In the mean time the war in Europe was prosecuted with great vigour; the British troops were victorious in the Peninsula, and every effort was made to bring a powerful army into the field. At this period a _third battalion_ was added to the FOURTEENTH Regiment of Foot; it was raised by volunteers from the Militia and assembled at Weedon under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel the Honorable James Stewart, and was soon in a condition fit for active service. [Sidenote: 1814] After a contest of twenty years, the period of the downfall of that gigantic power, which had sprung out of the French revolution, arrived; the snow storms of the winter of 1812-13, had annihilated the French army in Russia; the British army, which had delivered Portugal and Spain from the tyrannical rule of Napoleon, was following up its career of victory in the heart of France; at the same time the forces of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and other continental states, were invading France. Thus a favourable opportunity presented itself; one powerful effort appeared likely to overthrow Napoleon and his adherents, and at this important juncture, (the spring of 1814,) the third battalion of the FOURTEENTH Regiment received orders to hold itself in readiness for foreign service, and commenced its march for the coast; at the same time the second battalion was withdrawn from the island of Malta, to join the expedition, under Lieutenant-General Lord William Bentinck, against the north-west coast of Italy. This expedition captured several places, including the maritime city of _Genoa_, once a celebrated republic, now the capital of a province in the Sardinian States. The progress of the British arms in Italy was suddenly arrested by the termination of the war: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated; Louis XVIII. ascended the throne of France; and the nations of Europe hailed the event as the great jubilee of Christendom. The embarkation of the third battalion of the FOURTEENTH Regiment was countermanded, and after some delay, the second battalion was placed in quarters at the city of Genoa, where it remained twelve months. Towards the end of the year the third battalion was held in readiness to embark for North America; circumstances connected with the trade of neutral nations, during the war with France, having involved Great Britain in hostilities with the United States. Before the battalion quitted England, peace was concluded with the United States, when the order for its proceeding abroad was countermanded, and directions were given for its being disbanded on the 24th of March, 1815. [Sidenote: 1815]