consultation was by this time too well known to Wellington, and he could ill afford to lose one in whom he reposed his highest confidence, by any accident in the field. After the latter-mentioned success, the British army went forward for Madrid, which they entered on the 12th of the following month. In the battle of Vittoria, fought on the 21st of June, 1813, Lord Fitzroy Somerset behaved most gallantly, and the total defeat of the enemy here caused them to fall back in disorder behind the Ebro, where they attempted to reorganize, but so shattered had they been by their recent conflict, that, unable to withstand our army flushed with success, they took refuge in the Pyrenees. Again in the following month his lordship played a part in the fierce conflict which utterly emasculated the French army led by Soult to within one march of Pampeluna, which was then being closely invested by our forces. This terrible battle was fought at Soraoren. Wellington pursued the retreating French marshal, and in several actions he so worsted him as to cause him to lead the disordered remnant of his army into the Pyrenees, thus leaving Pampeluna to the fate of surrender. It was through Lord Fitzroy Somerset that the fortress of Pampeluna fell an easy prey to our army. A letter from the Governor on its way to Soult was intercepted, and brought to Wellington, after every effort had been made to decipher it by those through. whose hands it had passed before reaching head-quarters. The Duke of Wellington, after trying in vain to make it out, handed it in despair to his trusty secretary, who in one short hour made himself complete master of its contents. A transcript was made by his lordship, and sent to the Governor, who seeing that the sad straits to which his garrison had been reduced were known to the besiegers, capitulated. The British army now followed the flying enemy into France, and in the victories of Nevelles, Orthes, and Toulouse, achieved by our army, Lord Fitzroy Somerset so distinguished himself as to earn the unqualified praise of Wellington. In 1814, after the restoration of the French monarchy had been deemed perfectly secure, he returned with the victor, Wellington, to England. As a recognition of Lord Somerset's services he received a cross and five clasps, all earned in action. His services as secretary to the conqueror of an Emperor were worthy of an earldom, for in those duties his mind was invariably, according to the Duke's own avowal, called into requisition.

In this year of peace, 1814, his lordship married Emily Harriet, second daughter of the then Earl of Mornington, and niece of the great warrior whom he had so creditably served. This quiet was not long to be enjoyed.

There was a sovereign in Paris, but there was a giant at Elba, whose repose was but the pause of Jove ere the thunderbolt was to be hurled at his enemies. The Emperor Napoleon had re-entered France, and the country received him. Startled Europe cast its imploring eyes on England for succour. The Duke of Wellington was again in the saddle. His Secretary, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, accompanied him. The campaign was brief, but it was brilliant, and more than answered the expectations of the great majority of

the sovereigns opposed to one who, even in life though manacled, they shuddered to think of. At the battle of Quatre Bras, where the 42nd Highlanders were all but sabred to a man by Kellerman's cavalry, his lordship distinguished himself, and witnessed the fall of the Duke of Brunswick under the fire of the French artillery. In the great and decisive engagement on the plains of Waterloo, his lordship was in the midst of the fire from the commencement of the struggle up to the moment when his right arm was shattered.

Upon Lord Fitzroy Somerset's return to England, he was appointed Secretary to the Embassy to the French Court. In 1819 he was made Secretary to the Master-General of the Ordnance, which post he filled up to his appointment as Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief on the 29th of August, 1827. During the whole period of the "Duke's" acting as General Commanding-inChief, his lordship, at the Horse Guards as in the field, was Military Secretary to an old master who knew when he was well served.

After the death of the Duke of Wellington and not before, the services of Lord Fitzroy Somerset were substantially recognised. In 1852 he was raised to the Peerage by the title of Baron Raglan, county of Monmouth, made a Privy Councillor, and appointed Master-General of the Ordnance. His lordship has had issue two sons, Arthur William Fitzroy and Richard William Fitzroy.

