The Commander-in-chief placed his name
amongst the candidates for commissions, and he went to Hanover, where,
after he had made himself master of the German language, his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge kindly gave him a commission in the
Yagers of the Guard, better known in England, in the Peninsula, and at
Waterloo, as the Rifles of the German Legion. Being only a volunteer in
the regiment, he could not receive pay from the government; he was,
therefore, at very considerable personal expense to keep his proper
standing with his brother officers; and as soon as he had acquired all
the military knowledge that he was likely to get in the regiment in time
of peace, he obtained leave to return to England; and, as he had not any
immediate expectation of a commission, he visited France, to make
himself more perfect in the French language. After this, he was allowed
to purchase a commission in the 2nd regiment, or Queen's Royals; and he
embarked to join that corps in India. His letters will shew what that
regiment, in common with others, have endured during a campaign of
fifteen months in Central Asia, their privations and expenses; and when
his second commission was paid for, during that campaign, he found
himself at its close, at the age of twenty-five, a lieutenant on full
pay, the amount of which, if he was in England, would be far short of
the interest of the money which has been expended in his commissions and
education, and with fifteen lieutenants still above him on the roll of
his regiment.
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