TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=.
Underlined text is denoted by ++double plus signs++.
The 3-star triangle symbol is denoted by ***.
The yogh symbol is denoted by ȝ; two occurrences in "Winȝet's".
A subscript is denoted by _{x}; one occurrence in "CHCl_{3}".
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.
The Life of a Regimental Officer
During the Great War, 1793-1815
The Life of
A Regimental Officer
During the Great War
1793-1815
COMPILED FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
COLONEL SAMUEL RICE, C.B., K.H.
51ST LIGHT INFANTRY
_AND FROM OTHER SOURCES_
BY
LIEUT.-COL. A. F. MOCKLER-FERRYMAN
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1913
_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
PREFACE.
The period of English history covered by the contents of this book
is one of very considerable interest, for within that period Great
Britain rose to be a mighty power, saving Europe from destruction,
and gathering to herself the commerce of the world. One has only
to glance at a chronological table of events to satisfy oneself
that, from 1793 to 1815, the British Navy and British Army fought
continuously and desperately in the making of the Empire, winning
many great and glorious victories by sea and by land, and handing
down to posterity the names of British sailors and soldiers to be
sworn by as long as the British Empire shall exist. It was an age of
heroic deeds by heroic men. Let us call to mind how the Navy fought
at Cape St Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar;
and how the Army fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. Let us
think of the countless minor expeditions in all parts of the world in
which army and navy together added to their laurels; of such sailors
as Nelson, Cochrane, Collingwood, Duncan, Hood, Hawke, Howe, Hotham,
Jervis, and others, and of such soldiers as Wellington, Moore, and
all the former's famous generals; and let us remember that it was by
such victories, won by such men, that England gained her place in the
world.
The stories of the lives of the great soldiers have been written over
and over again; we know all about their strategy and their tactics,
and how they guided the machines confided to their care; but of the
lesser men, who, as it were, helped to turn the wheels of, or to
apply oil to, the machinery, we know very little. Without their aid
the machine must have come to a stop; and how they kept it going
deserves to be remembered.
Samuel Rice, extracts from many of whose letters will be found in
the following pages, was one of a host of Englishmen who played
a part--even though it may have been an insignificant one--in
the making of the Empire. He was, in every sense of the word,
a Regimental Officer--one who never sought and never accepted
employment outside the Regiment. Joining the 51st in 1793 as Ensign,
he served with it, in good times and in bad, until 1831, the last
fourteen years in command. He represents a type not uncommon at the
commencement of the last century; and, at that period, probably most
regiments of the British army contained men of the same stamp, who
cared nothing for personal honour or glory, who cared little for the
good or bad opinion of their superior officers, but who lived for
THE REGIMENT, finding their reward in a conscientious performance of
regimental duty, and content to let their own actions go unnoticed
so long as they helped to uphold the reputation of their beloved
Regiment.
Nowadays, such men, from force of circumstances, are rare. The
British officer can no longer afford to remain with his regiment;
for, even if he is fortunate enough to possess sufficient private
means to do so, he can stay in the regiment for only a limited number
of years, and is forced to make way for others when still in the
prime of life. And there are wider reasons for the disappearance of
the regimental officer of the old school. Modern methods of warfare,
resulting from the improvement in weapons and the invention of new
means of locomotion and communication, require deeper thought and
deeper study than was accorded to military matters by our ancestors.
It is not enough that the officer of to-day should be acquainted only
with such things as pertain to his own branch of the service; for he
must be conversant with the tactics of all arms, and he must know a
hundred and one other things which he cannot learn by remaining with
his regiment. Furthermore, the officer who nowadays has no ambition
beyond regimental soldiering is liable to be regarded as lacking in
zeal and efficiency; and if he allows himself to drift along into the
regimental backwater, he is bound to find his progress barred before
very long. But he has advantages such as his ancestors never had.
