Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

to cross a large force in the course of the 22d, attacked on that evening the corps which he had sent over, but were repulsed with loss.

On the 25th of February Sir John Hope invested the citadel of Bayonne, and General Freyre moved forward with the fourth Spanish army. On the 27th Sir John Hope, deeming it expedient to invest the citadel of Bayonne more closely, attacked the village of St. Etienne, which he carried, and established his outposts within nine hundred yards of the outworks of the French.

The result of these various operations were, the investment of Bayonne; St. Jean Pied de Port and Navarrens; the passage of the Adour; the possession of all the great communications across the river; a free route to Bordeaux; possession of the French magazines; and the total discomfiture of the opposing army. The price paid for all these advantages by the allies is estimated by English journals at about 4,000 put hors de combat.

The French had collected a córps at Aire for the purpose of protecting the evacuation of a magazine which they had at that place; but Sir Rowland Hill on the 2d of March attacked them, drove them from their post with loss, and gained possession of the town and magazine. Lord Wellington soon after established his head quarters at Aire.

The rains were so violent, and the rivers, consequently, so increased, that the operations of the allied armies were suspended for some days. In the mean time the French, after the affair with Sir Rowland Hill on the 2d, retired by both banks of the Adour towards Tarbes, with a view of receiving reinforcements from Marshal Suchet's army, which left Catalonia in the last week in February.

Lord Wellington ordered a detachment under Major General Fane to take possession of Pau; and another under Marshal Sir William Beresford to take possession of Bordeaux.

On the 12th of March Sir William Beresford approached Bordeaux, and was met by the mayor and citizens, who hailed his approach with acclamations, and taking off the eagles and

other badges of their servitude to Napoleon, substituted the old badge of the white cockade, the token of submission to the Bourbons.

The citizens, universally, gave every demonstration of joy, and not only Bordeaux, but the whole department of La Landes, assumed the white cockade, and declared in favour of Louis XVIII.

We thus see accomplished the purposes for which Lord Wellington was intrusted with the command of the armies of England, Portugal, and Spain, the complete deliverance of the Peninsula from the power of France; and more, a most efficient coöperas tion with the allied powers of the north to overthrow the power of Bonaparte. Whilst the legions of Russia, Prussia, and Aus tria, are holding their steady course to the centre of imperial power, Paris, Wellington, having annihilated opposition, and produced a defection of a whole department from the imperial standard, is left at liberty to march his army towards the same central point.

On the 31st of March Paris capitulated, and was taken possession of by the Emperors of Russia and Austria.

What stupendous events are these! and what a lesson is this to overweening ambition! That man who had either actually or virtually been in possession of every capital in Europe, saving London and Constantinople, sees the sovereigns of Moskow and Vienna lording it in Paris, himself an exile, threatened with general defection and consequent contempt.

It is for the future historian, or the biographer who shall write the life of the most noble Marquis of Wellington after that life shall be extinguished, to give a character drawn from a more perfect Knowledge of his private virtues and public actions than I possess. Mankind are ever prone to compare distinguished men with each other, and Wellington has been compared with his great cotemporaries, as well as with former heroes. He has been compared with Nelson, but he is a far more perfect character at present than Nelson; he has been compared with Marlborough, and the points of similitude are many, but he has not attained

7

that high political consequence and character which the Duke of Marlborough enjoyed, nor stood so paramount among the military characters of his day. I will not look for fanciful likenesses, nor endeavour to write a panegyric, or draw a character of the hero of these pages; let the reader look to the actions of Lord Wellington, and estimate his virtues and his talents, and then join with me in the wish, that they may be increased through a long life with increasing honours, but only be hereafter exerted to insure and adorn that peace, which, as I hope, he has so materially aided in giving to the civilized world.

THE END.

« ForrigeFortsett »