prit que vous êtes parmi les vivants et que vous vous trouvez dans votre patrie, m’a causé une satisfaction particulière.
“Après mon retour d’une inspection, j’ai ordonné d’abord de faire une relation exacte de vos services; je l’ai communiquée sous le 31 Juillet, vieux style, au ministre fonctionnaire de la guerre, Monsieur le Prince de Gortzchakoff, avec la prière de demander de sa Majesty Impériale pour vous, en récompense de vos mérites, l’ordre de Ste Anne de la seconde classe. Je ne doute pas que Sa Majesté Impériale rende justice aux raisons que j’ai eu le plaisir de pouvoir alléguer en votre faveur, conformément à la vérité.
“En vous souhaitant une restitution parfaite de votre maladie j’ai l’honneur d’être avec estime. Monsieur le Capitaine, votre trés humble et trés obéissant serviteur.
“A Monsieur le Capitaine N. J. Willoughby, de haut bord de la marine Royal d’Angleterre.”
On the 4th Jan. 1815, a Supplement to the London Gazette of the preceding day, announced that H.R.H. the Prince Regent, being desirous of commemorating the auspicious termination of the long and arduous contest in which this empire had been engaged, and of marking, in an especial manner, his gracious sense of the “valour, perseverance, and devotion,” manifested by the officers of his Majesty’s forces by sea and land, had thought it fit to advance the splendour and extend the limits of the most honorable Military Order of the Bath, to the end that those officers who had had the opportunities of signalizing themselves by eminent services during that contest, might share in the honors of the said Order, and “that their names might be handed down to remote posterity, accompanied by the marks of distinction which they had so nobly earned.”
Without wishing to refer invidiously to the honors which were then bestowed on any of Captain Willoughby’s brother officers, every one of whom who had lost a limb or an eye in battle, while holding post rank, was created a Knight Commander, we may be permitted to say, that the dangers which he has ever been forward to encounter, the hard fought actions in which he has been engaged, the many dangerous wounds which he has received, and the numerous honourable records of his devotion to the service of his country, were sufficient
