Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2279, 22 September 1899, Page 4

Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

Years after the Battle of Waterloo, someone asked the Duke if te had any idea what number of guns he had taken in his life. 'No,' he replied, 'not with any accuracy; somewhere about three thousand I should guess. At Oporto, after the passpge of the Douro, I took the entire siege train of the enemy ; at Vittoria and Waterloo, I took every gun which they bad in the field. What, however, is the most extraordinary, I don t think I ever lost a gun in the field. After the battle of Salamanca, three of my gnus, attached to some Portuguese cavalry, were captured in a I rifling affair near Madrid, but they were recovered the next day. In the Pyrenees, Lord Hill found h mself obliged to throw eight or nine guns over a precipice, but these also were recovered, and never fell into the enemy's hands.' A few months after Wellington had given up his Indian command, he had occasion to call on one of the Cabinet Ministers, ar.d, in the anterooms, he met a one eyed, one-armed gentleman; and, though the two were unknown to each other, they entered into conversation. They soon became interested, and both were sorry when their chat w*s ended by the one armed man being summoned into the Cabinet Minister's room.

Next came Sir Arthur's turn, and, when the business was finished, the Minister asked him was he acquainted with the gentleman who had preceded him.

Wellesley answered that he was not, but said that he felt pretty sure that his acquaintance was no " common man.'' ' You are quite right,' answered the Minister, • and let me add that he expressed exactly the same opinion ot you. That was Lord Nelson.' This was the only occasion on which England's greatest sailor and greatest soldier ever met, for .Nelson was shortly afterwards killed at the Battle of Trafalgar.