368

DEFEAT AND RETREAT OF FRENCH. [Book II.

1

were won by desperate fighting, in which French, British, and Spaniards showed equal valor. The central body of the allies found great difficulty at the bridges; but a peasant brought information of one bridge being weakly guarded, and bravely led the way to it, and over it. By one o'clock, some of the British were on the other side; and, after some further struggle, the French began to retreat upon the town; but in excellent order, and with great deliberation, facing about at every favorable point, to renew the conflict. Their destruction was, by this time, approaching from their right, where the gallant old officer, Sir Thomas Graham, was driving them in, and possessing himself of the road to Bayonne. The cry spread among the French that the road was gone, and they were all lost. Still, they retreated in order, keeping up a running fight for six miles, and doing vast damage with the guns in their rear; and it was not till the whole force were driven back, with such of their guns as they had brought off, into the little plain under the walls of Vittoria, that they fairly took to flight. They would have escaped by the rough mountain road to Pamplona; but an overturned wagon was enough, in such a road, to prevent the passage of their guns. Beyond the city was seen a helpless mass of army followers, jammed in with the carriages and animals, and frantic with terror. As the English cannon went booming over their heads, they uttered a horrid dull cry of misery, and swayed to and fro, in mortal panic. Still, eighty cannon remained available; and these, worked by artillery-men, actually mad with excitement, kept up a deafening reverberation among the hills. Before night closed in, these were silenced, and the whole multitude of the French were gone, carrying with them nothing whatever but two guns. No one, from general to camp-follower, had anything left but the clothes he wore; and most of them were barefooted. Yet, the loss of life on the French side was small. The soldiery complained that they had no fair chance; and, in truth, they were ill commanded. The British themselves declared that their enemy was not half beaten. There they were, wandering in marshes, and rocky passes, stripped of everything, even to the warrants for their pay; their colors lost; their honor gone; and they able and willing to have made a better stand, if allowed! Their enemy, even in the midst of victory, pitied them. their side, about 6000 fell; on the side of the allies, a little above 5000 killed, wounded, and missing — chiefly British. Of the money, not one dollar ever reached Wellington's head-quarEven officers were seen contending with the soldiers for

ters.

On

the cash.2 King Joseph and his troops pushed on night and day towards 1 Napier's History, v. p. 561. 2 Ibid. p. 566.

CHAP. VI.]

EVACUATION OF MADRID.

369

Pamplona, toiling through the mud of the valleys, under rain, and amidst grievous hardships. They could not stop Retreat of to destroy the bridges, knowing that the British the French. were at their heels; so they burned the villages as they passed. On the 23d, Joseph halted, and sent orders to the French frontier, to prepare food and comfort for his fugitives. He despatched a force to the Bidassoa the old boundary river; and forwarded the main body of his soldiers to Pamplona, where he followed them on the 24th. So ragged, jaded, hungry, and excited was his miserable army, that the governor of Pamplona dared not admit them into the town; and Joseph found them bivouacked outside. The British were so near that they this day captured one of the two guns that the French had carried off. Joseph continued his flight the next day, up the valley of Roncesvalles, and the British invested Pamplona. Joseph sent back a division of his army to hold the valley of Bastan, in order to keep some footing over the frontier; but they were presently Western driven out; and the whole frontier line, from Ronces- frontier valles to the junction of the Bidassoa with the sea, was held by the allies.

clear.

And Madrid.

Wellington had had time to consider and aid the ladies of the French officers, and other helpless creatures who had fallen into his hands. He sent the officers' wives forward in their own carriages to Pamplona. What became of the poodles, parrots, and monkeys, the laces, trinkets, and costly dresses, which were found scattered over the field, on the night of the 21st, probably no one can tell. There is a Correggio (Christ in the Garden) now hanging up in Wellington's house, which was found in Joseph's carriage, the moment he had leaped out of it, and sprung on horseback, to escape capture, that evening. Marshal Jourdan's baton was also taken. On the 27th, the last of the French left Madrid; and the whole of Spain, as far as the Ebro, was cleared of the invaders. Immediately before the battle of Vittoria the calm of Wellington's mind was so little disturbed by the approach of the crisis, that he addressed a full and clear memorial to the Cortes,1 pleading for an amnesty for those of the Spaniards who had acquiesced in the occupation of their country by the French. He clearly saw the mischief and misery of any indulgence by the Cortes of vindictive feeling; and he no less distinctly felt for the weakness and discouragement of the luxurious classes of a nation in the presence of invaders supposed to be irresistible. While those for whom he pleaded were still in the ranks of the French army, he thought of them with compassion, and of their position with a circumspection at once politic and humane. Now that they were left behind in their 1 Despatches, x. p. 430.

370

STORMING OF ST. SEBASTIAN.

[Воок II.

own country, he did his best to enable them to slink home unmolested, and fancy themselves Spanish patriots again, as soon as they could.

Failure at St. Sebastian.

A few French strongholds remained to be reduced: Pamplona, and St. Sebastian and Santona on the coast. The final efforts on both sides were hard, and attended with fluctuating fortune. An attack on St. Sebastian, on the 24th of July, was disastrous to the British, who, after a bloody repulse, were obliged to display a flag of truce, in order to save their wounded from being drowned by the rising tide. The noble-hearted French governor, Rey, responded to this by drawing up the wounded over his defences, and placing them in his hospitals. As soon as Wellington heard of the disaster, he hastened to the place. He would have renewed the attack, but for the want of ammunition which ought to have arrived from England before that time. Failing this, he converted the siege into a blockade it being of the utmost importance to stop the intercourse which had been going on between the port of St. Sebastian and the French coast. The blockading force suffered some disasters; and, while it was before the fortress, the enemy had some successes above Pamplona. They drove the allies down the valley of Roncesvalles, almost to the walls of Pamplona. The tide turned, however; and once more the French were pushed up towards their frontier, by prodigious efforts, made in Wellington's presence, and by Spanish troops among others all equally distinguishing themselves. They had a more formidable enemy than the expelled King Joseph to deal with now, Napoleon having made Marshal Soult Commanderin-Chief of all his forces in Spain, and of the southern provinces of France.

