the 49th,
finally appointing him adjutant, promotion that the ability and
gallantry of James FitzGibbon, a Canadian veteran of 1812, and the "hero
of Beaver Dams" (Adjutant-General of Canada, 1837, and Military Knight
of Windsor, 1851), amply justified.

If Brock was quick to appreciate merit, he was no less so in detecting
defects. The Russian soldiers came in for scathing criticism. The type
at Egmont impressed him most unfavourably. The clumsy Russian
foot-soldier was his special aversion. The accuracy of his criticism has
been confirmed by military writers, but this book is not for the purpose
of weighing the quality of Russian valour in Holland. Six thousand of
these Russian allies, the lateness of the season preventing their return
home, were later quartered for six months in Guernsey.

While our hero was a severe military critic, he was never an unjust one,
neither did he spare his own men. Though not a martinet, which was
foreign to every fibre of his nature, he was a stickler for rigid
discipline. When the expedition was recalled, he was first quartered in
Norwich, and then at the old familiar barracks of St. Helier, in Jersey.
On his return to the latter place, in 1800, after leave of absence, he
found that the junior lieutenant-colonel of the 49th--Colonel
Sheaffe--had incurred the reasonable dislike of the men. The regiment
was drawn up on the sands for morning parade, standing at ease. In
company with this unpopular officer Brock appeared upon the scene. He
was greeted with three hearty cheers. The personal honour, however, was
lost sight of in the act of disobedience. Rebuking the men severely for
"their most unmilitary conduct," they were marched to quarters and
confined to barracks for a week. He would not, he explained, allow
public exaltation of himself at the expense of another.

The next year found our hero in the Baltic Sea, aboard the _Ganges_,
detailed for active duty as second in command of the land forces that
under Lord Nelson were ordered to the attack on Copenhagen. It was
intended that Brock, with the 49th, should lead in storming the
Trekroner (Three Crown) battery, in conjunction with five hundred
seamen; but the heroic defence by the Danes rendered the attempt
impracticable, and Brock remained on the _Ganges_, an unwilling
spectator of bloodshed in which he took no part. Towards the close of
the engagement--the heaviest pounding match in history--he was on the
_Elephant_, Nelson's flag