“When wild war’s deadly blast was blawn, And gentle peace returning, And eyes again with pleasure beam’d That had been blear’d wi’ mourning, I left the lines and tented field, Where lang I’d been a lodger, My humble knapsack a’ my wealth, A poor but honest sodger.” THREATENED INVASION—THE PENINSULAR WAR—CORUNNA—TOULOUSE—QUATRE BRAS—WATERLOO—CRIMEA—INDIA—1803–1862. The peace of Amiens in 1803, which for a short period released our army from the bloody toils of war, was but as the portentous calm presaging the lowering storm, when the waves of angry passion, lashed into fury, should beat upon the shore of every continent of the world. The pride of France had been humbled, and the ambitious schemes of her haughty despot thwarted by British valour, which, upon the plains of Egypt, had wrested from veteran legions their boasted “invincibility.” The French navy, moreover, had been swept from the seas and all but exterminated—there remaining not an armament in Europe which could dare to dispute the British ocean sovereignty. Stung by the remembrance of many defeats by sea and land—the painful recollection of which ever and anon haunted and troubled the dreamer of universal empire, begetting “The vengeance blood alone could quell”— a spirit of malignity was awakened in the mind of Napoleon. These combined occasioned the concentration of the giant might of his empire upon the western shores of France, purposing therewith to crush, were it possible, the only power which, amidst the general wreck of nations, yet lived to challenge his assumed omnipotence. Vainly he hoped to bridge the channel, or, as he termed it, the “ditch,” which divided this beloved land from our natural rival and implacable enemy, France. Loudly he threatened that, with an army of 600,000 men, he would land to desolate our homes, and overwhelm our country in a doom as awful as had hitherto befallen less favoured countries. But apart from the “ditch,” which proved an impassable gulf to the mightiest efforts of his power, the patriotism of our people, appreciating the emergency, was equal to the danger, and in 1804 achieved the following magnificent result:— Army in the British Isles, 129,039 Colonies, 38,630 India, 22,897 Recruiting, 533 Militia in Great Britain, 109,947 ———— 301,046