Saragossa taken by

On the 30th of July, Saragossa surrendered to the Guerrilla chief, Mina. Lord W. Bentinck could not take Tarragona, in the face of the overpowering force in Mina. which the French under Suchet came up against him; but as it was necessary for the French to retire, they themselves blew up the works; which answered very well the purposes of the allies. Towards the end of August, Wellington observed that the French were gathering all their forces to one point obviously for some important effort. He was as well aware as they were of the value of St. Sebastian to them, and was accordingly prepared for their effort to relieve the fortress. The French charged the Spanish and Portuguese forces repeatedly, over the boundary river, the Bidassoa; and they were so repulsed that they drew off behind the screen of a violent storm. The town of St. Sebastian was taken by storm on the last day of August; but the castle still held out. The garrison was daily

CHAP. VI.]

WELLINGTON ENTERS FRANCE.

371

as

thinned by the British fire; and still the gallant Rey held out. His opponent, however, was equally gallant the venerable Sir Thomas Graham. He was employing every hour in preparing his batteries for the final assault of the castle. On the 8th of September, these batteries opened their fire; and the St. Sebasweakened garrison could not sustain it. In three tian. hours, they hoisted a flag of truce, and a capitulation was soon agreed upon. The garrison remained prisoners of war in every case of capture of these frontier fortresses, because it would have been mischievous to allow the hovering French armies to be reinforced by the veteran soldiers of their best garrisons. The "northern Gibraltar," as St. Sebastian was called, was thus transferred from the hands of the invaders to those of the deliverers of Spain; and it was to each a possession of the highest value. Sir George Collier, who assisted, from the sea, in its capture, described its being held by the British as essential to the conclusion of the war. The slaughter before St. Sebastian was severe; but it is infinitely more painful to read of the subsequent transactions within it. The brutality of the victors converted that sandy peninsula into the very heart of hell. The historian tells us 1 how at Ciudad Rodrigo there had been drunkenness and plunder, and at Badajoz, in addition to these, lust and murder; but now, to all these was added devilish cruelty, elty "which staggers the mind by its enormous, incredible, indescribable barbarity." The sickening hearts of brave men told them that it was time the war was over, as every conquest plunged the men who made up the "perfect machine" of Wellington's army deeper into devilishness. On the 9th, the Governor marched out, with the remnant of his men, graced by the honors of war. The Spanish flag was hoisted, after a siege of 63 days, and immediately the stormy autumn weather came on, under which no blockade could have been sustained from the sea on that exposed coast.

1

cru

Wellington entered France before Spain was wholly freed. Pamplona still stood out when the allies, under Wel- Wellington

France.

lington, crossed the Bidassoa, on the 7th of October. enters Soult knew not what to expect. whether Wellington meant merely to protect the investment of Pamplona, or whether he would cross the frontier. The last thing he dreamed of was that the British would cross the Bidassoa at its mouth amidst shifting sands and tides, in unsettled weather, when a better way over was in their possession. This, however, was what Wellington designed and did. He had been shown, by Spanish fishermen, three fords unknown to Soult's army; and these, in addition to the known fords and bridges, enabled him to

1 Napier's History, vi. p. 205.

*372

PAMPLONA TAKEN.

[BOOK II. send over seven columns at once. He had left his tents all standing; so that the French suspected nothing (being moreover occupied with a storm which fell on them from behind) till the allies were actually making the passage. Not a shot was fired on the French side till the allies were formed on the right bank of the river.

Pamplona

1

Here was Wellington out of Spain again! He had entered it from Portugal, whence he had driven the French before him ; and he now left it for France, still driving the French before him. There was some wonder at the time why he aimed at making a lodgment in France while Pamplona still held out. He did it by desire of the northern allies, now advancing on the German side. They conceived that it would strengthen the heart of the world if France were actually invaded; and Wellington made the attempt formidable as it was to him at that time. There were three days of fighting, at the end of which the allies were in possession of the hill fortifications with which the French had been long and assiduously protecting their frontier. Once more, both the great generals were grieved and annoyed by the brutality of the soldiery. Soult shot a captain of some reputation for having permitted his men to plunder; and Wellington arrested and sent to England several officers, issuing a proclamation in which he declared that he would not invade France with five times his number of men, if he could not guard against marauding. At present, he paused. He could not think of crossing the Adour, and was doubtful whether he could maintain taken. his new position, if the allies in Germany did not obtain a decisive advantage, and if Pamplona did not speedily fall. Pamplona did fall, almost immediately. On the 26th of October the garrison proposed conditions which were refused; and on the 31st they surrendered as prisoners of war. The whole of this part of Spain was now clear of the enemy; and Wellington's right, hitherto detained by the blockade of the fortress, was at liberty for other service. Thus reinforced, the British resumed the offensive against Soult, and in the course of a November day drove back the French beyond the Nivelle, compelled them to evacuate their own great works at St. Jean de Luz, and left them no rest till they reached their fortified camp before Bayonne. The gallant Soult contended well. When half the allied army had crossed the river Nive in order to command the navigation of the Adour, and cut off Soult's supplies from the country, Soult fell upon the half that remained on the left bank; and it was hard work to maintain the ground. Aid came from over the river, and once more Soult was driven back, amid the rains and mud of December. In the night, there was an extraordinary com1 Napier's History, vi. p. 268.