battles of the Peninsula, was a brave, reckless, and determined soldier, possessed of military talents of a very- high order, together with a heedlessness of his own life and of the lives of others. Passing, with honour to him- self, through all the subaltern ranks, he was a colonel of Spanish infantry in 1809, when Blake ordered him to command in the attack upon Sauham's posts near Bru- nola, where, on the 31st August, he had the mortification of seeing the place retaken, after he had carried it at the point of the bayonet. On the 26th September, as related in the memoir of Blake, he led the advanced guard in the brilliant attempt to relieve Gerona. On the 1 3th October he broke out of the city, sword in hand, hewed a passage through the French blockade, and, falling on Sauham's quarters sabre ct la main, forced that general to fly in his shirt, and suc- cessfully achieved one of the most daring enterprises of that memorable siege. In 1810, on succeeding Blake in command of the Catalonians — an appointment bestowed by the provincial Junta, who heard of his high reputa- tion — he attacked Marshal Augereau with great fury, and drove him into Gerona. He took up a position at Vich, but on the approach of the French retired to the Col de Sespina, where he led a charge so fierce and deci- sive, that Sauham's battalions were hurled from the hills in confusion upon the plain. Marching to Manresa, he summoned the Miguelets from Lerida to his colours. These were a species of banditti who infested the moun- tains, and were armed with pistols, daggers, and blunder- busses. With 12,000 men, Henry O'Donnel took up a position at Maya in February, and harassed the French before Vich, where he fought and lost a severe battle, and was forced to retreat to the Sierras, and from thence to Tarragona, leaving a fourth of his men dead on the ticld COUNTS o'eEILLY AND o'dOXNEL, ETC. 257 i O'Dounel, " wlic-se energy and military talents/' saya JS^apier, '• were superior to all his predecessors," now sent Ca-ro with 6000 men against the French at Villa Franca, where unfortunately they were all killed or captured; and being wounded, he was compelled for a time to rcsiga tlic^ command to General Gasca. On the Gth April, lie harassed the FreiK3h, then re^ treating from Tarragona towards Barcelona ; and after- retiring from Yicli with an army discomfited by only ^000 Frenchmen, with the same discomfited men ha baffled Augereau, who led 20,000 bayonets ; forced liiia to abandon Lower Catalonia, and to retreat in disgrace to Gerona, where INIarshal Macdonald, a Scotsman, was sent by Napoleon to succeed him. During the invest- ment of Hostalric by the French, Henry O'Donnel col- lected many convoys for its relief; he attacked the blockade at several points with the Miguel ets, and par- ticularly distinguished himself in a noble and dashing attempt to relieve the brave Julian Estrada, on the night of the 12th May, when this strong citadel fell. During: the siege of Lerida by Suchet, O'Donnel collected two divisions of 4000 each ; with these and 600 cavalry he> slcilfally passed the defile of Momblanch, and fought the^ contest of Margalef, where his troops were defeated ; but he rallied, and led them again upon the columns of the Due d'Albufera. The struggle was terrible; but he was forced to retreat through the passes, leaving one general, eight colonels, 5000 men, and three guns in the hands of the foe. His force was now 1400 strong, well supplietl by the active Miguelets ; and by the bravery of his soldiers and his own unwearying zeal he long prevented the siege of Tortoza, and found full employment for the enemy during the remainder of the year. •' After the battle of Margalef, Henry O'Donnel re- united his forces, and being of a stern, unyielding dis- position, not only repressed the discontents occa- sioned by that defeat, but forced the reluctant (and lawless) Miguelets to supply his ranks and submit to discipline." Thus, in July he had twenty-two thou- sand men when Marshals Macdonald and Suchet 8 258 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. combined to crush liim, and when Napoleon's order to invest Tortoza arrived. On this O'Donnel, after making a skilful feint towards Trivisa, suddenly threw himself "with ten thousand men into the fated city, from whence, upon the noon of the 3rd July, he fell furiously upon the French entrenchments, and made a fearful slaughter of the troops of Laval. After this he retired to Tarra- gona. Having cut off Macdonald's communication with the walled city of Ampurias, he now conceived and ex- ecuted the most skilful and vigorous plan which had yet graced the Spanish arms. Leaving Campo Yerde in the valley of Aro, on the Hth, lie marched rapidly down from Casa de Silva upon Abis- pal, where the French, under Swartz, were entrenched. He attacked them, slew two hundred, and, taking the Test, embarked them for Tarragona, whither he retired soon after, to take a little repose, being troubled by his last wound; yet in January, 1811, we find him again in ^rms, directing the movements of the army, and harassing Marshals Macdonald and Suchet, though unable to ride or appear in the field ; and on his being created Conde •de Abispal, he resigned the command of his Catalonians, three thousand in number, to Campo Verde, being so dis- abled by woundd that he was quite unable to conduct the «iege of Tortoza. In October, 1812, he was appointed to that situation, ■which several Irish soldiers of fortune have held — Cap- tain-General of Andalusia, — and on \yellington reaching •Oadiz in December of that year, after the retreat from Burgos, on his making a complete reorganization of the Spanish forces, the first reserve corps was given to the ■Oonde de Abispal, and the second reserve to Lacy. Thus they both served in the new campaign which ended ,80 gloriously on the field of Yittoria. After this signal victory, the task of reducing the forts near the tremen- dous pass of Pancorbo, which secured the approach to the Ebro, was given to the Irish Conde and his Andalusians, to •■whom they fell partly by storm and partly by capitulation. On the 14th July, 1813, to O'Donnel and his reserve cof five thousand was permanently entrusted the impor- 259 taut duty of blocking up the French garrison in Pam- peluna, now almost the last stronghold of Napoleon in Spain. This task he conducted with great vigour, while Wellington secured the passes of the Pyrenees and pushed the siege of San Sebastian; but on Soult forcing the passes on the 25th July, such an alarm reached Pam- peluna, that the Conde de Abispal spiked some of his cannon, blew up his magazines, abandoned the trenches, and but for Picton's victorious stand at Huarte, was pre- pared to retreat. On the fortunate arrival of a small Spanish division under Don Carlos d'Espana, the blockade was resumed and the siege pressed with renewed vigour. O'Donnel was posted on the right of Marshal Murillo at the great and decisive battle of Pampeluna, so absurdly and obstinately styled by the British tlie battle of the Pyrenees, from which it is nearly thirty miles distant. Soult was completely overthrown, and in August O'Don- nel reinforced the seventh division in occupying the im- portant passes of Exhallar and Zugaramurdi. After this, being again troubled by old wounds, he fell ill and resigned his command for a time to Giron. In Novem- ber he resumed it again, and occupied the beautiful valley of the Bastan, prior to the invasion of France under Wellington. In February, 1814, he led six thousand men at the passage of the Gaves, and was engaged in all the opera- tions on the Lower Pyrenees with the Spaniards under the Prince of Anglona. He served in that victorious campaign which terminated at the blood-stained hill of Toulouse, where, as General Napier so pithily remarks, "the war terminated, and with it aM remenihrance of the veterans' services" In the Constitutional war which ensued in Spain nine years after, and during the invasion of that country by monarchical France in 1823, the O'Donnels bore a pro- minent part, and adhered to Ferdinand YII. The Conde de Abispal was appointed a field -marshal, with the office of governor and political chief at Madrid, and on the 25th March he issued a proclamation announcing that th« s2 260 THE CAVALIEES OF FORTUNE. amnesty granted by the Cortes to those in arms agiinst the king was about to expire, and concluded by a brief warning to tlie factious and the Constitutionalists to lay down their arms. On the 17th April he published his able orders and propositions to the militia of the capital, together with the following declaration of his political principles : — •* Don Henry O'Donnel, Knight Grand Cross y ushed with great vigour by the « 274: THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Scottisli exile — tlie gallant Marshal Keitli — notwithstand- ing the great difficulties attending it ; for Loudon, bravely, and at incalculable hazard, in the defiles of Dam- 8tadt, in the principality of Lichenstien, intercepted a convoy of four hundred waggons, and obliged General Zeithen, who escorted them with twenty squadrons and three battalions, after a five hours' encounter, to retire on Trappau. This loss was irreparable, for General Put- kammer, eight hundred men, and the military chest were taken. The King of Prussia was compelled to raise the siege, and effected one of the most able retreats ever seen in Germany ; he then marched to oppose the Russians, who had broken into Brandenburg under Generals Brown and Farmer, two Scotsmen, whom he met in battle at Zorndorf, defeated on the 25th August, and drove them into Poland. Had Loudon (who was ably seconded by Daun) not intercepted General Zeithen, " *he town of Olmutz must have been taken in a fortnight," says Frederick, who styles it the Battle of the Convoy ; " for the third parallel was finished, and the besiegera had begun to open the saps." For this service Loudon received the rank of lieutenant-field-marshal. He had now won the reputation of being the first cavalry officer in the service of the Em press- Queen; and he was of great use to Daun in galling and incommoding the King of Prussia during the retreat from Olmutz. With four thousand men he took post in the wood of Opotshno, a Bohemian town, fifteen miles north-east of Koningengratz, where he intended to attack the Baron de la Mothe Fouque, who with thirty-two battalions and squadrons was conveying the heavy siege train. But there Loudon was unexpectedly assailed by Frederick, tvho had heard of his projected ambush, and marched to attack him in it, and he was forced to retire through the forest with the loss of a hundred Croatian troopers. He retreated towards Holitz, and thus the siege train passed J«vnmolested to Glatz. Loudon and General St. Ignan followed Frederick MARSHAL BARON LOUDON". 275- closely ; at Koningengi-atz their Paudours slew General Saldeni, Colonel Blankenzee, and seventy men, but were- checked by the sabres of Putkammer's hussars ; and to- prevent this harassing of the rear-guard, Frederick pre- pared an ambuscade on a narrow path which lies through a wood at Metau. In this defile he concealed ten bat- talions and twenty squadrons, under whose fire tho Austrians were drawn by a few flying skirmishers^ " Loudon, who was very easily heated," to quote Fre- derick, '• resolved on an assault ;" but the Prussian cavalry poured upon him like a torrent, a fire opened upon his- men from every point of the rocks and pass, three hundred were shot dead, and he was forced to retire. Soon after this he was lured again, by the Volunteers of Le Noble,, into a ravine near Skalitz, where he was suddenly assailed by six battalions in the night, and had to give way, with the loss of six officers and seventy men. He took possession of Peitz, a town in the Duchy of Brandenburg, on the right bank of the jMatx, and left no- means untried to fulfil with signal success his duty of covering Daun's left flank during the whole of the Austriait advance and Prussian retreat. Daun posted himself at Stolpen, to the eastward of the Elbe, on one hand to pre- serve a communication with a column which he had detached to Koningstien, and on the other to favour the active operations of Marshal Loudon, who had advanced, through Lower Lusatia to the frontier of Brandenburg. At tlie battle of Hochkirchen, which was fought on. the 13th October, the defeat of the Prussians was solely attributed to Loudon s skill and bravery. On the 12th-, he had attacked a great convoy, but was repulsed by Marshal the Honourable James Keith, with the loss of eighty men, among whom was the Prince de Lichenstien,. lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Lowenstien. After this Loudon assembled his dispersed troops and took ground in a woody mountain, which was a long quarter' of a league, German measure, beyond the Prussian right^. facing the village of Hochkirchen. A marsh separated the- flank of Frederick from this height. Daun secretly pre- pared a road for four columns to form a junction witli^ t2 276 THE CAVALIEHS OP FORTUNE. Loudon, who on the night of the 13th glided down with his swift Pandours to the rear of the Prussian position, and set on fire the village of Hochkirehen, driving out by the edge of the sabre the battalions quartered there, and seizing on a battery which defended an angle of the pl&ce ; while the gallant Major Lang, with the regiment of the JMargrave Charles, threw himself into the churchyard, and in the dark opened a blaze of musketry on the Pandours, whose light uniforms were soon too fatally visible by tlie flames of the burning village. Around this conflagration the whole tide of battle rolled at midnight. The aged Marshal Keith and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick were killed, and the Prussians were defeated with the loss of eeveu thousand men and most of their camp equipage. Marshal Daun filled his despatch (which detailed this victory) with the highest encomiums on Loudon, whom he sent immediately towards Silesia in pursuit of Fre- derick, whose forces he was to exclude from Lusatia ; and so he followed and galled them with untiring zeal and vigour, though he was then sufiering from a severe and chronic disease in the stomach ; but on his march towards the Saxon capital, the Prussian monarch made one vigorous stand and repulsed him ; after which he retired to Zittau. Reinforced by 1 2,000 men, the marshal concealed him- self in the forest of Schonberg, where he again attacked the Prussians, whose whole line of march became "one battle j" but Prince Henry, Frederick's brother, conv manded the rearguard ; and so excellent were his disposi- tions, that only Lieutenant- General Bulow and 215 sol- diers fell. On the 1st November, Frederick began his march for Silesia. Loudon, still pressing on, fell with such fury on the rearguard, that he was nearly taken prisoner by the Prussian hussars. He then brought up his cannon ; but these were dismounted by the heavier pieces of Frederick, which at the same time threw the Austrian foot into disorder. Thrice Loudon rallied them ; and thrice, sword in hand, he led them to the charge: but the approach of the noble Putkammer hussars compelled him to fall MARSHAL BARON LOUDOX. 277 back ; and tlius, amid skirmislies, iiiglit marclies, toil, starvation, plunder, and devastation, the campaign of the year was closed by the Austrians raising the sieges of Neiss and Dresden, and the King of Prussia retiring to winter quarters at Breslau. The generals of the Imperial army usually sponl the winter in the Austrian capital ; and now the Empress expressed a strong desire to see Marshal Loudon, of whom Count Daun had written so favourably in all his despatches and letters. Thus he prepared to return to Vienna, but was compelled to remain for some time at Dceplitz in Bohemia, in consequence of a return of his illness : and there Madame Loudon, who had remained at Vienna during the whole war, arrived to attend him. As soon as he was sufficiently restored, they travelled together to the capital, where they arrived on the 24tl) of February, 1759. The streets were crowded by densi masses of persons, all anxious to behold and to welcome the hero of whom they had heard so much, and his recep- tion was most enthusiastic. Only two years had elapsed since he left that city as a field-officer of Croats, and now he returned to it a Lieutenant-Field-Marshal and Knight of Maria Theresa. From the fair Empress he received the most flattering distinction ; and she commanded her own physician, the Baron Von Swieten, to attend him until his health was completely re-established. She bestowed upon him the Grand Cross of her Order, and created him a Baron of the Holy Boman Empire. The moment his physician permitted him, he resumed his command ; and no general of the Seven Years' War bore a more distinguished part in the campaign of 1759 than Baron Loudon, though Frederick II., who liad imbibed an animosity to him, always mentions his name slightingly in his works. The Prussian monarch, in the beginning of the year, had great success ; but his chief embarrassment was the approach of the Bussians, who defeated him in Silesia on the 23rd July, and spread their outposts along the banks of the Oder. On the frontiers of Bohemia nothing of im- "278 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. portaiice occurred, though Loudon, who occupied Trau- iienau, was continually in motion, alarming the Prussian ^osts and cutting off their supplies. He made an attack on General Seidlitz near Frederick's strong camp at Schmuckseiffen, and lost 150 men. Im- mediately after this, the Court of Vienna gave him com- anand of 20,000 men, 1200 of whom were dragoons, to give vigour to their Russian allies, who were destitute of cavalry. By the way of Greiffenberg he marched througli Silesia, foiling, deceiving, and skirmishing with the horse of Prince Heniy, till he took up a position on the heights of Laubau, wliere he had fought the Prussians in the pre- ceding year. He chose this ground with the intention of being in advance of them now, when he should receive orders to join the Russians under Count Soltikow. With this general he achieved a junction, and together they took up a position at Cunnersdorff, opposite Frank- 'fort-on-the-Oder, and gave battle to Frederick at eleven o'clock, A.M., on the 12th of August. The Russians had their intrenchments stormed amid great slaughter; a starfort erected by them on two sand hills, to cover their right flank, was can-ied at the point of the bayonet, and a dreadful massacre of them ensued in the churchyard of Cunnersdorff. Under the glare of a burning sun, and sore with many a wound, the brave King of Prussia led on his troops; and for two hours the infantry fought hand to hand. The Jews' Cemetery, seven redoubts, and 180 pieces of cannon, were already taken, when Loudon, perceiving that the Russians were unable to maintain their ground, brought up his well-chosen reserves, and fired his field-pieces loaded with case-shot, to sweep the Pimssian line. He then charged on both flanks with his fine Austrian cavalry, who bore down all before them. The Prussians fell into confusion, and their rout became total. Frederick had two horses shot under him, and his blue uniform literally torn to rags by bullets and sword- cuts. The struggle was awful, and night came down on a field where 30,000 men lay dead or dying, and of these more than the half were Prussians. The brave MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 279 ?vitkammer was slain, and ten other generals lay killed or wounded near him. The movements of Frederick after this most signa defeat were of a masterly description. He soon compellecl Loudon and Soltikow to act on the defensive, and reco- vered every place in the Saxon Electorate except Dresden- Forcing the Russians to retire into Poland, he joined hi.i brother Prince Henry in Saxony, compelled Marshal Daun to retreat as far as Plawen, and forced him to tak<« shelter in the camp at Pirna ; after which he retired into vvinter quarters in November. For his victory at Cunnersdorff Loudon was raised to the rank of General-velt-zeug-Meister ; but he drew off from Soltikow with all his cavalry immediately after the battle. In the campaign of 1760 he received command of the army destined for service in Silesia. It consisted of 40,000 men, and in all operations he was to be seconded by the Russians, who, according to an agreement made by the two Empresses, were to fight their way along thb banks of the Oder, while Daun carried on the war in Saxony. This array was light, and as unencumbered by baggage as a Pandour leader could desire. At its head Loudon left the camp in which he had passed the winter, and after attacking and repulsing General Goltze at the head of his horse, he left Draskowitz with 6000 men at Neustadt, and took the road to Bohemia, after menacing in succession Silesia, into which he penetrated with two corps, the new Marche of Brandenburg, Breslau, even Berlin and Schwiednitz. At last he fixed upon the latter, and General the Baron de la Mothe Fouque (who had weakened his forces by detaching the brigades of the Scottish General Grant and General Zeithen), deceived by an artful feint, marched towards it with all his troop? leaving the garrison in Glatz quite unprotected. The able Loudon at once perceived the success of his feint, or stratagem, and immediately had recourse to another. He took possession of Landshut, and left there a small body of troops, who were immediately assailed 280 THE CAVALIEES OF FoKTUNE. and driven out by the Baron de ia Mothe. "While the latter was thus occupied in recovering this trivial post, Loudon made himself master of several important posi- tions, and passed in triumph through Johannesberg and WisstengersdorfF, and at Schwarzwalde routed the lius- sars of Malachowski, and thus surrounded the baron's little army of Prussians. The latter did everything re- quisite to secure their position against the superior force of Loudon, who early in June attacked them with irre- sistible fury. On the night of the 23rd he seized two heights on the right, and formed there two batteries, which swept tho Prussian front and rear. He then stormed their intrench* ments at the head of 28,000 men, and drove out the enemy, who formed solid squares to repel his cavalry, which pushed them in disordered masses on the Balken- hayn-road. Their squares were broken, and 4000 men were slain. Among them fell the gallant baron, pierced by two mortal wounds. Seven thousand men surrendered, and Glatz, the most important place between Silesia and Bohemia, as it stands in a narrow vale between two lofty hills, was the immediate consequence of the victory. The Gersdorff hussars and dragoons of Platen cut a pas- sage to Breslau with 1500 of the infantry. Pushing on, the victorious Loudon prepared to besiege that place, where he expected to be joined by the Rus- sians, and thus enabled to complete the conquest of Silesia, the great object of the war. Encouraged by his success at Glatz, he assailed the Silesian capital, and bom- barded it with great success on the 30th July. He set forth in his summons to surrender, " that liis forces con- sisted of fifty battalions and eighty squadrons, most of which were within three days' march ; that it was in vain for the governor to expect succour from the King of Prussia, now on the other side of the Elbe, and still moro vain to look for relief from Prince Henry, who must sink beneath the Russian sword if he attempted to obstruct its progress ; and that the inhabitants must resign all hope of terms or quarter if they ventured to defend the town." The reply of the governor was firm and noble. Loudon MARSHAL BAROX LOUDON. 