ton's turn to take the offensive; he crossed the Coa with the intention of recovering Almeida, and on the 3rd and 5th drove back the French at Fuentes d'Onoro, and the fortress of Almeida was evacuated. This was a victory of great importance, as it not only freed Portugal of the French army, but enabled Wellington to turn the whole of his force to the aid of Marshal Beresford, who, surprised whilst besieging Badajos, had engaged the French under Soult at Albuera, on the 16th of May, and compelled him to retreat upon Seville, after one of the most desperate, bloody, and yet most brilliant feats of arms upon record. Wellington, on the 27th of May, resumed the siege of Badajos, but two attempts to storm were repulsed with great loss; and 60,000 French marching against him, he was compelled to raise the siege, and retired across the Guadiana. Upon the French force dividing, he returned to the northern frontier, and directed his attention to the re-capture of Rodrigo; but Marmont had succeeded Massena, and Soult had concentrated 60,000 men-he therefore raised the siege, and retired into Portugal. His retreat was signalised by the brilliant action against the French cavalry at El Bodon, and the critical affair at Fuente Guinaldo. Both armies then went into cantonments for the winter. The campaign of 1811, though apparently as fruitless of great results as the preceding, was, nevertheless, a great advance towards the final expulsion of the French. Massena had been driven from Portugal, Soult had been defeated at Albuera, and two immense armies were retained in watch upon Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos; the Spaniards of the central provinces

had gained a breathing time; and, above all, the prestige of victory had passed for ever from the French to attach itself enduringly to the British arms. It prepared the way for the advance of Wellington into Spain, and the glories of the following campaign.

The last months of 1811 were spent in preparations for striking a decisive blow at the commencement of the ensuing campaign. Wellington collected, with the utmost secrecy and despatch, everything necessary for the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, and on the 8th of January, 1812, he was before the place. On the evening of the 19th, after a desperate struggle, it was won, and with it immense military stores, and the battering train of Marmont ;- that able marshal had been completely deceived by the celerity of Wellington's movements. The fortress had fallen to Massena, and an army of 80,000 men, after a siege of six months; Wellington had captured it in eleven days, with one-half the force; and Marmont was informed of its fall before he had even gathered his force for its relief.

The thanks of Parliament to his army, and an earldom to him was awarded for this glorious exploit.

By the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, the armies of Marmont and Soult were separated and reduced to disjointed action, and Wellington next turned his arms upon Badajos, convinced that this strong fortress and Ciudad Rodrigo were the keys of the kingdom of Spain.

The fortress of Badajos was under the especial care of Soult, at whose disposal the Emperor had placed a large force, and who was roused into activity by the disaster of Ciudad Rodrigo. Marmont, also, stung, to madness

by the fall of the fortress committed to his charge, was waiting to make an attack upon it; and the Spaniards had altogether neglected to store a strength won by so much British blood.

Wellington transported the whole of his siege artillery by way of Lisbon, to the banks of the Guadiana; his operations were conducted with so much secrecy, that on the 16th of March, he suddenly appeared before Badajos, to the astonishment and alarm of the French. Since the former siege Badajos had been strengthened, and its garrison of 5000 men well provisioned, and it was commanded by Philippon, an engineer of undoubted skill. But Wellington knew that, if it was to be taken at all, it must be done at once, as Soult was advancing from Seville, and Marmont threatening Ciudad Rodrigo. On the night of the 6th of April, the assault was made, and before morning, after the most frightful carnage, it was possessed, and 3500 prisoners, 170 guns, and immense stores taken; but it was dearly purchased by the loss of near 5000 of the victor's bravest soldiery. Soult had hastened to the relief of the beleaguered citadel, and had advanced to within a few leagues of it, when he was astounded to hear of its fall; and it was only by a hasty retreat that he escaped being attacked himself.

By the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos, Wellington had, as it were, wrenched out two corner-stones of the French military occupation of Spain. Their armies of the north and south were irreparably separated; with the centre they could only communicate by circuitous lines, exposed to be cut on every point; three large armies had seen their respective

charges carried off before their eyes by a force numerically inferior to either. On the other hand, Wellington had secured an impregnable basis for defence or attack; he possessed the shortest lines of communication; he flanked the French in the north and south; had rendered the retention of Andalusia precarious, and was at the head of the great water communications with the sea. The tide was turned. Wellington was not the man to let the flood of fortune pass by. French armies were dislocated, defeated, disgraced, and half-starved; their stanchest veterans had been withdrawn to organise the immense force which Napoleon had conducted into Russia. The English and Portuguese were in the highest spirits, confident in their commander and in themselves.

