ON THE FALSE ESTIMATE OF THE MILITARY CHARACTER. 245 



hall Street superintends the navigation of the argosy which conveys 

 his wealth from the " Ormus or from Ind." However inaccurate 

 this very physical method of measuring mental power may be, per- 

 sons of genius have adopted it, and been of course deceived. A 

 somewhat amusing instance of this occurred in the case of Madame 

 de Stael, and the Duke of Wellington. In this celebrated lady's 

 work on Germany, published before the peace of Paris, when she 

 had not seen the Duke, and took the magnitude of his exploits as the 

 gauge of his mind, she eulogises his character and genius to the 

 skies. On closer acquaintance in the saloons of Paris, her opinion of 

 this demi-god was, that " hors les affairs militaires, il ri'avait pas 

 deux idees," excepting in military matters he had not two ideas. 

 There can be no doubt that both these opinions of this highly- 

 gifted, but excessively imaginative writer, were extravagant, and 

 that the second extravagance was a sort of re-action from the dis- 

 appointment occasioned by the first. The god of her idolatry had 

 proved an ordinary mortal, and in her vexation she pronounces him 

 a brute. The anecdote is, however, a good illustration of the error 

 in the ordinary method of appreciating the military character ; and 

 the distinguished object of it is as good an example as can be 

 found of this character when fairly depicted. In him, no one now 

 sees, since he has displayed his powers in another sphere, the high, 

 commanding genius ; but a man of plain, practical intellect, acting 

 successfully within a limited range, and supported by great firmness 

 of purpose. He has propped thrones and dynasties, and the people 

 have quailed beneath his frown; but the world now sees that these 

 things were accomplished not by the misdirection of gigantic in- 

 tellect, but by the force of squadrons and battalions wielded by a 

 man of firmness and ordinary good sense. 



After thus doing even-handed justice to the gods of war, I in- 

 tended to sketch the character (if a character in common can be 

 possessed by so miscellaneous a body) of the subordinates those 

 men whom Byron, somewhat uncourteously, calls " battles' minions ;" 

 but, conceiving that they will be better understood by representin 

 them in action than by any general terms which can be employed, 

 shall crave the reader's attention to 



The Events of a Day on the Field of Battle. 



At eight o'clock of the evening of the 9th of November, 1813, a 

 single tap of a drum was heard in the small town of Mayu, situated 

 on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees, at the entrance of one of those 

 many mountain-passes, little more than goat or sheep tracks, by 

 which, besides the roads at the north-western and south-eastern ex- 

 tremity, and the central pass of Jaca, this mountain barrier is tra- 

 versed. At short intervals another and successive taps were heard, 

 and every officer and man of the brigade of British infantry sta- 

 tioned in the town became aware that it was necessary to accoutre 

 and prepare to march. Knapsacks were thrown on ; arms were 

 seized ; mules were loaded with private baggage, surgical instru- 

 ments, and commissariat stores ; and in a quarter of an hour the bri- 

 gade with all its equipments was formed in order of march in the 



M.M. No. 9. 21 