281^ showered bombs and red-hot balls on one side, while attempting an assault on the other. Prince Henry, one of the most accomplislied of the- Prussian generals, advanced to its relief by a forced march of one hundred and twenty English miles in five days,, resolving to give the Baron battle before the Russians joined liim ; and on his approach Loudon prudently raised the siege and retired, though he still kept Neiss and Schwiednitz under blockade. The King of Prussia by this time was on his memorable march to prevent the junction of the Russian and Imperial armies in Silesia ; and with this intention had encamped at Lignitz, wheie, while encompassed by three hostile columns, he gavt?- battle to Loudon. Attacking him at three o'clock, a.m., on the loth August, near Lignitz, he repulsed him with loss before Daun could come to his assistance ; and further secured his own rear effectually by a strong corps de reserve and park of artillery posted on the heights of Paffendorf. Frederick obtained some information as to Loudon's disposition of force from an Austrian officer, an Irishman, who had deserted. " He was so intoxicated," says Fre- derick, in his own History, " that he could only stammer out he had a secret to reveal. After making him swallow some basins of warm water to relieve his stomach, he affirmed what had been divined, that Daun meant to attack the king that very day." Loudon made incredible efforts, on foot and on horeeback, to maintain his ground. After receiving five consecutive charges of five lines of five battalions each, the confusion of the Austrians became general, and they fled towards Binowitz. The battle of Paffendorf cost Loudon ten thousand men ; the field, which sloped like a glacis, was occupied by the Prussians, who took two generals, eighty other officers, six thousand soldiers, twenty-three pairs of colours, and eighty- two pieces of cannon ! \Ye next find the indefatigable Loudon in position at Hohenfriedberg, a small Silesian town, which he had to abandon on the night of the 11th September, finding his flank turned by the Prussian vanguard on their gaining 582 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE. the pass of Kauder. On the 18th he occupied the defiles of Giersdorf, and that night, by a cannonade prevented the enemy from advancing to ^Yahlenburg. He next laid siege to the strong and important fortress of Kosel, seventy-three miles distant from Breslaii, and threatened the whole province with subjection. The Russians and Austrians now effected their junction again, and together made themselves masters of Berlin on the 4th October ; after which the affairs of the great Fre- derick seemed desperate ; but he resolved to retrieve them by some decided effort. Crossing the Elbe, he huiTied into Saxony, followed by Daun with eighty thousand men, whom he routed at Toorgau on the 23rd November. By this he recovered all that he had pre- viously lost ; the E-ussians retired into Poland, the Austrians evacuated the desolated province of Silesia, and the Swedes took refuge on the shores of the Baltic. By the defeat of Daun, Loudon was compelled abruptly to raise the siege of Kosel and retire out of the province. In 1760, Bohemia, Silesia, and other parts of Germany presented a lamentable aspect. Cities were empty, villages desolate, and castles in ruins. The fields were ravaged and destroyed, till a famine was at hand ; wives and children had perished ; husbands and fathers had been driven into the ranks of adverse armies, to fight for bare subsistence rather than their blackened hearths and rifled homes j trade was neglected ; the seats of learning abandoned ; the land untilled : and all this curse had fallen upon the people by the mad ambition of their kings and princes. During the winter Loudon's activity prevented Fre- ■ derick from obtaining recruits, provisions, or forage from the piincipalities or circles of Neiss, Groskau, Frankestien, Strehlen, Neustadt, and Oppelen. In January he repaired to Vienna, to assist at the counci-s of war and arrange the plan of the new cam- paign. In this year (1761) he was destined by the Court of Vienna to undertake a war of sieges in Silesia, where he *was to be supported by the Bussians j and on the 10th of MARSHAL BARON LOUPON. 283 March he resumed the command of his division. In April he wrote to the Empress stating that since the 18th instant he had revoked the truce made with General Goltze, and intended to fix his head-quarters at Caretau, a league from Glatz. In May he patrolled the country about Lignitz and Jauer to levy contributions, and eighty-seven of his men were cut off by General Tatter at Eostock. About the 12th May, on Frederick's approach, he retired into Bohemia, by tlie way of Gattesberg, before eighty thousand men, and on the 6th of June established his head- quarters at Hauptmonsdorf Frederick was resolved to act solely on the defensive, being tired of the war. On the 21st July he was encamped at Pulzen, when Loudon, who occupied the opposite mountains, descended by the defile of Steinkunzerdorf, feigning to attack the fortress of Neiss. This drew Frederick out ; and they engaged on the heights of Munsterberg, where a Avarni cannonade ensued. On the 23rd Loudon encamped at Ober Pomsdorf ; " and either from native restlessness, or a habit of commanding detachments, in eight days he changed his position six times ; for which no satisfactory reason could be given." On the 17th July the whole of the Prussian army received the communion, and sixty rounds of ball per man. Loudon's force, after he was joined by General Bret- tano from Saxony, amounted to eighty thousand men. He was also joined ]3y a column of Russians under Genera] Czernicheff'. He received a letter from Maria Theresa, wherein she somewhat needlessly '• gave him full power to give or decline battle as he chose ; and this power was to extend to all his military operations in general." In the first days of August he transnutted to her a letter which ho liad received from Frederick of Prussia, and written by his own hand, in which he offered him great sums " if he would agree to 'Act faintly in this campaign." Loudon at the same time sent the Empress a copy of his answer, importing, "that being accountable to God and to his sovereign for his conduct, all the treasures of the earth fehould not tempt him from his duty to either ; and that 281: THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. he begged his Prussian Majesty would make him no more proposals so repugnant to his duty, and so iDJurioua to his honour." On the 15tli August he detached forty-three squadrons of horse to join a Russian column which had passed the Oder ; but Frederick met them on their march near Parchwitz, and defeated them, taking all their colours and cannon. These troops were horse grenadiers — the flower of the Austrian cavalry. The march of Loudon to form ft junction "witli the Russians," say the London papers for lOtli September, 1761, "is alone sufficient to raise his r(!putation as a general as high as even a victory could have done. He had marched seven hours before the enemy had the least suspicion of his design, and had a conference with Marshal Butterlin near this place (Lignitz) ; on his return from which he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the fleetness of his horse, his escort being attacked smartly by a strong detachment of Prussians." The allies afterwards separated ; and the Hamburg journals asserted that it " was owing to a pique and jealously between Laudohn and Butturlin about the command, and the open antipathy of their respective troops to each other." After a long series of marches, manoeuvres, and feigned attacks, in which he had completely the better of the great Frederick, Loudon suddenly appeared before Schwiednitz, the ancient and fortified capital of a prin- cipality situated among the hills of Lower Silesia. Its walls were manned by a brave Prussian garrison ; but, to cut off all succour, Loudon posted twenty battalions on the heights of Kunzendorf, which are so steep that they cannot be taken from any troops who possess them. Frederick's army, consisting of sixty-six battalions, olo hundred and forty-three squadrons, and four hundred and six pieces of cannon, encamped at Bunzehvitz, in a place surrounded by chevaux-de-frize, abattis, mines, an^ palisades. Loudon made a partial attack upon this for- midable post ; but, pushing on, he resolved to take Schwiednitz by surprise. Previous to the advance, says an officer of his army, in one of his letters, " his Excel- DSAESHAL BARON LOUDON. §85 lency our general having assembled upon the Limelberg, the troops destined to scale the walls of Schwiednitz harangued them there, and promised them a reward of one hundred thousand florins if the place was taken without pillage. •' ' No, no r exclaimed the Walloon grenadiers ; ' lead us on, and we will follow to glory ; but we will take no jiioney from you, our father Loudon !' " Then the Count de Wallace, colonel of the regiment of Loudon Fusiliers, after being twice repulsed by two battalions of the brave regiment of Treskow, said to his soldiers, — " ' I must carry this fort or die ! I have promised it to Loudon ; remember that our regiment hears his name — it must conquer or perish P " This short speech produced a surprising effect. An entire battalion sprung furiously into the ditch. The officers themselves fixed the scaling-ladders, and were the first that mounted. M, de Wallace had the glory of forcing the most difficult point of attack, and taking prisoners two battalions, who made the most courageous defence. "■"■ Twenty battalions had been distributed to the four points of attack. One column advanced to the Breslau gate, a second on the Strigau gate, a third to the fort of Bockendorf, and a fourth on the redoubt of Eau. On the 1st October, at three in the morning, favoured by a dense fog, Loudon and Wallace led their soldiers to the assault ; and the escalade was made with such rapidity, that the garrison had only time to fire tii;ehe cannon shot. Lieutenant-General Zastrow, the governor, who had been at a ball, hurried his troops to arms ; but the contest was short ; a few volleys were exchanged, when a magazine blew up and killed eight hundred Prussians in the fort of Bockendorf. Taking advantage of the confusion, Wallace rushed on, burst open the gates of the town, and with the loss of only six hundred men, Loudon was master of the place before daybreak. Zastrow and three thou- * Letter from an officer to a friend at Ratisbon, Oct. 25th, 1761. 286 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. sand men were taken, with a great store of all the mu- nition of war. This was a severe blow to the pride of Frederick, who was weak enough to attribute the success of Loudon to the treachery of Major Rocca, an Italian prisoner ; but an officer named De Beville made a noble defence in the redoubt of Eau. Loudon garrisoned the town by ten battalions, under General Butler, an Irishman ; and after remaining long encamped at Freyburg, in December he sent O'Donnei into Saxony after a body of Prussians, and cantoned his own troojDS among the mountains, while the Russians wintered in Pomerania. During the winter of 1761 an epidemic malady maae great ravages in the army of Loudon. It was a kind of leprosy, the progress of which was so rapid, that it soon thinned his ranks, and filled the hospitals and ceme- teries. The year 1762 saw a fortunate change in the affairs of Prussia ; Peter III., a peaceful prince, succeeded to the P-ussian throne, and formed an alliance with Frederick, who did not fail to profit by it, and retook Schwied- nitz, though garrisoned by 9000 men, in spite of the ut- most efibrts made by Daun and Loudon to prevent him. After this he concluded with Maria Theresa a cessation of hostilities in Saxony and Silesia ; and soon after peace was secured to Germany by the treaty of Hubertsbourg, on the 16th of February, 1763. In the seven campaigns of the Seven Years' War seven- teen pitched battles had been fought ; three sieges had been undertaken and five sustained by Prussia, with innu- merable skirmishes. Austria took 40,000 Prussian prison- ers, and Prussia took the same number of Austrians. The hospitals were full of maimed and sufiering soldiers. In each regiment, on an average, only eight officers, and less than 100 men, were alive who had witnessed the com- mencement of the war. Loudon was the only officer, not born a prince or of an illustrious family, who had risen to such high rank during that sanguinary struggle. He was, moreover, a stranger, a foreigner^ and a soldier of fortune. At the peace the Empress presented him with MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 287 the lorJsliip of Klieii Betcliwar, not far from Kolin. Oa this he built a strong and beautiful castle, with the reve- nues which he derived from a barony in Bohemia ; and there he retired to enjoy a few years of repose and peace, and to overlook the cultivation and improvement of his estate. In 1766 the grateful Empress made him Aulic Coun- cillor of War ; in 1767 the highest nobles of the Empire received him as one of their members; and in 1769 he was appointed Commandant- General in Moravia. In 1 770 he was present at the interview between the Em- peror Joseph and his old antagonist Frederick the Great of Prussia. Dissembling that ungenerous animosity which lie had imbibed against tlie fortunate Loudon, Frederick always addressed him as " M. Velt-Mareschal," though he had not attained that rank in full ; and when Loudon, with his natural reserve, was about to seat himself at the foot of the royal table, — " Sit next to me, M. de Loudon," said his Prussian Majesty ; " for, be assured, I love better to see you by my side than opposite to me." At his departiu'e he presented the baron with twa horses, the finest of his stud. In 1778 Loudon was gazetted to the rank of Field- T-Iarshal, and was placed at the head of an army 50,000 strong, to defend the interests of Austria in the new war which broke out between the great powers of Ger- many, on the death of Maximilian Joseph, the Elector of Bavaria. He posted the army of the Emperor behind the Elbe, in strongly fortified positions ; and distributed his own corps among the secure posts of the Riechenberg (on the same ground where the Austrians were defeated by the Duke of Brunswick in 1757); of Gabelona, a fortified town which occupies an important pass ; of Schlukenau, thirty miles from Dresden, and towards Lusatia ; but the main body of his troops he skilfully distributed between Leutmeritz, a well-fortified town ; Lowositz, in the same circle, but four miles distant from it ; Dux and Toplitz. The King of Prussia took the field with all his force, to prevent the Emperor from co-operating with Loudon, to 288 THE CAVAWERS OP FORTUKE. whom lie opposed the column of Prince Henry : and now ensued a campaign full of interest only to those who study brilliant manoeuvres and subtle tactics. Loudon's posts at Schlukenau, Rumberg, and Gabelona were taken by the prince, who forced him to abandon Aussig and Dux, with the fortifications and magazine at Leutmeritz, and, indeed, all the left bank of the Elbe ; but falling back on the Iser, he skilfully secured its pas- sages by strong detachments. In short, so equal was the distribution of strength, numbers, skill, and discipline, that the war was a mere succession of able movements, but bari'en of striking events ; and after a year of marches and skirmishes, the Emperor relinquished Lower Bavaria, on which he had seized unjustly, and a peace was con- cluded on the 13th May, 1779, the birthday of the Em- press-Queen. After this Loudon returned to his sequestered castle ; and once more, for eight years, resumed the peace and I)leasure of a country life. In 1787, when in his seventy-first year, he was again summoned to the field by the Emperor, to lead the Austrian armies against the Turks ; and a series of bril- liant captures and encounters realized all thit had been hoped from his old valour and experience. He poured his hosts along the Croatian and the Bosnian frontiers ; and in Augusi, 1788, after two fruitless assaults, in one of which 430 of his men were killed and wounded, he received by capitulation the fortress of Dubitzar, on the right bank of the Unna. On the 20th the Turks had attacked his camp, but were repulsed j after which he again ordered an immediate assault ; but, as it failed, he ordered the town to be fired, and it burned till the morning of the 24th. He then opened several mines, and by the 25tli his sappers were within ten feet of the walls. The Turks then " capitulated to Marshal Loudon, whose principal terms were : — " That the officers might march out with swords, but their troops were to lay down all arms and surrender aa prisonei's of war. " That the women and children might go to Eoczaraca^ MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 28^ attended by five Turkish soldiers, for whose return the commandant should be answerable." Novi-bazar, a Bosnian Sanjak, the capital of a province, w"ith its castle, next fell into his possession ; then Gradiska, a stronjr Turkish fortress which had been erected fifteen years before by French engineers, at the junction of the "Virbas with the Saave ; then Belgrade, the most important town and fortress on the Austrian frontier of the Turkish empire. Its citadel occupies a commanding position oa the summit of a precipitous rock which rises in the cen- tre of the streets and is surrounded by a lofty wall, a triple fosse with flanking towers, and an esplanade 400 paces broad. These works were principally constructed by Benjamin Swinburne, a native of Staffordshire, wha had embraced Islamism, adopted the name of Mustapha^ and risen to high rank in the Turkish artillery. Led on- by Loudon, the Austrians overcame every obstacle, and captured this famous Belgrade. In that town he found a fine funeral monument of white marble, covered with Turkish inscriptions, ara- besqucd ornaments, and sculptured garlands of flowers. He had this great sarcophagus carefully taken to pieces- and sent to his estate of Hadersdorf, to form a tomb for himself. In this war of carnage, as it was justly named, for no quarter was given on either side, the Imperialists num- bered at first 218,000 bayonets and sabres ; but they were soon reduced to half that number by the resistance of the Turks. Neu-Orchova, a small town and fortress of Wallachia situated on an island on the Danube, was his last capture after he had defeated the Bashaw of Travernick and was- repulsed in turn from two practicable breaches ; but he reduced it by a regular siege; and with this ended the Turkish war, which he had conducted with glory to xVustria and ended with honour to himself In 1790 he returned to the army in Moravia. He was now seventy-four years of age, and his health was failing fast. During the latter part of his life he had been much afflicted with rheumatism, gout, and colic. 290 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. the fruit of military toil and hardship. All these at- tacked him regularly every spring and autumn. On the 26th of June he dined with Prince Lichnowski, at Bohmisch Gratzen, and was seized on that night by a fever, from which he predicted he would never recover, and about the 6th of July he was in a dying state. Observing around his bed many of his old brother officers in tears, he endeavoured to console and reassure them by the calm- ness of his own demeanour. "I implore you," said he, "to unite true religion to that high courage which I know you to possess, and to defend your minds from the approaches of atheism. All the success I have had in this world I owe to my con- fidence in God, as well as the glorious consolation which I now experience, in this awful time, when I am so soon to appear before Him." On the 10th, he requested the sacrament, and begged the Marshals Colloredo and Botta to be present at the reading of his will, and to bear his dying blessing and remembrances to the old officers and soldiers who had served under him. Then perceiving his favourite nephew, Alexander Loudon, weeping at his bed- side, he said, — " Arise — be a man and a Christian — love God and your fellow-creatures." He lingered on until the 14th of July, when he expired in great agony. Thus died, in the year 1790, Field-Marshal Baron Loudon, one of the greatest generals of the eighteenth century. " It was but seldom that a smile was seen to unwrinkle his lofty forehead," says a writer of his own time. " He was as little acquainted with the real laugh as Cato. As to his character, he knew how to divereify it wonderfully. Loudon on horseback and at the head of an army appeared to be quite another man, and was indeed a complete contrast to Loudon in the country or the town. His conduct agreed perfectly with what his cold and reserved physiognomy announced, for he spoke but little, and slowly. From his early youth he constantly avoided the society of women ; he was uncommonly timid in their company, and was a very good husband. Accus« MAKSHAL BARON LOUDON. 