tions, but his hopes; for, indeed, the 12th had taught him that there might be even better soldiers than his favourite Algarvians. — In the world/' he added, " there are not such soldiers as the Portu- guese : an opinion which is every day gaining proselytes." This letter, however, dated on the 25th of July, bore evident marks of a depression of spirits. He had lately been treated somewhat harshly in a discussion, in which he had laboured to obtain justice for his men, who had not been duly served with their rations ; and he had just received the account of a failure in his endeavours to obtain some advantage for that brother whom he had induced to enter the army, and who had lost his right arm by a cannon shot at the battle of Salamanca. He showed himself greatly hurt at this, and concluded with saying, " Some persons suppose, from the cessation of firing, St. Sebastian has surrendered. If the siege continue, I shall endea- vour to obtain leave to visit the trenches. I never was in a finer humour to volunteer for a storming party, as, if I succeeded, I should perhaps be able to carry my brother's point ; and really, to carry it, I would give not only the chance of life, but perhaps life itself."
These and many other circumstances have made his death pe- culiarly affecting to his near connexions and friends. They would almost justify the idea that he had thrown away his life : but the fact does not warrant any such surmise. His corps had scarcely entered into action, on the 28th of July, 1813,* when a musket shot penetrated the back part of his head (or his temples, accord- ing to some accounts) and passed out at his eye, and he fell sense- less ; nor did he ever afterwards utter a word, or shew that he was sensible, though he lived till the 31st. By some strange chance, he was stated in the Gazette only simply as wounded ; so that his friends were tantalized for more than three weeks before they ob- tained certain accounts of his fate.
When to the above particulars is added that he was little more than thirty years of age when he died, it will not be thought exager- ation to say, that Colonel Le Mesurier was an officer of uncommon promise, and superior military talents and acquirements. His zeal for the service was unbounded ; there was no fatigue, or privation, or danger, to which he did not cheerfully submit. His attention to his men was unceasing. A strict disciplinarian, he felt himself bound, even on that account, to study particularly the interests and
- The battle of the Pyrenees, near Pampeiuiia, in which Soult was de-
feated with great loss, in his successive attempts to raise the siege of St- Sebastian and the blockade of Pampeluna.— En.
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