Having disposed of this matter, I shall now set down some passages evincing the babbling shallowness and self-conceit of the critic, and beneath them my authorities, whereby it will appear that the big book containing all sir George does not know is increasing in bulk:— ‘Sir Arthur Wellesley was detained at Oporto neither by the instructions of the English Cabinet nor by his own want of generalship, _but simply by the want of provisions_.’—_Review._ Indeed! Reader, mark the following question to, and answer from the duke of Wellington. _Question to the duke of Wellington by colonel Napier._ Why did the duke halt the next day after the passage of the Douro? _Answer._—‘The halt was made next day,—first, because the whole army had not crossed the Douro and none of its supplies and baggage had crossed. Secondly, on account of the great exertion and fatigue of the preceding days particularly the last. Thirdly, because we had no account of lord Beresford being in possession of Amarante, or even across the Douro; we having, in fact, out-marched everything. Fourthly, the horses and animals required a day’s rest as well as the men.’ And, in the answer to another question, the following observation occurs:—‘The relative numbers and the nature of the troops must be considered in all these things; _and this fact moreover, that excepting to attain a very great object we could not risk the loss of a corps_.’ I pass over the reviewer’s comments upon my description of Soult’s retreat, because a simple reference to my work will at once show their folly and falseness; but I beg to inform this acute and profound historical critic that the first field-marshal captured by an English general was marshal Tallard, and that the English general who captured him was called John, duke of Marlborough. And, with respect to his sneers about the ‘_little river of Ruivaens_;’ ‘_Soult’s theatrical speech_;’ ‘_the use of the twenty-five horsemen_;’ ‘_the non-repairs of the Ponte Nova_;’ and the ‘_Romance composed by colonel Napier and Le Noble_;’ I shall, in answer, only offer the following authorities, none of which, the reader will observe, are taken from Le Noble. _Extract from Soult’s General Report._