291 tomed to find himself punctually obeyed by thousands in the field, at the least sign indicated by him, he required the same docility of his vassals and servants, and he acted with severity to them — perhaps more than ought to liave been used to men who were unaccustomed to military disci- pline." As a souvenir of the many perils he had passed through, he carefully preserved at Hadersdorf a musket-ball which had been cut in two on the pommel of his saddle, and also his Croatian sabre, which had been struck from his hand by a bomb, and bent so that no armourer could ever straighten it. His remains were enclosed in a double cofiin, adorned by gorgeous mountings and handles, and were solemnly borne from Bbhmisch Gratzen to his estate of Haders- dorf, a small town of Lower Austria, near the Kiein- Kamp, and five miles west of Vienna. In the park he had once selected a spot shaded by many fine trees, under which he had expressed a wish to be buried ; but, on his return from the Turkish campaign, he selected another place, and planted it with shrubs and flowers in imitation of a Moslem sepulchre ; and this he was wont to term his Turkish Garden, for therein he had leconstructed the marble sarcophagus which had been conveyed from Belgrade. There he now lies in peace, shaded by some stately old trees and in the centre of a green meadow. His funeral monument, which is one of great magnificence, is securely walled round ; and among the sculpture with which the Austrian Government adorned it, there may still be traced the shield argent, charged with three escutcheons sable; the old heraldic cognizance which the Loudons of that ilk p^'-^ied on their pennons in the wars of th* f^cottish kin^s. u2 292 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Count D'gerllir, CHAMBERLAIN OF THE EMPIRE. Were we to choose a hero for a military romance, he rould be Andrew O'Reilly, who bore the high reputation of being the first cavalry officer in the Austrian service. This distinguished Irish soldier of fortune, the last of the eleves of the Lacys and others whose achievements in the third Silesian war and the Turkish campaign have already been recorded, obtained the rank of Genei-al in the Austrian army, Chamberlain, and Commander of the Imperial and Military Order of Maria Theresa, with the rank of Colonel Proprietaire of the 3rd Regiment ol Light Horse. He was born in 1740, and was the second son of James O'Reilly, of Ballincough, in the county of Westmeath, and of Barbara, daughter of Thomas Nugent, Esquire, of Dysart (grand-daughter of Thomas, fourth Earl of West- meath). His brother Hugh was created a Baronet by George III., and subsequently assumed the name of Nu- gent. His only sister married Lord Talbot de Malahide. Entering the Imperial service early in life, O'Reilly filled in succession all the military grades save that of Field-Marshal ; but of those events in his stirring life which led to his elevation to a coronet, we barely afford a summary. One of the most important incidents in his early career is connected wiih his marriage ; and while it illustrates the manners of the last century, is worthy of notice, for the remnant of old romance and chivalry it displays. He and a brother officer, Count Klebelsberg, uncle of Francis Count de Klebelsberg, who, in 1831, was President of the Government of Lower Austria, were rivals for the hand of the Couutesa V/uyrlena, a rich and beauti- COUNT O'REILLY. 293 ful Bohemian lieiress ; and aware that both could uot suc- ceed, they determined to solve the difficulty of selection by a combat cb Voutrance. The intended duel was, however, reported to the authorities, and both O'Reilly and Klebels- berg were placed under close arrest by the Director Genei-al of the High Police ; but, resolved to achieve their purpose, they secretly left Vienna, and travelled post together to Poland, and meeting in the neutral territory of Cracow, fouojht their remarkable combat. The duel lasted Ions;, lor both were perfect swordsmen, active, skilful, and wary ; but at length O'Peilly ran K?ebelsberg through the body, after receiving many dangerous wounds in his own person. The affections of the countess, with her hand and fortune, were the immediate reward of the soldier of fortune. Rejoining the army, he served with great brilliance in the war between France and Austria. The forces of the latter were commanded by the Archduke Charles. On the 14th June, 1800, he fought imder General Melas, at the battle of Marengo. "Melas," says IVI, Thiers, in his History of the Consulate and Empire, " placed General O'Reilly on the left, and Generals Kaim and Haddick on the right, to gain the road to Piaceuza, the object of so many efforts and the salvation of the Austrian army." On the 2nd December, 1805, that great day when -'the sun of Austerlitz arose," and eighty thousand Frenchmen, flushed by rapid conquests, by the capitulation of Ulm, and the recent capture of Vienna, met the Austro- Russian army in one of the bloodiest battles on record — a battle, which, as General Rapp has it, " was a veritable butchery, where w^e fought man to man, and so mingled together, that the infantry on either side dared not lire lest they should kill their own men" — the star of Napoleon bore all before it; and the French, though losing thirteen thousand men, totally routed their allied enemies, with the loss of thrice that number, taking all their colours, baggage, ammunition, and one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon. On that terrible day, the political 294 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. result of which was an almost immediate cessation of hostilities between France and Austria, it was universally admitted that a succession of daring and brilliant charges made by the Light Dragoons of O'Reilly, "alone saved the Austrian army from total annihilation." The Emperor Alexander declined the overtures of Bonaparte, and renewed the war next year. The field of Eylau gave his Russians a partial revenge ; and ere long they reaped the fulness of it amid the flames of Moscow and the slaughter of Smolensko. On the 12th of May, 1809, O'Reilly, for his services at Austerlitz and elsewhere, was appointed Governor of Vienna, with a powerful garrison; and in a few days after, the Eagles of Napoleon were at its gates. Shut up in the city with the troops, the Archduke Ferdinand resolved to defend it, though the French had already stormed and carried all the suburbs. In vain were flags of truce sent in ; the bearers were not only refused ad- mittance, but, despite the orders of O'Reilly, were even maltreated, and in some instances massacred by the people. The bombardment followed, and soon Vienna was wrapped in flames ; but the Emperor Napoleon, being informed by O'Reilly that one of the archduchesses had remained in Vienna detained by illness, gave orders to cease firing. " Strange destiny of Napoleon 1" exclaims old General Bourrienne ; " this archduchess was Maria Louisa !" — the future Empress of France. On O'Reilly devolved the difficult and trying task of obtaining honourable terms foi- the capital of the Empire, from an enemy flushed by victory and the pride of » hundred hard-fought fields. He accordingly deputed the Prince of Dietrechstien, the Burgomaster, and the chief citizens to Napoleon, who inveighed bitterly against the obstinacy of the gallant Archduke Ferdinand, but lauded the coolness, bravery, and great presence of mind of the governor, whom he emphatically terms " le respectable General O'Jteilly^'' and accepted all the terms proposed br him ; but in the fourteenth clause stipulated that O'Reilly should be the bearer of the treaty to his master, to the COUNT O'REILLY. ' 295 end thai he should honestly and faithfully lay before him the true position of the now half-conquered AustriaiL Empire — and this duty O'Eeilly ably performed. He served in the great battle fought near Aspern on the Marchfeld, during the 21st and 22nd of May, between the French under Napoleon, and the Austrians under the Archduke Charles. In the prince's plan of the attack " to be made upon the hostile army, on its march between Essling and Aspern," it was ordered " that the cavalr}^ brigade under the command of Yeesy will be attached to the second column, and the Regiment O'Reilly to the third." This regiment consisted of eight squadrons of Light DragoonSj and the column to which it was attached comprised cwenty-two battalions. O'Reilly, with his cavalry, followed the column which marched from Seiring, by the road of Sussenbrunn and T>reitenbe. Here O'Eeilly, with several troops of Light Horse and Chasseurs formed the advanced guard, which met the enemy's cavalry at three o'clock in the afternoon, near Hirschstettin, while the other columns of the Austrian army drew the French back upon their position between Esslingen and Aspern, and while Lieutenant-General Hohenzollern ordered up his batteries, and the battle became general on all sides. In close column of battalions, the line of the third column was advancing with great bravery, when the French cavalry fell upon them, sabre in hand, with such fury, that they were repulsed, and nearly lost their cannon. At this moment the regiments of Zach, Colloredo, Zetwitz, and the second battalion of the legion of the Archduke Charles, led by Lieutenant-General Brady, an Irish officer, ^ demonstrated with unparalleled fortitude what the fixed determination to conquer or die is capable of effecting against the most impetuous attacks." The splendid cavalry of France turned both flanks of Brady's column, and penetrating between them, repulsed the Light Horse of O'Eeilly, who came up at full speed to succour the soldiers of his countryman. Surrounded, the Eegiment O'Eeilly were summoned to lay down their 296 THE CAVALIEKS OP F011TU>'E. arms ; but a destructive fire of carbines was the answer to this degrading proposition, and the French cavahy gave way. The Regiment O'Reilly passed the night on the field of battle, which was lost by the Austrians. The market ■town of Aspern, on the north side of the Danube, was destroyed, and the loss of the Imperialists was frightful. After a two days' conflict, there lay on that field the flower of the Austrian army ; 87 field-officers, 4199 sub- alterns and privates, 12 generals (including the Prince de Rohan), 663 oflScers, and 15,651 soldiers were wounded ; of these, Field-Marshal Webber, with 8 officers, and 320 men were taken prisoners, with 3 pieces of cannon, 7 powder waggons, 17,000 muskets, and 3000 corslets. The loss of the French was terrible ! 7000 men and an im- mense number of horses were buried on the field ; 29,773 wounded men strewed the streets and suburbs of Vienna; hundreds of corpses, gashed and shattered, floated down the rapid Danube and were flung upon its shores, w^here they lay unburied and decaying, filling the air with pesti- lence and the place with horror. In October peace was signed at the camp of Schoen- brunn, and, divorcing the woman who had loved him ^hen he had only his sword and his epaulettes, Napoleon espoused Maria Louisa of Austria ; and Prince Charles, who by his accumulated blunders at the battle of Aspern, had thrown away the fortunes of Continental Europe, received fiom his Imperial conqueror the Grand Riband of the Legion of Honour. O'Reilly came in for a full ^hare of the honours and decorations which were showered upon the Austrian army. At the general peace of 1814 the Empire, exhausted by a war of tive-and-twenty years, reduced her vast military establishments to 5S regiments of the line, 12 battalions of chasseurs, and 5 garrison battalions — in all, 1044 com- panies of fusiliers, and 1 1 6 of grenadiers. The cavalry were reduced to 36 regiments of cuirassiers, light dra- goons, hulans and hussars. Of the third regiment of light horse O'Reilly was colonel and proprietor. He was also High Chamberlain of the Empire. COUNT O'REILLY. 297 At this time Louis Count Taaffe, a noble of Irish parentage, was Second President of the Austrian High Court of Justice, and General Count O'Donnel was jNIili- tary Governor of Austrian Lombardy. One of the Emperor's most distinguished officers was General Count Nugent, who in the war of 1847-8 led 30,000 Austrian infantry to succour Marshal Radetzki, who was then op- posed to the troops of Charles Albert.'"^ Count Taali'e was a member of the new ministry formed on the 21st of March, in the year of the Austrian revolution ; but he retired from office shortly before the appearance of the chartered constitution on the 19th of April, O'Reilly lived to see Austria affected by the commo- tions which pervaded Europe after the French Revolu- tion of 1830, when the Duke of Modena and the Arch- duke of Parma were obliged to quit these states, and a formidable insurrection broke out in the Patrimony of St. Peter — an insurrection to quell which 18,000 Austrian troops w^ere marched towards the frontier ; but O'Reilly was too far advanced in years to draw his sword again in the service of the House of Hapsburg. He died in October, 1833, at Vienna, after attaining the patriarchal age of ninety-two. He had long survived his countess, and died childless. * Nugent, a field-marshal in 1858, commanded 25,000 Austrian troops at the funeral of Marshal Radetzki, and acted as cii-of 29S THE CxVVALIEBS OF FORTUNE. KNIGHT OF ST. LOUIS, AND COLONEL OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. The life of this military wanderer presents, in his che- quered career, the curious anomaly of a general and his soldiers being received into the service of their native country and native monarch, against whom they had pre- viously fought with a bravery that too often gave the laurels of victory to his enemies. Count Daniel O'Connell was of the same family as the famous political agitator who bore his name, and he sprang from an old Milesian race who held the rank of Toparchs in their own province. He was the son of Daniel O'Connell of Derrynane, and of Mary, daughter of Duffe O'Donoghue, of Anwys in the county Kerry, Ireland, and was born at Derrynane Abbey, in 1742. At the early age of fifteen, like others whose fortunes I have recorded, he left his native country to seek ibreign military service, and in 1757 was appointed a Sub-Lieutenant of the Irish Brigade in the French ser- vice, in the battalion known as the Infantry regiment of O'Brien, or Lord Clare, and which bore the title of Clare until its dissolution, thirty-five years after. In the preceding year war had been declared between Franco and Britain respecting their mutual territorial claims in North America. The former prepared a vast military armament to carry on the strife; and in the army formed on the 12th July, 1759, to be led by the Marechal Princes of Conde and Soubise, were the Irish and Scottish Brigades ; and in the fcirmer was the Regi- ment of Clare, with which young O'Connell was serving as a subaltern. From this period, for some time, little is known of him, save that be served throughout the Seven, COUNT O'CONNELI* 29^ fears' War, and at its close, for his good conduct, was pro- moted into a new corps which had recently been embodied. In 1779, when France espoused the cause of America, and sought to harass the mother country in Europe, O'Connell was engaged in the expedition against Port- mahon, which is the principal town in Minorca, situated on a rocky promontory, difficult of access from tlie land- ward, and defended by Fort San Philipo, in Avhich there was a resolute garrison. O'Connell, with his new regi- ment, served under the Due de Crillon at the siege, and conducted himself with such honour as to be specially noticed. The operations were severe and protracted, but in three years the Spaniards and theii' allies recap- tured the whole island of Minorca, which at the peace of 1763 had been formally ceded to Britain. In 1782, O'Connell served with the combined French and Spanish armament which blockaded Gibraltar, during that memorable siege which had commenced on the 12tli of Jainiary in the preceding year. Having shown consi- derable skill as an engineer at Minorca, he was one of the council-of-war appointed to assist the Chevalier d'Arcon in conducting the grand attempt in which France and Spain had resolved to try their full strength for the capture of that celebrated rock, the key of the Mediter- ranean ; and for this purpose, as already related in the memoir of the Lacys, 40,000 soldiers, with 200 pieces of cannon and 80 mortars, pressed the attack by land, while 47 sail of the line, 10 battering ships, and a multitude of frigates, mounting 1000 guns and having 12,000 chosen soldiers added to their crews, lay before the fortress by sea — and in that fortress, to meet all this warlike preparation, w^ere only 7000 British soldiers ! The French army was commanded by Louis Duo de Crillon-Mahon, the representative of an ancient noble family in the Yaucluse, who had commenced his military career in the Grey musketeers, and served under Marshal Villars in Italy. He had direction of the whole attack ; his engineers were the most expert in Europe, and bi-ave volunteers came from all quarters to take part in a siegf which attracted the attention and raised the expectatioii of all Continental Europe. ■300 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. As a member of the council-of-war, O'Conuell repeatedly opposed the plans of the Due de Crillon and of the Che- valier d'Arcon, and declared their system of attack '•* worthless ;" and the sequel, in the triumph of General Elliot, proved that his observations were correct. In the grand attack he accepted command of one of ihe floating batteries. Ten of these, mounting from ten to twenty-eight guns, liad been built under the orders of M. d'Arcon. Their bottoms were of solid timber, their sides were sheathed with wetted cork, and filled with damp sand between the timbers. They had sloping roofs of raw hides and net- work to receive the bombs, which thus exploded harm- lessly over the heads of the besiegers. These floating batteries were exposed during the whole time to that terrible fire of red-hot shot — a suggestion of General Boyd — which ultimately, by firing the gi'eat ship of Buenaventura de Moreno, struck the Spaniards with con- -fusion and dismay. O'Connell had one of his ears torn off by a cannon- 'ball ; and by the explosion of a shell, which by its weight penetrated the roof of skins, he was covered with wounds and bruises of minor importance. His services, during this futile and disastrous siege, were -considered so valuable by the King of France, that, on the recommendation of the Due de Crillon, he was re- warded with the colonelcy of the Regiment de Salm- "Salm ; a German corps raised in the principality of that name ; but this post he held for a short period, being re- . moved to the regiment of Royal Swedish Infantry. After this, in 1787, the government of France ha\dng i resolved that the military economy of their army should undergo a complete revision and remodelling, appointed a military board, consisting of four generals and one colonel to prepare reports and recommend alterations where •necessary. The colonel chosen was O'Connell, who drew •lip a system of regimental economy, and a code of tactics, which were afterwards used with brilliant success against himself and his loyal comrades during the first campaigns • of the revolution. When the laboui's of the board ceased, COUNT O'CONNELL. 30 V he was appointed to the onerous situation of Inspector- General of Infantry, with the duty of regulating the new ^miforms and equipment of the Line, when many altei-a- uons and improvements were adopted in 1791. He was succeeded as colonel of the Swedish regiment r;y Count Pherson, afterwards one of the principal agent? in the escape of Louis XVI. from Paris. O'Gonnell now enjoyed the reputation of being one o^ the most distinguished officers in France. Besides his very extensive knowledge of mathematics and military strategy, says a French writer, he was well versed in the study of languages ; and although Latin and Greek were to him alike familiar, he spoke with equal fluency French, English, Italian, and German. He had conceived a great predilection for the Erse {gallique) of the mountains of Kerry, and he was never more happy than when he could converse in this dear old idiom, of which he could so well appreciate the beauties."' Now came the fatal, the culminating, point of the once splendid monarchy of France — the dark days of the Revolution ; of the captivity and death of the weak, but unhappy Louis ; of the flight or destruction of his nobles. Before the final catastrophe of the royal execution, a pro- posal was made by the National Assembly, which deeply interested Count O'Connell and others who had made France the land of their adoption. This was the intended expulsion from her soil of all foreign officers and soldiers^ who had served King Louis, including Irish, Scots, and Switzers. While this ungenerous measure was being debated, the gallant Duke of Fitzjames, in February, 1791, addressed to Louis XYI. a letter on behalf of the exiles ; and this document is so remarkable in its tenor, that I may bo pardoned in quoting from it one or two paragraphs. After briefly and modestly stating tlie services rendered by his father and grandfather to the line of St. Louis, he thus advanced the claims of the Irish in France : — " Sire, my grandfather came not alone into France ! His brave companions are now mine, and the dearest friends ♦ Biograjphie UniverseUe, 302 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. of my heart ! He was accompanied by Thirty Thousand Irishmen, who abandoned home, fortune, and honour to follow their unfortunate king. For the descendants of those brave men, whom your ancestors deemed so worthy of protection because they had been faithful to their so- vereign, I now entreat the same bounty from the great- gi-andson of Louis XIY. It is reported tliat the National Assembly propose disbanding the Irish regiments as foreign troops. The blood they have shed in the cause of France ought to have procured them the right of being denizens of that kingdom, even though their capitulation had not entitled them to that privilege. " Sire, permit me to lay at your Majesty's feet the ardent wish of the Irish regiments, who are as much attached to France by gratitude as formerly they were to the House of Siuart by love and duty. If the Assembly now reject their services, they implore your Majesty's recommenda- tion to the prince of your family now reigning in Spain, presuming to assure you that the present will be worthy of being made by a King of France, and of being favour- ably received by a prince of your royal race. '' Fidelity and valour are their titles to recommenda- tion ! Of the former they expect an authentic testimo- nial from the French nation, as they have never once failed in their duty during a century, and wherever they have fought their valour has been conspicuous in battle. " Sire, I entreat you to listen to their request ; for my- self I ask no compensation — for me there is none ! The honour of commanding them cannot be repaid. It secures my glory, as to lead them against a foe ensures immediate victory !" But this spirited and touching letter failed to stay the popular clamour against these military strangers in the sequel. In July the Assembly decreed that the standards of the Irish, German, and Liegoise infantry should be the tri- colour, inscribed " Discipline and obedience to the law ;" but when the princes, J\lonsieur of France (or Comte de Provence) and Charles Philippe, the Count d'Artois, fled COUNT o'co:sxELL. 