Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/17

 CHAPTER II

The Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign

In 1804 Hardinge was promoted to a company in the 57th Foot, and shortly afterwards was entered as a student at the senior department of the Royal Military College, then at High Wycombe, under General Jarry. There he worked with such energy and success that, on leaving the College, he was selected to fill a staff appointment in the Quarter-Master-General's department under Sir Brent Spencer, who commanded the expedition sent out to the Peninsula in 1807.

In 1808 Sir Brent Spencer's force was united with that which had sailed from L'eland under Sir Arthur Wellesley. The result of this campaign was the complete defeat of Junot's corps d'armée; and on this and other occasions the lessons which Hardinge had learned at the senior department of the Military College were, as he often mentioned in later life, of the greatest practical benefit. He had the good fortune to be present at the battles of Roliça and Vimiera, in the latter of which he was severely wounded.

Sir Benjamin D'Urban, the Quarter-Master-General of the Portuguese army, in a letter dated from the