During the following year the Ninety-second was employed, under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, in a vain expedition to Sweden. Our aid being rejected, the army returned home.
It afterwards proceeded to the Peninsula, where it arrived in time to learn that the Convention of Cintra had delivered Portugal for the present from the thraldom of Marshal Junot, the Emperor’s Lieutenant. Placed in the division of Lieut.-General Sir John Hope, the Gordon Highlanders advanced therewith into Spain, where a junction was formed with the army of Sir John Moore. It endured with firmness all the hardships of a disastrous yet successful retreat, crowning its perseverance by its gallantry at the battle of Corunna, where it was called to regret the loss of a gallant officer, Lieut.-Colonel Napier, and, further, to mourn over the fall of the hero of the campaign, Lieut.-General Sir John Moore, who terminated a life of honour and a career of glory on that memorable battle-field.
This victory secured the unmolested embarkation of the army, which accordingly sailed for England.
CHAPTER XLII.
“And, oh! loved warriors of the minstrel’s land!
Yonder your bonnets nod, your tartans wave!
The rugged form may mark the mountain band,
And harsher features, and a mien more grave.
But ne’er in battle throbbed a heart so brave,