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1809-1811

THE PENINSULAR WAR

867

force in an attack on Madrid. At Talavera Wellesley met a French army under Marshal Victor, and though the Spanish general gave him no assistance, he completely defeated the French on July 27. Other French generals threatened to cut off his retreat, and he was obliged to fall back on Portugal. Wellesley had indeed learnt the lesson that Spanish armies could not be depended on, but otherwise he had gained nothing by his victory. The French forces in the Peninsula were too overwhelming to be overpowered as yet. Wellesley was rewarded for his skill with the title of Viscount Wellington.

8. Torres Vedras. 1810-1811.-In 1810 Napoleon made a great effort to drive the English out of Portugal. Though he did not go himself into the Peninsula, he sent his best general, Marshal Massena. Wellington had now under his orders, besides his English troops, a number of well-trained Portuguese commanded by an Irishman, Marshal Beresford. Even with this addition, however, his force was too small to meet Massena in the field, and, in order to have in reserve a defensible position, he threw up three lines of earthworks across the peninsula which lies between the Tagus and the sea. The first was intended to stop Massena for a time; the second to form the main defence after the first had been abandoned; the third to protect the British embarkation, if it were found necessary to leave Portugal. Wellington, who, whilst these lines were being constructed, was some distance in front of them, drew back slowly as Massena advanced, so as to prolong the French invasion as much as possible. Massena's army was accordingly half-starved before the 'Lines of Torres Vedras' were reached, as Wellington had ordered that the crops should be destroyed and the cattle driven off. Yet Massena pressed on, fancying that the English were making for their ships, as the hatred borne to the French by the Portuguese was so deep-seated that not a single peasant informed him of the obstacle in front of him. At Busaco, indeed, Wellington turned on the French army and checked it for a time, but his numbers were not sufficient to enable him to continue his resistance in the open field, and hence he continued his retreat to the first line. Massena did not even attempt to storm it. Week after week he looked helplessly at it whilst his own army was gradually wasted by starvation and disease. More than 30,000 French soldiers perished, though not a single pitched battle had been fought. At last Massena ordered a reteat. Wellington cautiously followed, and by the spring of 1811 not a Frenchman remained in Portugal.

9. The Regency and the Assassination of Perceval. 1811-

1812. Whilst Wellington was struggling with the French, old George III. ceased to have further knowledge of joy or sorrow. The madness with which he had from time to time been afflicted, settled down on him in 1811. The selfish and unprincipled Prince of Wales took his place as Regent, at first under some restrictions, but after a year had elapsed without any prospect of the king's recovery, with the full powers of a sovereign. It was expected by some that he would place his old friends the Whigs in office; but he had no gratitude in his nature, and the current of feeling against reform of any kind was now so strong that he could hardly have maintained the Whigs in power even if he had wished to do so. Perceval was well suited for the Prime Ministership at such a time, being as strongly in favour of maintaining the existing state of things as the dullest member of Parliament could possibly be. His ministry, however, was not a long one. In 1812 he was shot dead by a lunatic as he stepped into the House of Commons. His successor was Lord Liverpool.

10. Napoleon at the Height of Power. 1811.-In the meantime Napoleon had been proceeding from one annexation to another. In May 1809 he annexed the Papal States; in July 1810, the kingdom of Holland; in November 1810, the Valais; and in December 1810 the coast of Germany as far as Hamburg. The motive which impelled him to these extravagant resolutions was his determination to enforce the Continental System in order to ruin England. England was not ruined, but the rise of prices caused by Napoleon's ineffectual attempts to ruin her increased the ill-will of the populations of the Continent, and strengthened the popular resistance to which he ultimately fell a victim.

II. Wellington's Resources.

1811.-It was upon the certainty of a general resistance to what had now become a real tyranny that Wellington mainly calculated. Wellington had, however, on his side other elements of success. His English troops had proved superior to more than equal numbers of Frenchmen, not because they were braver, but because they had more coolness. He had therefore been able to draw his men up in a long line only two deep, and could yet count on them to baffle the heavy columns with which the French were accustomed to charge, by pouring into them a steady fire as they approached. Moreover, as the French generals were in the habit of quarrelling with one another, it was possible to defeat one before another could make up his mind to bring up his forces to the help of his rival. The Spaniards, too, though their

1811-1812

THE PENINSULAR WAR

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armies were bad, made excellent guerillas,' shooting down French stragglers and taking every advantage of the ground. So dangerous did they make the roads, that when an important despatch was sent to France it had to be guarded by 1,000 horsemen. The French armies in the field perceptibly decreased, in consequence of the necessity of detaching large bodies against the guerillas.

