The last letter written by Sir John to his mother from Portsmouth was dated in the end of July, and he reached the coast of Portugal on the 20th of August, or about three weeks after the arrival there of Wellesley. Moore was ordered to disembark the troops with him, and at once to join Wellesley’s force. Three days before Moore could get to the spot, Sir Arthur Wellesley—future Duke of Wellington—gained a decisive victory over the French at Vimeira. Unfortunately he, like Sir John Moore, was at this moment superseded in command by Sir Harry Burrard, who arrived while the battle was being fought; and the pursuit of the flying foe, which should have ended in a complete rout, was timidly cut short. Next day Sir Harry Burrard was in his turn superseded by Sir Hew Dalrymple, whose management of affairs and hasty signing of an armistice raised at home a storm of indignation. “It is a pity,” wrote Moore in his private journal with reference to Wellesley, “that when so much had been thrown into his hands, he had not been allowed to complete the work.” And to Sir Hew Dalrymple he spoke decidedly: “If hostilities recommence, Sir Arthur Wellesley has already done so much that I think it but fair he should have the command of whatever is brilliant in the finishing. I waive all pretensions as senior, for I consider this as his expedition. He ought to have the command of whatever is detached.” But while Moore thus generously proposed to sacrifice his own claims on behalf of Wellesley, Sir Arthur was no less anxious that Moore’s great gifts should not be lost to his country. The conduct of these two grand men, each to the other, is a fair sight, beside the jealousies which sometimes blemish the bravest characters. On the 17th of September Wellesley sent a frank soldierly letter to Moore, referring to the interview of the latter with “His Majesty’s Ministers,” and expressing a fear lest Moore’s action might stand in the way of his being raised to the supreme command. Would Sir John Moore be willing to discuss the question with him? “It appears to me,” he wrote, “to be quite impossible we can go on as we are now constituted. The Commander-in-Chief must be changed; and the Country and the Army naturally turn their eyes to you as their Commander.” This disinterested letter took Moore by surprise. The two had of course met before, perhaps several times; but they had not been intimate, though each had appreciated the other. He at once replied cordially, and the next day the interview took place, Wellesley calling upon Moore on his way home.