Part 1
# The Cavaliers of Fortune; Or, British Heroes in Foreign Wars ### By Grant, James
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THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE
Or
British Heroes in Foreign Wars
by
JAMES GRANT
Author of "The Romance of War"
London George Routledge and Sons The Broadway, Ludgate New York: 416 Broome Street
PREFACE.
The biographies or sketches which compose this volume are prepared from memoranda, the result of historical reading for my military romances.
The Memoir of Colonel John Cameron first appeared, with that of Count Lally, &c., in the _Dublin University Magazine_ for 1854; and though he cannot strictly be considered, a Soldier of Fortune, it is given here with the rest. It was carefully compiled from a mass of private papers and letters submitted to me by his brother, Sir Duncan Cameron, Bart.; from several letters written to me by his brother officers; the MSS. Records of the 92nd Highlanders; and--like the sketch of Count O'Connell--from information readily afforded to me by the authorities at the War-Office and Horse Guards.
In several instances, the brief _Biographie Universelle_, edited by Michaud, has been of service to me in fixing dates--especially in the account of the Lacys.
The Thirty Years' War, the Septennial War, and the War of the Spanish Succession formed an ample field of enterprise for those Scots and Irish who, having nothing better to do at home, sold their swords and their valour to the highest bidder; and who, having but little hope of attaining rank in the service of Britain, sought fortune, fame, and a new home in the camp of the stranger. Thus many of the military wanderers who form the subject of these detached Memoirs belonged to the Sister Isle.
The Irish troops in the service of France covered themselves with glory, as the Scots had done under Gustavus of Sweden; and by the Memoir of their last Colonel, Count O'Connell, it will be seen that they were faithful and true, as they had been valiant, to the end. They filled Europe with the fame of their exploits, and have left their bones on many a hard-fought battle-field; and, as their song has it,--
"They who survived fought and drank as of yore, But the land of their heart's hope they never saw more; For on far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade, Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the IRISH BRIGADE!"
Under the happier influences of the present time, our people are no longer forced to seek their bread in foreign camps. The restless military spirit which produced the Soldier of Fortune is now on the wane; yet it is impossible, without emotion, to look back on the exploits of those brave fellows who led the armies of Europe in so many "king-making victories," and won by their swords those honours which were denied them in the land of their forefathers.
26, _Danube Street_, Edinburgh, 1858.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
ARTHUR COUNT DE LALLY, General of the Troops of Louis XV. in India 1
COLONEL JOHN CAMERON, of the Gordon Highlanders, slain at Quatre Bras 44
ADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL GREIG, "Father of the Russian Navy" 85
ULYSSES COUNT BROWN, Marshal of the Armies of Maria Theresa 112
MARSHAL LACY, the Conqueror of the Crimea 142
COUNT LACY, Marshal of the Imperial Armies 164
COUNT LACY, Captain General of Catalonia 168
LOUIS LACY, Mariscal de Campo and Commander of Leon 169
COLONEL BUTLER, of the Irish Musketeers under the Emperor Ferdinand 178
MARSHAL CLARKE, Duc de Feltre, and Governor of Vienna 192
GENERAL KILMAINE, Commander of Lombardy, and the Armee d'Angleterre 213
COUNTS O'REILLY, O'DONNEL, and the Irish in Spain 233
BARON LOUDON, Marshal of the Austrian Army 263
COUNT O'REILLY, Chamberlain of the Empire 292
COUNT O'CONNELL, Knight of St. Louis, and Colonel of the Irish Brigade 298
MARSHAL MACDONALD, Duke of Tarentum 308
THOMAS DALYELL, of Binns, General of the Scottish Army, and First Colonel of the Scots Grey Dragoons 356
THE
CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE.
LIFE OF THE COUNT DE LALLY,
GENERAL OF THE TROOPS OF LOUIS XV. IN THE EAST INDIES.
Among the many gallant Irishmen, and those descended from the Irish race, who served in the armies of France, and sought there those honours and distinctions which political misfortune and studied misrule denied them at home, I know of none more distinguished, and of none whose name is more worthy of being rescued from oblivion, than General the Count de Lally, the ill-requited leader of the troops of Louis XV. in the wars of India.
Arthur Lally was the son of Captain O'Lally, of Tulloch na Daly, in Galway, who passed over to France soon after Limerick capitulated to Goderdt de Ginckel, the Dutch Earl of Athlone, and at the close of that disastrous war in which the Irish troops withstood the army of King William. Captain Lally obtained a commission in the regiment of the Hon. Arthur Dillon, the same battalion in which the great Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, commenced his military career as a sub-lieutenant.