By passing examinations he can qualify himself to hold appointments
on the staff, and he can obtain other living-wage employment away
from his regiment. A century ago there was nothing of this kind;
examinations were little indulged in; and it is not too much to
say that the majority of the staff officers came to the front and
remained in the front by personal (and often political) interest--by
a system of nepotism pure and simple. The officer, therefore, who
knew that he had no friend at court to push him on made up his mind
to remain with his regiment, and trust to good fortune to bring
him rapid promotion. He affected to despise the staff officer as
a butterfly and a place-seeker, and he threw all his heart into
his regimental duties. If proof of the value of these regimental
officers is wanting, it will be found, writ large, in the account of
every Peninsular fight, and by the aid of these men was Wellington's
fame built up. "Their most marked characteristics," says Colonel
Henderson, when discussing in his 'Science of War' the officers
of the Light Division regiments, "were that when they were left
alone they almost invariably did the right thing; that they had no
hesitation in assuming responsibility; that they could handle their
regiments and companies, if necessary, as independent units; and that
they consistently applied the great principle of mutual support."
Such were the regimental officers who had received their initial
training under the guidance of Sir John Moore, and such was Samuel
Rice, of the 51st Regiment, himself one of the earliest disciples of
that great master of the art of war.
By way of apology for bringing to notice a man unknown to fame, and
who had no pretensions to be considered famous, I may, perhaps, be
permitted to explain that, in putting this book together, my aim has
been not so much to give a biographical sketch of one individual as
to describe the lot of an ordinary regimental officer of the period;
and it seems to me that there is no more satisfactory way of doing
this than by following the career of one officer, chosen to represent
the type. With such an object in view, I believe that it would be
difficult to find a more suitable representative than Colonel Samuel
Rice, who served with the same regiment for upwards of thirty-eight
years--possibly in itself a record. Moreover, he fought with his
regiment in 1793, at the very commencement of England's great war in
Europe, and he saw the final shots fired in 1815. From what is known
of his character, it is probable that Samuel Rice would have been
the last person to have desired notoriety; but his descendants have
preserved, hitherto unpublished, letters written by him one hundred
and twenty years ago, and I have thought that some of these, showing
as they do the ways of the military world when England's reputation
was being made, are of sufficient general interest to be worthy of
publication.
My best thanks are due to Miss Lucy Augusta Rice for the loan of her
great-uncle's papers, and to the past and present officers of the
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry--the old 51st--for information
concerning their gallant regiment.
A. F. MOCKLER-FERRYMAN.
ST JOHN'S HOUSE,
TAVISTOCK.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
STUDYING FOR THE ARMY.
PAGE
Samuel Rice--Birth and parentage--Education--Sent to St
Omer in 1792--French Revolution--Preparations for war--French
hussars and their moustaches--Massacre of
aristocrats--Expulsion of Jesuits--Founding of Stoneyhurst
College--Duke of Brunswick's manifesto--Citizen Rice--French
victories over Prussians and Austrians--Troublous
times--Rice returns to England 1
CHAPTER II.
ENSIGN OF THE 51ST.
Rice joins the army--How commissions were obtained--The
Purchase System--Officer's pay--Dress of officers--On
board a transport--Disorder among the troops--Courts-martial--
Flogging--Many false starts--Gibraltar--_Sans culottes_--
Affairs at Toulon at the end of 1793--The 51st proceeds on
active service--Evacuation of Toulon--Loss of the regimental
baggage--Hyères Bay 14
CHAPTER III.
THE ATTACK ON CORSICA.
Lieut.-Colonel John Moore--The British army in 1793--The
officers--Moore interviews Admiral Lord Hood--England's
position in the Mediterranean--Elba and Corsica--Horatio
Nelson--Operations against St Fiorenzo--Origin of Martello
towers--Operations against Bastia and against Calvi--Nelson
loses an eye--Moore wounded--Rice's experiences--Surrender
of Calvi--French driven from Corsica--Sickness
among the troops 35
CHAPTER IV.
CORSICA WON AND LOST.
Taking over the island--The life of a subaltern--Garrison
gaieties--The Viceroy of Corsica--Misunderstandings--Disease
and deaths--The 51st garrisons Corte--Corsican
regiments--Sea-fights--Disaffection among the Corsicans--Pascal
Paoli and Sir Gilbert Elliott--Bastia--General rising
in favour of the French--Hasty evacuation of Corsica by
the British--The army takes refuge in Elba 56
CHAPTER V.
FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO CEYLON.
The situation at Elba--News of Admiral Jervis's victory off
Cape St Vincent--Evacuation of Elba--The 51st reaches
Gibraltar--Moves to Lisbon--Napoleon's drastic methods--Position
of Portugal--Rice a captain of light infantry--Naval
warfare--Convoys--The 51st sails for the East
Indies--Lands at the Cape of Good Hope--Arrives at
Madras--Tippoo of Mysore--Prize-money and plunder--Ceylon--King
of Kandy--A long and unfortunate war--Rice
invalided--Affairs in Europe--The 51st returns to England 81
CHAPTER VI.
THE REFORM OF THE ARMY.
Sir John Moore's great work--His treatment of regimental
officers--He trains a brigade for war--Shorncliffe Camp--Light
troops--Their origin and history--Discipline--Intelligent
code--Napoleon's proposed invasion of England--Nelson's
victory at Trafalgar--Regimental life--Uniform
of 1808--The beginning of the Peninsular War--Sir Arthur
Wellesley--Vimiera--Occupation of Lisbon 102
CHAPTER VII.
THE CORUNNA CAMPAIGN, AND AFTER.
Sir John Moore at Lisbon--The 51st accompanies Sir David
Baird to Corunna--Situation in the Peninsula--Moore
advances north--Baird ordered to co-operate--Napoleon's
forced march from Madrid--Retreat on Corunna commences--
Hardships--Lack of discipline--Good work of the 51st at
Lugo--Corunna reached--The battle--Death of Sir John Moore--The
51st arrives in England--The Walcheren Expedition--Wellesley's
operations in the Peninsula in 1810 126
CHAPTER VIII.
CAMPAIGNS OF 1811 IN THE PENINSULA.
The 51st ordered to take the field--Joins Wellington's army--
Condition of Portugal--Major Rice's letters--Beresford at
Badajoz--Battle of Fuentes d'Onor--Major Rice has an
"all-but"--The French escape from Almeida--Second siege
of Badajoz--Assaults on St Christoval--Failure and withdrawal--
The colours of the 51st--Strange episode--Regimental
officers--Wellington's reticence--Winter quarters 145
CHAPTER IX.
CIUDAD RODRIGO AND BADAJOZ.
Sports and amusements of the army--Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo--The
covering force--Guarding snow-passes--Fall of the
fortress--Marching south--Siege of Badajoz--Attempt to
surprise Llerena--Disastrous night march--Storming of
Badajoz--Wild scenes--Remarks on the battle of Albuhera--
Wellington's plans--Indiscipline of the army--Marauding--
Punishments--Peninsular generals--The soldiers' opinion of
Wellington--Flogging in the army 180
CHAPTER X.
SALAMANCA AND MADRID.
Wellington isolates Marmont--Follows him to Salamanca--General
Graham gives a ball--Major Rice's horse shot
under him and afterwards eaten--Grand manœuvres--Battle
of Salamanca--Rout of the French--Advance on Madrid--Triumphal
entry into the capital--Capture of the Retiro--The
51st marches with Wellington to Burgos--Abortive
assaults--The bridge at Valladolid--French valour at
Tordesillas--Retreat from Burgos--Drunkenness of the two
armies--Brave regimental women--Affair at San Muños--Numerous
stragglers--Major Rice invalided 205
CHAPTER XI.
DRIVING THE FRENCH OUT OF SPAIN, 1813.
Wellington reorganises his army--The situation discussed--The
51st marches to the Esla river--Passage of the Esla--King
Joseph--Battle of Vittoria--Complete victory--Flight
of the king and his army--Marauding and drunkenness--Wellington's
strictures--Pursuit to Pampeluna--The 51st reaches the Pyrenees--
Sharp skirmishes--Siege of San Sebastian--A hard day's fighting--
The French 51st Regiment--Regimental numbers--Capture of San
Sebastian 227
CHAPTER XII.
