were highly valued by the government. In October, 1805, he was directed to proceed to Cork, and take the command of a force of five thousand men, ordered for foreign service. This was the Weser expedition.

The ship that brought out Hill anchored off Deal, and it was there he first saw Sir Arthur Wellesley. "He dined with me," as he notes, "at my lodgings at Mrs. Chitty's, and was much amused with Captain Peebles." The Duke of Wellington had a brigade in the Weser expedition; and it was in allusion to his taking this subordinate command, after having had the lead in his eastern campaigns, that he said—“ I am nammukwallah, as we say in India; I have eaten the king's salt, and am therefore ready to serve my king in any capacity." Napoleon's victories led to the return of this ineffectual expedition in the beginning of 1806; and these, and especially his triumph at Austerlitz, are supposed to have seriously affected the health of Pitt, who, as is well known, died about this period. Hill was made a majorgeneral, and soon after was ordered to Ireland. Here he was engaged in the Hibernian duties of watching disaffection and suppressing disturbances, and thus occupied actively, though ingloriously, passed, we presume, a weary time until the summer of 1808. He was then ordered to join the forces collecting at Cork, to be under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, at that time chief secretary for Ireland, and which were destined for his first Peninsular campaign. Happily for the fame of Hill, and for the fortunes of the country, "the talents" had gone out. Influenced by the projects of an adventurer named Miranda, they had collected a body of nine thousand men, their best disposable force, and were about to send them, with no doubt the subject of our memoir, to South America. The succeeding ministry took better ground, and these troops were the first sent to Portugal.

On the 12th of July Sir Arthur Wellesley sailed with the transports from Cove. On the following day he quitted the fleet, and going on board the Crocodile frigate, reached Corunna on the 20th. On the 1st of August he superintended the landing of the troops in Mondego Bay. Sir Arthur Wellesley had been just previously ap

It is not our purpose to detail the movements of the army further than as they are directly connected with the progress of Hill. Junot and Loison were at Lisbon; and General Laborde, pressed by Sir Arthur Wellesley, occupied a small plain in front of the village of Roliça, where an elevation enabled him to overlook the country as far as Obidos. Sir Arthur attacked him there on the 17th of August, and commanded in person the central column, of which Hill's brigade formed a part. As this was the first of the many actions in which the subject of our memoir shared in the honours of the Peninsular war, we notice it in the words of Mr. Sidney :

"After the repulse occasioned by the first attack, in which General Hill displayed the most eminent activity and skill, Laborde retired into a formidable position in the mountains, full of passes difficult of access, where he assumed, with consummate dexterity, an attitude of apparently impregnable defence. Generals Hill and Nightingale advanced against this well-guarded front, approachable only by defiles, where nature had placed every conceivable obstacle of wood, rock, and ravine, which seemed to render the steep ascent almost impossible to achieve by columns, whom the rugged paths could not fail to throw into disorder. But our generals pushed on, undismayed by the difficulties of the passes, or the stern resolution of the enemy. The mountain hollows were soon heard to ring with the echoing roll of musketry, mingled with the warshouts of the assailants, and the still

louder responses of the assailed. Laborde was driven from his stronghold with a considerable loss of men, and with that also of three pieces of cannon; but, owing to a want of cavalry on the side of the British, effected his retreat in good order. On this occasion General Hill received the highest commendations; and it may be added, that the conduct of all the troops engaged, in number by no means equal to that of the enemy, was worthy of the British name, and of the cause in which they fought." -pp. 81, 82.

The battle of Vimiero followed on the 21st, where Hill's brigade formed the reserve. Sir Harry Burrard, unfortunately, landed during the action, and assuming the command, determined, instead of pursuing the advantages already gained, to wait for reinforcements. Had Sir Arthur Wellesley's views been adopted, no one doubts but that they would have been successful, and that our army would have either annihilated the French, or, at least, have entered Lisbon before them. By the convention of Cintra, Junot's army, embarked in British vessels, was landed in France in the month of October; and Sir Arthur Wellesley having received the thanks of both houses of parliament, resumed his appointment as chief secretary for Ireland. Hill remained with the troops, and took part in the memorable campaign which closed on the field of Corunna.

On his return to England, he was immediately given the colonelcy of the third Garrison Battalion, and came into the property of Hardwick Grange, bequeathed to him by his uncle Sir John Hill, who died while he was last abroad, and who was succeeded in the title, and in the estates of Hawkstone, by his father. After all the fatigues of his campaigning, our soldier appears to have had but little rest. He had been only a few days with his family in Shropshire, and not a month in England, when, in February, 1809, he was appointed to the command of some troops under orders for the Peninsula, and soon afterwards was again in Portugal. He had not been long there until, to his great joy, and that of all the army, Sir Arthur Wellesley arrived in Lisbon to take the command of our armies.

