In 1809 a corps of 370 men was battalionized under the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Cochrane, and embarked for Zealand, where it shared the disasters of the Walcheren expedition, afterward returning to the Isle of Wight.
In 1813, as a small corps of 400 Highlanders, the second battalion of the Seventy-eighth joined the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch, which endeavoured to expel the French from Holland. On the 13th January, with the second battalion of the Twenty-fifth and the Thirty-third regiments, it encountered the enemy at Merexem, where it behaved with signal gallantry—an immediate charge with the bayonet by the Seventy-eighth, ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, decided the contest. The enemy was beaten with great slaughter. At this period the juvenility of the battalion was as remarkable as its valour—only 43 of its soldiers exceeding twenty-two years of age. The battalion remained in the Netherlands until after the battle of Waterloo, but stationed at Nieuport, was deprived of the privilege of being present on that memorable and glorious field. Nevertheless, it added to its good name by its excellent conduct, becoming peculiarly endeared to the Belgians, who spoke of the Highlanders as being “kind, as well as brave;” “Enfans de la famille;” “Lions in the field and lambs in the house”—so much so, that the citizens of Brussels petitioned the mayor to request the General-in-Chief to allow the Seventy-eighth to remain in garrison in that capital.
Returning to Scotland in 1816, the battalion was subsequently incorporated with the first battalion as one regiment on its return from India—conveying, with its few remaining soldiers, a character for firmness truly remarkable in such young soldiers, and adding the glories of Maida and Egypt to those of Assaye and Java, acquired by the first battalion, and now one in the Seventy-eighth.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
But hark! what means yon dismal wail—
The shriek that’s borne upon the gale?
It comes from India’s sultry plain—
It calls for vengeance from the slain,
Nor calls in vain to Scotland.