With regard to the loss which we sustained in this most disastrous expedition, I may remark that the effective strength of the battalion, which, on landing in South Beveland, was 998 rank and file, was so much reduced by the Dutch pestilence, that, in the month of October following, between 200 and 300 only were fit for duty. One morning, indeed, the grenadier company could only bring two non-commissioned officers, and three privates, to the public parade. But had the deaths, numerous as they were, constituted the whole of our loss, a few additional recruiting parties would very soon have made good the deficiency. Unfortunately, however, in our battalion, as in almost every other employed on the same service, the deaths formed but a small portion of our real loss. For the repeated attacks of the malady had made such inroads on the constitutions of the survivors, that, when put to the test in the Peninsula, they were found to be no longer the same men. Their frames had become so enervated, that exposure to the night air, or a heavy shower of rain, sent many of them shivering to their beds; then to an hospital, where they but too frequently led a life of suffering and misery, till they sank into a premature grave.
Placed in Woodbridge under the circumstances just now stated, it cannot be considered surprising that the months of October and November should have appeared to us cheerless, and have passed slowly away. Indeed I believe, that but for the grand jubilee parade, subscription ball, and dinner, on the 25th of October, we should have died of perfect ennui. In the afternoon of that day, the garrison, consisting of four battalions of infantry, a considerable body of artillery, and some German cavalry, were marshalled in the barrack-square, by Baron Alten, and almost immediately on the troops taking their stations, the thundering of the cannon right and left,—the vollies of musketry,—the cheers of the soldiers, re-echoed by dense masses of the populace, proclaimed to the surrounding country, that George the Third, the Father of his people, had completed the fiftieth year of his eventful reign.
At the conclusion of this interesting pageant, the officers threaded their way towards Woodbridge, where, at five o'clock, they sat down to an elegant dinner, consisting of all the varieties and delicacies of the season. Almost every officer in the garrison was present, and for some time every thing went off with eclat. On occasions of this kind, however, it but too frequently happens that the young and inexperienced allow reason to resign her seat to folly, and are then betrayed into actions the most extravagant and absurd. Inexperience has, no doubt, been often permitted to be pleaded in mitigation of the offence of an unfledged youth; but some young men are led to the commission of offences which even youth cannot palliate. This being the case, I trust I shall be permitted to express a hope, that in future the young and thoughtless portion of our military youth will attentively listen to, and ponder over the advice of their more experienced brethren, before they place themselves under the guidance of a tutor reared in the school of folly. For by doing so, they may rest assured that they will at all times glide along the surface of life as smoothly as a little bark, skimming along the surface of unruffled water, and like her, at length find their way into port without meeting with any thing materially to lessen the pleasure of the voyage of life.
On the 6th of March, 1810, I bade adieu to Woodbridge, and proceeded to Scotland, on my way to join the second battalion of my regiment in Ireland. Being in a delicate state of health, I amused myself a few weeks in Edinburgh, and then proceeded to the country to inhale the air of my native hills.
CHAPTER II.
Completely restored to health, I took leave of the Land of Cakes for that of true hospitality, in the very centre of which I beat up the quarters of my friends in the second battalion, in the latter end of June 1810.
It was originally my intention to take no other notice of my services in this part of the world, than what is to be found in the above paragraph, and perhaps a similar one on my taking leave of the second battalion for the Peninsula. But a much-valued friend, conceiving that the Memoir would be incomplete, without a few articles descriptive of the duties which soldiers are but too frequently called upon to perform in Ireland, and of the enemies against whom they generally act, has pressed me so strongly on this point, that I have, in deference to his opinion, selected the following for insertion.