His lordship has seen service equal almost to that of any man in the British army; and considering those services, and the aristocratic influence inseparable from the rank of the son of a duke, and his constant association in office with England's greatest duke, it cannot with truth be said that Lord Raglan was too rapidly pushed into eminence. His lordship has not only lost an arm in the service of his country, but his eldest born, Major Arthur Fitzroy Somerset, who distinguished himself at the bloody battle of Maharajpore, on the 29th December, 1843, in an attempt to bring off General Churchill, who had fallen mortally wounded, was disabled in the sword-arm by a musket-shot, and received three sabre wounds on his other arm, and both legs. Under Lord Hardinge, in the following year, on the banks of the Sutlej, while cheering on the troops to the attack of the enemy's batteries, he received a shot through the right arm, which, passing into the lungs, closed the life of one who in his brief career had emulated the heroic courage of his race. Lord Raglan has passed through every political storm unscathed, owing to his never having prominently identified himself with party-a prudence highly commendable in one whose house is based on first-class Toryism.

It was not till the expedition to the East had been agreed upon, that his lordship was brought into direct public notice. His appointment to the command was not viewed with displeasure by either party: the Conservatives were rather flattered that one, however tame, of their hue, was chosen; and the Liberals were not aggrieved, inasmuch as the ministry of their choice had conferred the honour; while the fact of his having been the pupil of the late Duke" gave promise to all of great results. The state of our army at Varna, however, prostrated by sickness, said on all sides to

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have been caused by the rust of inaction, begot murmurs against Lord Raglan; and when the news arrived that the Turks in their sorest need at Silistria had been refused aid by his lordship, discontent expanded into almost general indignation. The public cared not to think that our ally, France, had also a general at Varna whose voice went for something in any proposed movement on the Danube; their utter condemnation fell upon our own commander. The Moslem conquered, and the Russians withdrew. Then it was that the blow upon Sebastopol was resolved on. The expedition was hastily planned, as evidenced by our army landing in the Crimea unprovided with those necessaries to a campaign, comparatively mild even as the weather was hoped to be, during the operations. No tents, no baggage-trains, nor even appliances for the removal of the wounded to be expected in action, had been thought of. In fact, no contingency had been provided for. This oversight was not at the door of the French General-his troops had had every provision made for them-their privations lasted but a few days. All this would have been unpardonable blundering on the part of his lordship, had there not been a hope almost amounting to the certainty of Sebastopol being ours within some ten days after our landing.

The allied commanders had made themselves well acquainted with the strength of the enemy under Menschikoff, and to strike at once would be to take the stronghold wherein the 'allied armies might, if deemed expedient, winter.

The landing of Lord Raglan near Eupatoria without molestation from the enemy was propitious, and the allied armies encamped from the 14th of September up to the 19th before seeking the enemy a brief period, considering that they had to get over the discomfort of their recent passage. On the latter date they moved out in quest of the Russian commander, and bivouacked for the night on the left bank of the Bulganac, after a trifling skirmish between our light cavalry and the enemy's dragoons, supported by artillery. On the night of the 19th the allied generals were informed that the enemy had fortified themselves on the heights of the Alma, and accordingly a plan of battle was agreed upon by Lord Raglan and General St. Arnaud. This plan of operations was in strict conformity with the whole conception of the expedition. A great blow was to be struck, and victory was to place Sebastopol without the delay of a siege, in the hands of the allied armies. The French commander was sanguine of success-Lord Raglan doubtful. The dispositions of battle, time of moving out on the following morning, and the moment for commencing a simultaneous attack on the enemy's position all well matured. The French were to assail the enemy's left and outflank it, while Lord Raglan was to make a similar essay on the right; and strong divisions of both armies were to operate on the front, holding a reserve to meet any contingency which might arise either in strengthening the right and left movement, or meeting the enemy should they foolishly come down and cross the stream, to meet us on more equal terms. The movement allotted to the French against the Russian left was

more difficult than that which our troops were to carry out against the right, owing to the precipitous nature of the ground to be scaled before getting at the enemy. True, the English forces would have been more exposed in their first advance across the river; but to attack at all, the same exposure to fire would have to be encountered; but once across the river Alma, the ground was of easy gradients.

The French, according to St. Arnaud's despatch, moved at six o'clock on the morning of the 20th. They succeeded in crowning those difficult heights in the face of a fierce fire of musketry and artillery. On the first approach, the van was tumbled over. They persevered, until at length all Bosquet's division got a footing. They had a material aid, it is said, from the ships' fire, but our troops were certainly not to move against the right flank without artillery support.

