part of their General what we cannot account for on the idea of the extremely superior valour or discipline claimed for the French soldiers by their country.  The snow seems to have become serious on the 6th November, when Napoleon was within two marches of Smolensk, which he soon after reached, and by that time it appears to me that his army was already mouldered away from 100,000 men who left Moscow, to about 35,000 only, so that his great loss was incurred before the snow began.

“I am afraid your Grace has done me an unparalleled injury in one respect, that the clearness, justice, and precision of your Grace’s reasoning puts me out of all patience with my own attempts.  I dare hardly hope in this increase of business for a note or two on Waterloo; but if your Grace had any, however hasty, which could be copied by a secretary, the debt would be never to be forgotten.

“I am going to mention a circumstance, which I do with great apprehension, lest I should be thought to intrude upon your Grace’s goodness.  It respects a youth, the son of one of my most intimate friends, a gentleman of good family and fortune, who is extremely desirous of being admitted a cadet of artillery.  His father is the best draughtsman in Scotland, and the lad himself shows a great deal of talent both in science and the ordinary branches of learning.  I enclose a note of the youth’s age, studies, and progress, in case your Grace might think it possible to place on your list for the Engineer service the name of a poor Scots Hidalgo; your Grace knows Scotland is a breeding not a feeding country, and we must send our sons abroad, as we send our black cattle to England; and, as old Lady Campbell of Ardkinglas proposed to dispose of her nine sons, we have a strong tendency to put our young folks ‘a’ to the sword.’

“I have too long detained you, my Lord Duke, from the many high occupations which have been redoubled upon your Grace’s head, and beg your Grace to believe me, with an unusually deep sense of respect and obligation, my dear Lord Duke, your Grace’s much honoured and grateful, humble servant, WALTER SCOTT.”—­Wellington’s Despatches, etc.  (Continuation), vol. iii. pp. 590-1.  London, 8vo, 1868.

[474] Smollett’s Peregrine Pickle, VOL. i. cap. 13.

[475] One page of his MS. answers to four or five of the close printed pages of the original edition of his Bonaparte.—­J.G.L.

[476] Lord Cockburn says:—­“Scott’s description of the woman is very correct; she was like a vindictive masculine witch.  I remember him sitting within the bar looking at her.  As we were moving out, Sir Walter’s remark upon the acquittal was, ’Well, sirs, all I can say is that if that woman was my wife I should take good care to be my own cook.’”—­Circuit Journeys, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1888, p. 12.

[477] This can scarcely be taken to refer to Brougham, though at the time

  “Canning calls Brougham his Learned Friend. 
  ’My honours come and share ’em. 
  Reformers their assistance give
  To countenance old Sarum.”