THE IRON DUKE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12704, 12 March 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE IRON DUKE.

On a Sunday in 1844. the Earl of Ellesmere met the Duke of Wellington in Stanhope-street, and they walked together through the gardens. The Duke seemed to know all the children. “Pretty,” notes his lordship, “to see the reverence of the old and the familiarity of the young as they gathered round him.” It was not an exact classification, for the attitude of the Earl himself—he was Francis, the first Earl—was compounded of the closest intimacy and the deepest admiration, and to those two sentiments we ewe a book by Francis, the first Earl of. Ellesmere, which, appearing strangely late in the day, affords many interesting and intimate revelations of the most indomitable figure of last century. These “Personal Reminiscences of the Duke of Wellington” were compiled by the Earl himself, but do not appear to have been published till now. They are edited by his daughter Alice Countess of Strafford, who also contributes a short memoir of her father, a man who seems to have been in all respects worthy of his famous friend. Close friends they were, so close that it was with the Duke’s approbation and assistance that the Earl, in the “Quarterly," refuted Alison’s “nonsense” on the subject of Waterloo. “During many years,” says the Earl, “few mornings passed during the London season during which I did not pass an hour in his room at Apsley House and at Strathfleldsaye “I have coursed with him, shot with him, hunted, and, once only, I played a set of tennis with him, the only time I ever saw him use the tennis court there.” So much for the Earl’s credentials. It is more important to get to the “’osses,” which may, in this case, be said to be represented by Waterloo and Napoleon. Of his great adversary’s prowess the Duke had a high opinion, but not the highest:—“He considered Napoleon as the greatest master on record in the art of handling large masses, arid deriving the greatest possible- advantage from superiority of numbers and resources; further, as the most dangerous of all commanders in front of whom to make a false movement. He assented to the popular French dictum that his presence with his army was to be valued at 40,000 men. As to his policy, ‘that was all bullying.’ ”

“D—n the fellow! He is a mere pounder after all,” the Duke said once. To Mitchell, the author of the “Life of Wallenstein,” who expressed a low opinion of Napoleon’s military talents, he replied: “Napoleon was the first man of his day on a field of battle and with French troops. I confine myself to that. His policy was mere bullying.” Elsewhere we have the same opinion expressed in more technical terms: —“ Napoleon’s system he believed to be very simple and effective—that of bullying with much noise and smoke, puzzling his cautious adversaries as to his point of attack, and massing under cover of light troops and guns his own people on one or two points. His cavalry he used with skill and effect in masses which moved forward, not fast, and occupied a position till the infantry could follow and secure it. ‘He tried this,' he said, ‘with me at Waterloo, and when he had placed his men on the ground he probably concluded that, according to precedent, I should retire; but I moved up thirteen regiments of infantry, and destroyed or disorganised the cavalry before he could follow up the rush.’”

There is a story of Napoleon worth telling. It is in'the Duke’s words:— “‘We took in Spain,’ the Duke pursued, ‘a despatch which was on its way to Marmont from the aide-de-camp whom he had sent to Russia to explain to Napoleon the circumstances of his defeat at Salamanca. The officer, as is well known, reacned the French army about the time whenNapoleon was taking up his quarters in the Kremlin. As soon as the purport of his intelligence was known to Napoleon he was confined, not under nominal arrest, but in as strict confinement as a State criminal, in the Kremlin. When admitted, after some, delay, to Napoleon’s presence, the latter, after some silent perusal of the report, asked how many troops had the Marshal. ‘Forty thousand, sire.’ ‘Well,’ said Napoleon, ‘a man who has one million under his charge can hardly afford much attention to what happens to forty thousand at the other side of the world.’ He said nothing more at that audience, and sent the . officer back to his seclusion. The latter was not, I believe, released, nor did Napoleon give any opinion on the transaction till after he had received a copy of the Duke’s published report ; of the battle,. He then sent for the

'Officer, and said, T see by this account that the affair was a smart one and well contested. You may tell the Marshal I am satisfied.’” Of the day of Waterloo we have one very striking glimpse : “Alava told Sir Harry Smith as follows: When the Duke sat down to his'late dinner in the evening of Waterloo there were many vacancies, 98 lha table was laid for its Usual fibmßlemeiil iff guests. H6 ftU little, and his Syes VffttS constantly directed . lb . the dbbr.; iil .the hope that sdffiii bt iHbsd ffiisslil| ihigHt ■yet afHv&. Thill llSjl'a Was vain. No one entered. He retired soon to write

his despatch, but before doing so he held up both hands, and exclaimed, ‘The hand of God has been over me this day!”' ■ Sir Harry Smith—he of South Africa —was at Waterloo, and according to the account he gave Lord Ellesmere he “had never been in any action in which the kmbke SO completely prm vented,any general tapjcegtißii 8f Wliat wik ‘gbinjl, oni, When the French made their gteat attack on our centre in the very thickest of this phenomenon a lull suddenly occurred. For some minutes not a shot was fired, and nothing could be seen by those not engaged! When at last the cloud cleared away there we»e the scanty lines of red in their old position, and a cheer along the whole line sainted the gloHßus spectaelg.” .ijne Dhke_hhd- A k'een eye in spite of mb sih'Bke. During the battle he

observed that the French had set fire to a haystack close to the roof of “the building,” probably Hougoument. He was in the habit of carrying in his pocket tablets of asses’ skin. On one of these he wrote an order to the officer commanding to put out the fire. “This leaf,” says Lord Ellesmere, “was preserved, and Is [or was.) in possession Of Lady Wblleslyj; It ought lb m .tel the. British Museum.” It would bh interesting to know what has become of it.

