[Sidenote: 1795] The TWELFTH Light Dragoons were withdrawn from Italy and Corsica, and, sailing to England, landed at Plymouth in January, 1795; they were stationed, during the summer, at Tavistock, and passed the winter at Nottingham. [Sidenote: 1796] In the summer of 1796 the regiment was removed to Croydon, and in October to York. The French republic was, in the mean time, conspiring the destruction of British commerce, and having concluded a treaty of peace with Spain, had entered into negociations with the Portuguese; but the Queen of Portugal refused to ratify the treaty, and agreed to receive British troops into several ports of Portugal. The TWELFTH Light Dragoons were selected to proceed to Portugal, to assist in the defence of that kingdom, in the event of its being attacked by France or her allies. [Sidenote: 1797] The regiment left England during the winter, arrived at Portugal in the beginning of 1797, and was followed by the Twenty-sixth Dragoons, the second battalion of the First (Royals), and the Eighteenth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first regiments of foot. [Sidenote: 1800] [Sidenote: 1801] The TWELFTH Light Dragoons were stationed at Lisbon, where they remained until the winter of 1800, when they embarked to join the expedition under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, destined to undertake the expulsion of the French "Army of the East" from Egypt. The regiment sailed under the convoy of the Braakel, armed _en flûte_, and arrived on the 11th of January, 1801, at the Bay of Marmorice, in Asiatic Turkey, where the fleet was anchored in a splendid basin of water, surrounded by mountains covered with trees. The regiment landed, and received a supply of Turkish horses, which proved of so very inferior a description, that the commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Mervyn Archdall, solicited to serve with the regiment as infantry; the necessity of having a body of mounted cavalry was, however, urgent, and three hundred of the best of the horses were trained[3]; a number of men, however, remained dismounted. The TWELFTH and Twenty-sixth Light Dragoons were formed in brigade under Brigadier-General Finch.