THE CLOSE OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
Young regimental officers--Their effect upon the campaign--
Casualties in the 51st--Wellington plans the invasion of
France--Crosses the Bidassoa--Fights his way into the
Pyrenees--Major Rice commands the 51st at the battle of
the Nivelle--Peninsular medals--Battles before Bayonne--A
short winter's rest--Campaign of 1814--Battle of
Orthes--With Beresford to Bordeaux--Toulouse--Napoleon
abdicates--Peace 247
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.
Napoleon escapes from Elba--Europe decides to crush him--The
51st proceeds to Belgium--Lieut.-Colonel Rice commands
the regiment--The situation at the beginning of
June 1815--The French invasion--Quatre Bras and Ligny--The
battle of Waterloo described--The part played by
the 51st--Rout of the French--Flight of Napoleon--Honours
and rewards--Colonel Rice's letter about the battle 273
CHAPTER XIV.
PARIS--AND PEACE.
The advance on Paris--The storming of Cambray--Rapid
pursuit by the Prussians--Last shots--Anecdote of a 51st
officer--Friendly enemies--Paris occupied--Napoleon's fate--Life
in the French capital--Return of the regiment--The
beginning of the long peace--Garrison duty--New
uniform--Ten years in the Ionian Isles--Colonel Rice
concludes his regimental soldiering--His subsequent employment
and death 296
INDEX 313
THE LIFE OF A REGIMENTAL OFFICER DURING THE GREAT WAR,
1793-1815.
CHAPTER I.
STUDYING FOR THE ARMY.
Samuel Rice was born at Chislehurst on the 19th August 1775, and was
the son of John Rice, one of an old Welsh family long established
at Mydfai (Mythvey).[1] His mother was a daughter of Samuel Plumbe,
who had married the sister of Henry Thrale, M.P., the then sole
proprietor of what subsequently became Barclay & Perkins' Brewery,
and the husband of the lady who has been named by posterity "Dr
Johnson's Mrs Thrale."
Being one of a family of thirteen, young Rice was fortunate in
having grandparents possessed of the wherewithal to give their
grandchildren a start in life, and possessed, moreover, of sufficient
intelligence to assure themselves that the money spent on education
was well laid out. It is, perhaps, remarkable that, although very
ordinary boys at school and not above getting into scrapes, all of
John Rice's seven sons entered honourable professions and did well.
The eldest took Holy Orders; two were in the Royal Navy; two in the
Army; and two were lawyers, one of the latter becoming an Indian
judge and receiving the honour of knighthood. John Rice himself, who
was an only child, had been at Eton, but his sons were educated at
Cheam (Mr Gilpin's), and Samuel, the second son, remained there until
1792, when, as was customary in those days, he was sent abroad to
learn French before entering the army.
Those were stirring times. France was in a state of revolution,
with her king and queen in prison; a republican Government on the
point of being established, and Continental Europe up in arms, with
the hope of being able to restore order in the country and prevent
the excesses which were likely to result from the indiscipline of a
republican army in league with the mob. At first England maintained a
strict neutrality, and held aloof from interference with the internal
affairs of France; thus, when, in the spring of 1792, Sam Rice took
up his residence at St Omer (some twenty miles from Calais), he found
the French well-disposed towards his countrymen, though he, the true
British boy of the period, was disinclined to regard his new hosts
otherwise than as the natural enemies of his country.
In spite of the fact that he was kept hard at work, learning not only
French, but also drawing, fencing, and dancing, he appears, from
his letters home, to have found leisure for shooting, fishing, and
riding, and he thoroughly enjoyed the change of scene as well as the
novelty of being at a tutor's instead of at school. On this subject
he wrote, soon after his arrival in France, to his elder brother,
then at Cambridge--
"It gives me great pleasure to feel myself freed of my
leading-strings, and to be my own master, doing what I will
without being scolded and sworn at. I am like the Frenchmen; I
like Liberty; but I think they have carried theirs too far, and
will not do well without a little more steadiness. We find our own
wine; I have bought for the present two dozen of claret and one of
Burgundy. _You_ cannot afford to drink such wine."
