Note 365 — Chapter I

The same idea is well marked in a conversation reported by Croker, which took place in London, on the eve of Wellesley’s departure to assume command of the troops at Cork with whom he was about to sail for the Peninsula. After a long reverie, he was asked the subject of his thoughts. ‘To say the truth,’ he replied, ‘I am thinking of the French I am going to fight. I have not seen them since the campaign in Flanders [1794-5] when they were capital soldiers, and a dozen years of victory under Buonaparte must have made them better still. They have besides a new system of strategy, which has outmanœuvred and overwhelmed all the armies of Europe. ’Tis enough to make one thoughtful; but no matter, the die is cast: they may overwhelm me, but I don’t think they will outmanœuvre me. First, because I am not afraid of them, as everybody else seems to be; and secondly, because, if all I hear of their system be true, I think it a false one against steady troops. I suspect all the continental armies are half beaten before the battle begins. I, at least, will not be frightened beforehand.’ Croker’s Diary and Correspondence, vol. i. p. 13, under the date June 14, 1808.