340 THE FIFTH DUKE OF RICHMOND, K.G. 



excellent health. Both were present at all the 

 engagements of 1813, includmg Vittoria. Lord 

 March had been anxious to witness the conduct 

 in battle of the 5 2d Light Infantry, and to obtain 

 a practical knowledge of regimental duty in the 

 field. He sought permission, therefore, to leave 

 the headquarter staff for a while, and to join the 

 1st battalion of that gallant regiment as Captain 

 in the 5 2d. Lord March led his company to 

 attack the enemy's right at the battle of Orthez. 

 On the crest of the hill he was struck in the chest 

 by a musket-ball, which was never extracted, and 

 which, forty -eight years later, he carried with 

 him to the grave. The wound was at first pro- 

 nounced to be mortal ; but Surgeon Hair of the 

 5 2d attended him with such fidelity and skill, 

 that Lord Wellington, on coming to see him, 

 found him sleeping tranquilly. In his surgeon's 

 opinion he had already surmounted the dangerous 

 crisis. Youth and a good constitution soon 

 enabled him to recover and to rejoin the Duke 

 of Wellington at the battle of Toulouse. Speak- 

 ing of Orthez, Sir William Napier, in his ' History 

 of the Peninsular War,' remarks that " the loss of 

 the allied army was 2300 ; among the wounded 

 being the Duke of Wellington, slightly, and the 

 Duke of Richmond (then Lord March), very 

 severely. The latter had served on Wellington's 

 personal staff throughout the war without a hurt ; 

 but being made a captain in the 5 2d, he joined 