303 to Coblentz, the formal defection of several Irish officers hastened the destruction of the old brigade of immortal memory ; and with it, after the 10th of August, disappeared the ancient Swiss, German, Italian, Scottish, and Cata- Ionian regiments of the monarchy. During the crumbling of that monarchy, O'Connell, though in secret communication with the princes at Coblentz, lingered in Paris until the close of 1791, wheu that strange convention was held at Pilnitz between the JEmperor Leopold and the Prussian king, who formed a league to invade France and remodel its government. In a letter from Pavia, dated 6th July, the Emperor had already openly avowed his intentions in this new war, and invited all European powers to co-operate with him. At this crisis the French government proposed to place O'Connell at the head of one of their many armies levied to meet this European combination ; but the count, despite the earnest recommendations of Carnot and of his friend the celebrated General Dumouriez, declined ; and then, unable to withstand the issue of the suspicions which this refusal excited in Paris after the terrible 10th of August, 1792, when the attack of the Tuileries and massacre of the Swiss took place, he secretly left the city, and repairing to the princes, offered to them his sword and fealty at Cobientz; which, being within the Prussian frontier, became the head-quarters of all those emigrants and Prussian troops destined to form the army of the Prince of Conti, who vainly hoped to restore the line of St. Louis to the throne of his forefathers. His chief aid-de-camp was the Comte de Macarthy, an emigrant officer of dis- tinction, a marshal-de-camp of horse in 1791. O'Connell, relinqiiishing his higher claims among the crowd of noble applicants for service, accepted the com- mand of a regiment as colonel, and left nothing undone to improve its discipline and efficiency, for his whole *,nergies and enthusiasm were devoted to the reconstitu- tion of the French monarchy. The first of the French troops to proffer their loyalty, on this occasion, were the Scottish and Irish soldiers of the old liegiment de Berwick. The depot of this corps 304 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. •was then quartered at the strong town of Givet, on the frontiers of France, under the command of Sir Charles MacCarthy-Lyragh, who immediately marched his men to Coblentz, and joined the battalion. Sh* Charles after- wards passed into the British service, when he was made a Colonel and Governor of Senegal, where in 1824 he fought a battle with the Ashantees, by whom he was slain and belieaded. The loyalty of the Irish brigade met with a warm response from the fugitive princes. " This offer," replied Monsieur to the deputation who came to proffer fealty, '* will mitigate the sufferings of the king, who will receive from you with pleasure the same mark oi fidelity which James II. received from your ancestors. This double epoch ought for ever to furnish a device for the Regiment de Berwick ! It will lienceforth be seen upon your colours; every faithful subject will there read his duty, and behold the model he ought to imitate." " The colours of Berwick," added Charles Philippe the Comte d'Artois, " are, and always will be, in the path to honour, and we will march at their head !"* The king perished, and then followed the campaign ol 1793, a period most disastrous to the emigrants ; but amid all the slaughter and merciless butchery, with which the republicans inspired the war — a war, to maintain which, the fiery zeal of Carnot enrolled no less thsm four- teen armies, mustering 1,400,000 men — O'Connell led his battalion with honour to himself and to the cause he served, till all hope was lost, and then with others he fled to England in the beginning of 1794. Among those condemned by Robespierre's tribunal in that year, were two distinguished officers of tlie Irish brigade — General O'Moran, who defended Dunkirk against the Duke of York ; and John O'Donoghue, Genei-al de Brigade in the Army of the Rhine. At the same time were condemned, M. Murdoch, a Scotsman in the service of the Comte de Montmorin; and W. Newton, an English colonel of the DmgoOn Regiment de Libert^, and formerly an officer in the Russian service. • Scoti' Magazine, } 791. COUNT O'CONNELL. 305 In reduced circumstances O'Conneli reached Loudon, where he resided for a time in comparative obscurity ; and where, for many reasons, his residence was far from being a pleasant one. Still, undiscouraged by the aspect of affairs in France, and by the numerous bloody defeats and massacres sustained by the emigrant troops and other supporters of the Boui^bons, he took a warm interest in the attempts meditated in 1794; but fresh conflicts seemed only to fire the zeal of the republicans anew, till the French armies, following their victories, drove their enemies across the Meuse and then beyond the Ehine ; after which they penetrated into Holland, revolutionized it, and succeeded in detaching Prussia from its alliance with Britain. At this epoch O'Conneli laid before William Pitt the plan of a new campaign, which so pleased that minister, that he made the count, then in his fifty-second year, an ofier of military service under the British government. This he at once accepted, and proposed to form a new brigade to be named tlie Irish, and to be raised princi- pally from remnants of the regiments of Clare, Lally, Dillon, Berwick, &c., emigrant officers, and men who re- presented the old brigade of King James ; but here O'Coimeirs religion, which was strictly Catholic, prevented him, in those days of intolerance, prior to the Emancipa- tion Act, attaining in the British service a higher rank than Colonel ; and this rank he held till the day of his death. The brigade consisted of six battalions, each of the strength usual on a war establishment ; but O'Conneli had the mortification to find himself gazetted by the Horse Guards Colonel of the fourth regiment iustead of the first, to which he was justly entitled, by his previous position and general military character. His commission was dated 1st October, 1794.* The list of colonels was as follows : — 1st Regiment — the Duke of Fitzjames. !2nd Kegiment — Anthony, Count Walsh de Serrant. ♦ War- Office Records— communicated S06 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE, 3rd Regiment — Honourable Henry Dillon. 4th Regiment — Count Daniel O'Connell, 5th Regiment — Charles, Viscount Walsh de Seriant, 6th Regiment — James Henry, Count Conway.* Several of his old friends were appointed to the corps ; among these were Bartholomew, Count O'Mahoney, Colonel, 1st January, 1801 ; John O'Toole, Colonel, 1805 ; and Colonel James O'Moore, who was appointed Major-General in 1801. This brigade, which was embodied under circumstances so singular, instead of being sent to fight upon the con- tinent of Europe, as O'Connell and his brother emigrants had fondly anticipated, after many changes in its consti- tution and organization, was ordered to Nova Scotia, to Cape Breton, and to the then pestilential West India Isles. The snows of America and the burning sun of the tropics soon had a fatal efiect upon these unfortunate wanderers, and they were nearly all swept away by disease and death. Of the six regiments, only thirty-four officers of all ranks were alive in 1818, on the Irish half-pay. On the 25th December, 1797, O'Connell, weary of a service so heartless, and so little conducive to the welfare of the cause he loved so much, retired upon the full-pay of colonel unattached, and returned horae.t In 1802 he profited by the Treaty of Amiens, when peace was negotiated between Great Britain and France, to return to the latter ; but the frail bond of unity was soon broken, and he was comprehended in the harsh decree which seized, as prisoners of war, all British sub- jects remaining in France. At the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814 he regained his liberty, and Louis XYIII. restored to him his rank of General, and with it the Colonelcy of a regiment and the pension and Grand Cross of St. Louis, which he enjoyed with his retired full pay as a British Colonel. This was after the decree of the 16th July, by which the whole of the old army was disbanded, and the command conferred • War-Offic« BeoMft^, • f Ibid, COUNT O'CONNELL. 307 upon Marshal Macdonald, who remodelled a new army from the wreck of Napoleon's veterans. O'Connell lived in tranquillity and honour, a remnant of other days and of old romantic sympathies, until 1830, when he was again deprived of his Erench emoluments for his unwavering fidelity to Charles X. and the elder branch of the Bourbons. After this he retired to his chateau at Meudon, near Blois, where he died, on the 9 til of July, 1833, in the ninety-first year of his age, the oldest Colonel of the British army, and the senior general of the French. Such was the chequered career of one of the last of the brave old Irish Brigade. 308 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNBi Stephen James Joseph Macdonald, Marshal of France and Duke of Tarentum, was the son of Neil MacEachin Macdonald (a gentleman sprung from the branch of the Clanranald in Uist), who served in France as a h'eutenant in the Scottish Regiment of Ogihde, to which he had been appointed by the recommendation of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, whom he had served bravely and loyally •even after the close of his disastrous campaign in Scot- land, and whom he had followed into exile after materially contributing to that deliverance which was efiected by the celebrated Flora Macdonald. He was one of the hundred and thirty Highlanders who gathered on the shore of Loch nan Uamh after the horrors of Culloden, and embarked with Prince Charles for France. Neil MacEachin (i.e., the son of Hugh) had been a preceptor in the family of his chief, Clanranald, and being originally designed for the Catholic Church, had been educated at the Scottish College in Paris. He spoke French with great fluency, and to the exiled prince proved a faithful adherent, friend, and solace, in all his wanderings ; and when Charles was so ungenerously committed to a dungeon at Vincennes by order of the French govern- ment, his captivity was shared alone by the brave islesman from Uist. According to Mr. Chambers, there is every reason to believe that he was the author of a little work entitled Alexis, in which he preserved a minute record of the prince's wanderings and dangers in the Western Isles of Scotland. His son, the future Marshal of the Empire, was born on the 17th of November, 1765, in the old fortified town of Sedan, in the departement of the Ardennes. MARSHAL MACDONALD. 309^ Dostining him for tlie profession of arms, he had him educated with the greatest care, and in his nineteenth year enrolled him as a cadet in the Legion of Maillebois, which was to enter Holland, and second a revolutioii, there — a movement neutralized by the influence of Prussia. In 1784 young Macdonald was appointed a Sub-lieu- tenant in Dillon's Regiment, a battalion of the Irish Brigade, which now included in its rank many Scottish^ emigrants and their descendants ; and in this corps he remained a subaltern until the Revolution in 1792, when his colonel, the brave, loyal, and unfortunate Dillon, was murdered at Lisle, where his body was literally torn tO' pieces by the revolted soldiers and infuriated mob. Although, like the 4th Hussars and the Regiment of Berwick, Dillon's battalion emigrated entire and joined the fugitive French princes, Macdonald remained in France ; not because he did not share the loyal sentiments of his comrades, but because he loved the beautiful Mademoiselle Jacob, whose father had joined the popular party against the monarchy. This lady he afterwards married ; and the influence of her family led him to em- brace, or at least to adopt, the principles of the revolu- tionists, while he avoided their crimes and excesses. The new government soon discovered that Macdonald was a bold, active, and intelligent officer, and at once gave him employment. He made the first campaign of the- revolutionaiy war as Stafi*-major, under de Bournonville, and served afterwards in the same capacity with General Dumourier, acquitting himself so much to the satisfaction of these distinguished leaders, that, on the 1st of March,^ 1793, he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment de Picardie, the second regiment of the old French line., which was then in garrison at Thionville; and this ancient corps (which was originally raised by Charles IX. ia 1562) he commanded in the first campaign in Belgium. He was sincerely attached to Dumourier ; but, on the defection of that general from the Republic, after hia fruitless attempts on behalf of the king, his retreat to the camp at Maulde, and the attempt to assassinate him on the 5th April, Macdonald did not accompany him ia 310 THE CAVALIERS OF FOrvTUNE. hiB fliglii, to the Aiistrians, but remained with the army, in which he was soon after named a General of Brigade. Under the celebrated Pichegreii he served with tliis rank in the Army of the North against the combined forces of Britain and Austria, and particularly signalized himseli" at Werwick and Comines. The column of Pichegreu consisted of fifty thousand men. It penetrated to Courtrai, which was surrendered by a garrison that found it indefensible. Macdonald v;as next at the investment of Menin on the Lys, where a iJrmidable resistance was made. The battle before this place lasted from eight a.m., until four in the afternoon, when the Germans, who had advanced to the relief, retired, and left Menin to its fate. A few months after saw all the Austrian Netherlands oveiTun by the victorious French, and the allies who had come to protect the pro- vince retiring in disorder beyond the Meuse. On this retreat the British and Hanoverians were particularly pressed by Macdonald, who followed them into Holland. At the passage of the Meuse a Scottish officer named Macdonald came to Pichegreu's army with a flag of tinice, and during the parley — " You have," said he, '' among you a general of my name ; we wish much to take him prisoner." " Have a care, monsieur," replied a French officer, ** that he does not take you.'' And next day this officer, with a party, was nearly captured by the column of Macdonald.* The passage of the Waal on the ice, under the heavy batteries of Nimeguen, when leading the right wing of the Army of the North, was one erf Macdonald's most brilliant achievements. * " General Macdonald, who has come forward with so much idat as commander of a French column, is the descendant of a Mr. Mac- donald of Argyleshire. His uncle is Mr. Macdonald of Kinloch- moidart. He preserves his clannish aflfections, and in the campaign of Pichegreu in Flanders and Holland, having command of a brigade which had to press on a British brigade, where he discovered a namesake, he supplied his countryman during the memorable retreat with every comfort which a camp could aSord."— Edinburgh JTerald, loth January, 1799. MARSHAL MACDONALD. 311 After many desultory movements, the discomfited allies had taken up a position beyond this river, which is a branch of the Rhine, and contested the passage with the French during the severe winter of 1794. The stream ^v^as a mass of ice, as the frost was unusually intense ; thus the STifFerings of the soldiers were great. Resolved to avail themselves of the advantage which these sufferings gave them, the French had made repeated attempts to force the passage of the river. On the night of the 26th December, when an unusual gloom had settled over the frozen stream and snow-chid scenery, Pichegreu, with all his forces, advanced towards the boundary with such rapidity that he lost several cannon and soldiers. Next day he ventured on the ice and the swamps that bordered it, making a general assault upon the posts of the allies. Macdonald, with the right wing, pushed boldly between Fort St. Andre and the walls and batteries of the ancient town of Nimeguen, in which there lay a strong garrison. His orders were " to act as an army of observation, and prevent the British and Germans from supporting the Dutch, as the main attacks were to be made by the left and centre." The latter, numbering 16,000 bayonets, crossed the Meuse in three columns, near the village of Driel, and invested Fort St. Andre and the fortifications in the Isle of Bommel ; while Macdonald achieved with signal success the passage elsewhere, and formed his battalions in position beyond the frozen stream. Taken by surprise, the inert Dutch soldiers in the Bommeler-waard made but a show of resistance. They were driven out by the charged bayonet, and 600 of them were captured. The French left wing advanced towards Breda with equal success, and stormed the lines between that city and Gertnidenbergin Northern Brabant ; forced the entrench- ments at Capellan in Gueldreland, and stormed Waspick. In this series of reverses the allied British, Dutch, and Austrians lost one hundred pieces of cannon, and had more than a thousand prisoners taken ; while the French securely established themselves far beyond the contested river. Ere long all resistance to their progress ceased ; 312 THE CATAIilERS OF PUKTUNE. every fortress, city, and castle submitted to them in suc- cession, till the desperation of his affairs compelled the Stadtholder to seek refuge in Britain, while his allies re- treated by the way of Amersfort to cross the Tssel, abandoning Holland to its fate, and to the armies of Pichegreu and Macdonald. For his services in this campaign the latter was now made a General of Division. Every oflBcer uiider whom he served mentioned him with honour in their reports to the Directory; but while, with that openness which is characteristic of soldiers, his comrades thus rendered every justice and tribute to his worth and bravery, the sus- picious representatives of the people, who followed the Army of the North, and thrust their officious counsels upon its generals, occasioned him constant anxiety. Their dislike of his Scottish name was never concealed, and his natural frankness unfortunately laid him but too open to their insidious attacks ; till ultimately their animosity was gratified by the Directory depriving him of his command. Of this injustice Pichegreu complained bitterly, and said, " My army will soon become disorganized, if thus wantonly deprived of its best officer." " We have dismissed Macdonald," was the coarse reply of the Deputy St. Just, " because neither his face nor his name are republican ; but we will restore him, Pichegreu, to thee, and with thy head shalt thou answer for him." This opinion of the Committee of Public Safety so far influenced the Directory, that, until he replaced Oham- pionnet in Italy, Macdonald was never entrusted with an independent command. Soon after this mollification in Holland, the convention for a peace between France and Austria was held at licoben, and on its conclusion he repaired to Cologne, and, quitting the army of the Rhine, joined that of Italy, where the bright star of Napoleon was now in the ascendant. By the nature of his frontier service Macdonald had hitherto little or no correspondence with the future Emperor, who having also imbibed the Buspicions of the Directory, was long in discovering the worth or relying on the fidelity of the • only Scottish soldier in his service. Macdonald appeared in Italy too MArvSllAli MACDOXALD. 313 late to bear any part in the first events of the campaign of 1797, when the armies of the aggressive republic marched to spread their new political principles through- out the Italian peninsula; but in the following year he was at the invasion of the Papal States, with the terrible Massena and with Berthier, who proclaimed the republic at Rome, on which the Pope fled to Florence. One of the early measures of the French generals was the sup- pression of the English, Scottish, and Irish colleges, all the effects in which were seized and the students dispei^scd. To the Pope they sent a tricoloured cockade and the offer of a pension, to which he made the following reply:— " I acknowledge no uniform save that with which the Church has adorned me. My life is at your disposal, but my soul is beyond your power. I cannot be ignorant of the hand whence the scourge proceeds which chastises the sheep and afflicts the pastor for the errors of his flock ; but I submit to the Divine will. Your pension I need not. A staff and scrip are sufficient for an old man who must pass the remainder of his days in sackcloth and ashes. Rob, pillage, burn as you please, and destroy the monu- ments of antiquity, hut religion you cannot destroy: it will, in defiance of your efforts, exist to the end of time I" Macdonald's Scottish surname was a puzzle to the Italians, who styled him Maldonaldo, Mardona, and every possible variety of the original. After occuppng the- States of the Church, and leaving Macdonald Avith his corps to overawe them, the French armies, whose line of march was everywhere marked by flames, plunder, and barbarity, advanced into Naples to expel the old Bourbon king, and erect an affiliated republic on the ruins of his throne. On this service our hero commanded under Championnet. Prior to tnis he had been charged with the duty of repressing the insurrections which broke out among the Romans, who massacred or assassinated the French soldiers whenever an opportunity of doing so occurred. The most serious of these risings was at Froi- sinone, a village in the valley of the Apennines. This he 514 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. -suppressed with great severity, and, to strike terror into tlie peasantry, shot all prison ei^s taken in arms. The barbarities of the French, during their brief ascendency, are stUl remembered with horror in Italy. They and their partisans hunted and destroyed the Neapolitan royalists like wild beasts, and made a desei*t of all Apulia. It was in this province that Ettore Caraffa, Conti di Kuvo, and heir of the Duke of Andria, joined the invaders of his native country, and, after storming and reducing to ashes Andria, a prosperous and populous city in the province of Bari, he was so extolled by the Directory for his generous republicanism, that " when General Broussier carried the town of Trani by storm, Caraffa recommended that it should be burned also — and burned it was, with nearly all that were in it — the wounded and the dead, with those that were living and unhurt. They made, in fact, a hell of all that smiling Adriatic coast long before Cardinal Rufib had passed the first defile in the Calabrias." At Froisinone the Roman insurgents murdered the son of the Consul Mathei merely because his father was at the head ©f the new government. Macdonald offered from fifty to five hundred piastres for the chiefs of the insur- rection, dead or alive. He issued a proclamation to the Romans inviting them to obedience and respect for the new authorities put over them, as being the only means of raising the Roman Republic to the rank she should occupy; and he concludes thus: " The great nation wills it so, and its will must be executed. — Macdonald." Towards the end of 1798, as Commander-in-chief of the Roman territory, he ordained the Consulate to raise two regiments of horse and a battalion of infantry in each department. The Court of Naples had now been subverted ; under the protection of a British fleet and army, the king retired to Sicily, and a republic was supposed to be quietly established at the extremity of the peninsula, when the brave Calabrese, a race of hardy mountaineers, who were living in wild places in all the simple civiliza- tion of thi-ee centuries ago, rose in arms, and, uniting MARSHAL MACDONALD. 