Returning home from Halifax, in 1800, the transport, containing one company of the regiment, under command of Captain Campbell, was captured by the French privateer “Grande Decidèe.” With the British army under Sir Ralph Abercromby—which achieved the deliverance of Egypt—the Cameronians won a title by distinguished service, to include “Egypt” among the records of its bravery. Meanwhile, the necessities of the state were such that, the Government resolving to strengthen the army, a second battalion was raised and grafted upon the good old stock of the Twenty-sixth. In these times of war little rest could be expected. To the brave, the patriot, it was peculiarly a time of action, not mere idle alarm. Our country rejoiced in the security which was ensured by an army, of which our Cameronians were so honoured a representative. Our sovereigns benignantly smiled upon and proudly felt themselves happy when they regarded the ranks of these our gallant defenders, nor feared invasion so long as they possessed the allegiance of such soldiers. Grieving that so large a kingdom as that of Spain should have fallen a prey to the rapacious perfidy of Napoleon, and sympathising with the patriotic efforts which a spirited people were then putting forth to be free, our Government had recognised in that peninsula, with its extensive sea-board, a fair theatre for action, and as the result proved, a vulnerable point where Europe might strike a fatal blow at the absorbing dominion of France. Following up these ideas, and in answer to the earnest petitions for help from the people themselves, who gathered together into patriotic bands, yet dared to struggle against the tyranny which enslaved and ruined all who owned its supremacy, our Government, in 1808, sent out a British army under Sir John Moore, which, co-operating with the natives and the British army of Portugal, it was vainly hoped should expel the enemy. The Twenty-sixth regiment, included in this expedition, was doomed to share its cruel disappointments, yet earn a title to the glory which must ever rest upon the memory of the soldiers of Corunna. With the native daring of his race, Sir John Moore advanced with 25,000 men into the very heart of Spain, and only retreated when the expected aid from the Spaniards had been dissipated by their defeat and ruin, and when Napoleon in person, at the head of an army of 300,000 men, threatened to overwhelm his little phalanx of British. Then, but not till then, he undertook that masterly retreat which achieved the salvation of his brave troops, and in the end loaded himself with honour, as closing a life of worth, he won the laurel crown, and “Like a soldier fell” in the arms of victory. Lieut.-General Hope thus fitly records the irreparable loss sustained in the death of Sir John Moore:—