This matter of wine, which in those days was considered a necessity
even for a young gentleman of barely seventeen, eventually led Sam
Rice to complain to his father about the scanty allowance which he
made him. Twenty guineas a-year for extras, including clothes, was,
he said, a ridiculously small sum upon which to attempt to "live as
other gentlemen do"; and he summed up his necessary annual expenses
as follows: "Wine (weak stuff), half a bottle a-day, and occasionally
giving to friends, eight guineas; washing, hairdressing, and hair
powder, six guineas." His appeal, however, had little effect, and on
his father's refusal to increase his allowance, the young student cut
down his wine bill in order to have more money to spend on shooting.
That he benefited by his sojourn abroad is evident from the letters
which he wrote in French to his father from time to time; and his
knowledge of the language proved of the greatest value to him in
after life. Living as he did at St Omer, in an atmosphere of military
preparedness for war, he acquired at an early age habits of careful
observation; he learned also to form his own opinions and to use his
own judgment, and he became imbued with the true military spirit. His
remarks on the situation as he found it at St Omer in 1792 are of
interest--
"St Omer," he wrote, "is well fortified with ramparts and flanked
with bastions; and there are several drawbridges before you get
out of the town, which, of course, makes it very inaccessible, if
well garrisoned. But the worst part is that they have got such a
few meagre dogs that, I am sure, at the sight of an Austrian army
they would be glad to accept of any terms of capitulation. To be
sure there is one battalion of Swiss, who are undoubtedly good
soldiers; but I believe that it is generally thought that they will
not fight, because the Swiss remain neutral, and they cannot fight
against the Germans, as they are allies. The people do not seem
much afraid of the Austrians;[2] they stump and bully now, but
when the enemy comes a little closer, I am very much mistaken if
they will not draw in their horns."
Again, a little later, he wrote--
"There is a great preparation for war here. I don't know how many
hundred men are employed every day in repairing the batteries, in
forming new ones, and in making new drawbridges, as well as in
cutting rivers to surround the town. All this is done by order of
General Lukener. Also vast quantities of stores and ammunition are
daily brought into the town, and hay in abundance, for I never
walk out of the town but I meet twenty or thirty waggon-loads of
hay coming from the country to be laid up in the town in case
of want. I heard yesterday that a party of hussars belonging to
the French had killed no less than four hundred of the Austrian
cavalry, but that General Gouire (or some such name), a French
general, was killed. I cannot say that this is a fact; but, if it
is, most likely you will have heard of it before this reaches you.
Some gentlemen from here have been to see the camps at Valenciennes
and Lille, and all along the side of French Flanders, which they
say are so strongly entrenched that it will be impossible for the
enemy to come into the country. They saw ten thousand hussars pass
them all at once as they were in their carriage, and had to wait
four hours to let the cannons pass. All the hussars had great
moustaches, which gave them a savage appearance."
The wearing of moustaches by the French cavalry was a new idea, and
the infantry soon adopted the same method of producing a "savage
appearance." The British soldier of the period, on the other hand,
prided himself on his clean-shaved face, with, at the most, a
suspicion of side whisker, cut square with the line of the mouth.
"Shaved clean, and with the hair neatly tied and powdered," was the
regulation. Moustaches were not worn in the British army until many
years after Waterloo, and the order to wear them was received with
suspicion and dislike, being regarded as an attempt to Frenchify the
British army. It is recorded of one famous cavalry regiment that the
officers paid no attention to the order until the inspecting general
made strong comments on their shaved upper lips, and ordered the
colonel to enforce the moustache regulation. Within a few days each
officer appeared on parade fully equipped with a false moustache,
and this appendage was removed when parade was over. How long this
continued is not stated, but for a long time the officers of this
particular regiment were observed to be clean shaved when in plain
clothes and heavily moustached when in uniform. The British infantry
shaved the upper lip almost up to Crimean times.