315 with the Apulians from the plains, poured against the French in tumultuary hordes — half robbers and wholly patriots. Then began a war of torture and extermina- tion. These new insurgents demanded a general from their foolish and feeble king ; but, instead of a soldier, he sen< them a priest — a man of peace to oppose armies led by such men as Championnet, Macdonald, Berthier, and Massena ! This was the celebrated Cardinal Ruffo, a descendant of the ancient princes of Kuffo-Scilla, whose now ruined castle crowns that rock so famed in ancient story, and opposite to the fabled whirlpool upon the Sicilian shore. In a remote corner of Calabria he unfurled the banner of Bourbon, with the cry of " Viva Ferdinand and our Holy Faith !" This brought to the muster-place thousands, who swore upon their knives, daggers, crosses, and relics, to clear their native land of those lawless Jacobins and infidel republicans who were violating and desecrating everything, whether sacred or profane. The mountain robbers, who knew well the secret passes of that romantic and beautiful country — men who under their own government had sub- sisted by rapine and slaughter, led the van of the new movement. The cardinal cared little for the morals of liis followers. Provided they were stanch, brave, good marksmen, and well armed, he received them all with an apostolical benediction, and left the rest to Providence and gunpowder. He marched at their head direct for Naples, where the French army under Championnet was cantoned ; and, as he advanced, his wild and tumultuary army was increased, in every town and valley through which he marched, by sturdy peasants armed with muskets, daggers^ and weapons of every description. The fury with which these irregular hordes, clad in their picturesque costume, their Italian hats, and shaggy zaramaras, assailed Championnet at Naples, with the advance of another column under General JNIack from another point, forced Macdonald to march with his division, four thousand strong, from Kome, and retire to Ottricoli, a small town on a hill near the Tiber, about 316 THE CAVALIEIIS OF FORTUNE. thirty-sLc miles distant. He left a garrison in the Castle of St. Angelo, which was summoned by Mack to surrender. He sent a copy of this document, which was imperious in its tenor, to General Championnet, who empowered Mac- donald to reply, which he did in the following terms : — Head- QUARTERS, Monterozi, 29th November, 1798. " The Commander-in-chief, sir, 'has sufficient confidence in me to recognise as his own the reply which I make to your letter of the 28th November. I well know that he has not given any answer to your lettei's concerning the evacuation of the forts and strong places ; and one of these, we consider the Castle of St. Angelo. The silence of con- tempt alone was due to your insolent menaces on this subject, and this was the only answer that could be ex- pected consistently with the dignity of the French name. You mention a regard for treaties, and yet you invade the territory of a Eepublic in alliance with France, and do so without provocation, and without its having given you the least reason for such conduct. ** You have attacked the French troops, who trusted iu the most sacred defences — the law of nations and the secu- rity of treaties. " You have shot at our flags of truce which were pro- ceeding from Tivoli to Vicavero, and you have made the French garrison at Rieti prisoners of war. " You have attacked our troops on the heights of Terni^ nnd yet you do not call that a declaration of war ! " Force alone, sir, constrained us to retire from Rome (and you, sir, know better than any one the truth of what I say), that the conquerors of Europe will avenge such proceedings ! At present, I confine myself merely to stating our injuries ; the French army will do the rest. I declare to you, sir, that I place om* sick, Yalville the commissary of war, and the other Frenchmen who have remained at Rome, under the care of all the soldiers whom you command. If a hair of their heads be touched, it shall be a signal for the death of the whole Neapolitan army ! The French Republican soldiers are not assassins ; but the Neapolitan generals, the officers and soldiers who MARSHAL MACDONALD. 317 were taken prisoners of war, on the day before yesterday, on tlie heights of Terni, shall answer with their heads for the safety of my wounded. Your summons to the com- mander of Fort St. Angelo is of such a nature, that I hava made it public, in order to add to the indignation and to the horror which your threats inspire, and wliich we despise as much as we think there is little to be dreaded from them. " Macdonald.** In his position at Civita Castellana, near Ottricoli, ho was attacked by Mack with great determination. Cham- pionnet, in his despatch, states tliat the enemy were forty thousand strong, and advanced in five columns. " General Macdonald, surrounded on all sides, gave proof of his great talents. He received the attack with that courage which distinguishes the man of firm character, and by his able dispositions entirely disconcerted the enemy." His advanced guard, under Kellerman, consisted only of three squadrons of the 19th chasseurs a cheval, the first bat- talion of the 11th regiment, and two pieces of flying artil- lery. This handful of brave fellows routed Mack's first column, slew four hundred, and took fifteen pieces of cannon, fifty caissons, and two thousand prisoners, while they had but thirty killed. The Italians of De Mert retired to the heights of Calvi, ji steep mouoHin range, where, after a midniglit march, during a severe December storm, IMacdonald surrounded and attacked them a few days after, and by a flag of truco summoned them to capitulate. To this they made some ridiculous propositions, but he sent the following ulti- matum : — "The column shall surrender prisoners at discre ion, or be put to the sword !" On this they surrendered at once to the number or five thousand, with all their arms, fifteen standards, eight guns, and three hundred horses. Among the prisoners were the Mai-shal De Mert and Don Oarello. After this, he returned to Eome, re-established the Rt-public, aiid hen taking the route to Capua, followed Mack's Neapohrans, 318 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. who fled before him. Mack was an Austrian general whci had entered the service of Ferdinand of Naples to organize the patriots. For this purpose he had brought with him from Vienna fourteen experienced officers. On the march to Capua Macdonald's soldiers sufferer greatly from the constant rain and storms of snow, by the overflow of the mountain torrents, the destruction of all the bndgeh, ana Dy tne riliew ol tn^ ai meu peasantry, who mercilessly slew every straggler. Th ' —^-est men in the Neapolitan army were the moii^^*- ''^ ^»H..vtitti ; and many of these romantic desperadoes, ^v . .,. ai'med bands, re- ceived the commission of colonel, and were decorated with knightly orders. Fra Diavolo, a brigand by profession, was a colonel in the infantry, and cavaliere of San Constantino ; the Abate Proni, a ferocious monk of the Abruzzi ; Gaetano Mam- mone, a miller from Sora ; and Benedetto Mangone — three outlaws and brigands, covered themselves with distinc- tion in this horrible war against the French ; but Bene- detto was a veritable monster. " He never spared the life of a Frenchman who fell into his power ; and it is said that he butchered with his own hand four hundred Frenchmen and Neapolitan republicans ; and that it was his custom to have a human head placed upon the table when he dined, as other people would have a vase of flowers." In March, 1799, a picquet of sixty Polish soldiers was captured between Capua and Fondi by the Calabi-ese, who put every one of them to death. In the Campagua Frenchmen were roasted alive by the peasantry, or tied naked to trees and left to be devoured by dogs and wolves. Stragglers were destroyed by every means bar- barity could devise. The King of Naples, who had come from Sicily, fled again ; and General Mack, before he was blocked up in Capua, wrote in these terms : — " Sire, of forty thousand men with whom I entered the Boman territory, only twelve thousand remain ; and, of these, many are going over daily to the French." Macdonald, \\ith Championnet, laid sie;a:e *w Caajua, MARSHAL MACDONALU JJll^ "jiliore Mack made a vigorous resistance and repulsed them ; but the attack was i-enewed with fresh fury ; the city was won by assault, and the remains of the Nea- politan army, who had gathered courage from despair, and whom shame for past defeats inspired "with a glow of double vengeance, perished under the bayonets of the French. Their bodies choked the bed of the Volturno ; and for six leagues from thence the road to Naples was strewed with their dead and dying, till even the con- querors grew tired of slaughter. When Mack yielded himself a prisoner of war to the General of Division, he proffered his sword, a handsome weapon, which had been presented to him by the King of Great Britain in 1795. Champion net laughed, and returned it to him, saying — " Keep your sword, M. le General, the laws of the Republic prohibit the use of British manufactures." At this time the rage of the French army against their peculating commissaries was great, for they htt*\ buffered severely by the scarcity of provisions ; but Crtainpionnet and Macdonald skilfully turned this discontent against the enemy. " Soldiers," they exclaimed, after the fall of Capua, " your magazines are at Naples !" " Let us march, then — to Naples lead us !" was the reply, and to the capital the fugitives of INIack's army were pursued. A dreadful slaughter was made among the Lazzaroni, for a fresh struggle ensued at Naples, and every house from which the troops were fired on was burned to the ground, and its inmates bayoneted. Macdonald had distinguished himself in every engage- ment with the unfortunate Mack ; but now a series of disputes ensued between him and Championnet, who had many troubles to contend with. Irritated by the devas- tations committed by the Sieur Faitpoult, Cominissarv of the Directory, the general commanding ordered him to quit Naples, with his horde of plunderers, within twenty- four houi-s. Faitpoult, instead of obeying, raised the standard of mutiny against Championnet, but was forced to retire. The coarse reproaches of the Deputy St. JiLst still 5?0 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. rankled in the memory of Macdonald, who left nothinf^ undone to gain the confidence of the Directory, and pti • suade the members of it that he respected their authority, while it is but too probable that he despised them in his heart. The Sieur Faitpoult had friends in the Directory; thus the firmness of Championnet in expelling him from Naples was styled mutiny to the Republic, and he was ordered to quit the peninsula, and resign his command to General Macdonald. Poor Championnet was placed under arrest; and, relinquishing his baton to his more fortunate* second in command, had to appear before a court-martial at Turin. With confidence Macdonald accepted this new position, which was one of great difficulty ; for the revolted state of Naples, and, above all, the turbulence and ferocity of the Lazzaroni, were sources of incessant alarm. To travel, or pass from town to town, without an armed escort, was at that time impossible; fighting, skirmishing, solitary 4issassinations, and wholesale massacres, were of daily occur- rence, particularly in the province of Otranto, where the embers of revolt were still fanned by the presence of the brave old Cardinal Ruffo, who appeared at the head of his followers, clad in full pontificals, wearing his scarlet hat, and carrying his pastoral stafi" surmounted by a cross ; and thus attired, in a sacred costume so well calculated to rouse the enthusiasm of Italians to frenzy, he led them to battle. Thus he gave them his benediction before it, and thus ho said mass for the souls of those dead braves who died for " Ferdinand and the Holy Faith ;" thus attired, at many a siege, he sprinkled the battering guns, like his drums and banners, with holy water, mingling, as it were, the smoke of the censer with the smoke of battle. Thougli the fiery spirit thus roused was restless and abroad, Mac* donald ultimately forced the whole kingdom to submit, and completely mastered the capital, which he governed witli firmness and moderation. His order of the day, issued on the 4th March, 1799, amply details the many dangers which surrounded him, and the wise measures he took to guard against them. He threatened to make the clergy responsible for the violeuuu MARSHAL MACDONALD. 321 of the populace ; but concluded by declaring liis reverence for, and attachment to, religion, and his determination to protect all pastors and magistrates wlio conformed to the laws of the new republic. Five days after this, beiug in- formed that King Ferdinand had an intention of landing again, he published a proclamation, in which he somewhat oddly invited the people of Naples to rise against their native pricce, and unite with France. Acting in concert with the Commissioner Abrial, he lowered the taxes levied on the people; and, filled by a just admiration for the memory of Tasso, he saved from destruction the poet's native town, Sorrento, on the southern side of the Gulf of Naples, where an insurrection had taken place. After this, the provisional government made him a rash and pompous offer of forty thousand auxiliaries. In April, he generously released and sent to Captain Trowbridge, a British officer aud eleven seamen, who had been cast ashore at Castellamare, duriug a tempest. He had treated them with every kindness as his country- men. They were the crew of a prize, the Cliampionnet, privateer. The entire command of the army in Italy was now be- stowed upon General Sherer; and when that officer was defeated between the Lake of Garda and the Adige, on the 26th of March, he sent a despatch to Macdonald, de- siring him to form a junction with his troops in northern Italy by forced marches. On hearing of the battle near the Adige, the Neapolitans again rose in arms ; and the massacres of the French by wandering bands were again of daily occurrence; but, in spite of every natural and human obstacle, Macdonald effected the junction accord- ing to his orders. As his retreat from Naples would have been dangerous without an attempt to overawe the armed masses who hovered on the mountains, he attacked and took Lacava, Castella, and the gloomy little town of Avel- lino, before his departure. On the 26th May, he was in Tuscany, and united with the divisions detached by General Moreau. There were not wanting those who blamed him for losing time in combining his force with that of Moreau; but those who did so were ignorant of the nature of Iho y 522 THE CAVALIEBS OF FORTUNE. -country he had to traverse with his trains of artillery and baggage. " General Macdonald has been here since the 5th instant," says a French letter from Florence. " We deem iiim the saviour of the French in Italy, and our confidence in him will not be disappointed. His army, which has advanced by forced marches, assembled here yesterday. It is full of ardour, and its zeal, which a few reverses have >only fired anew, is a happy presage in our favour." On the 13th June, he attacked Modena, and in less than -two hours dispersed the Austrian division of Count Hohen- 2ollern, which was in position upon the glacis of the place ; and two thousand prisoners were taken by his French grenadiers. In an account of this afiair, General Sarrazen, who led these grenadiers, mentions that when Macdonald 'was pressing on with the infantry of the line against the cavalry, he said to him; — " Macdonald, I shall remain with my grenadiers, and ihink you had better do the same." " Do you not see, M. Sarrazen, that I have them all, as if caught in a mousetrap," replied the commander, joyously ; and, when within a hundred paces of the Austrian horse, he required them to surrender. "We yield," replied an officer, sheathing his sabre ^and riding confidently forward. Macdonald continued to ;approach until within pistol-shot of their line, when the treacherous German suddenly exclaimed, while unsheath- ing his weapon, — " Draw sabres — charge !" He threw himself at full speed upon Macdonald, who •was far from anticipating a movement so sudden, and, after receiving three sword-cuts on the head, was thrown from his horse covered^with blood. This was all done in a moment, and the German officer mingled with his squadron, which instantly took to flight. They were, ]iow- ever, overtaken and captured, and their leader, a youth of -eighteen, was slain. Macdonald was at first supposed to be dead, for he lay stunned on the ground, having three deep wounds, with a contusion by the fall from his horse; yet he was in his saddle, and at the head of his column MARSHAL MACDONALD. 323 on tlie 17tli, when the advanced guard of the Kussians, under Suwarrow, forced the French into position on the right bank of the Trebia, so celebrated for the victory of Hannibal over the forces of the consul Sempronius; and there, on this classic ground, ensued one of the bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign. Macdonald had advanced by Reggio and Modena, to effect a junction vvdth the army of Moreau, or to relieve Mantua ; but being without pontoons, he found the passage of the Po impossible, as that river was swollen by recent rains, and, moreover, was defended by General Kray, wdth 10,000 irregulars, and twice that number of armed peasantry. On the 17th, his advanced guard was at Pla- centia; next day, he attacked and repulsed General Ott, near San Giovanni ; but the advance of the Russians, under Suwarrow, changed the fortune of the field. General Sarrazen states Macdonald's force at 40,000 strong; M. de Segur gives it at 28,000. On the bank of that stream, the most rapid and impetuous in Cisalpine Gaul, the contest was fierce and desperate; but the daring attempts of Macdonald to cross, at the head of his troops, were repulsed. "On the 18th and 19th," says a journal of the time, " the battles were very murderous. The French formed a square four men deep and fought desperately, till a column of Russians passed the river up to their necks in the water, broke through with the bayonet, and made a dreadful carnage among them. On the whole, the French are supposed to have lost, since the 11th instant, 15,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Macdonald himself has received two sabre -wounds jfrom a Hungarian hussar. Among the prisoners taken are 4 generals and 700 officers. Our loss consists of 4000 men killed and wounded, and 400 prisoners ; but the latter were rescued in the pursuit, and 40 waggons with French wounded were taken at the same time." The fury of the Russian advance threw Macdonald's centre into confusion. Sabre in hand, he strove to enforce order under a heavy fire of cannon and musketry; but was swept away with the panic-stricken mass of the 5th regi- S24 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. nient of liglit infantry, among whom lie became entangled, and who were flying in disorder, abandoning their muskets, knapsacks, canteens, and blankets in their eagerness to escape. By them he was hurried into the current of the Trebia, and narrowly escaped being drowned. This con- fusion was caused by a brilliant charge of 500 Cossacks, who rushed with their lances in the rest through a cloud of dust. A terrified French chasseur exclaimed, — "The whole Russian cavalry are upon us — fly!" Then it was that the 5th gave way, and the centre was broken, but still the flanks fought des2)erately ; and had the division of Moreau been in the field, it must have been won for France; but on that day he was attempting to raise the siege of Tortosa. Three standards were laid at the feet of Su war row. At Trebia, according to M. de Segur, who once served on Macdonald's stafi", " during three days of a battle, the most desperate in our annals, twenty-eight thousand French withstood fifty thousand Russians, held the fortunes of the day in balance, and gave vainly to Moreau the time to strike a blow for France. The victory remained finally with Suwarrow ; but, in his astonishment, the rude Mus- covite exclaimed, — " One more such success, and we shall lose the Penin- sula !" Meanwhile, Macdonald had been deceived in hia expectations; his army was exhausted; he was severely wounded, and when it was necessary that he should retire, a torrent of foes behind opposed his retreat. Beyond this torrent, other foes awaited him. The courage of his soldiers failed; hut he, calm and serene, encouraged them, saying, — *' Be of good cheer, for nothing is impossible to the brave !" With the remains of his shattered army he retired towards Tuscany and Bologna ; and at Piacenza a great quantity of his ammunition and baggage fell into the hands of his pursuers. In the Directoiy there were men who now reproached him with having wished to gain 9k battle alone, or at least without the participation of MAKSnAIi MACDONAT.D. 325 Moreau; but it was by the express command of that general, on whose part he fully expected assistance, that he attempted to force the passage of the Trebia, and break the left wing of the Austro-Russian army. Kotwith- fitanding the desperation of his circumstances, he was not without hopes of making another stand; but, on being deserted by General Lahoz, a Cisalj)iner, and his corps, which united with twenty thousand insurgents to gall his flight, Macdonald relinquished all idea of again giving battle, and continued his retreat towards the mountains of Genoa, followed by the troops of Generals Ott, Klenau, Lahoz, and Count Hohenzollern, and by hordes of brigands and guerillas, who murdered his men on all hands, and massacred them in the mountain passes. With a flag of truce, he sent an ofiicer to the Austrian general Melas, praying that he would treat with mercy the wounded Frenchmen whom he had been compelled to abandon in Piacenza. *•' The request is needless," replied Melas ; " Austrian soldiers know too well the duties of humanity to require such advice." Wounds and fatigue had so severely impaired Mac donald's health, that he was fain to ask Suwarrow's permission to visit the baths of Pisa. This, the Russian with chivalry and courtesy granted at once; but, instead of visiting the celebrated Bagni di Pisa, the general returned to France, relinquishing the command of his column, after uniting it to the army of Moreau ; and im- mediately on his arrival in Paris he was entrusted by Napoleon with the command at Yersailles. By this time the French had abandoned the whole coast of the Adriatic, and lost their conquests in Naples, where nothing remained of them but the graves of the slain. During th« past hostilities the domestic relations of the Republic had not improved in character or in spirit; and the feeble condition of the Directory aff'orded au admirable path by which the ambition of Napoleon might lead to a newer and firmer form of government. Returning hastily from his unsuccessful Egyptian campaign, he had 326 THE CAVALIERS OF FOllTUNE. reached Paris ; and entering at once into the schemes of Talleyrand and his friend Sieyes, a military conspiracy was formed to remodel the Eepublic as a Consulate, of which he should be the head. Whatever may have been the motives, or secret ambitions, which led the military chiefH to revolutionize France again, it cannot be denied that she benefited thereby; and the energy with which the essay was made, and the success it had, were a sure guarantee for the decision of future affairs. Macdonald was in command at Versailles while these plans were maturing, and wlien Napoleon arrived at the Palace of St. Cloud. Though not actually in the con- : spiracy, he was in the secret, and knew that opposition to j Napoleon would neither be for the interests of France, \ the army, or himself; thus he took the lead in the matter, ^ and by suddenly closing or dispersing the political club , at Versailles, made the inhabitants aware that he, at least, ■ deemed the time had come, " when a just administration should obliterate the horrors of the last few years, and the fatal vacillation of the weak Directory." On the 18th Brumaire, the attempt was to be made; and Napoleon, accompanied by Macdonald, De Bournou- ville, and Moreau, inspected in the gardens of the Tuileries ten thousand chosen soldiers on whose faith they could depend, and there Augereau, the future Duke of Casti- glione, joined them. " M. le General," said he, embracing Napoleon, " you have not called for me, but I have come to join you." " You are welcome," replied Napoleon. It was a perilous task they had undertaken, to over- 1 throw the political incubus that had pressed so long upon France; and while the startled Directory, who had already discovered the designs of those without, were debating about their own safety, and while Moulins urged that a battalion should be sent to seize Napoleon, the latter ]. suddenly appeared, sword in hand, at the door of the hall, ' and entered with his grenadiers, three deep, at a time when the projected Consulate was being discussed by some of the Directory with very little chance of success. Ho decided the matter at once, by ordering his drummen MARSHAL MACDONALD. 