222 ARMY UNIFORMS PAST AND PRESENT 



selves in shelter of a crest well in rear of a French 

 advanced post. There they lay, until Wellington's line 

 was completed by the arrival of ' Old Picton, riding at 

 the head of the 3rd Division, dressed in a blue coat and 

 a round hat, swearing as loudly all the way as if he 

 wore two cocked ones.' l The 7th Division caine up at 

 the same time, and while they were deploying the 

 enemy opened fire upon them. Kempt immediately 

 drew his riflemen from their shelter and took the 

 French batteries in flank, thereby enabling the 3rd 

 Division to cross the bridge of Mendoza without loss. 

 But the dark uniforms of the Rifles deceived the British 

 on the other side of the river into the belief that they 

 were French. A battery opened upon them and con- 

 tinued pounding them with round shot and shrapnel till 

 the advance of Picton's Division revealed the blunder. 



Wellington's warning against copying the uniforms 

 of other nations received little attention. After 1815, 

 when he was in command of the Army of Occupation 

 in Paris, it was decided to arm four regiments of 

 cavalry with lances, a most effective weapon which had 

 not been carried by British troops since the seven- 

 teenth century. One would have supposed that the 

 lance might be wielded as effectively by a man dressed 

 as a light dragoon or a hussar as in any other rig; but 

 the Prince Regent hailed the innovation as an oppor- 

 tunity for an entirely new costume. Consequently the 

 9th, 12th, 16th and 23rd Light Dragoons were put into 

 a Polish dress, modified in such manner as to agree 

 with his Royal Highness's sartorial taste. 



1 Kincaid's Adventuret of the Rifle Brigade, 3rd edition, p. 222. 



