placid waters of old men's
memories, without finding traces of this old ghost which Wellington
wrestled with so terribly on the fields of Waterloo!

There was, in Napoleon's work, an over-mastering will to accomplish, at
whatever cost, the purpose he set himself, and our great-grand-fathers,
with all their contempt for the French, had the sense to recognise
something of what Wellington afterwards so well expressed of the man,
Napoleon Buonaparte,--"I used to say of him that his presence on the
field made a difference of forty thousand men."

Of more interest even than the enrolment of the Volunteers were the
measurers taken for local defence and for the protection of the civil
population and property--the women and children and livestock. This
was taken up as a complete organization, county by county, hundred by
hundred, town by town, and village by village. In the month of July,
1803, we find the Deputy-Lieutenants of Cambridgeshire, thirty-four in
number, meeting at Cambridge, and adopting an address to the King,
expressing determination to support him in the war with France. Sir
Edward Nightingale, Bart., of Kneesworth House, presided. It was
resolved to adopt the measures indicated for establishing a system of
communications throughout each county, and also for rendering the body
of the people instrumental for the general defence in case of an
invasion. Also that the several hundreds in the county be formed into
divisions with a lieutenant over each, to report to, and act in concert
with the County Lieutenancy, that the lieutenant for each division {64}
appoint an inspector for each hundred, and that the inspector for each
hundred appoint a superintendent for each parish. For the division of
the county formed by the union of the hundreds of Armingford (Royston
district), Longstowe, Wetherby and Thriplow, Hale Wortham, Esq., was
the responsible lieutenant.

[Illustration: NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.]

A similar meeting was held at Hertford, and men were called to arms
between the ages of 15 and 60, and in all towns and villages there was
nothing but swearing in and drilling of soldiers, to resist the
impending invasion, by which it was said that England was to be divided
among the French--"the men all to be killed and the women saved."

In accordance with the above mentioned county scheme each parish had
its Council of War, so to speak, at which men more accustomed to "speed
the plough" found themselves in solem