The Duke had a high opinion of his own army—chiefly,, says Lord Ellesmere, because its officers were “gentlemen in the true sense of the word” ' but the Allies were something of a trial. ' Of one pair of regiments we are told that, “At Waterloo the Duke placed them in the wood of HotiWiimont, but here their courage failed them, and they fled at the first onset, leaving heavy work to be done by the Foot Guards-. The Duke, when he saw them full,.,turned to tHg. Austrian .General, Vinbertt; alia said, 'Do you sbe ihbse M-lijws rmi? Weil, it is with these that I must win the battle, and such as these.’”

One interesting incident Lord Ellesmere tells us of which illustrates more than military manuals might do the secret of the Duke’s success as a General : —“The Duke and Croker, travelling in a carriage together,; to pass the tiltlij.ll gfbhh which consists in guessihg at the description of the objects to be first met with after crownor turning a corner. The Duke had greatly the advantage, and when Croker observed upon his cussess, said: ‘Yon don’t consider that I have been passing my life in guessing what I might meet with beyond the next hill or round the next corner.’” We have the Duke’s own word for it that he never lost a gun during his life, whereas he had taken somewhere about 3000, “ There were three light guns attached l& the Portugese cavalry taken near, Madrid, after the battle of Salamanca, on the night before we entered the town, but they were immediately recovered. Six guns were at at one time lost at Albuera, but were also recovered.” Napoleon lost guns in some of his greatest victories. The Duke did not say that Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but he might have had some personal warrant for the statement, for he fought his first fight at Eton—and won. The understudy tor Napoleon on that occasion was one “Bobus Smith,” and the historical combat took place under curious conditions;—“ Smith was bathing, and was pelted from the bank by young Wellesley. He threatened to get out and thrash him, which the other dared him to ,do. He got out, and fought without dressing, and was defeated in three or four rounds.” There were other encounters outside the ordinary way of business, such as the duel with Lord Winchelsea. Hobart Eden (subsequently the bishop of Bath and Wells) told Lord Ellesmere ; “I saw him (the Duke) riding through Battersea, and I saw there was mischief in his eye, so I followed and saw what happened.” All observers speak to that “mischief in his eye” when the Duke was roused. That, however, was seldom. As a rule, he carried impossivity almost to the point of affectation. Before riding off to lead the attack at Salamanca, Pakenham requested a shake of the Duke’s - hand. The Duke gave it, but with no relaxation from his usual rigidity. Even under such circumstances any-1 thing like a display of sentiment was | uncongenial to him. All this, of, course, was a matter of discipline: no one was quicker to see and reward merit. Sir Colin Campbell was one of what would nowadays be called his “discoveries”: —“He was in the commisariat service in India, and had volunteered for an assault on a hillfort. The Duke saw a little round man run up a ladder, and, receiving a pike thrust at the top, roll down like a hall to the bottom. He was, however, up again in an instant, and running up dice a squirrel, was the first or among the first in the place. The Duke laughed, inquired about him, and procured him a commission.”

The Duke considered Hannibal far and away the greatest soldier on record. Of his own antagonists, he spoke of Messena as the most dangerous. Soult he thought the best strategist, but “very defective and irresolute in actual collision.” It is a curious fact that the Duke never—except once by accident—read anything bearing on his own military career. “He said,” writes Lord Ellesmere, “that they would merely tempt and provoke him to comments which he could not make without offence to living men. Before I knew this I once asked him for his opinion on a passage in Napier, with whose work I took for granted he was familiar. He positively refused to read even an extract.” If we are to believe a remarkable story which appears in these Reminiscences, the Duke gave up more than this in the interests of what he believed to be his duty. There was a legend that the Duke had once played the violin, and in the course of inquiries the following letter from Mrs Stuart Mackenzie, an old friend of the family, came into Lord Ellesmere’s hands:— “Lord Ellesmere spoke of the great hero’s first victory at Eton School. I know of a second, more characteristic, which I have never seen mentioned, and which, if you will allow me, I will relate to you. Everyone knows that to the last the Duke was fond of and a fine judge of music; in youth he was a performer on the violin, of which he grew so fond that, giving up a great deal of time to it, he began to fear lest the hereditary taste should get the better of him, and in one day he broke the spell, laid aside his violin, and never afterwards touched it. The circumstances occurred during the time of his early attachment to, as you know, my dear friend the Duchess, who has often repeated it to me with pride as an omen of what was to be expected from his great self-command and firmness of decision.”

That he kept himself, as_ well as his troops, under Spartan discipline, there can be no doubt. For three years in India he lived on little but rice; and his worst outbreak was when, on arriving at Dover in 1814 after six years* absence abroad, the first order he gave at the Ship Inn was for “an unlimited supply of buttered toast!” We all know of the English General in the Peninsula who urged on his beef-nurtured men against “ those d—d fellows who suck oranges”; what would he have said if he had known that the Peninsular hero of all time preferred- buttered toast and was so Lord Ellesmere alleges—“the inventor of the commixture of ale with soda water” ?