10 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



to prevent your going to-morrow morning with the rest 

 of the prisoners on your way to France, let me know 

 what money, linen, &c., you may require, and they will 

 be sent you before your departure ; the officer who 

 commands the escort is an old friend of mine, and I 

 will take care that you shall live with him on the route, 

 and be provided with a good mule to ride — otherwise 

 you would have been obliged to suffer all the hardships 

 of travelling on foot." The general took an affectionate 

 leave of Lutyens early next morning, and hoped he 

 should be able to be of service to him in France. 



Major Lutyens informed me of the particulars of his 

 being made prisoner, with nearly a squadron of the 11th 

 Light Dragoons, in Portugal, and as, at the time, some 

 blame was attached to him for not retiring sooner on 

 our army, his account convinced me that it was totally 

 unmerited. He said that he had been placed the 

 evening before by the general officer of the day at the 

 post which he occupied with his detachment, and threw 

 out his videttes towards those of the enemy. Early the 

 next morning some of the French light cavalry advanced 

 towards him, and drove back his videttes. As their 

 force increased he was obliged gradually to retreat, 

 naturally concluding that he should soon fall in with 

 some part of our army stationed for his support. 

 Having retreated about a mile, he saw drawn up in his 

 rear a considerable body of cavalry, which he supposed, 

 of course, was an English regiment, but on a nearer ap- 

 proach, to his astonishment he discovered it to be a strong 

 French regiment of dragoons, which completely cut off 

 his retreat. Almost immediately a French officer rode 

 up to him to demand his surrender with his detachment, 

 and as the case was hopeless, from the strong force 



