WORDS ON WELLINGTON.*

Sin WILLIAM FRASER has published a little volume under this title, not only to relieve his mind and gratify his warm feelings, but to emphasise his great discovery of " the Waterloo. Ball-Room." It is a harmless amusement ; but the product,

omitting the pages relating to the ball-room, has no novelty

except in so far as it exhibits the amiable though somewhat credulous-qualities of Sir William Fraser, whose personality, far more than the Duke's, pervades the book: There is no attempt at continuity, hardly any trace of a plan, and only

just that amount of order which could not well be avoided.

The groups of sentences, sometimes single sentences, begin with immense capitals, and in that respect the volume is a. typographical curiosity. Sir William, doubtless with the best intentions, has artlessly poured out his commonplace-book : the reader is hurried, by leaps and bounds, abruptly from one bit of gossip to another, and the effect is extremely comical.

The " items," which succeed each other without any visible connection, are for the most part repetitions or innocent prattle about things having no permanent interest ; but we see plainly enough that they are very important to the good- natured soul who has felt it necessary to print them, and although we cannot admire his book, we can and do appreciate his motive and his simplicity.

But surely he is a little too credulous P Take, for example, the following amazing paragraph, which we print as we find it:— "SOON AFTER HIS FIRST BATTLE, the great Victory of Assaye, in which with three thousand British, and some black troops [sic] the Duke routed over thirty thousand Mahrattas, the best troops in India, he was taken to visit a female Magician, famous throughout Hindostan. This person presented him with a sword, traditionally believed to have belonged to Genghiz Khan, the conqueror of India. The Prophetess told him at the same time, that he would be the Conqueror of the World."

Did any one ever hear the like ? Or what can we make of another paragraph, which is equally astounding and equally significant of Sir William's primitive frame of mind ? We omit the capitals this time :—

" I have always had a fixed opinion as regards the death of Desaix • and have little doubt by whose hand he fell. The death_ of Pichgru, murdered in prison ; and of the Due d'Enghien in the ditch of Vincennes, the same man being close at hand in each case, confirm my theory."

This is really too perplexing. Does Sir William refer to

who was more or less deeply concerned in the fate of Pichegra and D'Enghien, but who could hardly have fired the shot which struck down Desaix ? Such a fine instance of pre- ternatural suspicion is rare. Savary has enough to answer for without imputing to him the death of his friend. Sir William is also not sure that Ney was shot to death,—he has a " linger- ing doubt," based on a cock-and-bull story from America, and even suggests that the Duke knew Ney was safe, and, " as a matter of honour," carried the secret to the grave with him. To such lengths is he led by hero-worship and a love of the marvellous. But he tells all these stories in pure good faith.

Here is another example :-

" The second Duke said to me, when riding in Hyde Park,' You told me some years ago that when Napoleon heard of my father's first victory at Assaye, he said, "That is the man with whom I shall have to deal."' I replied that I could not tell him : but that I was quite sure that I had heard it on some very good authority."

It is a most unlikely thing for Napoleon to say, but not for some one to put in his mouth after the two warriors had met. in Belgium. Napoleon only knew in part what Wellington was from the Peninsular campaigns, and he did at one moment

think of taking the field in person, in order to drive him into the sea. But when the news of Assaye reached him, Welling- ton was to him only the name of a Sepoy General. It would be interesting to learn the authority on which Sir William bases, quite unintentionally, an imputation on the military character of the Duke. He says that, on the daybefore Orthez was fought, the Duke, desiring to save the bridge over the

• Words on Wellington. The Duke—Waterloo—The Bait. By Sir William Fraser, Bart. London: John C. Nimmo. Gave de Pau, wrote to Soult promising not to send troops across it, providing the Marshal would abstain from blowing it up ! The fact is that the bridge was strongly defended by the French, and, says Napier, "could not be easily forced because of a tower in. the centre, the gateway of which was built up." Soult had mined the arch in front of the tower, but " the ancient masonry," the historian tells us, had " resisted his mines." In any case, Hill did not try to take it, but ascended the river and crossed above. Respecting this fight at Orthez, Sir William tells one good story, which is enshrined in a letter sent to him by a clergyman It was from a Madame Bergeran, the landlady of " La Belle Hotesse," and dated " Orthez, le 6 Novembre, 1860." She said in it, writes Sir William :— " 'Wellington arrived at my inn on the 27th of February, 1814 (the day of the battle of Orthez), at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, eztenud de fatigue, et mort de faim. The Duke, with charming politeness, but absolute insistence, demanded food. I had nothing and told him so. He replied, "On the contrary, you have truffles; smell for yourself." I failed to smell any; the Duke, however, whose nose was sharper in every sense than mine, declared that he could not be mistaken : he triumphed ; and a mass of truffles was found of which I knew nothing. More than this ; pursuing his investigations, the Great Hero discovered, in a cupboard, a fine cooked turkey: it had been sent to a solicitor of Orthez, from Toulouse, as an annual present at Carnival time : the solicitor refusing to pay the carriage, the turkey had been lodged in my hotel, as the bureau of the diligence.' Madame Bergerau was a humourist. She adds : I have said that the Duke's nose was sharper than mine ; the weight of seventy years has not failed to sit upon my nose, as upon.other things, it s'affaisse, et s'elargit sous leur foils.' "

It is at least a pleasant story, and Sir William adds in his jog-trot versified dialogue with the landlady :—

" Nay, more than this, Madam, I know :

The day he crushed his country's foe, When hot from Toulouse fight He bought for you a grey silk dress, Which now your daughter does possess,

And sent it the same night."

As to the discovery of the ball-room at Brussels, which interests so many curious people, besides those whose ancestors danced therein, we can only say that the energetic inquirer seems to have made out his case, and to have lighted on the large warehouse wherein the Duchess of Richmond gave that entertainment. But we care little about it. The fact of the ball is picturesque enough, mainly because it occurred on the eve of the stiff battles which terminated the career of Napoleon, and because it forms such a contrast to the tragedies of the succeeding days. Those who differ from us will find all the important letters and statements on the subject at the end of Sir William's heterogeneous collection of Words on Wellington.