Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/91

Rh much abroad, employed in his public duties, and his mother having died when he had only reached the early age of eleven, the youth was thus left in a great measure to his own management; but even already the maternal care had cultivated that high moral sense and delicacy of feeling which his character afterwards exhibited; while his father's letters prepared him for those diplomatic employments by which he was to secure for himself an honoured name in the political world. The education of Robert Murray Keith was for some time conducted at the High School of Edinburgh, and this he turned to good account in after years, by using Latin, which he could do fluently, both by speech and writing, in various parts of Europe, when his communications could not be so fitly expressed in ordinary language. At the age of sixteen he was removed to an academy in London; and as the military profession was at this time his choice, he studied riding the great horse, fencing, French, fortification, music, and drawing. All this was enough for an accomplished soldier, but to these he added a thorough knowledge of modern languages, at that time too much neglected in education; so that besides French he had a complete command of Dutch, German, and Italian a circle which he afterwards widened so greatly, that among his studies he was able to specify his "ten tongues" as part of his daily employment.

On completing his education, Robert Murray Keith received a commission in a Highland regiment employed in the Dutch service, and known by the name of the Scotch-Dutch, where he continued till the age of twenty-two, and had attained the rank of captain when the regiment was disbanded. He then entered the service of one of the German states, but found it the roughest of all military schools, on account of the hardships and privations that attended it. Among the other necessaries of life, the article of fuel was dealt out with such a sparing hand, that he was obliged, in the depth of winter, to keep constant watch over it a necessity that brought upon him the habit of sleep-walking. With all this, the chance of military glory as a recompense was somewhat uncertain, for he was attached as adjutant-general and secretary to Lord George Sackville, who commanded the English contingent of the allied army under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. Sackville found it necessary to resign; but Keith, through the influence of his father, was soon appointed to serve in a new Highland corps, raised for the war in Germany, with the rank of major-commandant. He was now one of the leaders of a body of men from whom much was expected, and who by no means disappointed the expectation. Although these Celts were raw undisciplined lads, fresh from their native hills, they were marched into the fire only the third day after their arrival; and under Keith they attacked a village sword in hand, and drove out of it a regiment of veteran dragoons with great slaughter. In consequence of their gallant behaviour more Highlanders were sent to Germany, and well did they justify the wise policy of Chatham in employing them, as well as the declaration of the Prince of Brunswick, that "they did wonders." Such was the case throughout the campaign of 1760, and at the battle of Fellinghausen, in July, 1761. On this occasion the claymore was more than a match for the bayonets of the choicest troops of France, whom the Highlanders defeated with great loss; while their kindness to the wounded and prisoners after the battle, if possible, surpassed their valour in the field. In fact, the celebrated but diminutive Marshal Broglie, who commanded against them, and contrasted their prowess with their light, short, spare figures, declared, when the fight was over,