''A very good officer, but a drunken dog as ever lived.''Such was the Duke of Wellington’s alleged assessment of Sir Nicholas Trant.This book provides a complete reappraisal of Trant’s career, contrasting all too vividly with Wellington’s dismissive remark. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Trant, who had originally enlisted in the army of Louis XVI, volunteered for the Duke of Brunswick’s coalition army that fought at Valmy in 1792. Trant later served in Flanders, Flushing, the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1795, and Minorca in 1798. He later fought with distinction at Alexandria, by which time he was a lieutenant-colonel; having achieved this rank without purchase. He is best remembered for his service in the Peninsula, where he acted as Wellington’s liaison officer with the Portuguese; recruited, organized, and trained the local militia, while also governor of Oporto. Trant’s capture of Coimbra at the head of his militia in 1810 was described by Napier as ''the most daring and hardy enterprise executed by any partisan during the whole war.''