32T to beat a pas de charge, and by dismissing tbe judges with a promptitude worthy of Cromwell, and with a courage which evinced that, on his part, nothing would be wanting to retain the power he had won. When an army was formed for the re-conquest ot Naples, in 1800, Napoleon offered Macdonald the com- mand of the corps de reserve. He did this to testify hi»^ pleasure for his adherence to the revolution of the 18th Brum aire j but the general, who felt piqued by the offer of a command so subordinate, in a country where he had before led an army, urged illness and wounds as a reason for remaining in France, The penetration of Napoleoft was too keen for the true sentiments of Macdonald to* escape him ; thus on the 24th of August, in the same year,,- he was appointed to command the army of Switzerland,, which was destined to penetrate into the Tyrol, to second the operations of the army of Italy and favour the columns^ of Moreau (who was then warring in Germany) by com- pelling the Austrians to employ at least thirty thousand of their best men among the Tyrolean mountains — the- bulwark of the German empire. Macdonald marched from Beam in Septembei', with forty thousand men,* towards Helvetia, accompanied by General Matthew Dumas, chief of the staff, a soldier who used his pen better than his sword. His first desire- was that a corps of Helvetians should be formed to co- operate with the French against the Austrians; but this request the Swiss government declined; and he soon found his campaign to consist of a series of arduous marchess among the mountains, where, as the season advanced and the winter drew on, his soldiers endured every misery that, toil, hunger, and cold could inflict. In the passage of the Alps, when one of his columns, composed of the 80th Begiment, with some cavalry,, artillery, sappers, and guides, under Laboissiere, attempted to cross the Splugen, in the country of the Grisons, a dreadful avalanche suddenly came thundering down from the mountains to bar their march, and swept forty-two * General Sarrazen B&ys ^teen thousand ^?^ 328 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. of the lOth Dragoons, with tlieir horses, over a precipice. His other columns met with equal difl&culties. A letter in the Paris papers, dated " Head-quarters, Chicavenna, 7th December, 1800," relates: — " It was necessary to traverse the Splugen and Mount Curduiet. These mountains, even in July, present all the horrors of winter; judge what they are in December! Threatening and inaccessible rocks, seas of snow on all sides, tori-ents of avalanches falling with a noise equally terrible. Since our first march, two hundred men, with tlieir horses, have been swallowed up. After unheard-of labour, we succeeded in disengaging all of them except three. There was not the least trace of a road ; but by labour and constancy we opened a narrow path, bordered by precipices which the eye could not fathom nor the foot always avoid." Two-thirds of the pass, which leads towards Como had been traversed, the troops in front, with muskets slung, digging a path for their comrades in the rear, till the column, exhausted by cold and fatigue, began to retire with- out orders, though the dangers behind — snow, hunger, and avalanches — were the same as those in front. Mac- donald galloped towards his sinking soldiers, and his pre- sence had an immediate effect on them. They halted; he entreated and threatened; but they listened in sullen silence. Then he dismounted, seized a shovel, and proceeded to dig the snow, exclaiming — * " My comrades, I would rather perish in the abyss than stoop to turn my steps on perils such as these !" " Vive M. le General !" cried the soldiers of the 80th. Confidence was inspired anew ; again the muskets were slung, the shovels resumed, and after three days of labour, danger, and toil, the passage was achieved, and the troops of Macdonald debouched from that terrible gorge, where the frozen precipices seemed to hang from heaven, and where whirlwinds of hail, tempests of snow, with death in its most frightful form, had been encountered. The resistance he experienced from the Austrian troops was trivial; and on the 7th of January, 1801, he made MARSHAL :\rACDONALD. 3^29 filmself master of the circle and city of Trent ; but the armistice concluded at Treviso on the 16th of the same month put an end to the war. After this he remained for some time at Isola, suffering from an illness caused by the fatigues he had undergone at Splugen, and Delmas com- manded in the interim. At the close of the campaign he returned to Paris, where his opposition to some of the arbitrary measures of the First Consul made that haughty personage resolve on politely getting rid of a troublesome mentor, by sending liim on a distant mission. He was accordingly dispatched to Denmark, as Minister Plenipotentiary from France to the Court of Christian YII. There he resided for three years, and there he encountered so many disagreeables, as his presence was unwelcome in Copenhagen, that he fre- quently solicited his recal; but Napoleon was jealous of Moreau, who was Macdonald's chief friend : thus he was only recalled when the First Consul was about to exchange the consular staff for an imperial sceptre. It was about this time that the famous conspiracy of General Pichegreu and Georges Cadoudal, and their cor- respondence with the Prince of Conde, were discovered. In that correspondence Moreau was compromised to a dangerous extent; thus his friend Macdonaldwas received with greater coldness at the Tuileries. The high indignation which he had the temerit}^ to express after the mock trial and banishment of his brother soklier Moreau, who fled to America, completed the dis- pleasure of the new Emperor, who withdrew all counte- nance from Macdonald, and, notwithstanding his past services, bravery, and endurance, his name was omitted from the list of marshals of the Empire who were then created. He retired to the country, inspired by a mortification which he could not repress; and remained in seclusion, unnoticed, during the early part of the new war against Spain and Austria, and until 1809 would seem to have been forgotten; but he had perliaps the consolation of remembering " that he must not fear who thirsts for glory ; and although we often find that true merit is eclipsed for 330 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. a time, we have never known it to be entirely lost ; it bursts at last tlirough the clouds which environ it, and appears resplendent in its bright and genuine colours." These were the words of Fabius Maximus to Emiiius when, with Varro, he went to lead the Roman army; and thus the " true merit," the coolness and intrepidity of Macdonald, were destined to shine again, for he was remembered by Napoleon when that monarch became entangled with the Italian and Peninsula wars — when the great armies of Austria pressed him on one hand and the distant hordes of Russia were gathering on the other; then, but not till then, did he seem to remember the brave soldier whom petty quarrels and court intrigues had compelled him to overlook. This was in that year when the perfidy of Napoleon to the royal family of Spain and to the whole Spanish nation excited such indignation, not only at the Court of Vienna, but throughout the whole of Germany and Europe generally. Macdonald was now offered the command of a division in that corps of the army of Italy led by Prince Eugene Beauharnois, who was then evincing his usual intrepidity, but was experiencing severe checks from the Archduke John of Austria. This offer he at once accepted, for he had grown weary alike of peace and of retirement. He joined Prince Eugene; and from that period was deemed his mentor rather than his second in command. At the head of the right wing he crossed the Isola on the 14th and 15th of April, 1809, and drove the Austrians from their strong positions at Goritz, capturing eleven of their guns and much munition of war. These successes led to those at Raab and at Laybach, both of which were the result of Macdonald's combinations and manoeuvres; and pushing on vigorously, without leisure or delay, with his division, he joined the grand army of the Emperor before the gates of Vienna. On the 5th and 6th of July he was at the famous battle of Wagram, where he led two divisions of infantry, some of which were battalions of the Garde Imperiale. With ihese he advanced under a fire, when two hundred pieces MARSHAL MACDONALD. 331 of cannon were engaged on both sides, and when the roar of the conflict was the gvetitest ever heard even by the oldest veteran of these warlike armies. Three-fourths of his column perished under the storm of shot by which it was assailed as he advanced to break the Austrian centre, the task assigned to him by the Emperor. The fury with which his troops came on was irresistible. He drove back the brigades of the archduke with immense loss, and a total rout of the Austrians ensued, thus termi- nating a two days' conflict which will ever be remembered in the annals of carnage — for few prisoners were taken on either side, which proved the resolution of both — to conquer or die ! Thirty-six thousand, seven hundred and seventy-three ofHcers and soldiers of both armies lay killed or wounded on the field and round the walls of Vienna; while, as related in the memoir of Count O'Reilly, corpses in every variety of uniform, gashed and bloody, floated in hundreds dov/n the dark waters of the Danube, or were daily thrown upon its shores to feed the v/olves or to fester and decay. Such was the field of Wagram, and it was the culminating point in the fortunes of Stephen Macdonald. Napoleon, though little disposed to view him with favour, when the field was won, sprang from his horse, and embraced him with ardour, exclaiming, — " Now, Macdonald, we are together for life and death 1" He complimented him before his staff, extolled him in the bulletin, and on the field of battle made him at last a Marshal of the Empire. Of all the French marshals he was the only one who thus received a baton in the field, and soon after he was created Duke of Tarentum, from a town of that name in Naples. " Among all the marshals of France," says the editor of Bourienne's Memoirs, "there is not one so pure from every stain on the soldier's character — so daringly honest with Napoleon in his prosperity — so lastingly true to hiin in his adversity, as this, his only Scottish officer." 332 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Napoleon thus bore honourable testimony to the value ^f his service at Wagram, the glory of which another marshal sought to appropriate to himself. " As his majesty commands his army in person," says Napoleon, in a private order, dated Camp of Schcenbrunu, 9th of July, 1809, " to him belongs the exclusive right of assigning the degree of glory which each merits. His majesty owes the success of his arms to the French troops, and not to strangei-s. Prince Ponte Corvo's order of tlie day, tending to give false pretensions to troops, at best not above mediocrity, is contrary to truth, to discipline, and to national honour. The corps of the Prince of Ponte Corvo did not remain immovable as iron. It was the first to retreat. His majesty was obliged to cover it by the corps of the Guard and the division commanded by Marshal Macdonald, by the division of heavy cavalry commanded by General Nautsonby, and by a part of the cavalry of the Guard. To Marslml Macdonald belongs the j^raise lohich the Prince of Fonte Corvo arrogates to himself. His majesty desires that this testimony of his displeasure may serve as an example to every marshal not to attribute to himself the glory which belongs to others."* After Wagram he commanded in the duchy of Gratz, and maintained in his army a discipline so severe in repressing plunder and outrage, that on his departure at the peace with Austria, before his division began its homeward march for France, the States prayed him to accept an offering of two hundred thousand francs, but he resolutely declined them. " Messieurs," said he, " I am a soldier — I have done but my duty." Then the deputies offered him a jewel-box of great value, as a bridal gift for one of his daughters; and to the bearers he made the following reply : — " Gentlemen, if you believe that you owe me anything, you shall have the means of repaying me amply, by the care you will take of three hundred poor invalid soldiers, whom I shall leave in your city." * Eourienne. MARSHAL MACDONALD. SSS- Napoleon was now in tlie zenith of Ins power; his mar- riage with Maria Louisa — an espousal more politic than honourable — had been celebrated at the close of the year of Wagram; and in the year following, Holland, the- Va]ais, and the Hanse Towns were annexed to France ; territories which, with those of Rome, gave to the new empire an augmentation of nearly 5,000,000 of sub- jects. The war was now raging in the Peninsula, aud there the feeble measures of Augereau in Catalonia made Na- poleon resolve to supersede him. The Duke of Tarentum was named his successor, and, as such, he soon restored order among the Catalans. In their mountainous pro^ vince, more than in any other part of Spain, military talent and energy were required ; as the entire population — a brave, resolute, and hardy race — v.^ere in arms against the invaders. Augereau's losses in the desultory warfare maintained by the Guerillas were so severe that they more than counterbalanced his success in the sieges he under- took ; and these losses were so indicative of mismanage- ment that they ensured his recal to France. He marched for the frontier laden with the plunder of Barcelona, and of all the officers who formed its escort, General Chabran was the only one — as the Catalan journals remarked — who did oiot pillage the house in which he had been quartered; but returned to the Patron de Caza the silver spoons he had used at table. At this time rapine was the order of the day in the French army; a hammer and a small saw invariably formed a portion of a soldier's accoutrements, that he might have tools at hand to break open every lock-fast place, when the work of pillage began. In Catalonia, Macdonald found himself at the head of 17,000 men; in the adjoining i^rovinco of Aragon, Suchet led 16,000; and the Spanish corps of O'Donnel were the only regular troojDS opposed to them both. On Suchet laying siege to Tortosa, a fortified city on the left bank of the Ebro, Macdonald marched with 12,000 men to secure the entrance of a convoy of pro- visions into Barcelona; and this he achieved in "^^^umph, 334 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. defeating a vigorous attempt of the Spaniards to inte? cept it. O'Donnel, general of the Spaniards, now directed h:^ main efforts to relieve Tortosa, where the Conde de Alacha Miguel Lili, with 7800 brave fellows, who had survived or escaped from the battle of Tudela, made a stout resistance. O'Donnel left nothing undone to impede the operations of the besiegers and raise the blockade; till Macdonald, to distract his attention and favour the operations of Suchet, marched upon Tarragona, a seaport near the mouth of the Francoli. It is picturesquely situated upon a hill, and is surrounded by old Moorish walls, having turrets at inter- vals. As it is a place of importance, the Spaniards were anxious to preserve it, and pressed Macdonald so severely that he was forced to take up a position in sight of the town, in a plain so near the sea that one of his flanks was exposed to a cannonade from a British frigate. Finding this position untenable, after a sharp encounter, and reaping no other advantage from his march than the plunder of Reus, a wealthy little manufacturing town, he retreated across the plains of Tarragona, harassed on both flanks by the troops of Sarsfield and Ibarrola, who slew 300 of his soldiers, captured 130, and retook most of the pillage found in Reus and elsewhere. As a central point, from whence he could cover Suchet's operations against Tortosa, and command a space of country capable of supplying the troops with food and forage, Macdonald chose a strong position near Cervera, in sight of the Mediterranean. Finding him secure here, O'Donnel, instead of attacking him, turned the attention of his own troops against the French elsewhere, and cut off several of their small garrisons, until he received a wound which disabled him. On the 13th December, Macdonald received a welcome reinforcement of ten thousand men; but, notwithstanding, Eroles, Sarsfield, and Campoverde, at the head of the Spanish regiments of the line and Guerillas of Catalonia, fought him successfully in almost every instance. Yet his movements BO completely covered the siege of Tortosa that, after five months' delay, Suchet was able to break ground before it^ MARSHAL MACDONALD. 335 «nd the Condo Lili surrendered at discretion ; for which sentence of death was pronounced against him by the Spanish authorities; and with great solemnity, in the market-place of Tarragona, the head was struck from his £ffijgy by the public executioner. in 1811, Macdonald possessed himself of Figueras, a small Catalonian town situated in a fertile plain, not far from the frontier of France. On an eminence it has a mag- nificent castle, with bomb-proof towers and undermined approaches. This importa,nt strength had been taken by the French three years before ; but on the night of the 10th April, 1811, some Catalonians who had been forced into the ranks of a French regiment, finding themselves, by a lucky coincidence, all on guard together, resolved to have their revenge. They opened a sally-port to their countrymen, who entering the castle sword in hand, made the garrison, to the number of four thousand men, pri- soners, without a shot being exchanged. On the 19 th of the following August, Macdonald, after meeting with a determined resistance from these Catalonians, retook the castle of Figueras, by capitulation, and garrisoned it again for Joseph Bonaparte. After this recapture, Catalonia seemed to be subjugated to the yoke of France; yet, for some reason unknown, Macdonald was withdrawn from the command of the army there, and it was bestowed upon General Decaen. It is supposed that Napoleon, who disliked that any one should assume the part of monitor or judge of his soldiers, was piqued at the tenor of an obscure passage in Macdonald's report, in which he detailed to Marshal Berthier the re- capture of Figueras. It ran thus : — " I please myself in rendering justice \>o the army, in the hope that the Emperor will view with an eye of favour these brave fellows, entreating your excellency to cause it to he remarked to his Majesty that his army in Catalonia is a stranger to the event which has re-united it in this place." " How happens it," said General Sarrazen, " that Mac- donald, who does not want for good sense, should have permitted himself to use such awkward observations ?'