In the Return they are given by companies, which are called the Colonel's (formerly Captain M'Intosh's), Lieut.-Colonel Erskine's, Major Napier's, Captain John Cameron's, Captain Ramsay's or Grenadiers, Captain Paton's or Light, Captain Gordon's, Captain M'Lean's, Captain MacDonald's (formerly Colonel's), Captain Grant's.

The troops passed the night on the ground they had won. The distance from Patten to Egmont is about fifteen miles, and the army had fought its way over ground sometimes of deep, yielding sand, and sometimes deep in water. They were worn out with fatigue, those on the sandhills by the sea had no

* N. Buchanan is mentioned later as d.o.w. prisoner.

+ Cannon's "History" gives the return of killed as 65, and wounded 208. (See Appendix.)

water, and the state of the country was such that waggons for the wounded could not be brought forward till late next day.

Meanwhile, General Brune, finding himself outflanked by the British column under Sir Ralph Abercromby,* and finding his centre menaced, drew back his line to a position stronger than that he had left. On the 3rd October the order had just been given for the troops to send for their rations, when a report was made that the French were retiring from Egmontop-Zee. Not a moment was to be lost. The troops stood to their arms, and marched forward without expressing a murmur, leaving their provisions on the ground. It was expected that a strongly armed battery would have to be carried by assault, but the French had retired two hours, and were not overtaken in a pursuit of three miles. The British entered Alkmaar and pushed their advanced posts forward, so as to stand parallel with those of the French-Dutch army. They were cantoned in barns and huts, but the remainder of the 92nd bivouacked that night on the ground near Egmont. The troops had suffered almost as much as human nature could endure, but their efforts had been crowned with success.

Sir Ralph Abercromby's Division did not suffer in the action of the 3rd, the brunt of it falling on the other British divisions and on the Russians. The French-Dutch suffered severely, and we took 500 prisoners.

On the 4th and 5th October the two armies rested on their arms, but on the 6th an attack was made by the Duke of York on the entire front of the enemy's line. In the beginning of the engagement the Anglo-Russian army made several successful impressions against the enemy, took Ackerslot, and advanced to Castricum; but the action becoming general, General Brune, availing himself of a favourable opening, advanced at the head of his cavalry, and broke the AngloRussian line, and they were driven back with considerable loss. In this successful advance General Brune had two horses shot under him.

The engagement lasted till night, when the French-Dutch

* Major-General Moore being wounded on the 2nd, Major-General Knox, attached to the Russian column, was removed to command the 4th Brigade of Abercromby's Division.

army returned to its original position, but the issue of the battle, though by no means decisive, was in their favour. They had rendered the British attack abortive, an attack on which depended not only the success of their enterprise, but their means of subsistence, as no provisions could be obtained in the situation of the Anglo-Russian army, whose position is described by the Duke of York in Orders of the 8th as one of insupportable hardship."

A Council of War, assembled by the Duke of York, decided that the army could not maintain itself in its present position, and they accordingly retired behind Zype. Although in

this new position the army was not more than six or seven miles from where they disembarked, its communications were rendered impracticable by the continual rains that had fallen, the breaking up of the roads, and overflowing of the dykes and canals.* The French, under Brune, entered Alkmaar on the 8th, and his right column, under General Daendels, entered Hoorn on the 9th. The Anglo-Russians retreated from Enkhuisen and Medemblick, after having destroyed the timber and dockyards, some ships of the Dutch East India Company, and most of the public stores; but they were obliged to leave their wounded for want of conveyance.†

The rear-guard was attacked, and General Daendels threatened the left; and there was constant skirmishing. the 12th and 13th the Anglo-Russians occupied ground near Zype, before Patten, Warmenkuyzen, Dirkshoorn, and Winkel; some in huts and some in tents covered with straw and branches. Here an armistice was proposed, and the terms were concluded at Alkmaar on the 18th. It was agreed that hostilities should cease, that the allied army should re-embark and leave Dutch territory by November 1st, that 8000

* The men were employed in repairing the roads and dykes-for which they were allowed "working money"-" on account of the severity of the weather."

+ It appears that, although the women were not allowed to accompany the troops, some had contrived to follow them, and those who had no children were given employment, if they wished it, as nurses for the wounded. The others were to return to England, and to receive two guineas each on arrival to enable them to get home.

