25 MARCH 1922, Page 15

MARLBOROUGH AND TOLLEMACHE.

[To TaR.Earrcut. or TIM " Sezersroa."/

Snt,—In reference to the letter under the above heading, which appeared in your issue of March 11th, I may mention that in the church at Helmingham, Suffolk, there is a monument to General Tollemache, who led the expedition against Brest and was killed during the attack. I remember many years ago my father saying that the Duc d'Aumale, when on a visit to Helmingham, particularly asked to be shown the monument, which he had already heard of. After reading the inscription, which alludes to the betrayal, he told my father that he had seen the Duke of Marlborough's original letter amongst the archives in Paris, warning the French that an attack on Brest was about to take place. The result of Marlborough's infor- mation was the failure of the expedition and the loss of about 800 British soldiers (including Tollemache himself), who were killed during the attack. The betrayal was evidently known in the time of Macaulay and Thackeray, as they both allude to the