Tracks of a Rolling Stone by Henry J. (Henry John) Coke
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page 7 of 400 (01%)
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asserted that their heads were not even at opposite ends of
the bed, but side by side upon the same pillow. A still greater soldier than Lord Anglesey used to come to Holkham every year, a great favourite of my father's; this was Lord Lynedoch. My earliest recollections of him owe their vividness to three accidents - in the logical sense of the term: his silky milk-white locks, his Spanish servant who wore earrings - and whom, by the way, I used to confound with Courvoisier, often there at the same time with his master Lord William Russell, for the murder of whom he was hanged, as all the world knows - and his fox terrier Nettle, which, as a special favour, I was allowed to feed with Abernethy biscuits. He was at Longford, my present home, on a visit to my father in 1835, when, one evening after dinner, the two old gentlemen - no one else being present but myself - sitting in armchairs over the fire, finishing their bottle of port, Lord Lynedoch told the wonderful story of his adventures during the siege of Mantua by the French, in 1796. For brevity's sake, it were better perhaps to give the outline in the words of Alison. 'It was high time the Imperialists should advance to the relief of this fortress, which was now reduced to the last extremity from want of provisions. At a council of war held in the end of December, it was decided that it was indispensable that instant intelligence should be sent to Alvinzi of their desperate situation. An English officer, attached to the garrison, volunteered to perform the perilous mission, which he executed with equal courage and success. |
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