Part 8

Captain Winchenrode, Prince Ferdinand’s Prussian aide-de-camp, deposed that he was sent early in the morning with orders from the Prince to Lord George Sackville to march to the left with the cavalry, in order to sustain the infantry. At the end of the second line he saw Lord Granby, of whom he inquired where Lord George was, saying that he was going with orders to him. His lordship answered, “At the head of the first line,” where, accordingly, the deponent found him. He delivered to him the Prince’s orders, in French, and afterwards repeated them in French; upon which his lordship said he did not understand them, and asked him twice how it was to be done. The deponent then told him, in English, that he was to march to the left through a little wood (to which he pointed), after which he would come on a heath, where he was to form, and from thence he might see our infantry. After this, the deponent left him.

Being asked, at the desire of Lord George, whether it did not seem, by our dispositions, that the enemy’s cavalry were expected to have been on their flanks, and their infantry in their centre, he replied that he knew nothing of that, nor could pretend to form a judgment either of their dispositions or ours; all he knew was, that he was sent with orders to his lordship.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ligonier (brother of the famous General John Earl Ligonier) deposed that he carried orders from the Prince to Lord George, to march to the left with the cavalry, in order to sustain the infantry and to form a third line behind them on the plain. He delivered them accordingly to his lordship, and told him that he was to march to the left through the wood. Lord George asked him who was to be their guide, and if he would undertake to lead the line. He answered, that he could not promise, but would endeavour to do his best. His lordship then ordered swords to be drawn, and bid them march; and soon after came up Colonel Fitzroy, with orders from the Prince to march up immediately with the British cavalry. On which Lord George, turning to the deponent, said, “Sir, your orders disagree.” He replied, “Only in numbers, my lord, but their destination is the same; that is, to the left.” Soon after his lordship and Colonel Fitzroy rode away together.

Being asked, at Lord George’s desire, if he did not insist on his orders being obeyed, he answered, “Yes,” peremptorily.

Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzroy deposed that the reason of his being sent to Lord George was, that the Duke of Richmond had been reconnoitering, and having observed to the Prince that the enemy’s cavalry were in disorder, he said, “Voici le beau moment pour la cavalerie,” and bid the deponent go with orders to Lord George Sackville, to march up as fast as possible with the British cavalry. He delivered them, accordingly, when his lordship bid him repeat them, and speak slowly and distinctly. He did so, when his lordship told him that his orders disagreed with those just brought him by Colonel Ligonier, and added, that the Prince could never intend to break the line. He insisted on his having been exact in delivering the orders just as he received them. On which Lord George said he would go to the Prince himself, and away they went together. Being asked “What pace?” answered, “A half-gallop,” but that soon after they set out, Lord George, stopping to speak to Captain Smith, his aide-de-camp, the deponent then pushed on full gallop, and got to the Prince time enough to make his report before his lordship came up. When he told his highness that Lord George was coming himself, he expressed his surprise strongly, not by words, but actions. What passed between the Prince and Lord George, he did not hear. Being asked if he carried afterwards an order to Lord George Granby, he answered, yes, and the occasion of it was this: he was with the prince at Captain Philips’s battery, when his highness, seeing the enemy’s cavalry in great disorder, said that he thought our cavalry might, even then, be of service. On which the deponent asked if he should go and fetch them. His highness replied, “Yes, make haste, and deliver the order to Lord Granby, for I know he will obey me.” He went accordingly, and delivered the order, as directed, to Lord Granby, whose wing, he observed, was farther advanced than the other, which his lordship also mentioned to him. He asked the deponent why he did not deliver his orders to Lord George Sackville. He replied, that as Lord George had disobeyed a former order which he carried, he had now the Prince’s direction to deliver this order to him (Lord Granby)—upon which his lordship immediately put the second line in motion. Being asked, by Lord George, whether he had ever reconnoitered the wood, and whether it was close or open, he replied, that he looked at it as he passed through, and the part through which he went was very open; and, as to the breadth, two squadrons might march in front. Being asked whether, if our infantry had been broken by the enemy, the consequence would not have been very fatal, he replied, “Undoubtedly, as the action was on a plain, and there were no cavalry to cover them while they rallied.”

