Meanwhile, Buonaparte was preparing to descend like an avalanche on

this absurdly inflated nation. To set himself at ease with the North,

whilst thus engaged in the Peninsula, he deemed it first necessary,

however, to have an interview with the Emperor of Russia in Germany.

The spirit of the Germans was again rising; and notwithstanding

the spies and troops of Buonaparte, his paid literati--like

Johannes Müller,--and his paid princes--like those of the Rhenish

Confederation, Bavaria, Baden, and Würtemberg,--the Germans were

beginning to blush at their humiliation, and to lament the causes of

it, their effeminacy, and their division into so many States, with

all the consequent prejudices and intestine feuds. Prussia, which

had suffered so severely for its selfish policy, and had been so cut

down in territory and insulted in its honour by Napoleon, began to

cherish the hope of yet redeeming itself, by a more manly spirit and

a more cordial co-operation with the rest of Germany. In this work

of regeneration--which is sure to take place sooner or later, when

nations have been well beaten and humiliated, and which then, in their

renewed manhood, require no foreign aid for the accomplishment of

their freedom--all classes laboured. The king, under the inspiration

of his patriotic Minister, Von Stein, began most essential reforms.

He abolished the feudal servitude and forced labour under which the

peasantry groaned; he made a thorough moral re-organisation of the

army, admitting of promotion from the ranks; he allowed any man that

had the money to purchase baronial estates; and he deprived the higher

nobility of the exclusive right of possessing landed property, and

of appointment to the higher civil and military posts. Von Stein,

too, commenced the work of inspiring the mass of the people with a

new soul of patriotism. He established a secret society, called the

Tugend Bund, or Union of Virtue, which was to unite nobles, statesmen,

officers, and literati in one common confederation for the rescue

of the country. Amongst those who entered the most enthusiastically

were Colonel Schill, who had headed with great effect his troop of

volunteer cavalry, Jahn, a professor at Berlin, and Moritz Arndt, a

professor of Bonn, the author of the famous national song, "_Was ist

der Deutschen Vaterland?_" in which he maintained that it was not

Prussia, nor Austria, nor any other particular State, but all Germany,

so far as the language extended. Scharnhorst, the commander of the

Prussian army, though restricted to the prescribed number of troops,

created a new army by continually exchanging trained soldiers for

raw recruits, and secretly purchased an immense quantity of arms, so

that, on emergency, a large body of men could be speedily assembled.

He had also all the brass battery guns converted into field-pieces,

and replaced by iron guns. But Napoleon's spies were everywhere.

They discovered the existence of the Tugend Bund, and of the secret

societies of the students, which they carried on under the old name of

the Burschenschaft, or association of the students. Though Napoleon

pretended to ridicule these movements, calling it mere ideology,

he took every means to suppress them. The Minister, Von Stein, in

consequence of the contents of an intercepted letter, was outlawed;

Scharnhorst, and Grüner, the head of the police, were dismissed from

their offices; but it was all in vain--the tide of public feeling had

now set in the right way. The same spirit was alive in Austria. Abuses

were reformed; a more perfect discipline was introduced. John Philip

von Stadion, the head of the Ministry, encouraged these measures; the

views of the Archduke Charles were carried out on a far wider basis. A

completely new institution, that of the Landwehr, or armed citizens,

was set on foot. The Austrian armies were increased greatly. In 1807

the Hungarian Diet voted twelve thousand recruits; in 1808, eighty

thousand; while eighty thousand organised soldiers, of whom thirty

thousand were cavalry, constituted the armed reserve of this warlike

nation. Napoleon remonstrated, and received very pacific answers, but

the movement went on. Von Stein, now a refugee in Austria, fanned the

flame there, and he and Count Münster, first Hanoverian Ambassador,

and afterwards British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, were in constant

correspondence with each other and with the Government of Great Britain.

Before Buonaparte, therefore, could proceed to Spain, he determined to

meet the Czar at Erfurth, in Germany, by their open union to overawe

that country, and to bind Alexander more firmly to his interest by

granting him ampler consent to his designs on Turkey and on Finland.

The meeting took place on the 27th of September, and terminated on the

17th of October. Both Emperors returned in appearance more friendly and

united than ever, but each in secret distrusting his ally. Buonaparte,

who was now intending in earnest to divorce Josephine, and marry a

daughter of a royal house, by whom he might have issue, and thus league

himself with the old dynasties, made a proposal for one of the Russian

archduchesses, which was evaded by Alexander, on the plea of the

difference of religion. Such a plea did not deceive the keen sagacity

of Buonaparte; he felt it to result from a contempt of his plebeian

origin, and a belief in the instability of his giddy elevation; and

he did not forget it. To impress on Europe, however, the idea of the

intimate union of the Czar and Buonaparte, they addressed, before

leaving Erfurth, a joint letter to the King of Great Britain, proposing

a general peace. To this letter Canning answered to the Ministers of

Russia and France, that Sweden--against whom the Czar had commenced his

war of usurpation--Spain, Portugal, and Sicily, must be included in

any negotiations. The French and Russian Ministers, on the contrary,

proposed a peace on the principle of every one retaining what they had

got. This, Canning replied, would never be consented to; and the two

emperors knew that very well, but the letter had served Buonaparte's

purpose. It enabled him to tell France and the world how much he was

disposed to peace, and how obstinate was Britain; it served to make

the world believe in the close intimacy of the Czar and himself. He

now hurried back to France, and, opening the session of the _Corps

Législatif_, on the 25th of October, he announced that he was going

to Spain to drive the "English leopards"--for such he always absurdly

persisted in calling the lions in the royal arms of Great Britain--out

of both Spain and Portugal. On the 27th he set out.

Buonaparte determined to overwhelm both Spanish and British by numbers.

He had poured above a hundred thousand men across the Pyrenees, and

had supplied their places in France by two enormous conscriptions of

eighty thousand men each. He now followed them with the rapidity of

lightning. From Bayonne to Vittoria he made the journey on horseback in

two days. He was already at Vittoria a week before the British army,

under Sir John Moore, had commenced its march from Lisbon. It was

his aim to destroy the Spanish armies before the British could come

up--and he accomplished it. The Spanish generals had no concert between

themselves, yet they had all been advancing northward to attack the

French on different parts of the Ebro, or in the country beyond it.

