“I have received your letter of the 10th. Perhaps if you had taken the trouble to inform yourself respecting the works of the Prussian army at the bridge of Jena, and the part I have acted in this affair, you would think that I do not merit the reproaches which you with your signature, and others anonymously, have made me on this subject. “But I ascribe them to the levity with which impressions are received and are allowed to influence the actions of men, and the most important measures, in this country; and if the injustice you have done me in your letter lead you to inquire and reflect before you ever again bring a charge against a public man, I pardon you. “WELLINGTON.” (_Gurwood_, vol. XII, p. 555-6.) The pains which the Duke took to preserve the strictest discipline amongst the troops under his command, and which far surpassed the care taken by other commanders in similar circumstances, entitled him to the gratitude of the Parisians, but did not always exempt him from ill-timed and unreasonable demands. The following severe but just reply was provoked by general comte de Vaubois, who seems to have importuned the Duke for compensation for damages said to be done by the British troops to the French people: _To General Comte de Vaubois._ “PARIS, November 10th, 1815. “MONSIEUR, “You, who have served, must be well aware that it is not possible to give compensation to the full amount for all the damages arising from the presence of an army in a country, or the irregularities of individual soldiers, or the inevitable consequences of military occupation. It is quite true that I usually require reparation to be made for damages caused to the inhabitants by any irregularities of the troops, especially of English troops. But it is more as a means of discipline than as a full compensation to the inhabitants; and I cannot adopt in every case the same means with foreign troops, who are not so well, nor so regularly paid. “The fact is, _M. le général_, that France, in carrying her arms into other countries, caused misery, devastation and ruin: I myself have been eyewitness of the destruction of property throughout whole provinces, that refused to submit to the yoke of the tyrant, and that were in consequence entirely depopulated. “Although private revenge ought never to be the motive of a man, and most assuredly it is not that of the allied sovereigns, we can hardly expect that soldiers, men taken from the poorest and most hardy ranks of society, after having seen their properties, or those of their relatives, burned, sacked, destroyed by the French, should have any very great respect for French property, when, by the fortune of war, they find themselves in France.