In General Orders, October 20th, H.R. H. "has the satisfaction to announce to the troops that it has been found advantageous to both armies to

French and Dutch prisoners should be given up, among them Admiral de Winter, who had been taken prisoner at the naval battle of Camperdown in 1797.

General Brune's plan of defence, of which the inundation of the country by cutting the canals formed an important part, was so good that, notwithstanding the well-concerted manœuvres of the British generals and the valour of their troops, this victorious army was checked within six miles of the field of battle, and the enemy, though beaten, obtained a decisive superiority. Great Britain had, however, accomplished half her object in the capture of the fleet.*

The Gordon Highlanders, reduced as they were in numbers, took part in all the operations of the campaign without further loss in officers or men. The regiment received a draft, as on October 9th mention is made in Orders of "the men who have lately joined being posted to companies."

At this time Lieut.-Colonel Erskine commanded the Brigade, Major-General Knox being otherwise employed.

The following letters from Captain John Cameron to his father at Fassiefern give a graphic account of part of this campaign as seen by a company officer, and serve incidentally to show the interest taken by the officers in their men.

Letter from Captain John Cameron to his father at Fassiefern :

OUDESLUIS, 3rd September 1799.

We set sail from the Downs on the 13th of August, and on the 15th we were in sight of Isle Showen, when such a violent tempest arose as drove us out to sea, where we have tossed about at the mercy of the winds and waves till the 21st, when we again came in sight of land, and anchored that night in sight of the entrance of the Texel, in company with Admiral Duncan's fleet and the Russian fleet. On the morning of the 22nd we weighed and stood in enter into an agreement and cessation of arms, the object of which, on our part, is the undisturbed evacuation of a country in which, from the untoward circumstances of the weather and lateness of the season, it is found impracticable any longer to carry on offensive operations, and on that of the enemy to prevent the execution of strong measures of severity and destruction, which it appeared in our power to execute, but which are repugnant to British feeling and practice."

* Prize-money was afterwards given to the soldiers and sailors for the capture of the Dutch fleet and arsenals.

towards the land, when a violent current had nearly driven us on the Hack, a dangerous shoal in the entrance of the Texel. We were immediately obliged to bear up and come to anchor. About an hour after, it blew a perfect hurricane from the north-west, which endangered the whole fleet. However, after the loss of about twenty anchors, we got to sea again, where the horrors of the scene were indescribable, and our situation became truly unpleasant; but at last, after failing in another attempt to get inshore, on the evening of the 26th our fleet were all safely moored in a line extending from within four miles of Camperdown on the right to the battery on the Main at the entrance of the Texel on the left. Our gunboats and all the ships of war (as the enemy themselves afterwards acknowledged) were extremely judiciously placed, and moored so close inshore as effectually to protect our landing.

The situation of the country is very unfavourable to a landing if opposed by a spirited enemy. The beach, to be sure, is smooth and hard, but there is constantly a great swell upon it.

About fifty paces from the beach a double row of sand heights extend themselves from Camperdown on the right to a battery within two miles of the Helder on the left, forming the extreme point on one side, as Texel, a small village on the island of Texel, does on the other, to the entrance of the Texel or Zuyder-Zee. The entrance is so narrow that but one ship can pass at a time, and though it will admit the largest ships, yet were a 74 by any accident to turn crossways in entering, her stem and stern would be on the bank, whilst there might be twenty fathoms water under her waist. In this entrance the Dutch frigates were moored in line at a place called Vew Deep; about three miles further in lay the Dutch fleet under Admiral Hory. They were covered by a considerable battery at the extreme point of the entrance, being at the end of the sand height, and another betwixt that and the Helder, supposed to be the strongest in Holland, mounting 52 pieces of ordnance, 24 of them 24-pounders. Parallel to the sand heights lies one of the most immense plains I ever beheld a dead flat, but partially divided from the heights by an ugly, though narrow, lake or marshy swamp, nearly opposite to the right of our fleet. There was a trifling kind of work with a few guns placed in the interval of the sand heights, called Pitten. The Dutch army was posted in front of Pitten, with the marsh in front, their left and rear covered by part of the Zuyder-Zee. A division of them occupied a post with a flagstaff on the sand heights above Pitten, and they had almost 2000 men in the battery at the point and Helder. About daybreak on the