It was the first object of Napoleon to annihilate the army of Blake,

which occupied the right of the French army in the provinces of Biscay

and Guipuzcoa. Blake was attacked by General Lefebvre on the last of

October, on ground very favourable to the Spaniards, being mountainous,

and thus not allowing the French to use much artillery; but, after a

short fight of three hours, he was compelled to fall back, and for nine

days he continued his retreat through the rugged mountains of Biscay,

with his army suffering incredibly from cold, hunger, drenching rains,

and fatigue. There was said to be scarcely a shoe or a greatcoat in the

whole force. Having reached Espinosa de los Monteros, he hoped to rest

and recruit his troops, but Lefebvre was upon him, and he was again

defeated. He next made for Reynosa, a strong position, where he hoped

to recollect his scattered army; but there he received the news of the

defeat of Belvedere, from whom he hoped for support. The French were

again upon and surrounding him, and he was compelled to order his army

to save themselves by dispersing amongst the mountains of Asturias,

whilst himself and some of his officers escaped, and got on board a

British vessel.

Buonaparte had arrived at Vittoria on the 8th of November, between

the defeat of Blake at Espinosa and his dispersion at Reynosa, and he

immediately dispatched Soult to attack Belvedere. This self-confident

commander of two-and-twenty--surrounded by as self-confident students

from Salamanca and Leon--instead of falling back, and forming a

junction with Castaños, stood his ground in an open plain in front of

Burgos, and was scattered to the winds. Between three and four thousand

of his men were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, and all his cannon

and baggage captured. Buonaparte had now only to beat Castaños, and

there was an end to the whole Spanish force. That general was much more

cautious and prudent than the rest, and he fell back on the approach

of Marshal Lannes, at the head of thirty thousand men, to Tudela.

But Buonaparte had sent numerous bodies of troops to intercept his

course in the direction of Madrid, and, unfortunately for Castaños,

he was joined by Palafox, who had made so successful a stand against

the French at Saragossa. Castaños was for retreating still, to avoid

Lannes in front, and Ney and Victor, who were getting into his rear;

but Palafox, and others of his generals, strongly recommended his

fighting, and a commissioner sent from the Junta in Madrid, in the

French fashion, to see that he did his duty, joined in the persuasion,

by hinting that to retreat would give suspicion of cowardice and

treachery. Against his better judgment, Castaños, therefore, gave

battle on the 22nd of November, at Tudela, and was completely routed.

Palafox hastened back to Saragossa, which was destined to surrender

after another frightful siege. The road was now left open to Madrid,

and the French troops had orders to advance and reduce it; and they did

this with a fiendish ferocity, burning the towns and villages as they

proceeded, and shooting every Spaniard that they found in arms.

As the French approached Madrid, whither Buonaparte was coming in

person, the Junta, which had taken no measures to render it defensible

while they had time, were now all hurry and confusion. They began

to collect provisions; the stones were torn up to form barricades.

A desperate resistance might have been made, as there had been

at Saragossa, but there was treachery in the city. The wealthy

inhabitants, merchants and shopkeepers, as well as the aristocracy,

were far more anxious to save their property than their country;

the cowardly Junta having issued orders, lost heart, and fled for

Badajos. On the 2nd of December, the anniversary of his coronation,

Buonaparte arrived before Madrid, and summoned it to surrender; and

this being unheeded, he prepared to storm it the next morning. Had

Palafox been there, there would have been, probably, a brave defence.

The next morning the storming commenced, and the French forced their

way as far as the palace of the Duke de Medina Celi, the key of the

whole city. The place was then summoned afresh, and the governor now

proposed a surrender. The fact was, that he had already settled in his

mind to go over to the French, as the strongest party, and he gave no

encouragement or assistance to the citizens, who still continued from

behind their walls and barricades to fire on the French. On the 4th

he declared that the city must surrender; and the French marched in.

Many of the people fled and the rest were disarmed; but Buonaparte, who

wanted to keep Madrid uninjured and in good temper for King Joseph,

gave strict orders that the city should not be plundered, nor the

people treated with rudeness. He fixed his residence about four miles

from Madrid, and issued thence imperial decrees and a proclamation,

informing the Spaniards that all further resistance was useless;

that he wanted his brother to reign in quiet, but that if this were

not permitted, he would come and reign there himself, and compel

submission; for God had given him the power and inclination to surmount

all obstacles. He then set out to drive the "English leopards" from the

Peninsula--a task that was to try him to the uttermost.