12. Wellington's Advance. 1811-1812.-In spite of these advantages the difference of numbers against Wellington was still very great. Yet on May 5, 1811, he held his own against Massena at Fuentes d'Onoro. On May 16 Beresford defeated Soult at Albuera, whilst earlier in the year, on March 6, Graham had defeated Victor at Barrosa. For all that, Wellington was unable to retain his advanced position. Massena was indeed recalled from Spain by Napoleon, but two other marshals, Marmont and Soult, joined to resist the English, and Wellington was obliged to retire to Portugal. Before long, however, the two marshals having separated, Wellington resolved to attack the two strong fortresses of Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo which barred his way into Spain. Ciudad Rodrigo fell on January 19, 1812, and Badajoz on April 6. In storming the latter place the slaughter of the British troops was tremendous, as Wellington, knowing that, if he delayed, Soult would be upon him with superior forces, had not been able to wait till all fitting preparations had been made. When at last the soldiers burst in they raged madly through the streets, committing every species of cruelty and outrage. The capture of these two fortresses not only secured Portugal against invasion, but also made it possible for Wellington to conduct offensive operations in Spain.

13. The Battle of Salamanca. 1812. Wellington's task after the capture of Badajoz was lightened by the withdrawal of some of the best of the French regiments from the Peninsula. At the end of 1810 the Tzar Alexander had withdrawn from the Continental System, and it was chiefly on this account that, in 1811, Napoleon prepared for a war with Russia. In the spring of 1812 his preparations were approaching completion, and troops were recalled from Spain to take part in the attack on the Tzar. In June Napoleon crossed the Niemen to invade Russia, and, in the same month, Wellington crossed the Coa to invade Spain. On July 22 Wellington completely defeated Marmont at Salamanca, after which he entered Madrid in triumph. He pushed on to besiege Burgos,

1 Guerilla is a Spanish word meaning primarily a little war, and so is applied to peasants or others taking part in a war on a small scale.

but the French armies from the south of Spain gathered thickly round him before he could take it, and he was compelled again to return to Portugal. The campaign, however, had not been in vain, as the French, in order to secure the north against Wellington, had been obliged to abandon the south

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to the Spaniards.

14. Napoleon in Russia. 1812.Whilst Wellington was gaining ground in Spain, Napoleon, at the head of 450,000 men, entered Russia. Of this force the main army, consisting of 380,000 under his own command, was to fall upon the Russian army, and after destroying it, to dictate peace to the Tzar. The Russian army, however, being far inferior in numbers, retreated, whilst Napoleon's dwindled away from desertion or weariness after each day's march. It was not till he reached Borodino, almost at the gates of Moscow, that he was able to fight a battle. Of the 380,000 men whom he had led over the Niemen he now had no more than 145,000 at his disposal. He defeated the enemy, indeed, in the bloody battle which ensued, but the Russians steadily retreated without confusion, and when Napoleon entered Moscow, on September 14, he waited in vain for any sign of the Tzar's submission. He found Moscow almost entirely deserted, and on the second night after his arrival the city was in flames, having been set on fire by the patriotism of its governor, Rostopchin. It was impossible to feed an army in a destroyed town in the frosts of winter, and on October 19 Napoleon started in retreat with the 100,000 men which were all that were now left. The country through which he had to pass had been stripped on his outward march, and he had made so sure of victory that he had provided no stores in view of a retreat. On November 6 the frost came

Grenadier in the time of the Peninsular War.

1812-1813

FRENCH DEFEATS

871

down on the doomed army. The remainder of the retreat was one long misery. Poor frozen wretches were left behind every morning, and weaklings dropped out to perish every day. Fighting, too, there was; and in the end a bare 20,000, of whom probably no more than 7,000 belonged to the original army, staggered out of Russia.

15. Napoleon driven out of Germany and Spain. 1813.--In 1813 Prussia, hitherto crushed by French exactions, sprang to arms, and allied herself with Russia. Napoleon put himself at the head of a new army to replace the one which he had lost. So great had been the loss of life in his wars, that he had now to content himself with levying boys, as all those who should now have been the young men had been made soldiers before their time and had for the most part perished. Yet so great was Napoleon's genius that with this young army he defeated the Russians and Prussians in two battles, at Lützen and Bautzen. The defeated armies looked to Austria for aid. Metternich, however, who now governed Austria as the Emperor's minister, feared that if Napoleon were completely beaten, the Tzar would become too powerful, and he therefore, instead of at once joining the allies, asked Napoleon to make peace, by giving up his hold on Germany, but keeping the rest of his dominions. As, however, Napoleon would not yield a jot, Austria joined the allies against him. Napoleon won one battle more at Dresden; then the commanders of his outlying troops were beaten, and he was himself crushed at Leipzig, at what is known in Germany as the Battle of the Nations. By the end of 1813, so much of his army as still held together was driven across the Rhine. In Spain Wellington was no less successful. On June 21 he overthrew King Joseph at Vittoria, and in the autumn the remains of the French army was forced back out of Spain, and was struggling for its existence round Bayonne.

16. The Restoration of Louis XVIII. 1814. In the early part of 1814 Russians, Prussians, and Austrians entered France. Napoleon, who opposed them with scanty numbers, was for a time even victorious by dashing first at one part of their army and then at the other. At last, however, his power of resistance came to an end. On March 31 the allies entered Paris. On April 3 Napoleon abdicated and was allowed to retire to Elba. Wellington, who had been made a duke after the battle of Vittoria, had in the meanwhile occupied Bordeaux, and on April 10, not knowing of Napoleon's abdication, he defeated Soult at Toulouse. Louis XVIII., the brother of Louis XVI. who had been guillotined

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