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    Talavera . Strait , as soon as he had heard of this disa strous check to the French arms , managed , by a series of rap id movements , to join Ney and Mortier , and the combined masses of French troops forced Wellington to retire back upon Portugal . The pursuit not being urged beyond the confines of Spain , the French , divisions separated , and Soult overran Andalusia . He took Seville , but failed before Cadiz . About this time it was that the Marshal issued an ill-judged proclamation against the patriotic Spaniards , menacing them with the fate of murderers if taken in arms . A British counter-announcement warned the troops of his " Catholic Majesty , Joseph Kapoleon , " that for every Spaniard shot in cold Wood , the next three Frenchmen captured should be hanged—a species of reprisal which effectually cowed Sbult ' s rash resolve . This is one of the passages in the Marshal ' s life

    which substantiate , to some extent , the charges of unscrupulous cruelty so often made against him . The fact was that , like most of his military compeers , he was careless of life , and thought little of the means , provided he could gain his ends . The stationing only of Spanish troops in the important key fortress of Badajoz it was which probably prompted Soult ' s next movement against it . The attack was triumphantly successful . The Spaniards made no effectual resistance , and after leaving a garlison in the fort , the Marshal retired towards Andalusia . But the important post of Badajoz was destined to be speedily recovered . Marshal Beresford was advancing towards it , and Soult , when he heard the news , hastened to meet him . The English Marshal duly invested the fort , but his operations were protracted by floods in the Guadiana .

    On the approach of Soult , the whole of the allied forces were prepared by their commander to meet him , and the desperate and most important battle of Albuera took place . The details form some of the most vivid chapters of Napier ' s Htitory of the Peninsular War . The French lost 8000 men—the allies 7000 , of whom 4300 were British , and the number of wounded , from the extent of hand to hand fighting , was excessive . Soult lost Albuera , and retreated from Badajoz . Beresford gallantly followed him , hut the junction between Soult and Marmont caused the allies again to give ground . But at this moment King Joseph , suspicious of Soult , wrote a querulous letter to Napoleon , complaining of the Marshal ' s ambition . Napoleon replied by recalling Soult , it is true ; but also by naming him one of the Generals of the Imperial Guard .

    The withdrawal of Soult from Spain virtually caused its loss to the French . The Marshal played an heroic part at the field of Bautzen , and again at Dresden ; but south of the Pyrenees Wellington was advancing with rapid strides , and when at length the news of Vittoria reached the Emperor , Soult was the only one of his marshals whom he believed he could pit against Wellington , and accordingly Soult flew to Spain , and assumed the command . But the game was all against him . He knew it to be hopeless—the enemy triumphant , flushed with a series of wellearned victories , the country dispirited , or inimical , and his own army beginning to doubt if the Emperor the

    always won . Yet , upon taking the command of army in July , 1813 , - aB the " lieutenant" of the Emperor , his proclamation to the troops breathed the haughtiest confidence in his cause , and inhis chancesdeclaring , as it did , that if the Feench had been well commanded at Vittoria , they would have beaten the English . Soult found his troops in the Pyrenees , not far from Bayonne . For two successive days he obstinately defended the entrenched camp ; but on Wellington manoeuvring to turn his flank , he continued the retreat . Soult ' s resistance , while threading the file of the Pyrenees , was desperate . He was continually turning to buy , and once succeeded in materially checking his pursuers , while on another occasion ho was all but taken prisoner . At length the

    British forces entered v Franco . The Bidassoa was passed , Soult ' s position on the Nive carried , and the allies became an army of invasion . Still Soult fought every step of ground with the desperation of despair . The battle of Orthez ensued , and u victory was won by Wellington inferior , in moral effect to none of his greatest triumphs . Boresford aind Pic ton Were his worthy subordinates , and the French were rapidly driven towards Toulouse , where was fought the last and crowning action of the long Peninsular war , a battle claimed by both sides , and in which it is not to be denied that on both Hides were displayed consummate military skill and the most determined and stubborn bravery . But the French had the wornt of it . On the announcement

    <> i the event , at Paris , be signed a HUflpension of arms , and adhered to the . reiistablishmont of Louis XVIII ., who presented him with tho Croan of St . Louis , and called him to the command of the Thirteenth military division , and then to the Ministry of War ( December ;} , 1814 ) . On March 8 , learning the landing from Elba , he published the order of the day which is ho w » -ll known , and in which Napoleon ih treated more than severely . On March 11 , he resigned hi » portfolio an Minister of War , and declared for the Emperor , who , passing over the famous proclamation , raised him to the dignity of Peer of France , and

    Major-general of the Army . After Waterloo , where he fought most energetically , the Marshal took refuge at Malzieu ( Lozere ) , with General Brun de Villeret , his former aide-de-camp . Being set down on the list of the proscribed , he withdrew to Dusseldorf , on the banks of the Rhine , until 1819 , when a Royal ordinance allowed him to return to France . He then went to live with his family at St . Amand , his native place , and on his reiterated representations

    his marshal ' s baton , which had been withdrawn from him , was restored . Charles X . treated Marshal Soult with favour , creating him knight of his orders , and afterwards making him Peer of France . After the revolution of July , 1830 , the declaration of the Chamber of Deputies of August 9 , excluded him from that rank ; but he was restored to it four days later by a special nomination of Louis Philippe , who soon after appointed him Minister of War .