Sir John Moore was left in a most critical situation. All those fine

armies, which were to have enfranchised Spain without his assistance,

were scattered as so much mist; but this he only knew partly. He knew

enough, however, to induce him to determine on a retreat into Portugal,

and there to endeavour to make a stand against the French. He wrote

to Sir David Baird and Sir John Hope--both of them still at a great

distance--to retreat too: Sir David, with his division, to fall back on

Corunna, and then sail to Lisbon to meet him; Sir John to await him at

Ciudad Rodrigo. Had Moore carried out this plan whilst Buonaparte and

his troops were engaged with the army of Castaños, and with Madrid,

his fate might have been very different. But here again he was the

victim of false information. Mr. Frere, who seems to have really known

nothing of what was going on, and to have believed anything, wrote to

him from Aranjuez, on the 30th of November, protesting against his

retreat, and assuring him that he had nothing to do but to advance to

Madrid, and save Spain. He expressed his most unbounded faith in the

valour and success of the Spaniards. He talked to Moore of repulsing

the French before they collected their reinforcements. On reflecting on

the statements of Mr. Frere, Sir John concluded that Madrid was still

holding out, and thought it his duty to proceed to its rescue. He was

joined, on the 6th of December, by Hope and the artillery, and he wrote

again to Sir David Baird to countermand his retreat, and order him to

come up with dispatch. Thus precious time was lost, and it was not till

the 9th that he was undeceived. He had sent Colonel Graham to Madrid

with a reply to Morla, and to procure intelligence of the real state of

affairs. Graham now came back with the alarming and astonishing truth

that the French were in Madrid; that it had held out only one day. It

is strange that Sir John did not instantly commence his retreat; but

he was still misled by false accounts of the strength of the French,

and actually resolved to proceed to Madrid. On the 11th he sent forward

his cavalry, under General Stewart, when they came upon the advanced

post of the enemy occupying the village of Rueda. It was but about

eighty men, infantry and cavalry. They were quickly surrounded by the

British dragoons, and the whole killed or taken prisoners. On the 14th,

an intercepted letter of Berthier to Soult fell into Moore's hands, by

which he learned that various French divisions were moving down upon

him, and that Soult was in advance. He thought that he might meet and

beat Soult before the other divisions arrived, and he therefore, after

sending a dispatch to General Baird to warn him of Soult's approach,

crossed the Tordesillas, and continued his march as far as Mayorga,

where he was joined by Sir David Baird and Sir John Hope, so that his

army now amounted to twenty-three thousand five hundred and eighty on

the spot. He had other regiments in Portugal and on the road, making up

his total to thirty-five thousand.

On the 23rd Moore was obliged to halt for the coming of his supplies;

and whilst doing so, he received the intelligence that no fewer than

seventy thousand men were in full march after him, or taking a route so

as to cut off his rear at Benevento, and that Buonaparte himself headed

this latter division. There was no further thought of advancing, but

of retreat, before the army was completely surrounded. By the 26th the

whole army was beyond Astorga, but the French were now close behind

them. Buonaparte, indeed, hoped to have rushed on by the Guadarama, and

to have cut off his retreat at Tordesillas, but he was twelve hours

too late. On the last day of December, 1808, Buonaparte was pressing

close on the British rear in the vicinity of Astorga, and thus closed

the year on the fortunes of the Spaniards and their British Allies.

The boastful Spanish armies, too proud to think at first that they

needed assistance, too unskilful, when they did see the need of it, to

co-operate with it, and who had afforded nothing but indifference and

false intelligence to their benefactors, were dispersed like so many

clouds, and their Allies were flying from an overwhelming foe.

But the year 1809 opened with one auspicious circumstance. There was

no relief from the necessity of continuing the flight; but the proud

Corsican, who hoped to annihilate the "English leopards," was suddenly

arrested in his pursuit, and called away to contend with other foes.

On the 1st of January he was in Astorga, and from the heights above

it could see the straggling rear of the British army. Nothing but the

most imperative urgency prevented him from following, and seeking a

triumph over the hated British--but that urgency was upon him. Pressing

dispatches from France informed him that the North was in ferment, and

that Austria was taking the field. The intelligence was too serious

to admit of a moment's delay; but he made sure that Soult could now

conquer the British, and on the 2nd he turned his face northward, and

travelled to Paris with a speed equal to that with which he had reached

Spain.

Soult, indeed, had sixty thousand men and ninety-one guns to deal with

the flying and now greatly disorganised army of the British. At first

the retreat had been made with much discipline and order, but the

miserable weather, the torrents of rain, and heavy falls of snow, the

roads rough with rocks, or deep with mud, tried the patience of the

men. So long as they were advancing towards the enemy they could bear

all this with cheerfulness, but the British are never good-humoured or

patient under retreat. Sullen and murmuring, they struggled along in

the retreat, suffering not only from the weather, but from want of

provisions, and the disgraceful indifference of the people to those who

had come to fight their battles. Whenever a halt was made, and an order

given to turn and charge the enemy, they instantly cheered up, forgot

all their troubles, and were full of life and spirit. But their gloom

returned with the retreat; and, not being voluntarily aided by the

Spaniards, they broke the ranks, and helped themselves to food and wine

wherever they could find them. Such was now the state of the weather

and the roads, that many of the sick, and the women and children, who,

in spite of orders, had been allowed to follow the army, perished. The

French pressed more and more fiercely on the rear of the British, and

several times Sir John was compelled to stop and repel them. On one of

these occasions the French general, Colbert, was killed, and the six

or eight squadrons of horse led by him were, for the most part, cut to

pieces. At Lugo, on the 5th of January, Sir E. Paget beat back a very

superior force. Again, on the 7th, Sir John Moore halted, and repulsed

the advanced line of Soult, killing four or five hundred of the French.

The next morning the armies met again in line of battle, but Soult did

not attack; and as soon as it was dark Sir John quietly pursued his

march, leaving his fires burning to deceive the enemy.

[Illustration: BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. (_See p._ 570.)]

On the 10th of January the army came in sight of Corunna and the sea,

but no transports could be seen in the bay. They were detained by

contrary winds at Vigo, and the last hope of safety seemed cut off.

Sir John, however, quartered his troops in Corunna, and determined to

defend it manfully till the transports could get up. But great was his

chagrin at the proofs of the miserable management of the Commissariat

Department. On a hill above the town were four thousand barrels of

gunpowder, which had been sent from England, and had been lying there

many months, and the town was a great magazine of arms. Sir John

replaced the weather-worn muskets of his troops with new ones, supplied

them with fresh, good powder, and, after removing as many barrels of

powder into the town as the time would allow, he blew up the rest,

producing a concussion that shook the place like an earthquake.

On the morning of the 14th the transports, to their great relief, hove

in sight, and Sir John hastened to get on board the sick, the horses,

and the dismounted cavalry, and to prepare for a fight, for Soult was

now close upon the town; the hills were crowded with his troops, and

they were already skirmishing with his outposts. In these skirmishes

Colonel Mackenzie was killed in endeavouring to seize some of the

French cannon, planted on the same spot where the powder had just

been blown up. The morning of the 16th passed without any attack from

Soult, and Sir John proceeded with his arrangements for embarkation;

but about noon the battle began. Soult had erected a powerful battery

on some rocks at the extremity of his left, and commanding the village

of Elvina, occupied by our troops. Sir David Baird was posted on the

British right, opposite to the battery, and at no great distance from

the village. The French made a dash at the village, under cover of the

battery, and drove our men from it. The fight then became general.