Soon after he settled in France, Captain Lally married a French lady of distinction. They had two children, the eldest of whom, Arthur, was soon after his birth enrolled--according to a custom then prevailing in the French army--as a private soldier in the company of his father. In this capacity he served at the famous siege of Barcelona under the Marechal Duke of Berwick in 1714. His father being an officer of distinguished merit, and his mother being by blood allied to some of the most noble families in France, afforded young Daily every opportunity for the improvement of his mind and person; thus at the age of nineteen he was considered one of the handsomest and most accomplished chevaliers in Paris.
Without having seen much active service, he had then been appointed to a company in that gallant band of exiles whose valour contributed to win many a victory for the House of Bourbon--the _Irish Brigade_. His regiment--every member of which knew his father's worth and merit--received him with satisfaction, and his _reception_ took place early in 1718.
In the old French service this was an indispensable ceremony when an officer first joined. His company was drawn up in front of the regiment, with the drummers beating on the flanks. Dressed in full uniform, with his scarf, sword, and gorget, Arthur Lally was led forward by the general of division, who, when the drums ceased, raised his cocked hat, and said:--
"De par le Roi! Soldats, vous reconnoitrez Monsieur de Daily, votre capitaine de la compagnie, et vous lui obeirez en tout ce qu'il vous ordonnera pour le service du Roi, en cette qualite."
Another ruffle on the drums, the company fell back to its place in the line of the regiment of Dillon, and Arthur Dally was formally installed its captain.
Though he was known by his education and spirit to have possessed all those qualities which were requisite for the perfect soldier, uniting a clear head and solid judgment to a light and joyous, but intrepid heart, he was found to be equally qualified for the civil service of the State; thus at the age of five-and-twenty he was sent by Louis XV. to the court of Russia on a political mission of importance. On this duty he acquitted himself ably, his fidelity on one hand securing the confidence of the king his master, by his address and winning manner; on the other, obtaining the esteem and admiration of the Empress Catherine, whose husband, Peter the Great, had died about a year before. On his return to France in 1725 he proceeded to Versailles, where Louis XV., who had then attained his majority, and taken the reins of government from the Regent Duke of Orleans, received him in the most gracious manner, and promoted him to the rank of colonel of infantry; and at the head of his regiment he had the good fortune to acquit himself with distinction wherever he was employed.
He stood high in the favour of the two ministers who succeeded the Duke of Orleans, namely, the Duke de Bourbon and Cardinal Fleury, then in his seventy-third year, a mild and amiable prelate, under whose moderate and conciliatory counsels France enjoyed many years of peace and tranquillity. During service in France, Lally, though somewhat proud and lofty in his manner, succeeded in gaining the esteem and affection of the officers of his regiment, among whom--even in those days of incessant duelling--he was fortunately successful in maintaining the most perfect union and harmony, while by his unalterable firmness subordination was equally maintained.
Thus had passed the time until 1745, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart projected his gallant and unfortunate rising among the clans in the Scottish Highlands. Entering warmly into the design of restoring the hapless House of Stuart, under which his father had served long and faithfully, and with whom he had eaten the bread of exile, Colonel Lally came boldly over to London. While his ostensible object was to recover certain lands in Ireland, to which he averred his father had a claim, his real errand was to serve the young Prince of Scotland, to animate his friends, to excite the malcontents, to promise money, titles, and prepare the Jacobites of South Britain for the tempest that was gathering among the mountains of the north. By his boldness and determination Lally met with the utmost success in London; but being somewhat unwary, his plans and presence were discovered and revealed by a spy to the Duke of Cumberland, who procured immediate orders for his arrest.
Fortunately, however, Lally escaped those shambles to which "the butcher" of the clans had doomed him, and escaping to France about the time Culloden was fought, resumed the command of his regiment.
A war was then waging between France and Britain, and the fleets of the latter had swept those of the former from the ocean. Admiral Hawke had destroyed the French fleet at Belleisle, and in that year upwards of six hundred prizes were taken by our cruisers.
Though the French armies performed some brilliant actions in the Netherlands, where the Marshal-General, Maurice Count de Saxe, defeated and covered with disgrace the troops of the Duke of Cumberland, Louis XV. was compelled by naval disasters, and the internal distresses of France, to conclude a peace, a congress for which met at Aix-la-Chapelle in April, 1748; and the definitive treaty was signed in the following October.
During this period, and until his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief in the East Indies, the life of Lally--who had now been created a peer of France--does not present any circumstance or incident worthy of attention. In 1749 he married.
In 1750 a dispute pregnant with hostility ensued between France and Britain respecting their mutual claims in North America; various circumstances which occurred in the East Indies about the same time confirmed the idea that the short peace concluded in 1748 was about to end. Each country prepared for war; but though many unfriendly acts were committed, and bitter recriminations exchanged between the Courts of London and Versailles, until Britain was threatened with invasion, as a curb on her aggressive spirit, hostilities were not formally denounced until the month of June, 1756. The declaration made by George II. was mild and moderate in tenor and language, but the declaration promulgated by Louis XV. was full of severity and opprobrium. Prussia became the ally of the former; Sweden and Russia joined the latter. In distant regions as well as at home the sanguinary struggle was maintained, and in America France was stripped of all her possessions by the army of the heroic Wolfe.