* 336 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. In the disastrous invasion of Russia he had commancJ of the 10th Corps, of which the Prussians formed a part. The details of that terrible \vinter campaign are too well known to all the world to require recapitulation in these mem oil's. The Emperor led his army to Smolensko, on the great road to Moscow, and crossed the Niemann on the 27th of June. Macdonald crossed the same river, on the same day, at Tilsit, by a bridge of boats, and at the head of his French and Prussians (the Corps d'Yorck) seized Dunabourg, while Kowno, in Lithuania, fell without a struggle, and the great army of the Empire marched through it in splendid order, with all its bands playing and colours flying. How different was the aspect of the few surviving fugitives of that army when they repassed Kowno in December following ! With orders to occupy the line of Riga, and if it was captured, to threaten St. Petersburg, Macdonald marched towards the capital of Livonia, which was occupied by a numerous garrison, whose ^^efensive measures were ably seconded by a British naval force. Napoleon conceived that if the main body of the Russians fell back on St. Petersburg, he would, when following them, be able to effect a junction with the 10th Corps under Macdonald, after which they could push on together ; but though the latter burned the suburbs of Riga, his operations against the place were long retarded by the bravery of the besieged. Though not regularly fortified, the town has considerable means of defence, being encircled by an earthen rampart, and having a citadel, while a fortress guards the entrance of the Duna or Dwina. The project of Napoleon became a failure, when the route pursued by the retreating Russians proved different from the one he anticipated. Thus he was obliged to advance after them to Moscow, while Macdonald remained for a time before Riga, on which he could make no im- pression, though he fought under its walls a series of bloody conflicts, in futile assaidts and repulsing desperate sorties. Suspicion of the faith of his Prussian regiments MARSHAL MACDONALD. 337 was not his least source of anxiety. When St. Cjr was alarmed that his flanks might be turned by the Russians from Finland, he wrote an urgent letter to Macdonald I'equesting him to oppose the march of those troops who were led by Wittgenstien and Steinheil, and whose line of march lay in front of the position before Riga ; adding that if he (Macdonald) objected to detach any part of his forces from the blockade, to come and assume command of St. Cyr's division in person, and meet this army from Finland. " But Macdonald," adds Count Segur, " did not conceive himself justified in making so important a move- ment without express orders. He distrusted Yorck, the Prussian general, whom he suspected of intending to deliver up to the Russians his park of siege artillery. He replied, that to defend it was his first and most in- dispensable duty, and he declined to quit his station." Macdonald's suspicions soon proved correct ; for on the 13tli December, 1812, when in presence of the enemy, he was abandoned by the whole of the Prussians under General Yorck ; and was thus compelled to retire, though resisting with indomitable energy the attack of the Rus- sians, Avho followed him closefy, when sword in hand he sought to hew a passage to the rear. By this time all was lost elsewhere. He survived the perils of that frightful campaign, in which out of 300,000 soldiers, who, in June, passed the Niemann in all the pomp of war and pride of former victories, scarcely 50,000 escaped out of Russia ; and of these the greater nr.mber had suflered so dreadfully from wounds, hunger and frost, as to be quite unfit for future service. With 1131 pieces of cannon, tliere were taken by the Russians 41 generals, 1298 officers. 167,410 sergeants and rank and file. The 7'est were accounted for by the frost and snow, the Cossack lances, the bullet and the sabre, rendering the paths across the whitened wastes of Russia impassable with the bodies of the dying and the dead. Never in all the annals of war were greater sufiTer- ings detailed than those endured by the miserable French on their retreat from flaminj? Moscow. 838 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. In 1813, Macdonald commanded a corps in Saxony, where, on the 29th April, he had the satisfaction of rout- ing at Mercebourg the division of General Yorck, composed of the same Prussians who had abandoned him at Eiga during the previous year ; and at Lutzen, where, on the 2nd May, the combined forces of Russia and Prussia met the French in battle, led by the Emperor in person, he attacked the Prussian reserve, and after a long and severe engagement cut it to pieces. " IsTow," said he, " I have fully avenged the desertion of j General Yorck." After this Napoleon retired and established his head- quarters at Dresden, while Leipzig and Breslau were also occupied by his troops. On being reinforced by the Saxons, whose king he held as a species of hostage for his people, he resolved on attacking the northern allies near Bautzen ; and Macdonald hastened with his division across the Spree, to share in the battle which ensued in June. The French triumphed, and their foes had to retreat, but in fine order, into Silesia. Macdonald was despatched by the Emperor in pursuit ; but was compelled to fall back, fcs the roads by which he must have marched were almost Inundated. Nowhere did he attain more distinction than during the horrors of the three days of Leipzig. This Saxon city, which is situated in a fertile plain, has suffered in many wars, but by none so much as the cam- paign of 1813. In that year Napoleon made it the general hospital for the sick and wounded of his army; thus its beautiful environs soon became the sad scene of many important events. In several battles and skirmishes the allies had defeated the French during the months of August and September ; but Napoleon, who, with his cha- racteristic obstinacy, adhered to Dresden as the centre of his position, found himself out-manoeuvred, when eighty miles in his rear he heard of Marshal Blucher passing the Black Elster, and that Bernadotte, a prince of his own making, .%ut now in arms against him, had arrived, after a long And circuitous march, near the suburbs of Leipzig, while Schwartzenbourg drew near that city from the south-east. MARSHAL MACDONALD. 329 This was in the month of October. The French numbered 160,000 bayonets and sabres; the allies 240,000. The outposts were soon engaged on the 16th j the following day was spent in skit-mishes and manoeuvres till the three allied armies formed a junction, and the stern conflict of the 18th began with all its terrors over an extent of line that covered seven miles. A little village on the French right, where Napoleon had posted himself, was lost and retaken again and again at the bayonet's point under a storm of round and grape shot. Noon arrived, but the battle was still undecided, when all breathless with speed, an officer, with his uniform torn and bloody, rushed towards the Emperor. *' Sire," he exclaimed, " the left wing has given way ; the Saxon cavalry and artillery have gone over to the enemy !" *' Silence !" replied Napoleon, sternly; "silence !" The intelligence was kept secret from the right and centre, and still the strife went on. By three p.m. came the still more alarming tidings that the Saxon infantry had deserted en masse to the allies. This also was kept a secret from the French troops, though the Imperial Guard was ordered to take their place ; but the power thus attained by the allies was no longer to be withstood, and a precipitate retreat towards the Khine became the first thought of the vanquished Emperor. At nightfall he gave the order to fall back, leaving the environs of Leipzig strewed with dead and dying ; but his order was tardily executed, as all the French fugitives with their baggage, cannon, and wounded, on horseback, on foot, or in waggons, were compelled to take one road, every other being occupied by the cavalry and horse artillery of the victors ; consequently, the sufferings and slaughter of the French, even after the field was lost, became dreadful. Napoleon, before retiring, had ordered that the bridge of the White Elster should be under- mined, and directed Macdonald and Prince Joseph Po- niatowski, with their divisions, to defend a portion of the suburbs that lay between the advancing enemy and the Borna road ; and to leave nothing undone to maintai» z2 340 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. their post to the last, that the retreat of the army and ^agg^ge might be fully covered. Poiiiatowski was brave as a lion. He was nei)hew of Stanislaus Augustus, the last King of Poland, and was iinimated alike by the purest patriotism and hatred of the Russians j hence he served France against them as the oppressors of his house and native country. He had :2000 Polish infantry and a few horse with him ; and •seeing the desperation of affiiirs, as the waggons of wounded, dripping with blood, the heavy artillery with their tumbrils, and the masses of fugitive soldiery ex- liausted by three days of fighting and excitement, pressed in close ranks across the bridge of the Elster, he drew his £abre and turning to his countrymen — " Gentlemen," said he, " here we must win or lose our honour ! — Forward !*' and at the head, of a few Polish cuirassiers ke made a rush towards the enemy. At that sffioment the bridge of the Elster was blown up, and his retreat cut off for ever ! Macdonald was similarly circumstanced, as his troops liad manned and enfiladed the suburbs, where they were firing briskly to keep the foe in check from walls, houses, iind hedgerows. According to the Moniteur, it was the intention of Napoleon to have the bridge blown up only at the last moment, and when all his troops had passed the stream. General Dussaussoy had remitted this duty to Colonel Montfort, who, in tarn, had remitted it to a corporal and four sappers. On the first appearance of the enemy upon the road, and when the cuirassiers of Poniatowski charged, the startled corporal fired the train, and a dark cloud of ■dust and stones ascending into the air with a mighty roar, announced the destruction of the bridge ; while Macdonald 4ind his whole corps, with eighty pieces of cannon, all their eagles, and several hundred carriages laden with powder, •baggage, and wounded men, were on the wrong side of the river. A shout of astonishment and dismay arose from those who had crossed ; and many an anxious eye was turned back to Leipzig, where the roar of musketry was yet lieard in the rear. MARSHAL MACDONALD. 341 The attention of Napoleon, who had left the city by the road which led by the bridge to Lindenau (the direct route for France) was arrested by the explosion, and one of his aides-de-camp exclaimed, "Sire — sire — they have blown up the bridge of the? Elster, and Macdonald's corps is yet in Leipzig /" " At that time," to quote Bourienne, " Napoleon was accused of having given orders for the destruction of the bridge, immediately after his own passage, to secure his retreat from the active pursuit of the enemy. The Eng- lish journals were unanimous on this point, and there were few of the inhabitants of Leipzig who doubted the- fact." If this be true, it was a baseness only equalled by the* strangulation of Pichegreu, the torture of Captain Wright in the Temple, and the lonely butchery of the haplesa Due d'Enghien. Finding all lost, and that his retreat was cut off, Mac- donald sheathed his sword, and calling on his soldiers to- escape as they best could, threw himself into the river, the waters of which were darkening as the night drew on. He swam across, and reached the other side in safety.. Poor Poniatowski, though bleeding and severely wounded^ imitated his example j but he was pierced by a bullet, from one of the enemy's skirmishers, who had now lined the steep bank of the Elster, and opened a murderous fire- upon the mass of unfortunate fugitives, the wreck oH Macdonald's corps, who were struggling in the stream,. In the dark, the unfortunate prince was swept away witli his charger and drowned. Five days after, his corpse was found by a fisherman, and interred on the bank of the stream. A granite sarcophagus, surrounded by acacia* and weeping- willows, marks the place where he lies. Colonel Montfort, the corporal, and the four sappers^ were delivered over to a court-martial. S*uch was the closing episode of that terrible day at Leipzig, the anniversary of the more glorious events of Ulm and of Jena — a day that cost France nearly forty thousand men. Napoleon continued his retreat to Mayence, with aa 342 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. army exhausted by toil, crushed by defeat, and savage in spirit, but lacking the stamina to make one more vigorous stand for France, save at Hanau; for French soldiers, more than any other, are the worst to retrieve a disaster. " The defensive system," to quote t\iQ Memoirs of Mai-shal Ney, " accords ill with the disposition of the French sol- dier, at least if it is not to be maintained by successive diversions and excursions ; in a word, if you are not con- stantly occupied in that little warfare, inactivity destroys the force of troops who rest continually on the defensive. They are obliged to be constantly on the alert night and day ; while, on the other hand, offensive expeditions wisely combined raise the spirit of the soldier, and pre- vent him from having time to ponder on the real cause of his dangerous situation. It is in the offensive that you find the French soldier inexhaustible in resources. His active disposition and valour in assaults double his power. A general should never hesitate to march with the bayonet against an enemy, if the ground is favourable for the use of that weapon. It is in the attach, in fine, that you accustom the French soldier to every species of warfare — alike to brave the enemy's fire, and to leave the field open to the development of his intelligence and courage." But now the spirit of the French soldiers was almost dead for a time ; and so ill was this retreat conducted, that the rear-guard, with 20,000 sick and wounded, fell into the hands of the enemy. Macdonald was at the battle of Hanau, the last stand made by this discomfited host in Hesse Cassel. There the French were attacked by the Austrians and Bava- rians, whom they routed, and then continued retreating, the whole of their cavalry hewing a passage, sword in hand, through the lines of the enemy. He was now despatched by the Emperor to Cologne, with orders to organize a new army. These instructions he found the impossibility of fulfilling, so he abandoned the Bhine, along the banks of which the bayonets of the lilies were glittering everywhere, and falling back into &e Interior of ancient France, with the war-worn veterans ♦f his shattered column, he formed the left wing of the MARSHAL MACDONALD. 345 retreating army ; and at its head, during tlie campaign of 1814, he gave more than one severe repulse to the Prus- sians, "who were pressing towards Paris under Marslial Bluch ir. These encounters were chiefly on the banks of the Marne, and especially at Nangis, in the north of France, where he fought a severe action with the allies on the 17th of February; but these struggles and all the valour of the French Imperialists were vain, for ere long the capital was taken ; then Germany found itself freed from oppression ; Holland rang with acclamations on the downfall of Napoleon ; and Wellington had halted in his long career of victory, on the banks of the Garonne, and by the hill of Toulouse. Macdonald adhered to the fallen Emperor — the child of Destiny — and was with him in the old palace of Fon- tainebleau at the time of his abdication from the most splendid of European thrones. Hope had fled. His army was dispersed and crumbling to pieces ; its great officers and leaders had abandoned hjm; and such is the instability of human affairs, that the people of whose blood he had been so lavish — the people to whom he had been a demi- god — were turning with ardour to another monarch, and ^velcomed the foemen against whom they had struggled for more than twenty years of war and carnage that were without parallel. " The wreck of the army assembled at Fontainebleau,'* says General Bourienne, "the remains of a million of men levied in fifteen months — comprising the corps of Marshals Oudinot, 'Nej, Macdonald, and General Gerard — did not exceed twenty-five thousand." Various interviews that took place lei ween Napoleon and the Duke of Tarentum about this lim3 are carefully detailed by this gossiping old soldier, in the supplement tr the Biographie Universelle, and other memoirs. Macdonald with his corps had marched in with at speed from Montereau, on receipt of an order from the Emperor, that he meant to march on Paris — a resolution that filled his officers with consternation. On the marshal's arrival at the palace, the generals waited on him in a body, to request that he would place before the Emperor, 344 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. the rashness and desperation of attempting to recapture Paris from the allies. "Messieurs," said he, "in the present juncture, such advice might displease his Majesty — leave the matter to mo." As soon as he presented himself before Napoleon — *' Well, marshal," said he, " how do things go 1" " Very ill, sire." "What ! Very ill 1 How is your division disposed?" " It is completely discouraged, sire ; recent events at Paris have spread consternation through its ranks." " Think you," asked the Emperor, " it will join with me in a movement upon Paris 1" " Trust not to that, sire," was the desponding answer ; " should I give such an order, I should hazard being dis- obeyed." " But what are we to do V said the Emperor, pas- sionately. " I cannot remain as I am ! I shall march against Paris ; I will punish these inconstant Parisians, and the folly of the senate! Woe to the government they have plastered up waiting the return of their Bour- bons. To-morrow I shall place mj; self at the head of my Old Guard, and to-morrow we shall be in the Tuileries 1" " Sire," urged Macdonald, " are you ignorant that a provisional government has been established?" "I know it." " Then, sire, read this — a letter from Marshal Bournon- ville, announcing the sentence of forfeiture pronounced by the senate, and the resolution of the allied generals not to treat with you." The countenance of Napoleon became violently con- tracted. After a pause, he exclaimed, furiously, " I shall march upon Paris !" " March upon Paris, sire," reiterated Macdonald ; "' that design must be renounced, for not a sword will leave its scabbard to follow you." Finding all indeed over, the bitter subject of his abdica- tion came to be gravely considered, and he handed to the marshal a document, on the 4th April, stating that he "was ready to quit the thi'one of France. MARSHAL MACDONALD. 345 The tender and honourable part acted by Macdonahl at this humiliating but memorable time was duly appre- ciated by the Emperor, who has done him ample justice. With Marshal Ney and the Duke of Yicenza, he was named one of the commissioners sent by Napoleon to the Emperor Alexander. '•' Well, Duke of Tarentum," said the former, before the marshal left Fontainebleau, " do you think a regency is the only thing possible ]" " Yes, sire." " Well," continued Napoleon, who had now recovered his composure; "I charge you with my message to the Emperor Alexander; you will go with Ney instead of Marmont. / rel;i/ on you, and I hope you have entirely forgotten the circumstances which separated us so long]" '• Oh, sire, I have never once thought of them since 1809." "I rejoice to hear it," replied Napoleon with emotion; *' but marshal — I must now make the acknowledgment — / was wrong r " Sire !" exclaimed Macdonald ; the Emperor pressed his hand and faltered out but one word, "Go."* Macdonald vehemently urged that a regency should be established in France, in the person of Maria Louisa, in favour of her son, the young King of Rome, and violent altercations took place at the conference. " Speak not to me, sir," said he to Bournonville, who op- posed him ; " your conduct has made me forget the friend- ship of thirty years !" " As for you, sir," he added, turning to Dupont, " your behaviour towards the Emperor is not generous. I acknowledge that he may have been unjust to you in the affair of Baylen ; but how long has it been the fashion to avenge a personal wrong at the expense of the country?" " Gentlemen," exclaimed the Duke of Yicenza, " do not forget that you are in the presence of the Emperor of Russia." The energy with which Macdonald urged the cause of • Bowienne, 346 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE. Napoleon embarrassed the Emperor of Russia ; but neither the eloquence with which he spoke of the military glory of France, and the resolution of himself and his comrades never to abandon the family of one who had led them so often to victory, and with whom they had shared so many perils in war, nor the arguments with which he sought to enforce the regency, were successful ; and at midnight on the 6th, he returned in dejection to Fontainebleau, to render, with Ney and Caulaincourt, an account of his mission. Napoleon again exhibited much emotion, and said, with a sigh, " I know, marshal, all you have done for me — with what warmth you have pleaded the cause of my son. They xiesire my simple and unconditional abdication? Well — act on my behalf. Go, and again defend my interests and those of my family." Bourienne and others thus relate their last interview. " Alas !" said Napoleon, " I am no longer rich enough to recompense your last service, Macdonald ; but I can perceive how unwisely I was formerly prejudiced against you. I can also see the designs of those who inspired me with that prejudice." " Sire," replied the marshal, " I have already had the honour to assure you, that since 1809 I have been youi's in life and death !" " Since I can no longer recompense you as I would wish, I pray you to remember that I shall never forget the faithful service you have rendered me !" Napoleon then turned to Caulaincourt, saying, " Duke of Yicenza, bring my sabre." Caulaincourt brought the weapon, which was one of -exquisite workmanship, and placed it in the hands of the Emperor. " Behold," said he, " a recompence, Macdonald, which, I believe, will give you pleasure. This sabre, which was given to me by Murad Bey, in Egypt, after we had won the battle of Mount Tabor, accept, my friend — a gift which, I believe, will gratify you." " Sire," replied the marshal, whose voice trembled as he received the sabre from the Emperor ; " if ever I have a MARSHAL MACDONALD. 347 -son, this weapon shall be his noblest heritage ; and as suck I will guard it with my life." '•' Give me your hand, and embrace me !" exclaimed Napo- leon; and throwing themselves into each others arms, they parted in tears — parted never to meet again as friends.