Soult had twenty thousand men, Sir John about fourteen thousand five

hundred; but Soult had far more and heavier cannon, for Sir John had

shipped all his artillery except twelve light guns. It was soon seen

that the French cannon did vastly more execution than ours; and as the

whole line was engaged, Sir John sent Sir E. Paget, with the whole

of his reserve, to turn the left of a column that was outflanking

Baird on the right, and to silence the battery, if possible. Another

division, under General Frazer, was sent to support Paget, and the

battle now raged furiously on the right, and about the village of

Elvina, which was lost and taken once or twice. In this conflict Sir

David Baird had his arm shattered by a cannon-ball, and was taken off

the field. Major Stanhope was killed, and Major, afterwards General Sir

Charles, Napier was wounded. But Paget drew back on the British right,

and Sir John, seeing the 42nd Highlanders engaged, rode up to them

and shouted, "Highlanders! remember Egypt!" and they rushed forward,

driving all before them, till they were stopped by a stone wall. The

battle, however, still raging, and the French bringing up reserves,

the furious contest was renewed around the village of Elvina. Sir John

then dispatched Captain, afterwards Lord, Hardinge, to bring up the

Guards to support the 42nd Highlanders. Whilst awaiting their arrival,

a cannon-ball, which had struck the ground, glanced forward again, and

wounded Sir John on the right shoulder and breast. He was dashed from

his horse, and was supposed to be killed; but the force of the ball

having been partly spent, before Captain Hardinge could reach him he

had raised himself, and was gazing earnestly after the 42nd and the

other troops engaged. When he had seen his soldiers driving the French

before them, he consented to be borne to the rear. He was carried away

by a Highland sergeant and three soldiers, in a blanket, his wound

bleeding very much, and himself satisfied that his hurt was mortal. As

he went, however, he repeatedly made the soldiers halt, that he might

have another view of the battle. By night the French were beaten back

in every direction; but the British general was dead, having lived

only to receive the tidings of victory. During the night the troops

were, most of them, got on board, and at midnight Sir John's remains

were committed to the ground--as he had always wished them to be,

should he be killed in battle--on the ramparts in the old citadel of

Corunna. No coffin was to be procured, for coffins were not a Spanish

fashion; but he was buried dressed as he was, and wrapt in his military

cloak, literally as described in Wolfe's popular poem on his death.

The chaplain read the burial service, and there his officers "left him

alone with his glory," to make their own embarkation.

The prospects of the European war at this juncture, as observed from

England, were gloomy in the extreme. The dispersion of the armies of

Spain, the retreat and death of Sir John Moore, leaving the whole of

the Spanish and Portuguese Peninsula under the feet of Buonaparte,

disposed many to believe the power of the conqueror unassailable.

The Whig Opposition made every use of this feeling to damage and, if

possible, drive their rivals from office. That the Whigs, in power,

would have refrained from Continental war any more than the Tories

is not to be believed. They had always, when in office--except, in

the case of Fox, for a short interval--been as ready to fight; but

they had generally conducted their campaigns with much less ability.

Now, their great organ, the _Edinburgh Review_, indulged in the most

vehement censures on the Cabinet; charged all the adverse circumstances

of the Spanish and Portuguese war to its bad management; and intimated

that it was the most wicked and idiotic folly to hope to contend with

Buonaparte at all. But if ever there was a time when the continuance of

the war was excusable, and perhaps necessary, it was now. Great Britain

had gone fully and freely into the conflict to assist the Continental

nations. She had pledged herself solemnly to Spain and Portugal, and

to have withdrawn at this crisis would have been equally treacherous

to our allies and pusillanimous as regarded the enemy. It would have

been, in fact, to proclaim to the world that we had been completely

beaten out of the field, that we could not do what we had promised to

our allies, and that Napoleon must be left the master of Europe, and

the dictator to Britain. Such a confession would have destroyed for

ever the _prestige_ of Great Britain, and justly. Ministers felt this,

and never were more resolved to persevere to the end. To show that they

did not for a moment despair, they signed a treaty of peace and amity

with Spain only five days after the arrival of the news of the retreat

and death of Sir John Moore, binding themselves never to acknowledge

the authority of Buonaparte over Spain, or of any family but of

Ferdinand VII. and his lineal successors. That they were supported in

their views by Parliament was soon made evident by the rejection, by a

majority of two hundred and eight against one hundred and fifty-eight,

of a motion of Lord Henry Petty censuring the Convention of Cintra,

and, by a majority of two hundred and twenty against one hundred and

twenty-seven, of a motion of Mr. Ponsonby for inquiry into the conduct

of the late campaign in Spain. Ministers had at length satisfied

themselves that they had in Sir Arthur Wellesley a man capable of

contending against the haughty tyrant of Europe. The most liberal votes

were made for the prosecution of the war. The total of supplies for

the year amounted to fifty-three million eight hundred and sixty-two

thousand pounds, including a loan of eleven million pounds. For the

army twenty-seven million pounds was voted, and for the navy nineteen

million pounds. Between twenty and thirty thousand men were drafted

from the militia into the regulars, and thus the army was augmented

to that amount by soldiers already well trained. The loan was freely

taken at a lower interest than any hitherto borrowed--the Opposition

asserted, because trade was deranged, and capitalists were at a loss

how to invest their money; but the Ministers contended, on the other

hand, that it was solely because the war was popular with the nation.

Before, however, entering into its arduous and bloody details, we must

narrate some disgraceful affairs at home.

On the 27th of January Colonel Wardle, a militia officer, rose in his

place in the House of Commons and made some startling charges against

the Duke of York, as Commander-in-Chief of the army. Wardle had

been a zealous Conservative, but had now changed his politics, and

was acting with the party of extreme Reformers headed by Sir Francis

Burdett, Lord Folkestone, and others. His charge was that the Duke of

York was keeping a mistress, named Mary Ann Clarke, a married woman,

to the great scandal of the nation, and was allowing her to traffic in

commissions and promotions in the army. Nor was this all; he asserted

that, not in the army alone, but in the Church, this public adulteress

was conferring promotions, through her influence with the Duke, and

that she had quite a levee of clergy, who were soliciting and bribing

her to procure livings and even bishoprics. These were sufficiently

exciting statements, and the Colonel demanded a Committee of Inquiry

to enable him to prove his assertions. Sir Francis Burdett seconded

the motion; and the proposal was not met--as it should have been

by Ministers or the Duke's friends--by a denial, but, in general,

by a eulogium on the Duke's excellent discharge of his duties as

Commander-in-Chief. The House determined that, wherever the infamy was

to fall, it should have the full airing of a committee of the whole

House, which was appointed to commence its inquiries on Wednesday, the

1st of February, the Duke intimating, through his friends, that he

was, on his part, desirous of the fullest investigation of the matter.