Lieut.-Colonel Sloper (of Bland’s Dragoons) deposed that on August 1, about four in the morning, Captain Pentz came to his tent, with orders from the Prince for the men to mount; he added, “In order for action.” The deponent himself went round the regiment, and found the men lying down in their tents, booted, and the horses saddled, as they had been ever since one o’clock, by an order issued the night before. In about half an hour after they were drawn out, Lord George Sackville came to the head of Bland’s, where the deponent was, and bid them march. They had not gone far before Captain Winchenrode, Prince Ferdinand’s aide-de-camp, came up and told his lordship, in French, that it was the Prince’s orders that he should march to the left and sustain the infantry on the plain. He repeated it in French. Lord George replied, “Mais comment, mais comment?” The captain then said, in English, waving his hand, that he was to march through those trees (that was his expression), on the left, and then he would come on a heath, where he would see our infantry and the enemy. Winchenrode then went away, and Lord George, saying that he could not understand the orders, the deponent said that it was clear to him that this was to be done by the left of the right wing of cavalry. For about a quarter of an hour after this he did not see his lordship, and they still remained where they were; till at last Lord George came up, and said to him, “Colonel, move your regiment.” He replied, “To the left, my lord?” His lordship answered, “No, straight forward.” Soon after Colonel Ligonier came to Lord George, with orders from the Prince to march immediately with the cavalry to sustain the infantry on the plain. (The deponent then desired to know if he must inform the court what he said to Colonel Ligonier, and being told, if it related to Lord George, he must, he then proceeded.) The deponent then said to Colonel Ligonier, “For God’s sake, sir, repeat your orders, that that man (meaning Lord George Sackville) may not pretend he does not understand them, for it is now near half an hour since we received orders to march, and yet we are still here. [He was sorry (he said) that his oath obliged him to mention what he also added.] For you see, sir, the condition he is in.” Colonel Fitzroy then came up, but what he said to Lord George he did not hear, only his lordship then, turning to Colonel Ligonier, said, “Sir, your orders are contradictory.” He replied, “In numbers only; not in destination.” Soon after his lordship and Colonel Fitzroy rode away together, and in about a quarter of an hour more the cavalry moved.

Being asked to explain what he meant by those words, “You see, sir, the condition he is in,” he replied, that his lordship seemed to him to be greatly alarmed; that when he gave him the orders to march the regiment, he was in the utmost confusion, as appeared by his ordering them to march straightforward, when the original orders were to go to the left; Colonel Ligonier’s orders were to go to the left; and when the cavalry did move, it moved to the left.

Prince Ferdinand’s Prussian aide-camp deposed that, on Lord George’s not bringing up the cavalry on Colonel Fitzroy’s order, the prince, being very impatient, directed him to go and hasten Lord George. That on his way, Colonel Fitzroy passed him at a distance, and soon after he saw his lordship coming himself. On which he hastened back to inform his highness that Lord George was coming to take his orders from his own mouth, rather than from him; but that before he could speak, the prince cried out, “What, will he not obey me?”

The Marquis of Granby (a celebrated commander, son of John, third Duke of Portland, and ancestor of the present duke) deposed to the same effect as Captain Winchenrode in regard to his seeing him both in going and returning from Lord George Sackville.

