The officer last mentioned was Lieutenant John Duncan, who was promoted in the following year, and was mentioned as follows for his conduct at the capture of Bastia, in Corsica, the service in which the Toulon garrison was [Sidenote: Admiral Lord Hood’s Despatch, ‘London Gazette,’ 10 June, 1794.] next engaged:--“I cannot but express in the strongest terms the meritorious conduct of Captain Duncan and Lieutenant Alexander Duncan of the Royal Artillery, and Lieutenant de Butts of the Royal Engineers; but my obligation is particularly great to Captain Duncan, as more zeal, ability, and judgment were never shown by any officer than were displayed by him, and I take the liberty of mentioning him as an officer highly entitled to His Majesty’s notice.” Lieutenant Alexander Duncan, who is also mentioned in this dispatch, afterwards commanded the Royal Artillery during the defence of Cadiz in 1810-12, at the battle of Barossa, and at Seville, at the last-mentioned of which places he was accidentally killed. During the service in Corsica, which resulted in its surrender by the French, the Royal Artillery did duty with Nelson’s seamen,[6] and received great credit for their exertions at the capture of Bastia and Calvi. A fatal fever played havoc with the men; and it was found necessary to send an additional company from England, which absorbed the remnant of Major Koehler’s. That officer was made Quartermaster-General to the forces in the island on its surrender to the English, and Major Collier was sent to command the Artillery with the title of Inspector of Artillery. This garrison remained until the evacuation of the island by the English in 1796. Even thus early, and in spite of much inexperience on the part of their commanders, the French armies of the Revolution had evinced merits, zeal, and courage of no ordinary description. The new system of fighting had already defeated the old; and when organized, as it eventually was, by a master hand, Bonaparte, it was an engine before which the old system, with its pedantry, sluggish precision, and winter-quarters, was sure to go down like a house of cards. Happily for England, there were in her army in Flanders men like Wellington and Abercromby, who could see the faults of the school in which they had been trained, and at the same time not be ashamed to own the superiorities [Sidenote: Major C. B. Brackenbury, R.A., at U.S. Institution.] which might be possessed by an enemy,--men, in fine, who, while “conservative of glorious traditions, were fearless of all necessary changes--endeavouring to catch the meaning of present progress, or, with prophetic eye, reaching forward to anticipate future developments.” Without such men, the glorious stories of Egypt and the Peninsula would have been but repetitions of this futile war in Flanders. CHAPTER IV. 1796 to 1799.