From the evidence of Mrs. Clarke it appeared very clear that the Duke

had permitted her to traffic in the sale of commissions, and both Mrs.

Clarke and Mary Ann Taylor, whose brother was married to Mrs. Clarke's

sister, asserted that the Duke had received part of the money for some

of these bargains. Sums of one thousand pounds, of five hundred pounds,

and two hundred pounds had been paid to her for such services.

Unfortunately, however, for the continuance of the popularity of

Mrs. Clarke, it appeared that she was now actually living in the

keeping of this virtuous Colonel Wardle, who was thus chastising royal

peccadilloes. The whole of the circumstances did not come out whilst

the question was before the House of Commons, but enough to injure the

credit irreparably of Colonel Wardle, and make Mrs. Clarke's evidence

more than ever suspicious. The full information was brought out by a

trial instituted by a Mr. Wright, an upholsterer, in Rathbone Place,

for furnishing a new house for her in Westbourne Place. She had now

quarrelled with Colonel Wardle, and he refused to pay the bill. Wardle,

it appeared, had done his best to stop the coming on of the trial,

but in vain; Mrs. Clarke appeared against him, and not only deposed

that he had gone with her to order the goods, but told her it was in

return for her aid in prosecuting the Duke of York's case. Wardle was

cast on the trial, with costs, having about two thousand pounds to pay,

and losing all the popularity that he had gained by the investigation.

He had been publicly thanked by public meetings, both in the City and

the country, and now came this rueful exposé. But it was too late now

to save the Duke's reputation. The House of Commons had concluded its

examination in March. It acquitted the Duke of any participation with

his artful mistress in the vile profits on the sale of commissions, but

that she had made such there was no question. The Duke did not await

the decision of the Commons, but resigned his office. Lord Althorp,

in moving that, as the Duke had resigned, the proceedings should go

no further, said that the Duke had lost the confidence of the country

for ever, and therefore there was no chance of his returning to that

situation. This was the conclusion to which the House came on the 21st

of March, and soon afterwards Sir David Dundas was appointed to succeed

the Duke as Commander-in-chief, much to the chagrin of the army, and

equally to its detriment. The Duke, though, like some of his brothers,

very profligate, and, like them--according to a statement made during

the debates on his case--capable, as a youth, of learning either Greek

or arithmetic, but not the value of money, seems to have discharged his

duty to the army extremely well, of which old General Dundas was wholly

incapable.

The corruptions connected with the Duke of York and his mistress

were but a small fragment of the wide and universal system which was

existing. The exposures, however, made by this inquiry induced the

Chancellor of the Exchequer to bring in a Bill to prevent such abuses.

He referred to the sale of commissions which had been brought to light,

and which had been carried on by means of improper influence over a man

in high office. His Bill, therefore, went to make it penal to demand

money for the appointment to office, or to issue advertisements to that

effect. The Bill was passed.

But fresh light continued to break on the all-pervading corruption. The

Commissioners of Naval Inquiry presented a fresh report, abounding with

proofs of the villainies that had been going on in that department.

The Military Commissioners had a like frightful exposure to make of

frauds and peculations which had been going on wholesale, especially

in the West Indies. The same result followed the investigations of

the committee that inquired into the appointment of cadets to the

East India Service. There was abundance of proofs of the sale of

such places, and even Lord Castlereagh was implicated. It was found

that as President of the Board of Control--the Minister, in fact,

for Indian Affairs--he had presented a writership to his friend,

Lord Clancarty, which Clancarty had bartered with a Mr. Reding for

a seat in Parliament, and which Reding immediately sold for three

thousand pounds. Lord Archibald Hamilton immediately moved that Lord

Castlereagh had been guilty of an abuse of his authority as President

of the Board of Control. Castlereagh replied that, when he presented

his friend, Lord Clancarty, with the writership, he had no notion that

Reding was a regular broker in parliamentary seats, though he did not

deny that Reding had told him that he meant to make over the place

to a Member of Parliament who had a nephew whom he wished to send to

India, and that this Member of Parliament would vote accordingly. The

virtuous Wilberforce seemed to hold this easy-going morality, for he

voted for Lord Castlereagh, and, in spite of the denunciations of Sir

Francis Burdett, Mr. W. Smith, and others, Lord Archibald Hamilton's

motion was rejected by two hundred and sixteen against a hundred and

sixty-seven--and Lord Castlereagh walked away scathless. There was

immediately another charge brought against him, in company with the

Honourable Henry Wellesley, the brother of General Wellesley, and late

Secretary of the Treasury, for corrupt practices in the election of

members of Parliament; but the ministerial majority outvoted Mr. Madox,

the mover. About the same time Mr. Curwen brought in a Bill to prevent

such practices, and to obtain purity of Parliament by extinguishing

bribery, and this was suffered to pass when all vitality had been taken

out of it. On the 15th of June Sir Francis Burdett also made a motion

for extensive parliamentary Reform; but the greater part of the members

of Parliament had already left town, and the motion was rejected by

seventy-four against fifteen. On the 21st the Session was closed with a

speech which took a hopeful view of the war in Spain, and also of that

which Austria had again commenced. We may now return to the details of

these great contests on the Continent.

[Illustration: SIR DAVID BAIRD.]