But the Frenchmen's moustaches did not impress young Rice in 1792,
for he regarded the Republican soldiers as effete and useless,
and likely to become an easy prey to the invading Austrians and
Prussians. His dislike for the French as a nation was intense, and
he prayed for their downfall. "I think the French," he wrote, "a
parcel of d--d rascals, and I heartily hope the Austrians will give
them a good thrashing. We are to have a garrison of six thousand men
here, for they expect this town to be attacked by the Austrians, who
propose to burn the place by firing red-hot bullets, and so pass
over its ashes to Brussels." As events turned out, St Omer was not
attacked, but it was hardly the place for quiet study, and it is
wonderful that, under such circumstances, the boy learned anything.
As an experience, his seven months' residence in France must have
been full of interest and excitement. He lived, as it were, on
the outskirts of the fight--at times with the enemy's guns within
earshot, and he constantly saw troops marching to the front to the
tune of "Ça ira." He lived also in the midst of the Revolution,
for although St Omer itself was comparatively quiet, the accounts
which came from Paris sickened him and filled him with righteous
indignation. In one of his letters he mentions that he has just
heard of the massacre of some thousands of Aristocrats in Paris, and
he gives vent to his feelings in no measured terms. "The cruelties
and barbarities which have been committed will ever be a stain upon
the national character. This French nation, which was once the most
gentle, has now by its cruelties rendered itself the most savage and
barbarous. I am now a strong Aristocrat, and I should imagine that
people in England who favoured the Revolution must have changed
their opinions since the recent horrible massacre in Paris."
It was, however, one thing to declare himself an Aristocrat in a
letter home, but quite another thing to let it be known in St Omer,
and he admits sailing under false colours, in that he wore "the
cockaded tricolour, decreed by the National Assembly." He excuses
himself thus: "If you were to appear without one, you would be mobbed
and called 'Aristocrat' by every saucy boy in the street. So much so
that one of the actors last night at the Playhouse, during the time
he was performing, was shouted to for his cockade, and they would not
let him perform without it. One of the others brought him one, which
he put to his breast, but that did not satisfy the audience, for they
shouted again _à chapeau_, and he was obliged to put it in his hat,
to save himself from a broken head."
Though Sam Rice held French revolutionary methods in general
abhorrence, he appears to have approved of the treatment dealt out to
the religious orders, for, in describing events at St Omer, he says:
"The nuns are all going to be turned out of their convents, and also
the friars. Most of them have been sent away, and there only remains
one church of them, from which they will be speedily dislodged.
There were twelve capital houses with nice gardens which those
rascals the monks inhabited--one for each, and they were allowed a
considerable sum for their maintenance; but now the people have seen
what rogues they were, and have turned them out neck and crop, and
have sent them into the country to live upon twelve pounds a-year.
Their library and church are turned into magazines for hay and
different stores, and all the religious houses are to be converted
into barracks for the soldiers." It is perhaps worthy of remark that
eighteen of these persecuted Jesuit fathers of St Omer were granted,
in 1794, an asylum in England, and, bringing with them several of
their pupils, founded Stonyhurst College, for the education of Roman
Catholics.
As time went on, the cloud over France grew blacker, and by the end
of August the young English student was rejoicing in the thought
that the defeat of the French army by the Allies was about to be
realised, though he gave the French credit for offering a stubborn
resistance. "The French," he wrote on the 28th August (1792), "now
that they have so long enjoyed their liberty, will never, I think,
submit to a despotic government, and I believe that some would sooner
blow themselves up in their towns than capitulate. They seem not to
have the least idea that the enemy can enter into the kingdom, but
I am very much of opinion that he will do so sooner than the French
expect, and in that event the Prussians[3] will play the devil with
them. The Duke of Brunswick in his manifesto was very severe. He
said that all who did not submit to him, when his troops presented
themselves before the towns, would be put, every one, to the sword,
when taken; and he wrote especially to the Parisians, against whom
he has vowed vengeance. Three parts of the officers of the army
which was Lafayette's have deserted, and Lukener is suspended. It was
reported that Lafayette had deserted, but it is said now that he has
been stopped in endeavouring to escape with the _caisse militaire_.
