Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/299

Rh he bore a part in the disastrous campaign of the summer of 1796, and was afterwards shut up with the troops of the brave old Wurmser in Mantua, which was invested by the Man of Destiny, at that time known by the simple title of General Bonaparte. The siege was so tedious, that here Colonel Graham fell into the same malady that had compelled him to abandon Gibraltar; and he resolved to leave the garrison in which he served as a volunteer, for more stirring occupation. For this purpose he silently left Mantua on the night of the 24th of December, 1796, amidst a torrent of rain, and accompanied by only one attendant. It was a truly perilous exit ; for all the water communications with the lake formed by the Mincio, on which Mantua is situated, were in possession of the French,so that the lake itself was to be crossed in a boat, which stranded repeatedly upon the little islands, and was every moment in danger of swamping. After groping through the midnight darkness and storm, the landing-place was at last reached; and here a new series of dangers commenced. The country round was trodden into mire and studded with swamps, among which the travellers floundered at hap-hazard; and when morning dawned, Colonel Graham, who wore his British uniform, was in danger of being arrested or shot by the enemy's pickets. He concealed himself during the day, and travelled only at night, until he reached a river, for the crossing of which he hired a boat, intending to risk a landing, where he would probably have been shot by the French sentinels, had they not been previously driven from their posts by a heavy rain. He thus crossed the river in safety, and finally reached the army of the Archduke Charles, where he continued till the pacification of 1797 by the treaty of Campo Formio, in which France dictated to Austria the terms of a conqueror and master. This termination of the war in Germany released Graham from his temporary volunteer service, and accordingly he returned to his old quarters in Gibraltar.

The rapid current of events quickly called Colonel Graham once more into the field. His first employment was in the reduction of Minorca, under the command of Sir Charles Stuart, who bore honourable testimony to the valuable services of his brave assistant. After this island had been won, Graham repaired to Sicily, and was of such use in retarding the falling fortunes of the king and queen of Naples, that they testified their sense of his merits by repeated acknowledgments. He was afterwards employed in an event of the highest importance to the naval supremacy of our country: this was the reduction of Malta, which had been basely surrendered to Napoleon by the Maltese knights, on the 10th of June, 1793, while he was on his way to the conquest of Egypt, and which he had garrisoned as a key to the future conquest of India. The strength of fort and rampart was such, that had the gates been merely kept shut, even Napoleon himself, at the head of his victorious legions, could never have entered, so that he only became master of the place because there were traitors within to open them. An assault upon this mighty ocean fortress was hopeless, garrisoned as it was by such troops; and nothing could be done except by a blockade from the land, while our ships of war intercepted every aid that could arrive to it by sea. In consequence of this decision, Graham, now holding the local rank of brigadier-general, invested the approaches to Malta with a small army, sufficient for skirmish and observation. This slow process was successful, for after a blockade of two years, Malta surrendered to the British in September, 1800. It is true, indeed, that this cession was made to Major-General Pigot, who had previously arrived with reinforcements, and by whom the account of the surrender was sent home; but the despatch bore full testimony to the able and