We have stated that the spirit rising again in Germany called

Buonaparte suddenly from Spain, even before Soult had pursued Sir John

Moore to Corunna. At Valladolid he met the Abbé de Pradt, who had risen

high in Buonaparte's favour. To De Pradt, he said he began to suspect

that he had made his brother Joseph a grander present in Spain than

he was aware of. "I did not know," he said, "what Spain was; it is a

finer country than I imagined. But you will see that, by-and-by, the

Spaniards will commit some folly which will place their country once

more at my disposal. I will then take care to keep it to myself, and

divide it into five great viceroyships." Such were the soaring notions

of Napoleon at the very moment that the man was ready who was to drive

the French from Spain for ever. In England, at last, almost every one

had now awoke to the consciousness that Sir Arthur Wellesley was the

only man to cope with the French in the Peninsula. There were a few

individuals, like Lord Folkestone, who were blinded enough by party

to oppose this general conviction; but before the close of March Sir

Arthur was selected by the Government for this command. On the 15th of

April he sailed from Portsmouth, and on the 22nd he arrived safely at

Lisbon. Some regiments of both horse and foot soon followed him, and

he assumed the command of the British army in Portugal, which had been

some time in the hands of General Sir J. Cradock. The command of the

Portuguese troops had been placed in the hands of General Beresford,

who had been actively drilling them; and thus General Sir Arthur

Wellesley found himself at the head of an effective army of British

and Portuguese numbering twenty-five thousand men.

Soult, on the retreat of Sir John Moore, had taken possession of

Ferrol, Bilbao, and the other principal towns in the north of Spain.

He had then entered Portugal, and had marched to Oporto, which he took

after a resistance of only two days; and Sir J. Cradock had retired to

Lisbon. Soult was prevented from advancing farther by the rising of

the Spaniards behind him in Galicia, who retook Vigo and other places;

whilst Silviera, the Portuguese general, interposed between him and

Galicia, and formed a junction with the Spaniards. Wellesley determined

to expel Soult from Oporto, and did not hesitate to say that the French

general could not long remain in Portugal. Leaving a division in

Lisbon to guard the eastern frontiers of Portugal against the forces

of Victor, who lay in Spanish Estremadura, Sir Arthur advanced towards

Oporto with a celerity that astonished the French. He quitted Lisbon

on the 28th of April, reached Coimbra, driving the French before him,

and on the 9th of May he was advancing from that city on Oporto. By

the 11th he was occupying the southern bank of the Douro, opposite to

that city. Soult had broken down the bridges and sent away the boats,

so that he might be able to retire at leisure into Galicia; but Sir

Arthur managed to send across General Murray with a brigade, a few

miles above Oporto, and a brigade of Guards also passed at the suburb

of Villanova, and he discovered sufficient boats to carry over his main

army just above the town. The French commenced a fierce attack on the

British forces as they landed; but the first battalion, the Buffs, got

possession of a large building called the Seminario, and held it till

the other troops arrived. Major-General Hill soon brought up the 48th

and 66th regiments; General Sherbrooke, who crossed the river below

the town with the brigade of Guards and the 29th regiment, entered the

town amid the acclamations of the people, and charged the French in the

rear; and General Murray, about the same time, showed himself on the

French left, above the town. Soult fled, leaving behind him his sick

and wounded, and many prisoners, besides much artillery and ammunition.

This taking of Oporto, in the face of a French force of ten thousand

men, coupled with his having to cross the broad Douro, and that with

very defective means of transit, was a most brilliant affair; and the

most astonishing thing was, that Wellesley lost only twenty-three

killed and ninety-eight wounded, whilst Soult's troops suffered

severely.

Sir Arthur determined to give Soult as sharp a chase as he had given

Sir John Moore. He wrote to General Beresford to hold Villa Real, if

possible, whilst he pressed on the heels of Soult. On the 16th of May

he came up with Soult's rear, near Salamonde, defeated the rear-guard,

killed and wounded a great number of men, and Sir Arthur wrote that,

had they had half an hour's more daylight, he should have taken the

whole of his rear-guard. He added: "I shall follow him to-morrow. He

has lost everything--cannon, ammunition, baggage, military chest--and

his retreat is in every respect, even in weather, a pendant for the

retreat to Corunna." In truth, had Sir John Moore sent a Nemesis to

avenge himself, it could not have executed a more complete retribution.

All the horrors of Sir John's retreat, and far worse, were repeated.

The French had exasperated the population here, as everywhere, by

their reckless cruelties and rapacity, and they surrounded the

flying army, and killed every man that they could find straggling,

or who was left exhausted on the road. On the other hand, the French

tracked their retrograde path with equal fury. "Their route," says

Sir Arthur, "could be traced by the smoke of the villages that they

set on fire." Sir Arthur, in his dispatches, also says that, during

their abode in Portugal, the French had murdered people merely because

they did not like their seizure of their country; and that he saw men

hanging on trees by the roadside, whom they had executed for no other

reason. So the scene of Soult's retreat was now one long picture of

Pandemonium--the whole way strewn with dead men, horses, and mules;

a wasted country, and an infuriated peasantry seeking to wreak their

vengeance. Sir Arthur stopped his pursuit near the frontiers of Spain.

He could not overtake Soult, who fled flinging away every impediment,

whilst he was compelled to carry his supplies and artillery along with

him. Besides, the French, since the defeat of the Spaniards at Tudela,

had entered Andalusia in great force, where there was no army to oppose

them except the ill-equipped one of the proud and unmanageable General

Cuesta; and Marshal Victor, who commanded in Estremadura, might readily

have made a descent on Lisbon, had Wellesley gone far into Spain. He

therefore resolved to return to Oporto, to make necessary inquiries

as to the roads into Spain; to improve his commissariat; and then,

forming a junction with Cuesta, to advance against Marshal Victor.

Whilst at Oporto he had the satisfaction to learn that Frere was

superseded by his own brother, Lord Wellesley, as ambassador for Spain,

a circumstance of immense importance to the cause.

Towards the end of May Wellesley commenced his march over the Spanish

frontiers; his force being about twenty thousand infantry and three

thousand cavalry. He fell in with the old Spanish general, Cuesta, at

Oropesa, on the 20th of July, who was at the head of thirty thousand

men, but miserably equipped, discouraged by repeated defeats, and

nearly famished. Sir Arthur was woefully disappointed by this first

view of a Spanish army in the field, and here, indeed, all his

difficulties began. The general was a regular Spanish hidalgo--proud,

ignorant, and pig-headed. He received Wellesley with immense stiffness

and ceremony, as if somebody immeasurably his inferior; and though he

knew no English, nor Sir Arthur any Spanish, he would not condescend

to speak French with him. His army collected supplies from all the

country round; and though the British were come to fight for them, the

Spaniards expected them to provide for themselves, and there was the

greatest difficulty in inducing the people to sell the British anything

except for fabulous prices. Still worse, Sir Arthur found it impossible

to get Cuesta to co-operate in anything. He fancied that he knew a

great deal more about military affairs than the "Sepoy general," as

Wellesley was termed, and that he ought to direct in everything, though

he had done nothing but get well beaten on every occasion. And yet, if

we take a glance at the French forces now in Spain, against whom they

had to make head, the utmost harmony and co-operation was necessary.