* In obedience to the commands of the fallen Emperor, the marshal, on the day succeeding this impressive fare- well, sent in his adhesion to the new government. " Now," he wrote, " that I am freed from my jillegiance to the Emperor Napoleon, I have the honour to announce to you — the provisional government — that I accord with the national wish which recals the dynasty of Bourbon to the throne of France." On the 6th May, he was named member of the Council of War, and Chevalier of St. Louis. This was an order insti- tuted by Louis XIY. in 1693, and, until the revolution, it remained entirely in possession of the French army. The badge was a gold cross of eight points, hung from a broad crimson ribbon. On the 6th June, he was created a peer of the realm by the surviving descendant of the Capet family, Louis XYIIL, who seemed now firmly seated on the throne of France. But this monarch, as soon as order was duly established, was sufficiently rash and unwise to raise doubts about the validity of that law by which, during the stormy days of the republic, the property of the emigrant noblesse had been confiscated and sold. This was an unpleasant topic to broach at a time when Napoleon, like a caged lion, in Elba was watching for the moment to break forth ; and Macdonald foresaw that mis- fortunes might ensue from its discussion ; thus, on the 3rd December, 1814, he made an oration which succeeded. in tranquillizing the fears of those who had made fortunes amid the anarchy of the republic, or with the growth of the late military empire. He had, moreover, the amiable intention of succouring the aged nobles and chevaliers of St. Louis, who were returning home after twenty-two years * *' The sabre I recognised at once; only since I had last seen it, the following woids had been engraved on the blade : — Sabre worn by the Emjoeror on the day of the battle of Mount Tabor.'' — Bouriennt, vol. iv. 348 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. of exile, and the families of those whose fidelity to the ancient monarchy had involved them in penury, expatria- tion, and ruin. His proposition was to raise twelve millions of annual rents, to be divided in proportions according to the rank and necessities of the claimants. His motion was received by all honourable men with favour, and with lively grati- tude by those whose cause he had undertaken. He also advocated the hard case of his old comrades, the veteran soldiers of the Empire, who had lost their pay and pensions '"y the success of the restoration. Macdonald won the hearts of all by these proposed measures ; but they were brought forward too late in the year to have any practical or beneficial result ; for now the eyes of all men were turned towards the little isle of Elba, from whence the Violet, as his soldiers named Na- j j)oleon, was confidently expected to come with the spring. 1 About this time, learning that Madame Moreau, the widow of his old friend and brother soldier, had secretly applied in his favour to an influential friend at Naples, to the effect that the revenues of the dukedom of Tarentum, which had been long withheld, should be continued to him, he wrote to the French plenipotentiary at the court of Ferdinand, praying that, with all gratitude to Madame Moreau, there might be no interference in the matter. "Ferdinand of Naples," said he, with noble spirit, " owes me nothing, for having routed his armies, revolu- tionized his kingdom, and forced him to seek refuge in Sicily." " Had I not laid it down as a principle," replied Ferdi- •^-and, " not to maintain one of the French endowments, I >, mendous voice was heard in the ancient and half-ruin ^-d Abbey of Paisley, ex- claiming — " Woe, woe, woe ! Pray, pray, pray 1" Showers of blood and of Highland bonnets, afforded the crones, elsewhere, ample matter for discussion and wonder. Amid all this absurdity, while the tyi-ant Lords of Council tortured and hung peasants anc preachers, o! ruined honourable and long-descended families, for wor* THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 383^ shipping God as their hearts desired, and for doing so, iu wild and sequestered places, or lor refusing to say God save a King, who was uncovenanted ; while Dalyell had every satanic power attributed to him, and the black charger of Claverhouse was believed to be the veritable devil himself, the efforts of some to promote godliness in the land were alike melancholy and amusing; thus people were punished for taking snuff in time of sermon, for caiTying water on the Sabbath day, and for a thousand charges equally frivolous. To repress the conventicles w.^ ich began to assume a more formidable aspect, from the number of armed men who attended them, additional garrisons were established. Two peers and ten barons, who were obnoxious to Lau- derdale, were lawlessly dispossessed of their mansions, which were converted into military stations. In each of these Dalyell placed a company of infantry and ten troopers, who were supplied with everything by provin- cial assessment or military contribution. Fathers were made responsible for their children ; husbands for their wives ; magistrates for their citizens ; landlords for tlieir tenants ; and thus, by a network of military tyranny, it was resolved that at the sword's point, Scotland should become a highly episcopal country. Five hundred marks were offered for the seizure of any one who held a reli- gious meeting; and four thousand pounds sterling was an ordinary price for the head of a good preacher. Others were valued according to their reputation among the people j and under such laws as these the troops of his sacred Majesty King Charles made plenty of prize-money and plunder. The barbarities to which the people were subjected at last attracted the attention of the English House of Com- mons, who appointed a committee to inquire into these affairs, and into the Act empowering the Privy Council at Edinburgh to march the Scottish army wheresoever they chose ; but there the matter ended. The Government w^as thQn federal, and any interference might have caussed another national rupture. Housed at last to more open resistance, a body of thes» 384 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. poor people appealed again to that which of old was ever the Scotsman's best and most ready argument — the sword . — and the defeat of Claverhouse's cavalry at Drum clog was deemed a sure omen of great events to come. They esta- blished their camp at Hamilton, and unfurled a standard, which is still preserved at Edinburgh. It is blue, crossed by the white saltire of St. Andrew, and is inscribed — " COVENANTS RELIGION KING AND KINGDOMES." Kobert Hamilton, of Preston, a brave but intolerant and injudicious man, assumed the command. He was without experience as a deader, and his followers were des- titute of all discipline as soldiers ; hence dissensions were of hourly occurrence in the camp. Alarmed by the tidings of this rising, the end of which no one could then foresee, the King sent his son James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleugh, to as.«ume command of the Scottish troops, and enforce the restoration of order. The duke brought with him four troops of English horse, commanded by a Major Main, a novelty which did not increase his popularity in Scotland, where English troops had not been seen since Cromwell's time. At the head of ten thousand men, with a fine park of artillery, he marched westward at midsummer, against the insurgents. " Upon the duke being made commander-in-chief, Dalyell refused to serve under him," says Captain Creich- ton, "and remained at his lodgings in Edinburgh, till his Grace was superseded, which happened about a fortnight after." The principal ofl&cers in the kingdom attended the duke on this expedition. Among them were tlie Earl of Linlithgow, with his regiment of Foot Guards ; the Earl of Mar, with his regiment of Fusiliers : the Marquis of Montrose, the Earls of Airley and Home, and Graham of Claverhouse, all commanders of horse ; while a host of cavalier nobles and gentlemen attended him to serve as he might require. On the 22nd of June, he found the Covenanters in position at the bridge of Both well, where the Clyde is seventy-one yards wide. This picturesque old bridge was twelve feet broad, and one hundred and twenty feet long, THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 385 with a rise of twenty in the centre, where there was a barrier gate, which was removed in 1826. This gate Preston had barricaded, while flanking the approaches with musketry. To three hundred stout hearts led by Hackston of Kathillet, and the stern John Balfour of Kinloch, otherwise styled of Burley, was confided the keeping of the bridge, and well these brave men kept it too, under a heavy fire of cannon and musketry, to which the flankers of the bridge replied by firing briskly from behind the thickets of alder and hazel trees which clothed the banks of the stream. Under cover of a cannonade, Lord Livingstone led the assault, at the head of his father's regiment, the Scottish Foot Guards, and despite its barricade of stones and timber, and all the efibrts of its desperate defenders, the gate was stormed by the infantry, and the bridge was carried by the clubbed musket and levelled pike, after a fierce contest. Then a body of the Lennox Highlanders, led, say some authorities, by General Daly ell ; by their own chief, Macfarlane, say others, raised the war-cry of LocU- sloy and flung themselves, claymore in hand, on the main body of the Covenanters, while Claverhouse with the Life Guards — all burning to avenge their recent defeat at Drum clog — defiled across the bridge at full speed, and forming in squadron on the opposite side, swept all before them, as they might have driven a flock of sheep. Main's English dragoons and the Highlanders are accused of behaving with great barbarity in slaughtering the fugi- tives. The aged Laird of Earlstone prayed for quarter from Major Main, who ran him through the body and slew him on the spot. When the charge was over, the gentlemen of the Scot- tish Life Guards became so exasperated on seeing the Covenanters treated thus by Englishmen, that they fell, sword in hand, upon Main's dragoons, and cut many of tliem down, " being grieved," as the Rev. John Black- adder has it, '' to see Englishmen delighting so much to ehed their countrymen's blood." In the streets of Hamilton the reckless Balfour of Burley made a bold attempt to i-ally the fugitives ; but CO 386 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. a musket-ball broke his sword arm, as liis troopers reined up their horses in the thoroughfare. "Withered be the hand that fired the shot — I can fight no longer now !" he exclaimed in bitterness, as the weapon fell from his grasp, and once more the flight was renewed. Four hundred Covenanters were slain on the field, and twelve hundred were made prisoners ; these, ou the even- ing after the battle, were marched to Edinburgh, where they were thrust into the Grey friars churchyard, like sheep penned in a fold. Some were selected for the scaf- fold, the rest were banished to the plantations, and of these many perished miserably at sea. The pursuit was scarcely over and the troops returned to their various colours, when old General Daly ell, on horseback and in fiery haste, lest the fighting should all be over, arrived from Edinburgh, with a new commis- sion appointing him commander-in-chief This document, which he had received by express from London, was dated 22nd June, 1679, the very day of the encounter. It did not, however, entirely supersede the authority of the Duke of Monmouth, who by the Privy Council was styled ** Lord General." Daly ell is said to have publicly up- braided the gentle duke with his clemency to the pri- soners, and for the tenor of the orders he issued before the battle. These were, to yield quarter to all who asked it, to make as many prisoners as possible, and to spare life. " Had mi/ commission come before the battle," said Dalyell, grimly, "these rogues should never moro have troubled the king or country." He marched the troops to Glasgow, and three days afterwards — the insurrection being deemed at an end— they were dispersed in detachments throughout the Low- lands, most of them being sent to where they were far from welcome — their old quarters. After the battle, Dalyell captured the Reverend John King, a preacher who had once been chaplain to the exiled Lord Cardross. This gentleman he sent in irons to Edinburgh, escorted by a guard of Main's dragoons, and THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 387 on their march from Glasgow there occurred a strange accident, whicli the people believed to be a visitation of Heaven. One of these troopers, at a wayside alehouse, drank, " Confusion to the Covenant !" and being asked "where he was going," " I am carrying King to hell," said he, an answer likely enough to be made by a reckless soldier. "The judgment of Heaven did not linger on this wretch," records the superstitious Wodrow ; " he had not proceeded many paces on his journey, when his horse stumbled, his carbine went off and shot him dead." King perished on the gibbet soon after, and had his head and right hand cut off. In the winter after the battle, Daly ell quartered himself at Kilmarnock, with one battalion of Linlithgow's Foot Guards, and the horse troops of the Earl of Airlie and Captain Francis Stuart of Both well. " Here," says Captain Creichton, " the general, one day happening to look on while I was exercising the troop of dragoons, asked me when I had done, whether I knew any one of my men who was skilful in praying well in the style and tone of the Covenanters ? I immediately thought upon one named James Gibb, who had been born in Ire- land, and whom I had made a dragoon. This man I brought to the general, assuring his Excellency ' that if I had raked hell, T could not find his match in mimicking the Covenanters.' Whereupon the general gave him five pounds to buy him a greatcoat and a bonnet, and com- manded him to find out the rebels, but be sure to take care of himself among them. " The dragoon went eight miles oJBf that very night, and got admittance into the house of a notorious rebel, pre- tending he had come from Ireland out of zeal for the cause, to assist at the fight of Bothwell Bridge, and could not find an opportunity since of returning with safety; and therefore, after bewitching the family with his gifts of praying, he was conveyed in the dusk of the evening by a guide to the house of the next adjoining rebel, and thus in the same manner from one to another, till in a month's time he got through the principal of them in the west, oo2 •388 THE CAVALIERS OF FOETUNE. telling the general at his return, that he ' made the old wives, in their devout fits, tear off their biggonets and mutches ;' he likewise gave the general a list of their Jiames and places of abode, and into the bargain brought back a good purse of money in his pocket." '* How used you to pray among them?" asked Dalyell. " It was my custom in my prayers," replied the trooper, **to send the king, the ministers of state, the officers of the army, with all their soldiers and the episcopal clergy, all at one broadside to hell ; but particularly our general liimself." " What," exclaimed the general, " did you also send me to hell, sir 1" "Yea," replied the unabashed dragoon, "you at the liead of them as their leader." This discreditable abuse of hospitality and breach of faith in the soldier is recorded as a piece of admirable tact .and strategy by Creichton, and doubtless Dalyell would •make good use of the notes supplied to him. In the month of July, in the following year, 1G80, Dalyell sent Creichton with thirty of Airlie's horse, and Jfifty of Strachan's dragoons, under Captain Bruce of Earls- hall, to capture or kill a hundred and fifty Covenanters, ^vho, since the fight at Bothwell, had been lurking in the wilds of Galloway. These unfortunates, after being tracked from place to place by Bruce and Creichton, made ^ stand against tliem at Airsmoss, near Muirkirk, on the :22nd July, and there these desperate men fought as only the homeless and the outlawed, the brave and the fore- ^ reported that by a hair shirt and pricking (i. e., with a needle), as the witches are used, lie was five, nights ke^'C THOMAS DALYELL, OF BIXNS. 401 froift sleep, till he was half distracted. He ate very little that he might require less sleep; yet all this while he dis- covered ijothing; though had he done so, little credit was to be given to what he should say at such a time." After this is the following entry : — "August 7th, 1684. At Privy Council, Spence (meit- tioned 26th July) is again tortured, and has his thumbs crushed with thumbiekins. It is a new invention used among the colliers when transgressors, and discovered by General Dalzicll and Drummond, they having seen them used in IMuscovy. After this, when they were about to put him in the boots, he, being fj-ightened, desired time, and he w^ould declare what he knew ; whereon they gave him some time, and sequestrated him in the Castle of Edinburgh, as a place where he would be free from any bad advice or impression to be obstinate in not revealing.'* There is something alike quaint and horrible in the quiet and matter-of-fact way in which this old senator records such extra-judicial barbarities ; but instruments of torture were then as necessary to the Privy Council as the pen and ink with which their minutes were recorded. To repress the reviving spirit of the Covenanters, four Commissions of Lieutenancy were, in Sei:)tember, ordained to meet at Glasgow, Ayi% Dumfries, and Dunse. The first, as Dalyell ordered, to be guarded by Lord Ross's troop of Horse and Captain Inglis's Dragoons ; the second by the troop of Guards and his own Grey Dragoons ; the third by the Horse of Claverhouse, Drumlanrig, and Strachan ; the fourth by the Horse of Balcarris and Lord Charles Murray's Dragoons ; but now the horrors of this oivil and military persecution received a check by the death of Charles II. on the 6th February 1685, and on the accession of his brother, who was immediately pro- claimed at Edinburgh, James VII. of Scotland, by the Lyon King and magistrates, and Dalyell received a new commission as commander-in-chief of the kingdom ; but the Catholic tendencies of the new court — tendencies to which, with all his hatred of Covenanters and Low Church- men, " the old Muscovite" was rigidly averse — would not have permitted him to retain his authority long. 402 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. Death now, however, solved the important problem of how he was to act at this peculiarly dangerous juncture ; he was thus, to use the words of his comrade Creichton, *' rescued from the difficulties he was likely to be under, between the notions he had of duty to his prince on one side, and true zeal for his religion on the other ;" as he expired suddenly at his house in the Canougate of Edin- burgh, in the month of July, 1685. On the 7th August, while the minute-guns boomed from the dark portholes of the ancient half-moon battery of the castle, his body, in a magnificent hearse, drawn by plumed horses, and having six pieces of brass cannon, his led charger, his suit of armour, and his many trophies, sword, spurs, helmet, and gauntlets, and his general's baton, all borne by officers of rank, and escorted by all the standing forces in Edinburgh, with drums muffled, standards craped, and arms reversed, was slowly conveyed through the western gate of the city to Linlithgowshire, and interred in the family vault of the Dalyells at Binns, in the parish of Abercorn. There the persecuting Cavalier rests in peace, though the superstitious peasantry still aver that his tall, thin, and venerable figure, in buff coat and head-piece, with his vast white beard floating from his grim visage to his military girdle, is seen " iu glimpses of the moon," flitting, like an unquiet spirit, about the old manor house, or in the avenues and parks which were formed by himself around it. He died in his eighty-fifth year. The hearts of the Covenanters gathered hope, and held jubilee at his death ; and if all be true that is recorded ot him, it can scarcely be a matter for wonder that his name and memory are still execrated in Scotland, and that the reputation he has left behind him is not one to be envied. General Drummond, his old Russian comrade, succeeded him as Commander-in-Chiefof the Scottish army; Charles, Earl of Dunmore, was appointed Colonel of the Scots Greys, and the Laird of Livingstone filled the seat left THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 405 vacant by him, as Commissioner in Parliament for tlie sliire of Linlithgow. His son Thomas, who succeeded him, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, and left a daughter, Magdalene Daly ell, who, by her marriage with James Menteith, of Auldcathie, transmitted the property to her son, who thus represented the ancient line of the Earls of Menteith. In reviewing the life of this singular officer, I cannot do better than quote the words of one of the most tem- perate and popular of Scottish writers : — " There are two ways of contemplating the chai"acter even of so blood-stained a persecutor as Dalyell. He had^ it must be remarked, served royalty upon principle in its ivorst days, and seen a monarch beheaded by a small party of his rebellious subjects, and a great part of the community, including himself, deprived of their property, and obliged to fly for their lives to foreign lands ; and all this was on account of one particular luay of viewing politics and religion. When the usual authorities of the land regained their ascendancy, Dalyell must naturally have been disposed to justify and support very severe measures, in order to prevent the recurrence of sucli a period as the Civil War and the Usurpation. Thus all his cruelties are resolved into an abstract principle, to the relief of his personal character, which otherwise, we do not doubt, might be very good. How often do we see, even in modern times, actions justified upon general views, which would be shuddered at if they stood upon their naked merits, and were to be performed upon the sole responsibility of the individual !" Such was the chequered military career of the first colonel of the old Scots Greys, certainly one of the most remarkable men of a time replete with bloodshed and cruelty. The persecuted and the persecutor — the fiery Cavalier and the stern Covenanter — are alike in their quiet graves,, and the grass of nearly two hundred years has grown and withered over them. Their strife is becoming, indeed, a tale of the times of old ; yet few Scotsmen can look back 404 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. without emotions of sorrow and compassion to those dark days of religious madness and political misrule when, with all their bravery, their forefathers perpetrated such deeds as made " the angels weep." But, happily for us, time and the grave mellow the memory of all things. THC EKIX 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 2v. ?ws ffecP txi ftUG^ Ig Jl ^ Yt^ Vr m^ -m^ a S ^ I lir ^ ^ ^ / ^ .•S>; EECJOFFiTT DEC ibJ^ LD 21A-507n-8,'57 (C8481sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CD5imDE=ll