usceptible are soldiers
to praise and kindness, and so easy is it by a few well-timed words to
repay their toils and perils, and renew their store of confidence and
hope. And numerous were the occasions during the Peninsular contest when
they needed all the encouragement that could be given them. After
Busaco, when blockaded in the lines of Torres Vedras, their situation
was far from agreeable. The wet season set in, and their huts, roofed
with heather--a pleasant shelter when the sun shone, but very
ineffectual to resist autumnal rains--became untenable. Every device was
resorted to for the exclusion of the deluge, but in vain. Fortunately,
the French were in a still worse plight. In miserable cantonments, short
of provisions and attacked by disease, the horses died, and the men
deserted; until, on the 14th November, Massena broke up his camp, and
retired upon Santarem. The Anglo-Portuguese army made a corresponding
movement into more comfortable quarters, and rumours were abroad of an
approaching engagement; but it did not take place, and a period of
comparative relaxation succeeded one of severe hardship and arduous
duty. Men and officers made the most of the holiday. There was never any
thing of the martinet about the Duke. He was not the man to harass with
unnecessary and vexations drills, or rigidly to enforce unimportant
rules. Those persons, whether military or otherwise, who consider a
strictly regulation uniform as essential to the composition of a British
soldier, as a stout heart and a strong arm, and who stickle for a
closely buttoned jacket, a stiff stock, and the due allowance of
pipe-clay, would have been somewhat scandalised, could they have beheld
the equipment of Wellington's army in the Peninsula. Mr Grattan gives a
comical account of the various fantastical fashions and conceits
prevalent amongst the officers. "Provided," he says, "we brought our men
into the field well-appointed, and with sixty rounds of good ammunition
each, he (the Duke) never looked to see whether their trousers were
black, blue, or grey; and as to ourselves, we might be rigged out in all
the colours of the rainbow, if we fancied it." The officers, especially
the young subs, availed themselves largely of this judicious laxity, and
the result was a medley of costume, rather picturesque than military.
Braided coats, long hair, plumed hats, and large mustaches, were amongst
the least of the eccentricities displayed. In a curious spir