The many letters from the various officers, whose correspondence with the Ordnance is extant, tell in simple [Sidenote: Colonel Harding to D. A. Gen.] words the worth of the leader who fell at Corunna. “You have heard,” writes one, “of our terrible loss: we could [Sidenote: Captain (afterwards Sir R.) Gardiner to D. A. Gen.] not believe he was dead.” Another writes: “General Hope’s despatches will acquaint you with our affecting loss. You will imagine how severely I felt it. I saw him after he received the wound, but he was talking with such firmness, that I did not apprehend the danger he was in.” General Hope’s words cannot be too frequently read. “The [Sidenote: Despatch to Sir D. Baird, 18 Jan. 1809.] fall of Sir John Moore has deprived me of a valuable friend, to whom long experience of his worth had sincerely attached me. But it is chiefly on public grounds that I must lament the blow. It will be the consolation of every one who loved or respected his manly character, that after conducting the army through an arduous retreat with consummate firmness, he has terminated a career of distinguished honour by a death that has given the enemy additional reason to respect the name of a British soldier. Like the immortal Wolfe, he is snatched from his country at an early period of a life spent in her service: like Wolfe, his last moments were gilded by the prospect of success, and cheered by the acclamation of victory: like Wolfe, also, his memory will for ever remain sacred in that country which he sincerely loved, and which he had so faithfully served.” There is a pathos about these words, which is not surpassed even in the lines which have given an eternal place in English verse to the battle which has just been described. But all the regret of friends, all the eloquence of admirers, all the hymns of poets, fade into nothing beside the simple words of the dying chief,--who uttered with his last breath no appeals for praise, no boastings of difficulties overcome, no chidings against those who had disappointed or deceived him, but the quiet, confident expression of a soldier whose duty is done: “I hope that my country will do me justice.” The following return shows the strength of the Royal Artillery left in Portugal, after the evacuation of Spain by Sir John Moore’s army. It also shows the number who had returned at various times from the Peninsula, prior to 27th February, 1809, having proceeded thither with the various contingents detailed in the preceding table. (_See next page._) TABLE showing the NUMBER of OFFICERS, NON-COMMMISSIONED OFFICERS, GUNNERS, and DRUMMERS of the ROYAL ARTILLERY; and also of the OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, DRIVERS, TRUMPETERS, ARTIFICERS, and HORSES belonging to the Royal Artillery Drivers, relanded from Spain or Portugal before the 27th February, 1809.