Early in the spring of 1809, and some three weeks before the arrival of

Sir Arthur Wellesley in Lisbon, Soult had entered Portugal from Gallicia, and taken possession of Oporto. Victor was at this time on the Alemtejo frontier, and it was open to our great commander, either to combine with Cuesta in operations against Victor, or to act himself against Soult, and seek to dispossess him of Oporto and the rich country about it. He took the latter course, and assembling his forces rapidly at Coimbra, sent Marshal Beresford, with his corps of six thousand Portuguese, by the Viseu road to Oporto, to turn the enemy's left; while he, with the main body of his army, marched by the direct road to Oporto, hoping to come suddenly on their right with a superior force, and rout them between the rivers Vouga and Douro. The troops he had thus with him were in three divisions the first commanded by General Paget, the second by General Sherbrooke, and the third by Hill. There was also a cavalry division, which was led by General Payne. Sir Arthur Wellesley having ascertained that the Lake Ovar, extending twenty miles behind the French out-posts, was unguarded, directed Hill to try, by passing troops across it, to turn their right.

General Hill reached Ovar on the 10th, at sunrise, having been assisted by the fishermen in crossing the lake. The enemy saved himself by a wellordered retreat, and Hill moved quickly on towards Oporto, which place the French reached, having in their retreat destroyed the bridge across the Douro, and being well prepared to defend the passage of the river, with, as they conceived, advantages which would render any attempt on our part to cross it altogether impracticable.

"Thus apparently foiled in his designs, Sir Arthur Wellesley ascended the heights of Savea, fully impressed with the importance, especially as regarded the operations of Marshal Beresford, of instantly crossing the Douro. The glance of his searching eye, and the decision of his genius, were almost instantaneous, and he determined to pass over, in spite of every difficulty, to a building called the Seminary, at the very point which, from the obstacles it presented, Soult supposed to be perfectly secure. He had previously ordered Major-General Murray to cross at Avintas, about four miles above Oporto, with a battalion of the Hano

verian legion, a squadron of cavalry, and two six pounders, if boats could be obtained for this purpose. For himself, he was resolved, if only one boat could be found, to make his way over the river to the Seminary, and he succeeded in obtaining, unperceived, three or four barges. When the first of these came up, its arrival was reported to Sir Arthur. 'Well!-let the men cross,' he answered in an instant, and within a quarter of an hour after the word had passed his lips, an officer and twenty-five soldiers of the Buffs were upon the bank occupied by the enemy, and the Seminary was gained without the least symptom of alarm. A second boat followed, then a third, conveying General Paget; and scarcely had they stepped on shore, when the city rang with the din of arms, the roll of drums, and the tumultuous shouts of surprised citizens and soldiers rushing towards the Seminary. The brave Paget appeared upon the walls, but was instantly wounded and disabled. General Hill,

who had crossed in splendid style, with the 48th and 66th regiments, assumed the command. Soult was his opponent, and the assault furious in the extreme. Murray had not come up. The moment was critical; but Sir Arthur had such confidence in Hill, that he was satisfied, on the earnest entreaties of those around him, to remain upon the spot, surveying the scene of action, and directing the English guns to play upon the enemy. General Hill did not disappoint him. Three battalions were now in the Seminary, and he advanced coolly to the enclosure wall, whence he opened such a fire on the passing column of the French, that the result was their dispersion, and the capture of five pieces of artillery. Sherbrooke crossed, and entered the town in time to harass the rere of the hostile troops who were quitting it. Then the forces under Murray were seen descending the steep from Avintas, and soon the shouts of the inhabitants proclaimed the evacuation of Oporto, and the flight of the enemy on the road to Vallonga. General Hill, and his gallant aides-de-camp, Captain Caine and Lieutenant Clement Hill, received, with the other brave officers and troops, the cordial acknowledgment of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had, by their aid, achieved the renowned passage of the Douro. They have marched,' said his dispatches, in four days, over eighty miles of most difficult country, and defeated three different bodies of the enemy's troops.'"-pp. 96, 97.

The French, on this occasion, lost about 3000 men, including prisoners.

They lost, too, all their guns, most of their baggage and ammunition, and were pursued to the frontier of Spain; that is a distance of near one hundred miles, by our troops. The defeat of Soult was thus unequivocal and complete.

