But the young commander was not content with this. He did not want to
remain at home as a mere "drill sergeant" when affairs were so active
abroad. Due partly to the outbreak of the French Revolution, all
Europe seethed with war. France was in revolt against the world, and
all the neighboring powers were pitted against her. England had
maintained a strict neutrality at first, but when Belgium was overrun,
felt compelled to intervene, just as in the similar great war of
aggression begun by Germany in our own time.

Naturally, young Wellesley wanted to be in it. He wrote to his brother
Richard importuning him to use his influence in this direction. "I
will serve as major to one of the flank corps," he wrote, as his own
regiment was "the last for service." The request was not granted,
however, and he had to wait until the Spring of 1794 for his chance to
see active service.

It was a parlous time to go over. The French had defeated one army
after another, of the Allies, and were in the hey-dey of their first
success. The trouble seemed to be lack of unity of command, and lack
of able leadership. The Duke of York was in command of the British
army, but allowed himself to be out-maneuvered repeatedly. By the Fall
of that year, when Wellesley was with the army, the campaign resembled
a rout.

During a series of rearguard actions in the retreat through Holland and
Flanders, Colonel Wellesley came first into official notice. It was at
the Meuse, a stream made forever memorable in the recent Great War. A
retreat had been ordered during the night, to avoid a superior force of
French. One regiment, however, had mistaken its orders and engaged the
enemy. The result was a hopeless tangle of infantry and cavalry, with
the enemy taking advantage of the confusion to press the attack.

The Thirty-Third had been ordered to support the rear. Colonel
Wellesley, seeing the danger, ordered his regiment to halt in a field
alongside of the road, leaving the way clear for the retreat. As soon
as the stragglers had gotten by, he threw his regiment again in solid
formation across the road, and they advanced upon the charging French
with such coolness and precision that the attackers were forced to
halt. It was only an incident of warfare, but it showed his promptness
of decision, and the fruits of discipline in his regiment.

All that ensuing winter the French harried their army. Wellesley was
stationed on the Waal, a bra