A Week at Waterloo in 1815 Part 2

Captain Basil Hall, R.N. (vide _Dictionary of National Biography_, vol. xxiv., p. 58), was a well-known author in his day, his best known work being _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, published in three series between 1831 and 1833, and frequently reprinted since.

In Volume II. of the first series, Captain Hall alludes to his first meeting with De Lancey. It occurred on board H.M.S. _Endymion_ on the morning of the 18th January 1809, when the British troops had all been safely embarked on the transports, the second day after the battle of Corunna.

Basil Hall--then a lieutenant in the navy--and De Lancey[26] struck up a great friendship on the _Endymion_, and the former introduced his soldier friend after the voyage home to his family in Scotland. The marriage of De Lancey six years afterwards to Basil Hall's sister Magdalene was a result of this introduction.

[Footnote 26: De Lancey was at this time a lieutenant-colonel and permanent a.s.sistant in the quartermaster-general's department (Army List, 1809, p. 323).

His first commission as a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons bore the date 7th July 1792 (Army List, 1793, p. 50), when he was only eleven years old.

He was gazetted lieutenant in the same regiment on the 26th February 1793, and was subsequently transferred to the 80th Foot.

On the 20th October 1796 he was gazetted captain in the 17th Light Dragoons, of which regiment his uncle, General Oliver De Lancey, was then colonel.

He obtained a majority in the 45th (or Nottinghamshire) Regiment of Foot on the 17th October 1799. He was by this time eighteen years of age, and up to this date had probably no connection with the army at all beyond drawing his pay and figuring in the Army List. Even now he does not appear to have joined his regiment until its return from the West Indies, a year or two afterwards (_Dict. Nat. Biog._, vol. xiv., p. 305). His first uniform was probably that of the 45th Foot, and the portrait, forming the frontispiece of this volume, was in all likelihood painted on his first joining the regiment as a major in 1800 or 1801.

In the Army List of 1804 he is shown on page 31 as an a.s.sistant quartermaster-general. His actual regimental service can therefore hardly have exceeded two or three years. Until his death in 1815, he was continuously on the staff of the army in the quartermaster-general's department.]

The following extract from Captain Basil Hall's _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, gives an account of the first meeting of the two friends on board the _Endymion_, and of the dramatic circ.u.mstances under which Captain Hall heard the news of his sister's marriage, and of De Lancey's death at Waterloo:--

"As we in the _Endymion_ had the exclusive charge of the convoy of transports, we remained to the very last, to a.s.sist the ships with provisions, and otherwise to regulate the movements of the stragglers.

Whilst we were thus engaged, and lying to, with our main-topsail to the mast, a small Spanish boat came alongside, with two or three British officers in her. On these gentlemen being invited to step up, and say what they wanted, one of them begged we would inform him where the transport No. 139 was to be found.

"'How can we possibly tell you that?' said the officer of the watch.

'Don't you see the ships are scattered as far as the horizon in every direction? You had much better come on board this ship in the meantime.'

"'No, sir, no,' cried the officers; 'we have received directions to go on board the transport 139, and her we must find.'

"'What is all this about?' inquired the captain of the _Endymion_; and being told of the scruples of the strangers, insisted upon their coming up. He very soon explained to them the utter impossibility, at such a moment, of finding out any particular transport amongst between three and four hundred ships, every one of which was following her own way. We found out afterwards that they only were apprehensive of having it imagined they had designedly come to the frigate for better quarters. Nothing, of course, was farther from our thoughts; indeed, it was evidently the result of accident. So we sent away their little boat, and just at that moment the gun-room steward announced breakfast. We invited our new friends down, and gave them a hearty meal in peace and comfort--a luxury they had not enjoyed for many a long and rugged day.

"Our next care was to afford our tired warriors the much-required comforts of a razor and clean linen. We divided the party amongst us; and I was so much taken with one of these officers, that I urged him to accept such accommodation as my cabin and wardrobe afforded. He had come to us without one st.i.tch of clothes beyond what he then wore, and these, to say the truth, were not in the best condition, at the elbows and other angular points of his frame. Let that pa.s.s--he was as fine a fellow as ever stepped; and I had much pride and pleasure in taking care of him during the pa.s.sage.

"We soon became great friends; but on reaching England we parted, and I never saw him more. Of course he soon lost sight of me, but his fame rose high, and, as I often read his name in the Gazettes during the subsequent campaigns in the Peninsula, I looked forward with a gradually increasing anxiety to the renewal of an acquaintance begun so auspiciously. At last I was gratified by a bright flash of hope in this matter, which went out, alas, as speedily as it came. Not quite six years after these events, I came home from India, in command of a sloop of war. Before entering the Channel, we fell in with a ship which gave us the first news of the battle of Waterloo, and spared us a precious copy of the Duke of Wellington's despatch; and within five minutes after landing at Portsmouth, I met a near relation of my own.

This seemed a fortunate rencontre, for I had not received a letter from home for nearly a year--and I eagerly asked him--

"'What news of all friends?'