Lord George Sackville made an eloquent speech in his own behalf on the nature of the evidence that had been brought against him. The substance of the defence was as follows:—That orders were given the night before the battle for the troops to be in readiness at one the next morning; the horses of the cavalry to be then saddled, but not to strike tents or march till further orders; that these orders having been frequently given for a fortnight before, were not alone sufficient to apprise Lord George of an engagement next morning; that the first notice that Lord George, Lord Granby, and other general officers had of an attack was from the firing of cannon between five and six; that Lord George immediately rose, being waked by the sound, and rode from the village where he was quartered to the head of the cavalry, which was then mounted, and he was there before any other general officer of the division; that he marched them, although no orders to march had yet reached him, toward a windmill in front; that when he had advanced a considerable distance, he received an order to halt and wait till he should receive further orders; that while he remained on or near the ground, the artillery had also marched from its ground, though neither had received any orders; and Lord George, imagining that orders to the artillery had been forgotten in the hurry usual upon a surprise, he ordered it to advance in front, where it was of signal service. That Captain Winchenrode soon after brought him an order to form a line as a third line to support the infantry, and advance; that he said nothing about going to the left, between trees, or coming out upon a heath, nor told him where the infantry to be sustained were to be found, but only repeated his orders twice in French, which Lord George requested him to do, not from any difficulty he found in comprehending the general intention of them, but because they were at first expressed indistinctly through hurry. That Lord George supposing that to advance was to go forward, immediately began to execute these orders, by sending an officer to a Saxe Gotha regiment of foot that obstructed his way in front, to cause it to remove out of his way, thinking it better so to do than to cause our artillery, which obstructed the only other way he could have advanced, to halt, dispatching at the same time a second officer where the infantry he was to sustain was posted, and a third to reconnoitre the situation of the enemy. That while this was doing, Colonel Ligonier came up with an order to advance with the cavalry, in order to profit of a disorder which appeared in the cavalry of the enemy; and that neither did he mention, or at least was not heard to mention, any movement to the left. That the Saxe Gotha regiment being by this time removed from the front, Lord George, in obedience to the concurrent orders of Captain Winchenrode and Colonel Ligonier, as he understood them, and as they were understood by his witnesses, ordered the troops to advance straight forward. That this could not be more than eight minutes after he received the order that had been brought by Captain Winchenrode, because Captain Winchenrode, as he was riding back from Lord George, met Colonel Fitzroy riding to him very fast; and when Colonel Fitzroy arrived, the troops were in motion. That it appears from all the witnesses that they could not be put in motion in much less than eight minutes, as five minutes were given even by the witnesses for the prosecution for the Saxe Gotha regiment to remove out of the way. That almost immediately after the troops were in motion, Colonel Fitzroy came up and brought the first orders he heard for moving to the left, at the same time limiting the movement to the British cavalry. That then, being in doubt what to do, he halted; the order that arrived last, by Colonel Fitzroy, not superseding the former by Colonel Ligonier; as Lord George and those about him understood, both from Fitzroy and Ligonier, that they brought the same order, having received it at the same time, and brought it at different times by having taken different routes. That not being able to agree, each earnestly pressing the execution of his own orders, Lord George took the resolution to go to the prince, who was not far distant. That Colonel Ligonier went forward, and that as Lord George was riding on with Colonel Fitzroy, he perceived the wood on the left more open than he had thought it, which inclined him to think it possible the prince might have ordered him to the left; and Colonel Fitzroy still vehemently pressing the execution of the order he brought, he sent Captain Smith with orders for the British cavalry to move to the left; the motion to the left and the limitation of the movement to the British being connected in the same order, and both peculiar to that brought by Colonel Fitzroy. That by this means scarcely any delay was made, even by the difference of the orders brought by the two aides-de-camp, Captain Smith not having advanced above two hundred yards beyond the left of the British cavalry; the time, therefore, could only be what he took up in galloping twice that space. That this period included all the time in which Lord George is supposed to have disobeyed orders by an unnecessary delay.

Numerous witnesses were called in support of this statement—viz., Lieut.-Colonel Hotham, Captain Smith and Captain Lloyd, Lord George’s aides-de-camp, Lieut.-Colonel Preston of the Greys, Captain William, R.A., Captain McBean of the train, Captain Hugo, Lord George’s German aide-de-camp, Captain Brome, R.A., and the Rev. Mr. Hotham, chaplain to the staff. Their evidence bore out the defence, and among their testimony the most important was that of Lieut.-Colonel Hotham and Captain Smith.

Lieut.-Colonel Hotham deposed that the orders which he received on July 29, for generals to reconnoitre the overtures leading from the camp to the plains of Minden, and on the 31st, for the horses to be saddled, &c., at one the next morning, were communicated to, and obeyed by, his lordship, and that such orders as the last had been frequently issued during the fortnight before. Being asked (as were all the following witnesses) if he perceived any difference in Lord George’s looks or behaviour that day, from what was usual, he answered (as did the rest), “None in the least.”

Captain Smith deposed that he and Colonel Watson reconnoitered the overtures by his lordship’s orders, on the 30th; and that Lord George himself went as far as he could, consistent with his picquet-duty, being lieutenant-general of the day. That by orders from the prince, the cavalry were first formed into squadrons, and then into line. That while they were forming he was on a rising ground, from whence he observed, that by the time four or five squadrons were formed, Lord George marched them, which occasioned disorder in the rear, they not being able to keep up, which he went and informed his lordship of, who upon that made them halt; and he (the deponent) returned to his post. That soon after they moved again, when a Hanoverian officer, whom he knew, came up to him, and said that they marched so fast in front that they could not keep up, and that their horses would be blown, &c., which the deponent went again and told Lord George of, who then said that he would halt no more, but that he would march slow, and that then the rear, when it was formed, might soon overtake him, but desired them not to hurry. That the place where they were forming the line, he observed, was not wide enough, but riding forward, he observed that there was room enough a little farther, which he mentioned to his lordship, who then ordered them to move on, and the line was soon well formed. And that, as to alteration in his lordship’s looks or behaviour that day, he was sure there was none; and that he would have gone to death if it had been needful.