The French army in Spain numbered more than two hundred thousand men,

and of these more than one hundred and thirty thousand lay in the

provinces bordering on Portugal, or between it and Madrid. Victor

had thirty-five thousand in Estremadura; and close behind him, in La

Mancha, Sebastiani had twenty thousand more. Northward, in Old Castile,

Leon, and Asturias, Kellermann and Bonnet had ten thousand. Soult, in

Galicia, was joined by Ney and Mortier, making his army again upwards

of fifty thousand, with whom he contemplated returning into Portugal.

General Dessolles had fifteen thousand men at Madrid to protect

the intrusive King Joseph; and Suchet and Augereau, in Aragon and

Catalonia, commanded fifty thousand. Almost all the strong fortresses

in the country were in their hands. The only circumstances favourable

to the Allies were that the French generals were at variance amongst

themselves; that none of them paid any deference to the commands of

King Joseph, who was nominally generalissimo; and that the Spaniards

were, everywhere where woods and mountains favoured them, harassing the

French in a manner that made them very sick of the country, and that

often reduced them to a state of severe privation.

Sir Arthur was anxious to engage and defeat Victor before he was

joined by the forces of Joseph from Madrid, and of Sebastiani from La

Mancha. He therefore dispatched Sir Robert Wilson, at the head of a

considerable body of Spanish and Portuguese troops, on the way towards

Madrid; and Sir Robert executed this duty with so much promptitude and

address that he threw himself into the rear of Victor at Escalona, only

eight leagues from the capital. On the 22nd of July the united armies

of Britain and Portugal attacked Victor's outposts at Talavera, and

drove them in. The stupid old Cuesta was nowhere to be seen; and the

next day, the 23rd, when the British were again in position, ready to

attack the French, the day was lost, because Cuesta said he would not

fight on a Sunday. This tried Sir Arthur's patience past endurance,

for every moment was precious, and he wrote on the occasion--"I find

General Cuesta more and more impracticable every day. It is impossible

to do business with him, and very uncertain that any operation will

succeed in which he has any concern. He has quarrelled with some of his

principal officers, and I understand they are all dissatisfied with

him." The opportunity of beating Victor was thus lost. At midnight he

quitted Talavera, and retreated to Santa Olalla, and thence towards

Torrijos, to form a junction with Sebastiani. The next morning

Wellesley took possession of Talavera, but he could not pursue the

enemy, for he says, "he found it impossible to procure a single mule

or a cart in Spain." Neither could he procure food for his army. He

says his troops had actually been two days in want of provisions,

though Cuesta's camp abounded with them. He declared that, under

such treatment by those that he had come to save, he would return to

Portugal before his army was ruined. On this, Cuesta became as wildly

and madly active as he had been before stubbornly passive. He dashed

forward after Victor alone, never stopping till he ran against the rear

of the united army of Victor and Sebastiani, at Torrijos. Wellesley

was quite sure what the result would be, and in a few days Cuesta came

flying back with a confused mass of men, bullocks, flocks of sheep,

baggage waggons, and artillery, beaten and pursued by the enemy.

[Illustration: MAP OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL TO ILLUSTRATE THE PENINSULAR

WAR.]

Sir Arthur knew that at least one hundred thousand French were on the

march to take him at once in flank and front; that Soult was advancing

from Salamanca, Mortier from Valladolid; and, besides--which he did

not know--Ney was _en route_ from Astorga. He must, therefore, retreat

at once or fight, and the enemy saved him the trouble of deciding.

King Joseph, afraid of Sir Robert Wilson being joined by General

Venegas, who had shown himself on the road towards Aranjuez, and of

then falling on Madrid, ordered Victor to attack Wellesley at once,

without waiting for any further reinforcements. Accordingly, Sir Arthur

was attacked by Victor in front of Talavera. He had placed Cuesta

and his Spaniards on his right, abutting on the Tagus, and protected

by old enclosure walls and olive gardens; and his own troops on the

left, on the open plain. The attack began on the evening of the 27th

of July, on the outposts, which gradually fell back, and the battle

was renewed the next day. The position of the Spaniards being found

unapproachable, the whole fury of the French fell on the British, and

the contest was kept up till it was pitch dark. About midnight there

was a tremendous firing on the Spanish side, and Sir Arthur rode there

to ascertain the cause. No cause was visible, but the Spaniards were

flying in great haste, and it was with difficulty that he and Cuesta

could stop the rout. Next day the British line was attacked on all

points by the troops of both Victor and Sebastiani, but they were

repelled, and driven down the hills at the point of the bayonet. At

one time the British centre was driven in, but it was re-established

by the 48th, while the 23rd Dragoons, by a reckless charge, paralysed

a whole division of the French army. In the words of Sir Arthur, the

British everywhere maintained their positions gloriously, and gave the

French a terrible beating. Out of the fifty thousand pitched against

the less than twenty thousand British--for the Spanish were scarcely

engaged at all--they lost in killed and wounded seven thousand men.

General Lapisse was killed, and many prisoners were taken, besides

seventeen pieces of artillery, with tumbrils and ammunition complete.

The British lost eight hundred and fifty-seven killed, and had three

thousand nine hundred and thirteen wounded. Major-General Mackenzie and

Brigadier-General Langworth were killed.

[Illustration: THE BAYONET CHARGE AT TALAVERA. (_See p._ 577.)]

The next morning, by daybreak, the French were in full retreat over

the river Alberche, and Sir Arthur employed the two following days

in getting his wounded into hospital in Talavera, and in procuring

provisions for his victorious but starving army. Sir Arthur complains

that, though he had thus repulsed the French for them, neither the

Spanish authorities nor the Spanish people did anything to assist

him in this respect. They were very willing that the British should

fight their battles, but they must provide for themselves, or starve.

