Colonel Wellesley behaved with conspicuous judgment and gallantry-so much so, in fact, that he attracted the favourable notice of General Dundas, who afterwards entrusted him with the duty of covering the retreat of the British army. This retreat was indifferently conducted by Count Walmoden, a Hanoverian general, to whom the Duke of York had handed over his command; and after suffering the most grievous hardships and privations during the winter of 1794-95, the troops reached Bremen and re-embarked for England early in 1795. This first experience of field service was, no doubt, extremely valuable to Wellington in after years. It must have taught him that soldiers even of the best quality, well drilled, disciplined and equipped, cannot hope to be successful unless proper arrangements are made for their supply and transport; and unless those who direct the operations have formed some definite plan of action, and have sufficient zeal and professional knowledge to carry it out. If the French generals had taken full advantage of the opportunities which the incapacity of the English and German commanders threw in their way, the British force must have been annihilated. As it was, Wellington considered it "a marvel that any one belonging to the force escaped."

On its return to England Lieutenant-Colonel Wellesley's regiment was quartered at Warley, and he himself proceeded on leave to Ireland. Apparently disgusted at the

The Marquis Wellesley, Governor-General of India.

mismanagement of the troops employed in the Low Countries, he made up his mind to leave the army, and in June 1795 he applied to Lord Camden, then LordLieutenant of Ireland, for a civil post under the Irish Government. He wrote: "You will probably be surprised at my desiring a civil instead of a military office. It is certainly a departure from the line which I prefer; but I see the manner in which the military offices are filled, and I don't wish to ask you for that which I know you cannot give me." This application was unsuccessful; and in the autumn of the same year Wellesley's regiment was ordered to join in an expedition directed against the French settlements in the West Indies. The ships in which the troops embarked were driven back by stress of weather to Spithead, and the proposed operations being abandoned, the 33rd Foot was landed and quartered at Poole. A few months later the regiment was ordered to India, and arrived in Calcutta in February 1797. Shortly after Colonel Wellesley had reached India, the GovernorGeneral, Sir John Shore, offered him the command of an expedition which was intended for the capture of Manilla; and, all the necessary arrangements being complete, the troops embarked and proceeded as far as Penang. Owing, however, to apprehensions of danger within India itself, the force was recalled; and Colonel Wellesley returned to Calcutta, whence he proceeded early in 1798 on a visit to Lord Hobart, the Governor of Madras. Two months later Lord Mornington, Wellesley's eldest brother, replaced Sir John Shore as Governor-General; and at once took into consideration the critical state of affairs in Mysore, where Tippoo Sultan, the son of Hyder Ali, continued his late father's fanatical animosity towards the English, and had allied himself with the French Republic, hoping for its aid in attacking the East India Company's possessions in Southern India.

The first step to be taken by the Governor-General was to secure the friendship, or at any rate the neutrality, of the Nizam; and for this purpose it was essential to re-establish British influence at that ruler's court, and induce him to consent to the disbandment of a portion of his troops which had become formidable owing to its being officered by Frenchmen. This precautionary measure was successfully accomplished, and a fresh treaty of alliance was entered into between the Nizam and the Government of India in 1798; the French officers in the Nizam's service were dismissed and sent home; the force to which they belonged was broken up; and a subsidiary force, 6000 strong, under British officers, took its place. While all this was going on Wellesley had been sent with his regiment from Calcutta to Madras; and on his arrival at the capital of the Southern Presidency he undertook, in communication with Lord Clive, the Governor, and General Harris, the Commander-in-Chief, to organise the commissariat, transport, and ordnance train needed for an advance upon Seringapatam. Feeling that the presence of the Governor-General would stimulate the local authorities to the exertions required to bring the campaign against Tippoo Sultan to a successful issue, he induced his brother to transfer temporarily the headquarters of the Government of India from Fort William to Fort St. George,

The army of the Carnatic was assembled at Vellore early in 1799, and on February 11th it began its march towards Seringapatam, being joined a week later by the Hyderabad subsidiary force under British officers, as well as a contingent of the Nizam's cavalry. The 33rd Foot was attached to this force, which numbered. altogether about 16,000 men, and Colonel Wellesley was appointed to its command.

