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قراءة كتاب A Week at Waterloo in 1815 Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great Battle
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A Week at Waterloo in 1815 Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great Battle
href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@31517@[email protected]#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[12] but as Wellington had conceived a dislike for him, he refused to accept that officer in that capacity. The military authorities, however, insisted on his appointment, and it was only when Wellington made the promotion of De Lancey a sine quâ non of his acceptance of the supreme command that the former yielded.[13] Six weeks before the battle of Waterloo, Sir William married the daughter of Sir James Hall[14] of Dunglass, the Scottish scientist. His bride accompanied him on the Continent. On the second day of the battle[15] Sir William was knocked from his horse by a spent cannon-ball, and it was at first supposed that he had been instantly killed. Thirty-six hours afterwards he was discovered, still alive and in his senses, but incapable of motion, although without any visible wound. Notwithstanding the skill of the surgeons, and the tender care of his wife, he succumbed to his injuries nine days after the battle.[16]
[12] It was not till the 16th December 1815—six months after Waterloo—that Sir Hudson Lowe married Mrs Susan Johnson, sister of Sir William De Lancey. (Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 191.) See also The Creevey Papers, Third Edition (1905), p. 247.
[13] "Wellington assumed command in the Netherlands early in April 1815, and Lowe, who had been acting as Quartermaster-General in the Low Countries under the command of the Prince of Orange, remained for a few weeks under him as his Quartermaster-General; but having been nominated to command the troops in Genoa designed to co-operate with the Austro-Sardinian armies, he was replaced in May by Sir William Howe De Lancey." (Dictionary of National Biography, art. "Lowe, Sir Hudson," vol. xxxiv., p. 191.) See also The Creevey Papers, Third Edition (1905), p. 247.
The following extract of a letter from Major-General Sir H. Torrens to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War, dated Ghent, 8th April 1815, alludes to the hitch about Sir Hudson Lowe: "I shall communicate fully with the Commander-in-Chief upon the Duke of Wellington's wishes respecting his Staff.... As you were somewhat anxious about Sir Hudson Lowe, I must apprise you that he will not do for the Duke." (Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, vol. x., pp. 42 and 43.) (Cf. The Creevey Papers, Third Edition (1905), p. 289.)
Evidently Sir Hudson Lowe was no more of a persona grata to Wellington than he afterwards became to Napoleon!
A letter from Major-General Sir H. Torrens, who appears to have been acting at the time as Military Secretary to the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards, written to the Duke of Wellington from London on the 16th April 1815, shows the high estimation in which the Duke held De Lancey's services:—
"De Lancey is in town on his way to go out.... I told him the very handsome and complimentary manner in which you asked for his services, and assured him that nothing could be so gratifying, in my view of the case, to his military and professional feelings as the desire you expressed to me of having him again with you." (Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, vol. x., p. 130.)
That the Duke felt deeply the interference of Headquarters with his selection of Staff Officers is clearly shown by the following letter, written by him to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War, dated Bruxelles, 4th May 1815:—
"To tell you the truth, I am not very well pleased with the manner in which the Horse Guards have conducted themselves towards me. It will be admitted that the army is not a very good one, and, being composed as it is, I might have expected that the Generals and Staff formed by me in the last war would have been allowed to come to me again; but instead of that, I am overloaded with people I have never seen before; and it appears to be purposely intended to keep those out of my way whom I wished to have. However I'll do the best I can with the instruments which have been sent to assist me." (Supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, vol. x., p. 219.)
[14] See Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxiv., p. 68.
[15] On the 18th June, at Waterloo; the battle of Quatre Bras having been fought on the 16th.—Ed.
[16] Appleton's Cyclopædia, vol. ii., pp. 132, 133.
There are several references to De Lancey's death in the "Letters of Colonel Sir Augustus S. Frazer, K.C.B., commanding the R.H.A. in the army under the Duke of Wellington, written during the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns," edited by Major-General Sir Edward Sabine, R.A. On the 29th June Sir Augustus writes to Lady Frazer from Mons: "I regret to state that poor De Lancey is dead; so Hume, the Duke's surgeon, told me. He had opened the body; eight ribs were forced from the spine, one totally broke to pieces, and part of it in the lungs. Poor De Lancey! He is our greatest loss; a noble fellow and an admirable officer," p. 582.
In connection with the foregoing, it will be interesting to compare the account of De Lancey's wound given in the Dictionary of National Biography:—
"The Duke of Wellington gave the following version of the occurrence to Samuel Rogers: 'De Lancey was with me, and speaking to me when he was struck. We were on a point of land that overlooked the plain. I had just been warned off by some soldiers (but as I saw well from it, and two divisions were engaging below, I said "Never mind"), when a ball came bounding along en ricochet, as it is called, and, striking him on the back, sent him many yards over the head of his horse. He fell on his face, and bounded upwards and fell again. All the staff dismounted and ran to him, and when I came up he said, 'Pray tell them to leave me and let me die in peace.' I had him conveyed to the rear, and two days after, on my return from Brussels, I saw him in a barn, and he spoke with such strength that I said