Immediately after the declaration of war, in the month of August, 1756, the Count de Lally, as Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief of all his Most Christian Majesty's forces in India, was appointed to conduct an expedition destined for those burning shores, so far distant, and even at that period comparatively so little known to Europeans.
In support of this expedition the Court had destined six millions of livres, six strong battalions of infantry, and three ships of war, which were to co-operate with such an armament as the French India Company could furnish; but the whole of the troops did not embark.
On the 20th February, 1757, the Count de Lally, accompanied by his brother Michael, marched to Brest at the head of two battalions; and though having only two millions of livres in the military chest, embarked on board the ships of the Count d'Ache, who immediately put to sea; but being driven into port again by contrary winds, the squadron was detained until the 2nd of May.
Meanwhile, Major-General the Chevalier des Soupirs, Lally's second in command, had already reached the Indian Ocean, having departed from L'Orient, the principal port of the India Company, on the 30th of the preceding December, with two battalions and two millions of livres, with which he touched at the Isle of France, without accident.
The general had very ample and important instructions given to him by the India Company. Some of these were to the following effect:--
"The Sieur de Lally is authorized to destroy the fortifications of all maritime settlements which may be taken from the English; it may, however, be proper to except Vizagapatam, by reason of its being so nearly situated to Bemelipatana, which in that case would be enriched by the ruin of Vizagapatam; but as to that, and the demolition of all other places, the Sieur de Lally is to consult the Governor and Superior Council of Pondicherry, and to have their opinion in writing; but, notwithstanding, he is to destroy such places as he shall think proper, unless strong and sufficient arguments are made use of to the contrary; such, for example, as the Company being apprehensive for some of their settlements, and that it would then be thought prudent and necessary to reserve the power of exchange in case any of them should be lost. Nevertheless, if the Sieur de Lally should think it too hazardous to keep a place, or could not do so without dividing or weakening his army, then his Majesty leaves him to act as he may deem proper for the good of the service.
"The Sieur de Lally is to allow of no English settlement being ransomed, as we may well remember that, after the taking of Madras last war, the English Company in their Council of the 14th of July, 1747, determined that all ransoms made in India should be annulled. In regard to the English troops, both officers and writers belonging to the Company, and to the inhabitants of that nation, the Sieur de Lally is to permit none of them to remain on the coast of Coromandel; he may, if he pleases, permit the inhabitants to go to England, and order them to be conducted in armed vessels to St. Helena. But as to the officers, soldiers, writers, and sailors belonging to the East India Company, he is to conduct them as soon as possible to the Isle de Bourbon, where the soldiers and sailors will be permitted to work for the inhabitants of that place, according to mutual agreement. It is by no means his Majesty's intention that the English officers, soldiers, and sailors should be ransomed, as none are to be delivered up but by exchange, man for man, according to their different ranks and stations.
"If the exchange of prisoners should by chance be settled at home between the two nations, of which proper notice will be given to the Sieur de Lally, and that the islands of France and Bourbon should have more prisoners than it would be convenient to provide for, in that case it will be permitted to send a certain number to England, in a vessel armed for the purpose. No English officers, soldiers, &c., are to be permitted to remain in a place after it is taken; neither are they to retire to any other of their settlements.
"The Sieur de Lally is not in the least to deviate from the above instructions and regulations, unless there shall be a stipulation to the contrary; in which case the Sieur de Lally is faithfully and honestly to adhere to the capitulation.
"The whole of what has been said before concerns only natives of England; but as they have in their settlements merchants from all nations, such as Moors, Armenians, Jews, Pattaners, &c., the Sieur de Lally is ordered to treat them with humanity, and endeavour by fair means to engage them to retire to Pondicherry, or any other of the Company's acquisitions, assuring them at the same time that they will be protected, and that the same liberty and privileges which they before possessed among the English will be granted them.
"Among the recruits furnished to complete the regiments of Lorrain and Berry, there are three hundred men from Fisher's corps, lately raised, and as it is feared there will be considerable desertions among these new recruits, the Sieur de Lally may, if he pleases, leave them on the Isle de France, and replace them from the troops of that island."[1]
Before leaving France, Lally had placed his son, Trophine Gerard, who had been born at Paris on the 5th March, 1751, at the College of Harcourt, intending that he should ultimately follow the profession of arms.
