New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

424 HOUSE OF GORDON.
of approbation of the services I had the good fortune to render him in the last campaign,
has assured me that he will not fail to express his being obliged to your lordship for the
protection with which you honoured me, as well as to solicit a continuance of your
good offices in my behalf. All these who had a share in the important expedition of
Amstelveen (17S7), of which His Highness is good enough to say I was in some degree the
planner and conductor, having got a step in rank and having been thought worthy of merit
and of a valuable present from the King of Prussia, His Serene Highness will, I believe, re-
quest your lordship to solicit either rank for me or, as we have no military order of merit, some
title which may mark his satisfaction with my conduct and distinguish me in my own country
as through his goodness I find myself abroad. I thought it my duty to mention this circum-
stance to your lordship.
1788, Feb. 15, he wrote from Dresden to Keith {Add. MSS., 35,540, f. 61) : —
I left London designing in the case of a war between the Emperor and the Porte to repair
immediately to Vienna to sollicit in person His Majesty's permission to take the field with his
fine army. Having got thus far [Dresden], I find myself recalled to take command of the 41st
Reg. ; but, having a much greater inclination to make a campaign with the Imperial Army
than to go to drill a few recruits, I have wrote to England for leave to go to Hungary, and at
the same time I have wrote to my friend General Brown to have the goodness to endeavour to
obtain for me the Emperor's permission to serve under his banner.
1790, Mar. 3, he wrote from Dresden to Lord Carmarthen, who had just
become Duke of Leeds {Add. MSS. 28,065, ^- ^SS) = —
Should a war, as it is possible, break out, I beg leave to inform your Grace that I am so
fortunate as to have His Serene Highness the Duke of Brunswick's permission to attend him
into the field as aid-de-camp ; and at his request the King of Prussia is not only graciously
pleased to make an exception in my favour to a general rule he has laid down to admit of no
volunteers, but will also enable me to serve my good and great protector with more effect,
and give me rank in his service, if his [Britannic] Majesty will permit me to accept of it. It is
scarcely necessary that I should observe to your Grace what an honorable distinction it will be
for me to be permitted in this manner to serve with the Prussian army, and it is equally un-
necessary for me to point out to yoiu' Grace the honor and advantage of possessing the con-
fidence of the first general in the world and of accompanying him on general service.
"Viator A," writing in the G.M., 1790, Dec. (vol. 60, p. 1066), states that
Gordon did join the Prussian army in Silesia in the spring of that year " upon
the probabiHty of war between the houses of Austria and Brandenburg, and
from the great estimation in which he was held by the chief personages there,
it is probable he would have been conspicuously employed there, had a rup-
ture actually taken place. . . . When Col. Gordon passed through Saxony
a short time since upon his return to England, I heard him mentioned with
the greatest esteem and commendation by the most illustrious personages at
the Court". 1790, Aug. 16, writing from Breslau to Keith, Gordon rejoices
" as a Christian for the sake of humanity," that there was no war but " as a
soldier who had a glorious opportunity of taking a lesson in his profession, I
cannot but regret your having taken from us every just pretence of making