The court-martial pronounced the following sentence:

“This court, upon due consideration of the whole matter before them, is of opinion that Lord George Sackville is guilty of having disobeyed the orders of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, whom he was by his commission and instructions directed to obey, as commander-in-chief, according to the rules of war; and it is the farther opinion of the court, that the said Lord George Sackville is, and he is hereby adjudged, unfit to serve His Majesty in any military capacity whatever.”

This sentence George II. confirmed to its fullest extent, and caused it to be directed in the “Gazette,” “that the above sentence should be given out in public orders, so that officers being convinced that neither high birth nor great employments could shelter offences of such a nature; and that seeing they were subject to censures much worse than death, to a man who had any sense of honour, they might avoid the fatal consequence arising from disobedience of orders.”

Further, at a court at St. James’s, the 25th day of April, 1760, George II., in council, called for the council book, and ordered the name of Lord George Sackville to be struck out of the list of privy councillors.

Horace Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, dated 26th March, 1810, thus refers to the sentence and treatment of Lord George:—

“The history of Lord George Sackville, which has interested us so much and so long, is at last at an end—gently enough, considering who were his parties and what has been proved.... I think this is not the last we shall hear of him. Whatever were his deficiencies in the day of battle, he had at least showed no want of spirit, either on pushing on his trial or during it. His judgment in both was perhaps a little more equivocal. He had a formal message that he must abide the event whatever it should be. He accepted that issue, and during the course of the examination attacked judge, prosecutor, and evidence. Indeed, a man cannot be said to want spirit who could show so much in his circumstances.... But he is a peculiar man; and I repeat it, we have not heard the last of him. You will find that by _serving the king_ he understands in a very literal sense; and there is a young gentleman who, it is believed, intends these words shall _not_ have a more extensive one.”

Horace Walpole was a true prophet in his anticipations. Lord George outlived his disgrace, and rose to high position and power again. For some years subsequent to his trial he lived in obscurity, during which period a piece of good fortune happened to him. Lady Elizabeth Germain, a well-known personage in those days, and a correspondent of Dean Swift, the daughter of Charles, second Earl Berkeley, and widow of Sir John Germain, Bart., of Drayton, Northamptonshire, died in 1769, and left the property her husband left her to Lord George Sackville, who consequently assumed the surname of Germain. In a few years after that George III. restored him to favour and to his seat in the Privy Council, and he was, in Lord North’s Administration, appointed American Secretary of State, and, as such, strongly evinced his hostility to American independence. He held office from 1755 to 1782, when, on retiring, he was created in the latter year Baron Bolebrooke and Viscount Sackville. His promotion to the peerage caused a violent debate in the House of Lords on a motion of disapproval “of the introduction into the House of a person stigmatised in the orderly book of every regiment in the service.” The motion was rejected by a majority of sixty-five, and Viscount Sackville lived on peaceably, and died on the 26th May, 1785, at Stoneland Lodge, Sussex.

His lordship, it would appear, was an eloquent writer: the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1785, in commenting on his death, says:—

“The late Lord Sackville, who was a gentleman of extraordinary talent, wrote a beautiful eulogy on the late Princess of Orange, but which never graced the press. The genius, learning, and exalted virtue of the princess were the theme of his lordship’s all-powerful pen. The above noble lord and his illustrious relation, Lady Betty Germain, had the art of painting in words to a very eminent degree, and which afforded the finest ornaments in either poetry, history, or elocution. The very animated and beautiful imagery of Cicero, in which he paints the cruelty of Verres, is spoken of with rapture by her ladyship in some of her letters. It is in a letter to the above lady that Dean Swift styled Ireland ‘the Isle of Saints,’ from the many very pious and eminent men it produced; it was also, he said, the school of wisdom and the seat of knowledge.”

Lord Sackville’s honours were inherited by his eldest son Charles, second Viscount Sackville, who eventually became fifth and last Duke of Dorset. The only child and heiress of the first Viscount Sackville’s second son, George, is the present Mrs. Caroline Harriet Stafford, of Drayton House, county Northampton, a seat formerly the property of her grandfather, the Lord George of this narrative, whose representative this lady now is.

The dukedom of Dorset is extinct, but one of the baronies belonging to the family, that of Buckhurst, was, on the 27th of April, 1864, revived by new patent of creation in favour of Elizabeth, present Countess Delawarr, daughter and heiress of John Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, with limitations to her younger sons and their issue male. Thus, oddly, a descendant of the General Lord Delawarr who sat on the court-martial of Lord George Sackville, may be bearing a title which belonged to Lord George’s own ducal line.

THE DOCKYARD INCENDIARY, JACK THE PAINTER.