Simultaneously with the advance of the Madras army, a Bombay corps commanded by General Stuart was landed at Cannanore, and moved up the Western Ghauts to a point named Sedasir, where it was attacked by Tippoo. Tippoo was repulsed with some loss, and retired to the vicinity of Seringapatam, whence, after a short halt, he marched eastward for about twenty miles, and came into contact with General Harris's troops at Mellavelly. Being there defeated for the second time, he withdrew into Seringapatam, in front of which place he threw up a line of field intrenchments. General Harris resolved to make a night attack on these defences, and the operation was entrusted to Colonel Wellesley and Colonel Shaw. The latter's attack was successful; but owing to inadequate reconnaissance, as well as the darkness of the night and the thickness of the jungle, Wellesley entirely failed in his object, and lost twelve grenadiers of the 33rd, whom Tippoo made prisoners and tortured to death by causing nails to be hammered into their skulls. The next morning, however, Tippoo's intrenchments were carried without difficulty, and shortly afterwards Seringapatam was invested by General Harris, who meanwhile had been reinforced by General Stuart's column. On May 7th, 1799, the city was taken by assault, the command on this occasion being given to Major-General Baird, and the reserve in the trenches being placed in charge of Colonel Wellesley. The garrison fought with remarkable obstinacy, and in the course of the struggle Tippoo Sultan was killed in front of one of the city gates. The treasure captured in Seringapatam was valued at about £1,200,000 sterling, and Colonel Wellesley's share of it amounted to £7000 in money and £1200 in jewels. Two days after the assault Colonel Wellesley was ordered to relieve General Baird as Governor of Seringapatam-a favour which, whether he owed it to his own merits, or to his being the brother of the Governor-General, was not unnaturally resented by the officer whom he superseded. After

serving on a mixed commission appointed to report on the future government of Tippoo's dominions, Colonel Wellesley was invested with supreme civil and military control over the province and capital of Mysore, and in this capacity exhibited administrative abilities of a very high order. In May 1800 the Governor-General nominated Colonel Wellesley to the command of an expedition which it was proposed to send to Batavia with a view to inducing the Dutch to cede the island of Java to the English; this offer he declined after consulting the Governor of Madras. His reason for doing so was that he considered it a more important work to put a stop to the depredations of the noted freebooter, Dhoondiah Waugh, who had been seized and imprisoned

Tippoo Sultan.

by Tippoo, but regaining his liberty on the fall of Seringapatam, had established himself with a large following of about 40,000 men in the Mahratta territory, between Goa and the western frontier of Mysore. A British force was accordingly assembled on the Tumbudra river, and the troops being divided into three columns, a vigorous effort was made to surround the band of marauders and capture its chief. After a series of long and rapid marches through an arid and difficult country, Wellesley came in contact with the main body of the enemy at Manauli, a small fort about fifty miles east of Belgaum, and after a cavalry skirmish pursued it for a hundred and fifty miles to Konagull on the Tumbudra, where, on September 10th, he again attacked with his cavalry. This engagement was decisive, Dhoondiah being killed and his followers completely broken up and dispersed.

Colonel Wellesley had declined the command of the proposed expedition to Batavia when it was first offered him, but on his return to Mysore after Dhoondiah Waugh had been disposed of he received orders to proceed to Trincomalee, where the force originally intended for the annexation of Java was still being collected. At this period the attention of the Government, both at home and in India, was fixed on Egypt, which had been occupied by the French with the object of converting it into a base of operations against the British possessions in the East. The idea of annexing Java had not been entirely abandoned, but the Government of India wast inclined to think that it might be more advantageous either to capture Mauritius, then a French colony, or to despatch an Indian contingent to the Red Sea, where it might co-operate with the force which was being prepared by the home authorities for the purpose of driving the French out of Egypt. The question was decided by the receipt of a despatch from His Majesty's Ministers, ordering the Government of India to send 3000 men to Egypt; and Wellesley, who on his arrival at Trincomalee was apprised of this order, at once arranged on his own responsibility for the troops assembled at that port to sail for Bombay, notwithstanding strong remonstrance from the Governor of Ceylon. When called to account for acting in this matter without the sanction of the Governor-General, Wellesley justified himself on the ground that the movement from Trincomalee to Bombay would greatly expedite the arrival of the force at its ultimate destination, Bombay being. the only port at which the requisite provisions and stores were obtainable, and where the transports could procure an adequate supply of fresh water before starting on the voyage to Kosseir in the Red Sea.

On reaching Bombay Colonel Wellesley received the unwelcome news that the Government of India had appointed Major-General Baird to command the expedition, and that his own position would be that of second-in-command; the Governor-General explaining to him in a very kind letter that the number of troops employed had rendered it necessary to appoint a general officer to the chief command, and giving him the option of returning to Mysore if he objected to serve under General Baird. Wellesley was bitterly disappointed at being, as he conceived, unfairly superseded, though the officer appointed to the command was a long way senior to himself, and he expressed his indignation in very forcible terms to his brother Henry. Still, he was disinclined to avail himself of the Governor-General's permission to return to Mysore, and he only did so because a severe attack of illness prevented him from accompanying the expedition.

On his recovery, in May 1801, Wellesley resumed the government of Mysore, and for nearly two years occupied himself with the civil and military administration of that province.

In April 1802, at the age of thirty-three, and after fifteen years' service, he became a Major-General, his promotion having been strongly urged upon His Royal