De Brooke, who having superseded him in command, the irritable feelings of General Haughton had never ceased to be mortified, and the more so from some slight imputations of irregularity having been laid to his charge, from which, now that he had risen into notice, and some weight might be attached to his depositions, he resolved to exculpate himself, by making it appear that whatever disorder had existed, still actually did so under the command of his successor. How far he was enabled to accomplish this malicious plan the course of our narrative will show.
Perhaps there were few individuals filling military posts of responsibility less formed for public business than General De Brooke. Distinguished as he was for mental capacity, and furnished with the elegant acquisitions of intellect, however skilful and active in the warlike manoeuvres and discipline of military life, yet he was by no means calculated to undergo the drudgery attending upon continued and serious application, which yet, in the career of duties devolving upon him at so important a post, were equally essential to the good of the service as the more agreeable and brilliant exercises of reviews and inspections.
But to counterbalance his own constitutional
