avalry of Sir John Moore's army during the Corunna campaign, Lord
Paget won the greatest distinction. At Sahagun, Mayorga and Benavente,
the British cavalry behaved so well under his leadership that Moore
wrote:--"It is impossible for me to say too much in its praise.... Our
cavalry is very superior in quality to any the French have, and the
right spirit has been infused into them by the example and instruction
of their ... leaders...." At Benavente one of Napoleon's best cavalry
leaders, General Lefebvre Desnoettes, was taken prisoner. Corunna was
Paget's last service in the Peninsula. His _liaison_ with the wife of
Henry Wellesley, afterwards Lord Cowley, made it impossible at
that time for him to serve with Wellington, whose cavalry, on many
occasions during the succeeding campaigns, felt the want of the true
cavalry leader to direct them. His only war service from 1809 to
1815 was in the disastrous Walcheren expedition (1809) in which he
commanded a division. During these years he occupied himself with his
parliamentary duties as member for Milborne Port, which he represented
almost continuously up to his father's death in 1812, when he took
his seat in the House of Lords as earl of Uxbridge. In 1810 he was
divorced and married Mrs Wellesley, who had about the same time been
divorced from her husband. Lady Paget was soon afterwards married
to the duke of Argyll. In 1815 Lord Uxbridge received command of the
British cavalry in Flanders. At a moment of danger such as that of
Napoleon's return from Elba, the services of the best cavalry general
in the British army could not be neglected. Wellington placed the
greatest confidence in him, and on the eve of Waterloo extended his
command so as to include the whole of the allied cavalry and horse
artillery. He covered the retirement of the allies from Quatre Bras
to Waterloo on the 17th of June, and on the 18th gained the crowning
distinction of his military career in leading the great cavalry charge
of the British centre, which checked and in part routed D'Erlon's
_corps d'armee_ (see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN). Freely exposing his own life
throughout, the earl received, by one of the last cannon shots fired,
a severe wound in the leg, necessitating amputation. Five days later
the prince regent created him marquess of Anglesey in recognition of
his brilliant services, which were regarded universally as second only
to those of the duke himself. He was made a G.C.B. and he was also
d