Though impetuous and at times apt to be somewhat overbearing, Lally was eminently fitted for command. He possessed secrecy, with a ready facility for quick and judicious decision. His talent was evinced by the manner in which he established magazines, extended his posts and defences, and made himself acquainted with the character and features of the country which was to be the scene of his future operations. His lofty demeanour, talent, tact, and bravery inspired his troops with confidence and an assurance of conquest. If Lally was fond of glory, he was also fond of flattery; and though a strict disciplinarian, he was somewhat too partial, perhaps, to levying contribution on the conquered provinces; but while his enemies in after years averred that he was grasping, they never denied that he was lavish and liberal when the king's service required him by spies to obtain intelligence of the strength and designs of the enemy.
The Count d'Ache, Chef d'Escadre, encountered such adverse winds that he was nearly twelve months on his voyage; thus the Chevalier des Soupirs, having wearied of waiting at the Mauritius, sailed towards the coast of Hindostan, and reaching Pondicherry (or _Puducheri_), disembarked his troops.
This town was the capital of the French settlements in India, being restored to them by the Dutch after the Treaty of Ryswick. It occupied a good position in the rich, fertile, and populous Carnatic, a country studded by an incredible number of forts and strongholds. Their erection was an indispensable necessity in a level district full of open towns, subject to the sudden attacks of hordes of native cavalry. The sovereigns of the Carnatic must have possessed at one period immense wealth and power, for the number and magnitude of their pagodas, and the indications that remain of ancient riches, grandeur, population, industry and art, impress the mind with wonder.
At this crisis the funds and forces of the British in that part of India were so small, that they could scarcely bring one hundred soldiers into the field. Madras, one of their principal places, sixty-three miles distant, was an open town; Fort St. David was in ruins, with a garrison of only sixty invalids. A fortnight would have enabled the Chevalier, with his 2000 men, to reduce the whole coast of Coromandel; but M. des Soupirs was quite unskilled in the art of carrying on war in a country so new to him, and remained inactive, though the French had many losses to repair, having been recently driven from all their wealthy settlements in Bengal by the victorious English.
Eight months after his arrival, on the 25th April, 1758, the Chef d'Escadre anchored in the roadstead before the sandy plain occupied by Pondicherry, and Lally disembarking his troops and treasure, marched into the town, the governor of which, M. de Leyrit, received him with a salute of cannon. At the peace of Amiens, the French population of Pondicherry amounted to 25,000, exclusive of the blacks, who were treble that number. Its revenue was then 40,000 pagodas; but it was a place destitute of natural advantages, its vicinity producing only palm-trees, millet, and a few herbs.
Weary of his long voyage, and anxious to fulfil his orders, which comprehended the total destruction of every British fortification that fell into his power, the ardent and gallant Lally lost not an hour in preparing for active operations. Next day, the 26th, he returned on board to sail for Cudalore, and in one hour after a powerful British fleet assailed the ships of Count d'Ache in the roadstead, where a French 74-gun ship was taken; but the rest fought a passage to the seaward, and favoured by the wind, and by superior sailing, anchored off Cudalore, a town situated fifteen miles from Pondicherry, on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal.
This little town, which occupies the banks of the Pennar, had been obtained by the English East India Company from the Rajah of Gingee, so early as 1681, for the site of a factory, and had been fortified. Its garrison consisted only of ten invalids; but being assisted by the inhabitants, these brave fellows made so stout a resistance, that Lally was occupied three days in taking it. From thence he marched to Fort St. David, a settlement on the Carnatic coast, obtained by the English from a Mahratta rajah in 1691, and besieging it, after being seventeen days in open trenches, exposed to the broiling sun by noon and the baleful dews by night, gained it by capitulation on the 2nd of June, and levelled all its fortifications to the ground.
On the 10th he marched back to Pondicherry, and having resolved to assail Madras, despatched an officer in a small vessel to his naval Chef d'Escadre, with instructions to return and co-operate with him. But Admiral Pocock, who commanded the British squadron in those seas, had defeated M. d'Ache in two engagements, and by driving him sixty miles to the windward, had nearly cut off all communication between him and the army. And now the governor of Pondicherry announced that the town and its vicinity could not subsist Lally's 4000 Frenchmen for more than fifteen days. On this he was compelled to march into the little kingdom of Tanjore (or Tanjowar), which lay one hundred and fifty miles southward, and there quarter his troops during the stormy and rainy season, while the naval squadron took refuge in port. The advance into Tanjowar was not made without a due pretence of wrong to adjust, for the rajah had refused to pay a government debt, which M. de Leyrit assured Count Lally to be more than due.
The discharge of five pieces of cannon against his little capital compelled the rajah to pay down treasure to the amount of 440,000 livres, and afford free-quarters to the French troops for two months, until tidings arrived that 800 British were marching against Pondicherry; upon which Lally immediately abandoned Tanjowar, and advanced to the relief of the Chevalier des Soupirs, who with a slender force was timidly preparing to evacuate the capital of French India.