    In 1837 her Majesty ascended to the throne , and in 1838 she was crowned . On that auspicious occasion Soult visited , as may be conceived for the first time , the shores , of which , from the heights of Boulogne , he had anticipated the conquest . Soult ' s visit was gracefully made , gracefully timed , and gracefully received .- He had long outlived the mere glitter of military glory . The statesmanlike and purely intellectual and moral powers of his mind had achieved a perfect triumph over the habits and associations of his early life , and he came amongst us cordially and trustfully as a generous and chivalric enemy converted into a wise and true friend . The occasion , too , "was a grand one . The old foe of Wellington arrived as Ambassador Extraordinary from Louis Philippe , to represent France at the great

    ceremonial in Westminster Abbey . He was received with a degree of popular enthusiasm which deeply gratified the veteran , and greatly astonished his friends at home , who ingeniously made it out that the reception was the result , not of a generous feeling in favour of an old and gallant enemy , but a demonstration against the Government . Soult , however , understood and appreciated the impulse . First and foremost he was feted by the Duke of Wellington ; and the two aged heroes were received with unbounded acclamation on their public appearance together . Soult , indeed , became highly popular , and his splendid carriage was constantly attended by a cheering mob . Nor did the higher ranks of society remain behindhand in the general manifestation , The Duke of Dalmatia became the lion of a brilliant season , and achieved the

    comble of his popularity at a grand banquet given by the Corporation of London in Guildhall . Upon that occasion the healths of the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Soult were proposed together . The Duke , in replying , expressed his delight that so great and illustrious a man as the Marshal had been received in this country with the honours which were so much his due ; and the Duke of Dalmatia , amid profound silence , made a short acknowledgment . He said the expressions of the illustrious Duke had entered into his very heart . Never was there a nobler-minded or more

    honourable man . The French nation had learned to appreciate the worth of the English army . But he hoped that there would be no further appeal to arms between the two peoples , but that the future would be distinguished by ( laying great emphasis on the words ) " une alliance perpetuelle . " Before his departure from England , the Ambassador Extraordinary paid a visit to the manufacturing districts , and the head-quarters of the iron and cotton trades . He was everywhere received with a reflex of his London popularity ; and altogether , his visit must be described as a rare instance of tho outbreak of generous and noble national sympathies . Soult spent his latter days at his chateau in the land of his birth . The revolution of 1848 found him

    superannuated . He lived privately , took no part in politics , and died on the 26 th ultimo , at the great age of eighty-two .

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    " FAST" LII'K IN TIIK ARMY . To understand aright the cant' of " Regina v . Allcyne and others , " which was tried the other day at the Queen ' s Bench , we miiHt connect it with a former trial , which took place on the 25 ) th of October last , at the Ccutrul Crimiaul Court . In the Old IJailey case a certain Ignatius Francis Coyle , who had been mixed up in tho ilunning -Rein affair , wuh indicted for forcing an acceptance for £ 11 / 50 , with intent to defraud Lord Clifden . This nobleman was not , however , the real prosecutor . Tin ; fraud had been committed upon a certain Captain Alexander M'Geachy Alleyne , formerly of the Kighty-Ninth Regiment . It appeared in evidence that Captain

    Alleyne , who in at present about twenty-six yearn ofage , had returned from Canada in the year 1 K-10 , and from that time untjl quite recently had been mixed up with horse-racing in one shape or another . In tin ; course of the year 1848 , he became acquainted with the prisoner Coyle , then a bill discounter , and the keeper of a betting establishment in tho neighbourhood of Leicesteruquarc . When the J ) erby race camo off in I 860 , Captain Alleyne paid a oonnideruble Hum of money on the prisoner ' ** aoeount , * for butH that he had made upon his behalf and with his sanction . In the month of January , I 860 , Coyle owed Alleyne a Hum not Iohh than £ 1700 , and in part payment of that debt paid into bin hands a promitmory note , signed b y Lord Clifden , for the

    sum of £ 1160 . The note turned out to be a mere forgery on the part of Coyle , who subsequently admitted the fact in the presence of Captain Alexander Alleyne , and of his brother , Captain Holder Alleyne . He said that he was perfectly ruined ; begged to be forgiven ; promised to work for Captain Alleyne all his life if he would pardon him ; and threatened to throw himself from the Monument unless the transaction were overlooked . We may at this point take our leave for the present of this respectable member of society , adding simply that he was convicted , and by a most merciful sentence was ordered to be imprisoned for only twelve calendar months .