In my opinion, the situation is very bad. Longwy, a town on the
frontier, is besieged by the Prussians. If they take it (and most
probably they will), they may march straight for Paris, as there are
no other fortified towns to obstruct their passage. Success attend
them! I long to hear of their arrival at Paris. We are very quiet at
St Omer, and most probably we shall continue so, as the Prussians do
not seem to be inclined to make their attack on this side. _Wednesday
evening._--I have just read in the 'Gazette' that Longwy is taken.
The King of Prussia, at the head of his army, made the attack, and
took the town in less than fifteen hours."
On the 7th September, just after the news of the September massacres
had reached him, he discussed the situation again: "The Allies
have already taken two towns--Longwy and Verdun, and there are no
fortified towns between them and Paris, but it seems to me that
they cannot reach Paris without an immense army, otherwise they
will be cut to pieces by the French armies. They say that on Sunday
and Monday two thousand Aristocrats were massacred in Paris in the
prisons."
His next letter was dated October 3, and in it he makes no mention
of the brilliant victory of the French at Valmy, where, on the 20th
September, Kellermann defeated the Prussians under the Duke of
Brunswick, and thus gave heart to the Republican forces. He must
have known of the victory, and he may have already referred to it in
a letter which has not been preserved, for he seems to have begun
to fear that all was not going well with the Allies. "I make no
doubt but what you have heard," he says, "that Lille is besieged. My
father, I am afraid, will be anxious for my safety, but I assure you
as yet there is nothing to cause anxiety; neither do I think that
there will be. It is not possible that they can take Lille, as it
is one of the strongest towns in France, and has a garrison which
is determined to hold out to the last. They have kept up a brisk
cannonading for these two or three days past, and even here I can
hear the report of the cannons very distinctly. Most people think
that it is only a false attack to draw off the French armies from
Verdun, where the Prussians are being kept blocked up. I think this
most probable, as they would never attempt to attack such a place
as Lille with only 20,000 men. Lille is very much damaged, as the
enemy fire red-hot balls, which, of course, have set fire to a great
many houses. Numbers of people are saving themselves from Lille and
taking shelter in St Omer. They come, some in carriages, with their
children; others in carts, with their household furniture; and a
pitiful sight it is to see the poor women and children reduced to
such extremities. I was up at half after five this morning to see a
regiment depart for Lille, and I was very well amused for my pains.
The soldiers seemed to wear a melancholy air, though they marched
to the tune of 'Ça ira,' which generally gives them courage and
consolation."
The postscript to this letter shows that even an English visitor had
to fall in with republican views: "You must direct to me, '_A Citoien
Rice, chez Citoien Boudeille, Rue de l'Egalité, St Omer_,' for you
know that the title _Monsieur_ has been abolished."
With regard to Lille (Lisle) Citizen Rice's forecast was correct;
for, on the 7th October, the Prussians raised the siege and departed,
thus shattering Rice's hopes of a speedy occupation of Paris by
the Allies. The Duke of Brunswick's manifesto, which he mentioned
in a previous letter, did more harm than good, as the insolence of
its tone irritated the French into deposing their king forthwith,
massacring Aristocrats wholesale in Paris, and putting forth all
their strength to defeat the Austrians and Prussians. In this they
succeeded beyond all expectation, for the victory of Valmy was
repeated at Jemappes (November 6); and, a week later, the French
entered Brussels and occupied the Austrian Netherlands. St Omer
appears now to have settled down to comparative quiet, and the young
Englishman to his studies and amusements; but, before the end of
the year, his father began to be anxious about the state of affairs
in France, and wrote, "the complexion of the times is such as, in
my opinion, renders it no longer proper for a young man designed
for the British army to remain in France." The people of England
realised that the climax was approaching. A revulsion of feeling
against the French had set in with the suspension of King Louis in
August; the September massacres had increased it; and the arraignment
of the unfortunate king on December 11 raised it to boiling-point.
Neither was this all, for England saw in the high-handed acts of
the victorious Revolutionary leaders a menace to the "rights and
liberties of Europe."
Sam Rice, therefore, quitted France early in December, only a month
before his return would have been made compulsory by the French
Government, when, upon the execution of Louis XVI. (January 21,
1793), an open rupture occurred between England and France. His
education was now considered to be complete, and his father set to
work to obtain for him a commission in the army.