The

A blow successfully struck in Spain would give a moral stimulus to the Court of Russia, now retreating on Moscow before the legions of the Emperor. Wellington resolved to advance into Spain. Leaving Hill on the Tagus to prevent a junction of the French armies, which he accomplished most effectually by a brilliant exploit at the forts of Almaraz, Wellington, on the 17th of June, with 40,000 men, entered Salamanca, having surprised Marmont, who retired in good order behind the Douro.

On the 17th of July, Marmont re-crossed the river with 45,000; Wellington, with 5000 less, again confronted him, and then followed that noble march of stratagem, in which for several days the opponent armies marched side by side, till, on the 22nd of July, Wellington, in a happy moment, taking advantage of a false movement of Marmont's, fell upon him, and a complete victory was the result.

Marmont was severely wounded, three French generals were killed, and three wounded; 7000 men were killed or wounded on the field; 134 officers, 7000 privates, two eagles, and 11 cannon were captured. The loss of the British was severe; General Le Marchant was killed, five generals were wounded, 5200 men were killed or hurt, and Wellington himself, the first and only time in his many battles, was hurt, being struck by a spent ball in the thigh.

The results of this glorious victory were astonishing. The French army of the centre was destroyed, and their grasp on one-half of Spain shaken off. The army of the north precipitately abandoned Leon and the Asturias, and fled to Valladolid and Burgos; Victor broke up his lines before Cadiz, and Soult with a sad heart abandoned his beautiful province of Andalusia, and retired on Valencia. It was full time, for Wellington was now in the capital of Spain; he marched from Salamanca on Madrid, which he entered on the 12th of August, amidst the enthusiastic plaudits of the Spaniards. The intrusive King Joseph had fled from his capital, leaving behind him a garrison in the Retiro, which surrendered to Wellington on the first summons. This capture was the last direct fruit of the victory of Salamanca.

Since the opening of the campaign, Wellington had captured two fortresses of the first order, and several of less strength, had won a splendid victory, and had taken 20,000 prisoners, and 3000 pieces of cannon; he was possessed of the capital of Spain, and had compelled three French armies to withdraw from her fairest provinces. But still Wellington's position was one. of great danger. By the evacuation VOL. XCV.

of the provinces, the French would concentrate a large force :-he determined, therefore, upon marching against the army of the north, under Clausel, which had retreated to Burgos. On the approach of the British, Clausel retired, leaving a strong garrison in the citadel, which it was of the greatest importance to reduce, since its possession would give Wellington the means of free action. But, after five weeks' siege, the place proved too strong for him, and learning that 70,000 men were threatening the Tagus, and 44,000 mustering upon his rear, whilst his combined force was but 33,000, he raised the siege on the 22nd of October, and retreated once more upon the Douro; where he was joined by reinforcements and by Hill from Madrid, in November.

The retreat from Burgos is celebrated for its disgraceful disorder. The troops lost all subordination, and suffered frightful losses. The whole morale of the army, hitherto so exalted by victory and advance, seemed to have broken down under the order for retreat. This dis creditable affair drew forth from Wellington a general order, remarkable for the stern vigour with which it spoke of the panic and excesses of the soldiers, and the unsparing terms in which the blame was placed on the right shoulders. Such was the termination of the campaign, in which the most difficult operations had been successfully executed, and the most important results obtained. One other important result ensued-the greatness of the man could no longer be denied, even by the proud Spaniards, and Wellington was appointed Generalissimo of the whole of the armies in the Peninsula. His Sovereign acknowledged the greatness of his deeds, he was G G

created a Marquess, with a grant of 100,000l. from Parliament to support the dignity.

During this year important events in Europe had aided the contest in Spain. Napoleon, at the same time that Wellington entered Madrid, had crossed the Vistula, had won the bloody battle of Borodino, and taken Moscow, where he was shut up with a vast army for the winter. Soult, with 20,000 men, had been withdrawn from the Peninsula for the purpose of guarding the lines of communication with the grand army. England, on the other hand, was at war with America, whose cruisers threatened to place our communications with our army in jeopardy.

The winter of 1812-13 was spent in reorganising our forces, filling up our strength to the uttermost, and in maturing those bold but most skilful designs which, in the next campaign, altered the whole face of the war; and instead of using Portugal for the basis of operations against Spain, made Spain, her strong fortresses and brave population, the foundation of the invasion of the ground of Imperial France.

