Recollections of Sir George B. L'Estrange, late of the 31st regiment, and afterwards in the Scots fusilier guards

IBISH VOLUNTEEBS.

the rest General Beresford, afterwards Lord Beresf ord, who was at Lisbon for the recovery from the wound he had received at the battle of Albuera, had us frequently to dinner : he had known Edmund when a prisoner in South America, and my family in Ireland, and was the first Beresford I had become acquainted with, though I afterwards became more closely con- nected with some of this noble and distinguished family, of whom more hereafter. I also met here Colonel Hardinge, afterwards Lord Har- dinge, and D'Urban, afterwards Sir Benjamin D5 Urban, and heard all the news from the army, which excited my youthful imagination, and I was only anxious to be off to join my regiment. This, however, I was unable to ac- complish until nearly the end of the year 1812, but I amused myself very well in Lisbon, went to see all the sights there and at Cintra, and escaped many an " aqua vai " by a miracle as I returned from evening parties, operas, &c. ; the opera here being open, to which was attached a gambling- house, to relieve the young officers sent out from England of their Crusade Nuovos and Douros.

SIB GEOKGE L'ESTBANGE. 169

matter ? " I inquired, when I was informed that my uncle, the late General Guy Carleton L'Estrange,1 had suddenly appeared on the line of march. After the battle of Albuera, where he commanded the 31st Eegiment, he certainly distinguished himself by an impromptu manoeuvre which overthrew the Polish lancers, and which is still practised in the old regiment, and called the Albuera manoeuvre. He was promoted to the command of the 26th Regi- ment, and was stationed at Gibraltar. He could not resist the temptation of witnessing the winding up of the war, and he and his friend, Colonel Alexander Saunderson, of Castle Saunderson, father of the present worthy and distinguished member for Cavan, whom I am proud to call my friend, having provided them- selves with good horses, started to ride across Spain, which they accomplished; and the manner in which he was received by his old regiment, who had not seen him for more than two years, is a proof of his popularity as a commanding officer. I naturally felt very

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IN my last chapter, which brought the Penin- sular War to a glorious termination, I omitted, or rather forgot, several anecdotes which I have since recalled to memory, and should not wish to leave out of my "Recollections," as they might be interesting to many of my gentle readers, for they have brought forth many letters which are most gratifying and com- plimentary to me. In the few observations which I made referring to my late brother-in-law, Stepney St. George, I forgot to mention what had happened to him at the battle of Albuera, before my time, but related to me by himself and his brother officers. In that very bloody and almost doubtful victory he received a very

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THE ESCAPE OF STEPNEY ST. GEORGE AT THE BATTLE OF ALBUERA.

THE BATTLE OP VITTORIA.

selves on the line of the French army. Three or four regiments of cavalry were at the moment charging, and galloped up to the foot of the eminence on which the French line stood; it was too steep for the horses to ascend, and they were obliged to wheel. But the firm and un- compromising style in which the British army advanced was too much for the nerves of the French; they turned in retreat along their whole line, and the battle of Vittoria was won.

CHAPTER IV.

When the news reached the Emperor that the Ebro had been passed, the battle of Vittoria won, and the French army beaten and dis- organized, driven into France, and the French territory violated by the feet of the enemy, Bonaparte, who was then in the north, and whose luck had begun to turn, despatched Marshal Soult in hot haste to reorganize the French army, and endeavour to recover the lost ground. The Marshal, who was supposed to be the best general under his command, lost no time in obeying his orders. He collected every man that -he could lay his hands on, and sent them to the Spanish frontier by every conceivable means he could procure. "Waggons, coaches, and every means of conveyance were pressed into the service, and in an incredibly short period he had assembled a force, as he thought, sufficient to drive the redcoats backward to the Ebro and into the sea. Rumours reached us daily of what was preparing for us, and on the 23rd

PROCLAMATION OF MARSHAL SOULT.

French force assembled upon the Douro. With well-provided fortresses in his front and rear, a skilful general, enjoying the confidence of his troops, might, by selecting good positions, have braved and discomfited his motley levy. But unhappily at this critical period timorous and pusillanimous counsels were followed. The fortresses were abandoned and blown up, hasty and disorderly marches gave confidence to the enemy, and a veteran army, small indeed in number, but great in all that constitutes the military character, which had fought, bled, and triumphed in every province in Spain, beheld with indignation its laurels tarnished and itself compelled to abandon all its acquisitions — the trophies of many a well-fought and bloody day. When, at length, the indignant voice of the troops arrested this disgraceful flight, and its commander, touched with shame, yielded to the general desire, and determined upon giving battle near Vittoria, who can doubt from this generous enthusiasm, this fine sense of honour, what would have been the result had the general been worthy of his troops ; had he, in short,

APPENDIX. 259

He subsequently sailed for Portugal, and be- came aide-de-camp to Sir Denis Pack, then in command of a brigade of the army under Wel- lington. He served on his staff with that bri- gade, which bore a very distinguished part, to the close of the Peninsular War in 1814 He was wounded at the battle of Vittoria, and had two horses shot under him at Toulouse, the last desperate engagement in the Peninsular War.