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SWABEY DIARY. 33 
rode up to Belson! and congratulated him on having deprived 
them of their last gun. See “ England’s Artillerymen,” p. 
169. 
27th June.—A corps under Sir Thomas Picton consisting of the 3rd, 
5th and 6th divisions, was detached this day and marched to watch and 
defeat Clausel,? and perhaps also Suchet’s ci-devant army. I there- 
fore fell into the hands of a third surgeon, an officer of the line. Ishould 
feel much more contented if some of our own medical officers were settled 
here ; however, having accepted the situation I will not complain. It 
is now that I must call to my assistance those principles of resignation 
to the divine will in which the affection of a kind and virtuous mother 
educated my early years, and of which under much suffering she was 
so bright an example. 
28th June.—Little variation in the prospect of a sick bed and a fish 
diet. ‘To-day reports say that Lord Wellington himself is marching by 
way of Saragossa, and it is hoped that Suchet’s force will thus be givena 
good account of. 
29th June.—I employed great part of the morning in drawing up a 
memorial which I hope to induce the subaltern officers of the regiment 
to get presented to the Prince Regent, praying permission for them to 
be admitted to employment in staff appointments, and further laying 
before him a statement of the very unfavourable and depressed state 
of our hopes on the subject of promotion; praying his gracious con- 
sideration and assistance. 
Ist July—My operations were confined to-day to reading Gil Blas. 
I think in time I shall be pretty well acquainted with the history of 
that hero. 
end July.—I had thought it lost time to speculate on the probable 
time of my departure from this paradise called “ Bedfordshire” ; my 
surgeon however talks of to-morrow ornextday. This is the first time 
in my life that I was ever tired of bed, and what is more astonishing I 
am even tired of pastry, a thing which I never could have dreamt would 
happen to me. 
drd July.—It appears almost incredible that in six weeks march, 
2 Lieutenant George John Belson (Kane’s List, No. 1235) served in the Peninsula and South of 
France in ‘‘ A” troop, R.H.A. from July 1809, to the end of the war in 1814, including the retreat 
from Talavera, action in front of Almeida, action of the Coa, battle of Busaco, actions of Pombal, 
Redinha, Cazal Nova, Foz d’ Aronce and Sabugal ; battle of Fuente de Honor, actions on the heights 
of the Agueda, sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, action at Castrajon (severely wounded), 
San Mufos, San Milan and Osma; battle of Vitoria, action with the French 23rd June 1813, the 
morning before they entered Pamplona, in which he captured their last gun from Vitoria; battles 
in the Pyrenees, passage of the Nivelle, Nive, and Gave d’Oleron ; battle of Orthes, besides various 
minor affairs and skirmishes, 83 engagements in all. He received the war medal with nine clasps. 
Major-General Relson shortly before his death at Woolwich, in 1868, in a conversation with the 
author of ‘‘ England’s Artillerymen,”’ confirmed the particulars of the capture of the last French 
gun after the battle of Vitoria. 
? General Clausel was one of the ablest of the French generals who served in the Peninsula. 
Napoleon had a high opinion of his capacity. On his voyage to St. Helena he said, “ He con- 
sidered General Clausel to be decidedly the most able military officer now in France. Marshal Soult 
and other Maréchals were, he said, brave and able men for carrying into execution operations 
previously planned, but to plan and execute with large armies, in his opinion none of them were by 
any means equal to General Clausel.’’ ‘Taking Napoleon to St. Helena,” Century Magazine, 
November, 1894. 
5 