"'I suppose,' he said, 'you know of your sister's marriage?'

"'No, indeed! I do not!--which sister?'

"He told me.

"'But to whom is she married?' I cried out with intense impatience, and wondering greatly that he had not told me this at once.

"'Sir William De Lancey was the person,' he answered. But he spoke not in the joyous tone that befits such communications.

"'G.o.d bless me!' I exclaimed. 'I am delighted to hear that. I know him well--we picked him up in a boat, at sea, after the battle of Corunna, and I brought him home in my cabin in the _Endymion_. I see by the despatch, giving an account of the late victory, that he was badly wounded--how is he now? I observe by the postscript to the Duke's letter that strong hopes are entertained of his recovery.'

"'Yes,' said my friend, 'that was reported, but could hardly have been believed. Sir William was mortally wounded, and lived not quite a week after the action. The only comfort about this sad matter is, that his poor wife, being near the field at the time, joined him immediately after the battle, and had the melancholy satisfaction of attending her husband to the last!'"[27]

[Footnote 27: _Fragments of Voyages and Travels_, by Captain Basil Hall, R.N., 1831, vol. ii., pp. 367-371.]

It was, as before stated, at Captain Hall's request that Lady De Lancey wrote the memorable Waterloo narrative.

In order to satisfy the natural curiosity of friends--who had probably heard of the narrative in Captain Hall's possession--Lady De Lancey prepared an abridged version, in more general terms, and of a much more reserved character than the original account, written for her brother only.

This condensed account was found amongst the papers of her nephew, General De Lancey Lowe, after his death in 1880. His widow published it in the _Ill.u.s.trated Naval and Military Magazine_ for 1888, p. 414.

In some few instances this abridged account contains descriptive touches not given in the original narrative. These variations are given in the form of notes to the present edition of the narrative.

Thomas Moore in his diary for the 29th August 1824 describes the circ.u.mstances under which Captain Hall lent him his copy of the narrative as follows:--

"A note early from Lord Lansdowne, to say that Capt. Basil Hall, who is at Bowood, wishes much to see me; and that if I cannot come over to-day to either luncheon or dinner, he will call upon me to-morrow.

Answered that I would come to dinner to-day. Walked over at five....

Company, only Capt. Basil Hall, Luttrel, and Nugent, and an _ad interim_ tutor of Kerry's.... Hall gave me, before I came away, a journal written by his sister, Lady De Lancey, containing an account of the death of her husband at Waterloo, and her attendance upon him there, they having been but three months married. Walked home; took the narrative to bed with me to read a page or two, but found it so deeply interesting, that I read till near two o'clock, and finished it; made myself quite miserable, and went to sleep, I believe, crying.

Hall said he would call upon me to-morrow."[28]

[Footnote 28: _Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore_, edited by Lord John Russell, vol. iv., p. 239.]

Earl Stanhope, in his _Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington_, p. 182, writes as follows: "I mentioned with much praise Lady De Lancey's narrative of her husband's lingering death and of her own trials and sufferings after Waterloo. The Duke told me that he had seen it--Lord Bathurst having lent it him many years ago." This conversation took place on the 12th October 1839.

The two most famous literary men to whom Captain Basil Hall lent the narrative, were, however, Sir Walter Scott and Charles d.i.c.kens.

Sir Walter Scott writes under date Abbotsford, 13th October 1825, that his publisher, Constable, thinks that the narrative "would add very great interest as an addition to the letters which I wrote from Paris soon after Waterloo, and certainly I would consider it as one of the most valuable and important doc.u.ments which could be published as ill.u.s.trative of the woes of war."[29]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF SIR WALTER SCOTT.]

"I never read anything which affected my own feelings more strongly, or which, I am sure, would have a deeper interest on [_sic_] those of the public....

"Perhaps it may be my own high admiration of the contents of this heartrending diary, which makes me suppose a possibility that after such a lapse of years, the publication may possibly (as that which cannot but do the highest honour to the memory of the amiable auth.o.r.ess) may [_sic_] not be judged altogether inadmissible....--Most truly yours,

"WALTER SCOTT."[30]

[Footnote 29: Perhaps the _Memoires de Madame la Marquise de Larochejaquelein_ of which four editions were published between 1814 and 1817--one of the n.o.blest and most touching of autobiographies--is the nearest parallel in literature to Lady De Lancey's narrative. The French Marchioness describes her experiences in Paris in 1789, and during the Insurrection of La Vendee in 1793.--ED.]

[Footnote 30: The complete letter will be found in Appendix A of this volume.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF CHARLES d.i.c.kENS.]

The following is a transcript of the most remarkable pa.s.sages in d.i.c.kens' letter:--

"DEVONSHIRE TERRACE,

_"Tuesday evening_, 16_th_ _March_ 1841.

"MY DEAR HALL, ...

"I have not had courage until last night to read Lady De Lancey's narrative, and, but for your letter, I should not have mastered it even then. One glance at it, when, through your kindness, it first arrived, had impressed me with a foreboding of its terrible truth, and I really have shrunk from it in pure lack of heart.