For the first time since Wellington had been in the Peninsula, he found his Anglo-Portuguese force at the commencement of the campaign of 1813, as large as that of the French. By his continual perseverance, and the exercise of his authority, he had prevailed upon the Spaniards to reorganise their armies, which, however inefficient in a regular battle, aided him considerably in Andalusia, Valencia, and the mountain provinces of the north. The Anglo-Sicilian expedition in Catalonia also prevented Suchet from detaching assistance to King Joseph.

The French, imagining that Wellington would follow out his previous line of attack, by advancing upon Madrid, had placed a large force in Gallicia, for the purpose of falling upon his left flank:-but Wellington had determined otherwise; he marched his army from the Douro in three divisions; the north, under Graham, through Tras-os-Montes; that of the south under Hill, from upper Estremadura; and commanding the centre in person, advanced upon Salamanca; by these means he trusted to force the French back upon Burgos and the Ebro, and to open a new basis of operations on the sea.

The conception was a grand one, and the execution not less. On the 3rd of June, the whole army was in communication on the northern bank of the Douro; the French were in no force to oppose them on this unexpected point, and fell back. The English left under Graham pressed them continually in flank, and they abandoned position after position. As they retreated, the advance of the British took first Madrid and then Burgos, in flank; the French armies in those places hastily abandoned them; the British still pressed forward on their flank, cleared the coasts of the Asturias, and, forming a new basis of operations on the ports of the Bay of Biscay, bade a final adieu to Portugal. length the province of Biscay was approached, the several divisions of the British army met and united, a considerable Spanish force joined, and Wellington, at the head of 75,000 men, looked down into the great basin of Vittoria, where the French, who, by their confluence in their retreat, had collected an equal force, had taken up a position to make a last

At

stand for Spain, and to cover the retreat of their vast plunder and their numerous Spanish partisans into France.

On the 21st of June, the French offered battle at Vittoria; before night the English had obtained a most complete victory, and totally disorganised the French armies; the whole of their matériel, 151 pieces of cannon, the whole produce of years of spoliation in the Peninsula, the ladies of the Court, and invaluable works of art, fell into the hands of the victors. Among the spoil was Jourdan's marshal's baton, which Wellington sent to the Prince Regent, and worthily received in return the staff of a marshal of the British army. King Joseph narrowly escaped capture, but his carriages and private effects, and the archives of his government were taken; and his military chest, which contained dollars to the value of nearly 1,000,000l. sterling fell into the hands of the soldiers. The campaign of Vittoria surpassed the greatest of Wellington's previous achievements. In six weeks he had marched 600 miles, from the frontier of Portugal to the frontier of France, through that vast Peninsula which had been for seven years the scene of so much desperate fighting; he had driven 120,000 veteran soldiers of France back upon the Pyrenees, and had destroyed them as a military force. The moral effects upon Europe were immediate. The destruction of the grand army in the snows of Russia had removed the incubus of French oppression from the breast of Europe, and she began to raise her head once more: but the great battles of Lützen and Bautzen had once again struck her down. A congress had assembled at Prague

to treat with the Emperor for peace, or submission. The battle of Vittoria and the expulsion of the French from Spain revived the spirit of Western Europe. The congress was broken up, and the appeal again made to arms. The result was the battle of Leipzic and the liberation of Europe.

Wellington pushed his success against Soult, who had been sent by Napoleon as "Lieutenant of the Emperor," to take command of the army and to retrieve his affairs on the Pyrenees. This able commander made a daring inroad upon Spain, and had well-nigh won important advantages; but Wellington's incessant activity averted the danger. Soult's attacks were defeated with frightful loss, and the marshal himself and a large force once narrowly escaped capture. San Sebastian was stormed, with frightful carnage, on the 31st of August.

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On the 7th of October Wellington led his men to attack Soult's position on the Bidassoa, and it was forced by an admirable combination of strategy and valour; on the following day the French lines were stormed, and after an arduous contest of six years, Wellington firmly planted the British standards on the soil of France. luna surrendered on the 10th of November, Soult was driven from his strong position on the Nivelle, and on the 13th of December the French, after a succession of defeats, extending over five days, were driven across the Nive, and forced to fall back upon Bayonne. The severity of the weather arrested any further hostilities, and both armies went into winter quarters.

Thus, despite of all resistance (writes a spirited author) which Soult "could oppose, the British