As to when our army moved to operate on the enemy's left, is not to be found. The following despatch from Lord Raglan is mysteriously silent on the point :

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"Head-Quarters, Katscha River, Sept. 23, 1854.

"My Lord Duke,-I have the honour to inform your grace that the allied troops attacked the position occupied by the Russian army, behind the Alma, on the 20th instant, and I have great satisfaction in adding that they succeeded, in less than three hours, in driving the enemy from every part of the ground which they had held in the morning, and in establishing themselves upon it. 'The English and French armies moved out of their first encampment in the Crimea on the 19th, and bivouacked for the night on the left bank of the Bulganac, the former having previously supported the advance of a part of the Earl of Cardigan's brigade of light cavalry, which had the effect of inducing the enemy to move up a large body of dragoons and Cossacks, with artillery. On this, the first, occasion of the English encountering the Russian force, it was impossible for any troops to exhibit more steadiness than did this portion of her Majesty's cavalry. It fell back upon its supports with the most perfect regularity under the fire of the artillery, which was quickly silenced by that of the batteries I caused to be brought into action. Our loss amounted to only four men wounded.

"The day's march had been most wearisome, and under a burning sun, the absence of water, until we reached the insignificant but welcome stream of the Bulganac, made it to be severely felt. Both armies moved towards the Alma the following morning, and it was arranged that Marshal St. Arnaud should assail the enemy's left by crossing the river at its junction with the sea and immediately above it, and that the remainder of the French divisions should move up the heights in their front, while the English army should attack the right and centre of the enemy's position.

"In order that the gallantry exhibited by her Majesty's troops and the difficulties they had to meet may be fairly estimated,

I deem it right, even at the risk of being considered tedious, to endeavour to make your grace acquainted with the position the Russians had taken up. It crosses the great road about 2 miles from the sea, and is very strong by nature. The bold and almost precipitous range of heights, of from 350 to 400 feet, that from the sea closely borders the left bank of the river, here ceases, and formed their left, and turning thence round a great amphitheatre or wide valley, terminated at a salient pinnacle, where their right rested, and whence the descent to the plain was more gradual. The front was about two miles in extent. Across the mouth of this great opening is a lower ridge at different heights, varying from 60 to 150 feet, parallel to the river, and at distances from it of from 600 to 800 yards. The river itself is generally fordable for troops, but its banks are extremely rugged, and in most parts steep; the willows along it had been cut down, in order to prevent them from affording cover to the attacking party, and in fact everything had been done to deprive an assailant of any species of shelter. In front of the position on the right bank, at about 200 yards from the Alma, is the village of Bouliouk, and near it a timber bridge, which had been partly destroyed by the enemy, The high pinnacle and ridge before alluded to were the key of the position, and consequently, there the greatest preparations had been made for the defence. Half way down the height and across its front was a trench of the extent of some hundred yards, to afford cover against an advance up the even steep slope of the hill. On the right, and a little retired, was a powerful covered battery, armed with heavy guns, which flanked the whole of the right of the position. Artillery, at the same time, was posted at the points that best commanded the passage of the river and its approaches generally. On the slopes of these hills (forming a sort of table-land) were placed dense masses of the enemy's infantry, while on the heights above was his great reserve, the whole amounting, it is supposed, to between 45,000 and 50,000 men.

28 The combined armies advanced on the same alignment, her Majesty's troops in contiguous double columns, with the front of two divisions covered by light infantry and a troop of horse artillery, the 2nd division, under Lieutenant-General Sir De Lacy Evans, forming the right, and touching the left of the 3rd division of the French army, under His Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon, and the light division, under Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown, the left; the first being supported by the 3rd division, under Lieutenant-General Sir Richard England, and the last by the ist division, commanded by Lieutenant-General His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge. The 4th division, under LieutenantGeneral Sir George Cathcart, and the cavalry, under Major-General the Earl of Lucan, were held in reserve to protect the left flank and rear against large bodies of the enemy's cavalry which had been seen in those directions.

"On approaching to near the fire of the guns, which soon became extremely formidable, the two leading divisions deployed into line and advanced to attack the front, and the supporting divisions