General Hill was for a short time subsequently to this encamped at Abrantes, and describes the army there as "full of energy and spirit, but without money, shoes, or means of transport, while its energetic leader was assiduously endeavouring to overcome these and other impediments to his march into Spain." The public, long dazzled by the splendour of our triumphs in the peninsula, have paid very little attention to the difficulties under which they were achieved. These, most of all, arose from the insufficient support which Lord Wellington received from home, from the want of co-operation of the Portuguese and Spanish governments, and from the vanity, as well as the incompetence of some of the generals appointed to the command of their allies. The Spanish general, Cuesta, was pompous, jealous, and impracticable, though not deficient in courage. He came over to meet Sir Arthur Wellesley at a reconnoisance, in his coach and six, and being jolted out of it, by the roughness of the ground, waited to take a nap under a tree, thus presenting an amusing contrast to the rapid riding and vigour of our Duke. Impelled by jealous pride, Cuesta, on the 24th of July, went, of his own motion, in pursuit of the enemy, and being driven back with confusion, learned for a while to look up with somewhat more of reverence to the genius of Wellesley. Napoleon, too, designing to crush our forces by masses, had thrown immense bodies into Spain, and their greatly superior numbers were all composed of welldisciplined troops. Victor, who was nearest to our armies, led a large body in Estremadura; Sebastiani commanded in La Mancha; Dessolles in Madrid; Kellerman and Bossuet had possession of old Castile, and a part of Leon and of Asturias-all these forces being under King Joseph, assisted by Marshal Jourdain. Soult, Mortier, and Ney, were in the north, while Suchet and Augereau commanded in Arragon and Catalonia.

There were, besides, troops holding posts and fortresses, as well as others engaged in keeping open the lines of communication. Just before Cuesta's injudicious movement, our forces were, together with his, drawn out at Talavera, in expectation of an immediate battle with Victor, whom they found strongly posted, and apparently prepared for action. Our troops began to move at midnight, and were on the points arranged by dawn; but to their surprise, the French were off. Cuesta had the rashness to follow them, and was, as we have said, repulsed. Victor, as it afterwards appeared, had retreated to meet Sebastiani, with 12,000 men, and King Joseph with 6,000, and then turned back, bringing his whole force of about 50,000 against our army, not amounting to more than half that number. Victor's march lay, for some distance, through woods, and fording the Alberche, he reappeared so suddenly, that Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was in the Casa de Salinas, was very near being made his prisoner. Happily for the honour of our arms, and for, as it has since appeared, the long peace of Europe, this disaster was averted. The French were seen issuing from the forest with a grand display, and commenced their cannonade at dusk against our left, while their cavalry attacked the infantry of Spain. Thus opened the battle of Talavera. Early in the night, as s stated in the Wellington Despatches, they pushed a division along the valley, on the left of the height occupied by Hill, of which they gained a momentary possession ; "but Major-General Hill attacked it instantly with the bayonet, and regained it." "It was," adds Mr. Sidney, "a night of awful struggle; opposing flashes of musketry seemingly close to each other, sparkled in the gloom. At length cessation of firing permitted the conquering shouts of the British soldiers audibly to proclaim that their stern opponents were repulsed into the ravine below. Shortly afterwards the flames of the bivouac fires of both armies shot upwards to the darkened skies, and the fighting was over; but eight hundred English, and a thousand French were lost in

that tremendous fray. "In the morning the French again came on, and, as the despatch says, the attack began by the

march of several columns of infantry into the valley, with a view to attack the height occupied by Major-General Hill." "God," says Hill, in a letter home dated Talavera, July 30th, 1809, "has protected Clement and myself in two of the severest battles I ever witnessed, which took place on the 27th and 28th." On the evening of the 27th his aid-decamp, Major Fordyce, was killed, and in the action of that night, his own right arm was seized by a French soldier, but his horse, springing forward at the moment, disengaged him. The Frenchman fired, but did not hit him. Afterwards, while in the midst of the French, his horse was shot. As the day broke he saw the whole French army drawn up in order of battle, with their main force facing his posi tion, which was apparently to be the point of attack. About half an hour after sunrise a column, consisting of two divisions of 7000 each, led by Victor in person, moved against him. Early in this action his horse was killed. He had two shots through the withers, and one through the saddle. He got another horse from an officer. Just before the battle closed, he was struck by a musket ball near his left ear, and was carried off the field. Captain Currie, his aid-de-camp had his horse killed under him, and another aid-de-camp, his brother Clement, also lost his horse, pierced by three musket balls. "When it is considered," said Hill, that the French force was double ours, and solely employed against the British, we may count the battle of Talavera among the most glorious that ever took place." King Joseph was in the field; and out of the 18,000 British, there were killed and wounded 200 officers, and about 5,000 men. Just before the nightbattle of the 27th, Hill, it appears, was, by an accident, very near being made prisoner. How this occurred he tells us in the following memorandum, made by him, at the request of an officer of high rank:

"I recollect on the 27th of July I got some dinner in my quarters in the town of Talavera, about four o'clock. Immediately after I rode out, accompanied by Major Fordyce, towards the Alberche, in which direction we heard some firing. I returned to the bivouac of my division, I suppose about sunset, when I found it had moved to take up a

position. I instantly followed it, and found it deploying in line, and was shown by somebody where the right was to rest. I pointed out the hill on the line of direction we were to take up. I found, however, I had not sufficient troops to occupy the ground, without having considerable intervals between the regiments. During this operation I recollect perfectly well that I was with the 48th regiment, in conversation with Colonel Donellan, when, it being nearly dark, I observed some men on the hilltop fire a few shots amongst us. Not having an idea that the enemy was so near, I said at the moment, I am sure it is the old Buffs as usual making some blunder.' I desired Donellan to get into line, and I would ride up the hill and stop their firing. On reaching the hill-top I found the mistake I had made. I immediately turned to ride off, when they fired, and killed poor Fordyce, and shot my mare through the body. She did not fall, but carried me to the 29th regiment, which corps, by my orders, instantly charged the French, and drove them from the hill. I do not know what number the enemy had, but I think they were not strong-perhaps some of their light troops."

Two thousand of the Spaniards ran off from Talavera on the evening of the 27th, terrified by the noise, although not attacked. Cuesta, in a rage, decimated his troops, and yet published in the Spanish Gazette " I cannot express myself sufficiently to celebrate the admirable courage of the English army, and its excellent general, and of our own troops also." The only aid we received from Cuesta in the two day's battle, was the service of two guns, which, however, were well worked. The Spaniards neither supplied provisions, nor relieved the wounded, nor even helped to bury the dead. Their bad faith and failure in every undertaking compelled our leader to contemplate withdrawing towards Portugal. It was after this victory that he was raised to the peerage, by the well-won titles of Baron Douro of Wellesley, and Viscount Wellington of Talavera; and Hill was at the same time appointed to the colonelcy of the 94th regiment. Early in 1810 our army quitted Spain, and Lord Wellington, as Marshal General of Portugal, undertook, on such resources as he had, the defence of that country. Most of this year was passed in quarters favourable to the

health of our troops. On the 17th of September the French army, amounting to 70,000 men, and commanded by Massena, and the other marshals, entered the valley of Montejo, to crush, as they conceived, the English. Massena had assumed the title of King of Portugal, and, no doubt, hoped soon to expel the islanders, and enjoy the kingdom as his own. Lord Wellington having chosen his position on the mountain of Busaco awaited their attack. Hill commanded the right wing, which was placed on a rocky ridge, so sloping, as in a great measure to conceal the amount and disposition of his force.

"At the foot of this position reposed that evening the forces of Portugal, who were wont at sunset to gather in circles round their officers, and chant forth their vespers. Their eyes now first beheld the 70,000 invaders of their fatherland. 1-an appalling spectacle as the rays of the setting sun were reflected from their arms. Only 25,000 Portugese were about to engage them on their first great combat; but they were aided by an equal number of British, commanded by Wellington and Hill. The dawn of the 27th ushered in the the decisive day. While yet the grey mist rested on their mountain couch, the enemy came on. The watchful picquets had heard their preparation, and the British were standing silently to arms. Regnier with two columns, and Ney with three, rushed up against the convent, and the wellknown battle of Busaco ensued.

The

whole corps of General Hill were thrown into open column, and moved to its left in the most perfect order, and in double quick time. The effort of Massena was directed against the right of Lord Wellington, which he expected to turn; and ignorant of the presence of Generals Hill and Leith, he imagined that his troops were engaging with its extremity To the surprise of the French, the forces under these officers suddenly emerged from their previous concealment, and halted at the spot where the brave 74th had just driven back a column of the enemy, and were retiring in line, regular, compact, invincible. The only signs of recent encounter were their colours ragged with the shot of their opponents. Soon after the British commander and his staff galloped to the spot. Hill,' said he, in a decisive tone, "if they attempt this spot again, give them a volley, and charge bayonets; but do not let your people follow them too far down the hill.' But they had had quite enough. Regnier now found what