A little later, fresh Napoleonic successes drove her to despair, and she then sent for him again. He found her weeping over a copy of the Peace of Tilsit, just signed between France, Russia and Prussia; and he stayed nearly two hours, doing his best to raise her spirits. When he took leave she said, graciously enough— “Great pains have been taken to prejudice me against you, and not without effect; but your plain frank manners have removed every unfavourable impression, and nothing shall make me think ill of you again. For I perceive, Monsieur Moore, that you are an upright man who flatters nobody. You are a little reserved, and do not give confidence easily. I esteem you on that account the more. I hope, however, at last to acquire your confidence, and I shall be flattered by it.” This is all very well, but apparently the Queen made no effort to undo her harsh misrepresentations of him to the English Government. Early in 1808 Moore reached England, and then he had his last holiday. Four months of rest were granted to the hard-worked warrior, who during thirty years had held himself utterly at his country’s service, fighting for her in all parts of the world almost without intermission, and being at least four times wounded. At this date he was looked upon by competent judges as the foremost man in the whole British Army—as the one to whom above all others England, in her hour of need, would turn.[2] The chief part of his holiday was spent at the quiet Surrey home of his brother, with his mother and sister, and one is glad to know that he had that peaceful break before the end. It was towards the close of the four months that Roy Baron reached the Bryces’ London house, after his adventurous escape from Bitche; and so soon as the first excitement of his arrival was over, his thoughts turned in the old direction—towards the Army. Those were not days of competitive examinations or of lengthy preparation. Boys were taken straight from school, commissions were given to them, they were put into uniforms and drilled—sharply drilled too, if they happened to be anywhere within touch of Moore’s influence—and in the majority of cases Nature was expected to do the rest. On the whole, Nature did not perform her task badly, with such material as she had to work upon in these plucky English lads. Mr. Bryce took upon himself to act as he knew that the Colonel would have acted if able, and a very brief space of time saw Roy being transformed into a smart young subaltern, in the same regiment of infantry where Jack had lately obtained command of a company.