Athlone is a very ancient town, and stands on both banks of the river Shannon, over which there is an old, ugly, ill-built, narrow bridge. The general appearance of Athlone is extremely antiquated, and far from prepossessing. It is just what we may very aptly denominate a finished town. Dull and lifeless, however, as every thing appeared during the day, yet with the kind attentions of the families residing in the town and vicinity, we contrived to pass the monotonous hours of a soldier on home service pleasantly enough. But pleasant as the private parties generally were, they did not constitute our only sources of amusement. We possessed within our own circle others no less captivating, amongst which I may mention a garrison weekly club, as not the least attractive. The expense was limited to half-a-crown, for which each member was entitled to supper, and a couple of tumblers of punch. The officers of the different corps always assembled at seven o'clock, played cards, chess, or backgammon, till ten;—then attacked the poldowdies; and after destroying a few hundreds of them, and doing ample justice to the poteen, retired to our respective cages before the mid-night hour, always in good humour with ourselves, and all those friends who five hours before we were happy to meet, from whom we were sorry to part, but with whom we would be happy to meet again.
Since that time, I have heard many individuals who arrogated to themselves a larger share of common sense, or worldly wisdom, than their neighbours, inveigh with considerable asperity against regimental messes and garrison clubs, on the plea that they were apt to lead the young officers from the path of temperance to that of dissipation. Had those people taken a less superficial view of military society, they would have come to a very opposite conclusion. Young officers, like the young men in every civil society, are no doubt in danger of being led astray by the seductive orations of the dissolute portion of their fraternity. For the latter, on finding themselves lowered in the estimation, and shunned by their discerning and more honourable-minded brethren, invariably employ every stratagem they can think of, and all the most fascinating language at their command, to induce the inexperienced and unsuspecting youth to quit the paths of virtue and honour; and this is too often done under the specious, but false pretext, that dissipation, and its accompanying vices, are most becoming the officer and gentleman. From this candid acknowledgment of the dangers to which officers are exposed on joining their corps for a first time, some may think it totally impossible for a youth to escape the wiles of the enemies of virtue. But I request all those to bear this in remembrance, that the moment an officer joins his regiment, he is from that time surrounded with men of high character and honour, who are ever ready to throw a protecting shield round the head of a junior brother, against which the shafts of vice, from whatever quarter they may be directed, usually prove pointless. Yes; I repeat that five-sixths of the officers are always ready to act in this manner; for as the misconduct of any one member of a battalion never fails to cast a deep shade over the characters of the others, it is evidently the interest, no less than the duty, of all those officers who have any regard for themselves or their profession, to check every attempt made by a brother officer to swerve from the paths of duty, of virtue, and of honour, and endeavour to impress on the mind of their frail friend the important truth, that those paths alone lead to rank and military renown. From whatever motives, therefore, the great body of British officers may act,—whether from a high sense of honour or interested feeling,—it is quite obvious that their youthful associates are equally safe, for in either case their heads must at all times be so protected, as to render the utmost efforts of the profligate to lead them into a ruinous course of low and degrading pleasures, altogether unavailing.
In almost every newspaper we open, we find detailed the proceedings of some religious meeting, convened for the purpose of raising funds to send missionaries into foreign parts to convert the heathen to Christianity. Now, though I readily admit that this is a most laudable and praise-worthy object, yet I cannot help thinking, that before we expend any more of our British gold in attempts to convert the heathen inhabiting the burning sands of Asia and Africa, or the cold and inhospitable wilds of Europe and America, we should endeavour to bring the British heathen to know and adore the infinite goodness of the All-wise and Omnipotent Ruler of heaven and earth. Some of those pious individuals who have assisted to fill the coffers of foreign missions, will no doubt read "British heathen" with surprise, if not with the eyes of a sceptic. But to those who have doubts that such people really reside within the British isles, I at once say, take a trip to the other side of the Irish Channel and have them fully removed. Lest, however, it may not be convenient for every one of them to take this step, I beg to state for their information, that on every fine Sunday evening during the summers of 1810 and 1811, an immense concourse of people assembled a little north of the batteries at Athlone, where two roads intersect each other, and there, to the sounds of the Irish bag-pipe and violin, danced and gamboled till night spread her sable mantle around the heathenish groups, and put an end to their unholy sports.