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396 near Morue Honel, and the heavy rains being now set in, on the 10th of August Sir James Leith was prepared to give battle, when they agreed to capitulate and surrender the island.

As a reward for these important services, the privy council voted two thousand pounds for the purchase of a sword; and the king of France, as a mark of the sense which he entertained of his great zeal, ability, and bravery, conferred upon him the grand cordon of the order of military merit. The object of these honours was soon, however, to be insensible to the pleasure which they were calculated to bestow. His constitution, shaken by the wounds which he had received, sank under the sultry climate of the West Indies; and he died of fever, after six days' illness, on the 16th of October, 1816.

Sir James Leith is invariably allowed to rank among the very highest of the excellent officers who seconded the efforts of Wellington during the Peninsular contest, and to whom that illustrious commander, who has now followed so many of his companions in arms to the grave, was himself the readiest to attribute the better share of the success which attended him in those memorable campaigns. He possessed all the qualities which form a great military character intrepidity unbounded, or bounded only by the soundness of his judgment; skill in taking advantage of every contingency; and a genius for contriving, as well as perseverance and dexterity in executing, the most brilliant enterprises. To all these characteristics Sir James added that spirit of humanity, which forms the crowning grace of this, even more peculiarly than any other profession.

LESLIE,, the celebrated military leader of the covenanters, during the civil wars of Charles I., created lord Balgonie, and afterwards earl of Leven, was the son of captain George Leslie of Balgonie, by his wife Anne, a daughter of Stewart of Ballechin. Of the place of his birth, or the extent of his education, little can be said with certainty. Spalding says, he was born in Balveny, which Gordon of Straloch affirms was never possessed by the Leslies, and, of course, according to him, could not be the place of his birth. This, he supposes to have been Tullich, which lies over against Balveny, on the east side of the water of Fiddich; or, perhaps, Kininvie, which lies a mile to the north of Tullich, on the same water of Fiddich. Gordon adds, that he "was a natural son of Kininvie's, and that his mother, during her pregnancy, could eat nothing but wheat bread, and drink nothing but wine, which Kininvie allowed her to be provided with, although she was nothing but a common servant." There is, however, much reason to suppose that this account of his birth is only a cavalier fiction.

Educated for the military profession, Leslie very early in life obtained a captain's commission in the regiment of Horatio lord de Vere, then employed in Holland as auxiliaries to the Dutch in fighting for their liberties against the overwhelming power of Spain. In this service he acquitted himself with singular bravery, and obtained the reputation of a skilful officer. He afterwards, along with many thousands of his countrymen, passed into the service of Sweden, under Gustavus Adolphus, by whom, after many heroic achievements, he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal with the approbation of the whole army.

In the year 1628, he defended Stralsund, which was besieged by the whole force of the Imperialists, at that time masters of all Germany, that fortress excepted. Here he acquitted himself with the utmost bravery and skill. The plague had already broken out in the city, and the outworks were in a most deplorable condition; yet he compelled count Wallenstein, with a formidable army and flushed with victory, to raise the siege, after having sustained a severe loss. The citizens of Stralsund were so sensible of the services of the field-marshal, on