    Hitherto we have looked upon Captain Alexander M'Geachy Alleyne as a silly young man of fortune , who had fallen into the hands of a crew of sharpers , and been defrauded of his money . We must now regard the gallant captain and his brother , Captain Holder Alleyne , from a very different point of view . Already in the course of the trial at the Old Bailey a series of very untoward facts had come to lig ht with respect to the brothers Alleyne . At the very time they stepped into the witnessbox at the Central C riminal Court , it appeared that an indictment in the Queen ' s Bench was hanging over their heads for defrauding a certain Mr . Kennedy of a large sum of money . Nor was the fraud destitute of its own neculiar features of interest . We all know that our

    Yankee cousins have been fortunate during the last twelve months in their race against the world . They have managed to get passengers through the P anama Isthmus—they have outploughed us , outsailed us , and picked our very best locks . In addition to all this they have outtrotted us upon our own turnpike roads . The celebrated Yankee mare , " Fanny Jenks , " has been among us in disguise , " trotting our heads off , " in the language of the stable-yard . We had supposed throughout that an English mare , " Pigeon " by name , had accomplished these marvels ; but , lo ! it turns out that Pigeon ia Fanny Jenks . The celebrated Yankee mare had , by some means or other , come into the possession of Captain Holder Alleyne , who straightway proceeded to disguise

    her and changed her name . Here we arrive at the Queen ' s Bench trial of the present week , and here we shall find Coyle convicting the Alleynes of fraud , as the Alleynes had recently convicted Coyle of forgery . With the two brothers there was included in the indictment a young man upon town named D'Arcy , whom , by the result of the investigation , we must accept as a participator in the fraud and the booty of the two brothers . Holder Alleyne , the owner of Fanny Jenks , alias Pigeon , was the principal , and the two others were chaTged with having conspired and cooperated with him to defraud Mr . Kennedy . This young gentleman had been a brother officer of the two Alleynes , and of D'Arcy in Canada . He was stationed with his regiment at Hull in the year 1846 , the two Aileynes , as we believe , having previously left the regiment . Be this , however , as it may , Holder Alleyne presented himself at the

    quarters of the regiment , and busied himself in getting up a race between " Pigeon" and Castanet , a mare of young Kennedy ' s , for £ 300 . Upon this occasion Holder Alleyne said that " Pigeon" was an English mare , that she had never run in public , but he thought her pretty good . This match never came off , but immediately another bet , or rather series of bets was proposed by Holder Alleyne , and accepted by Mr . Kennedy . Not to trouble our readers with the details of the arrangement , it did in effect amount to this , that the sum of £ 7300 was involved in the decision of the question whether or not "Pigeon" could trot fifteen miles within the hour . Shortly afterwards Pigeon fell lame . We accept this fact as proved , although of course there was a discrepancy of statement upon this , the most material point in the whole trial . The defendants , however , were not able to obtain the acquiescence of the judge or jury in t . heir view of the case .

    It appears , then , that the mare fell dead lame , and that Captain Holder Alleyne entirely concealed the fact from Mr . Kennedy . . When this foolish young gentleman , by the assiduous efforts of M'Geachy Alleyne and D'Arcy , had befen cleverly brought to the point of asking for a compromise of his bet , Holder Alleyne still concealed from him the essential point of the mare ' s lameness . Thus he screwed out of him the total amount of the stake , on the condition that Kennedy should become half owner of the lame mare . It was proved in evidence that M'Geachy Alleyne and D'Arcy had received sums of money from Holder Alleyne just after the perpetration of the fraud . For this rcation , and the reasons stated above , the jury connected them with the guilt of tho principal in the fraud .

    Such , then , ia the history of the brothers Alleyne , men well educated , well born , and with good prospects in life . For some time before the trial they had found that the turf would no longer answer their purpose , and hud devoted themselves to making betjr barrels in Jier mondscy .

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    A HARD CA 8 K . James Ilockley , saddler , living in the Fulhain Union , ia ill and obliged to apply to the Hoard of Guardians for relief . lie is taken into the house ; und his home of cour . se broken up . Naturally , when recovered he asks to be allowed to Keek work , is met by a refusal , and offered stone-breaking , fie declined . The utonc-ui caking wuh too evidently intended uh a punishment for Inn being a pauper . The ( jltinrdiuiitt then took him before Mr . Pay literml the Police . Court on Thursday week , who

    , at once declared that the man had been very shamefully and absurdly treated in not Ix-inuj allowed to seek work , and being compelled to break Btoiieu . He sent the cuKt ! hack . On Friday , Ilockley whk again placed in the dock on the same charge . Mr . Paynter severely < : < iiHiired the Hoard . lie said that hu thought , the prisoner h » ul been treated in a very cruel manner . The man ttud been compelled to break up hi « home through illnens , aud enter tho houso with his wife and family ; and now , huving recovered , he mis not

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    Dbc . 6 , 1351 . ] mtft KtaUtt . " 57

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1851, page 1157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1912/page/9/