The state of our own Commissariat aggravated this evil. It had long

been a Department of the most corrupt kind, the duties of which were

neglected, and little was thought of by its officers but the enriching

of themselves at the expense of our Government and our soldiers. These

swindlers, long after this, continued to pay the contractors and

muleteers in notes payable at Lisbon, or at headquarters; these the

receivers had often to get changed into coin at a monstrous discount,

and Jews and jobbers flocked after the army for this purpose. To add to

the mischief, some of these villains introduced loads of counterfeit

dollars, merely copper-plated, so that, after losing enormously on the

exchange of the paper, the receivers found themselves utterly defrauded

of their payment. It was no wonder that the trading part of the Spanish

population should feel shy of supplying us, more especially as Sir

John Moore--from the money which should have been in his chest having

been, by Mr. Frere, carelessly handed over to the Spanish Junta--had

had to pay in paper which the British Government had not yet redeemed.

The reform of such abuses as these was one of the great things which

Wellesley did for the British army, but at present he was suffering the

extremest difficulties from them. He wrote sternly to Mr. Frere, who

had not yet been superseded by the arrival of Lord Wellesley, that he

(Sir Arthur) was blamed by the Junta for not doing more, whilst they

were allowing his army, which had beaten twice their own number in

the service of Spain, to starve. "It is positively a fact," he wrote,

"that during the last seven days the British army have not received

one-third of their provisions; that, at this moment, there are nearly

four thousand wounded soldiers dying in the hospitals in this town from

want of common assistance and necessaries, which any other country in

the world would have given even to its enemies; and that I can get no

assistance of any description from this country. I cannot prevail on

them to even bury the dead carcases in the neighbourhood, the stench

of which will destroy themselves as well as us." All this while, he

added, Don Martin de Garay was urging him to push on, and drive the

French over the Pyrenees; "but," added Sir Arthur, "I positively will

not move; nay, more, I will disperse my army till I am supplied with

provisions and means of transport as I ought to be."

And, in fact, circumstances rendered it advisable to retreat. Joseph

Buonaparte, with the reinforcements of Sebastiani, had joined Victor,

and that general felt ready to advance. At the same time Wellesley

learned that Soult had arrived in Palencia, in the British rear. He

desired Cuesta to guard the pass of Puerto de Baños, but this he did

so ineffectually that both Soult and Mortier marched through it.

Ney also reached Palencia, and thus fifty-three thousand men were

threatening to cut off Sir Arthur's route to Portugal. He determined

to fall back on Oropesa, leaving Cuesta to defend Talavera, and

protect the two thousand British wounded in the hospitals; but Cuesta

speedily abandoned the place, leaving one thousand five hundred of the

wounded behind, whom Victor, to his honour, treated in the most humane

manner. With the road of the enemy thus left open in his rear in two

directions, Sir Arthur, at the same time, learned that Soult's division

had got between him and the bridge of Alvarez, in the direct line of

his march into Portugal. His situation, thus hemmed in by overwhelming

forces, was most critical, and he informed Cuesta that he must file

off for Badajos. He reached Badajos safely on the 2nd of September,

carrying the one thousand five hundred wounded with him. These he sent

to the strongly fortified town of Elvas, in Portuguese territory,

which now became the great hospital of the army. Sir Arthur, on the

7th of September, was informed of the arrival of Sir Robert Wilson

at Castello Branco. He had conducted his little force almost to the

gates of Madrid, and had made a powerful diversion in favour of the

main army, by keeping King Joseph and the French General in constant

fear of his joining Venegas and attacking the capital. On his return,

by order of Wellesley, he had gallantly fought his way against vastly

superior forces, always contriving to make the enemy believe that

his strength was double what it was. His conduct of this expedition

elicited the most cordial praises from the Commander-in-Chief. At this

juncture Napoleon sent a dispatch, ordering the army in Spain to cease

further offensive operations till the conclusion of the Austrian war

enabled him to send fresh reinforcements into Spain. This was a proof

that Buonaparte no longer hoped to beat the British army by any but

the most preponderating masses. He had in Spain ten times the forces

of the British, yet he could not hope for victory from this vast

disproportion. Wellesley, at this very time, in one of his dispatches,

had observed this great fact. "I conceive," he said, "that the French

are dangerous only in large masses." The British army was therefore

quartered on the line of the Guadarama, to protect Portugal from Soult,

and remained undisturbed till the following May. Whilst the hostile

forces were thus resting, the news reached Sir Arthur that he had been

created Baron Douro of Wellesley, and Viscount Wellington of Talavera.

This honour had been conferred upon him on the 4th of September, as

soon as possible after the arrival of the news of his brilliant and

memorable victory at Talavera.

If there wanted anything to prove the truth of Lord Wellington's

warnings to the Spanish authorities of the undisciplined condition

of their armies, and the incompetency of their generals, it came

quickly. Whilst they continued to treat him more like an enemy than a

friend, and had issued orders throughout the province where he lay,

forbidding the sale of provisions and forage for his army, their

own armies were again annihilated. The army of Venegas, which had

retreated, on the advance of Sebastiani towards Madrid, into the Sierra

Morena, had been taken from him, and given to a young, inexperienced

man, General Areizaga. Cuesta, also, had been set aside for one still

more incapable, a General Eguia, of whom Lord Wellington had already

pronounced that he was a fool. Areizaga, instead of maintaining his

strong post in the hills, being joined by the greater part of the army

of Estremadura, now commanded by Eguia, imagined that he could beat the

united forces of Mortier and Sebastiani, and drive them out of Madrid.

With fifty thousand men and sixty pieces of artillery he descended from

his hills into the open plains of Ocaña, where he was beaten on the

20th of November, with the loss of all his artillery but five guns, his

baggage, military chest, provisions, and everything. There was immense

slaughter of his soldiers, and the rest fled into the mountains. The

Duke del Parque, who was placed for the protection of the line of the

Tagus with another large army, was marching to support this intended

conquest of Madrid, when, in the month of October, being strongly

posted on the heights of Tamames, he encountered General Marchand, and

defeated him. Elated by this success, he no longer trusted to hills and

strong positions, but, like Areizaga, advanced boldly into the plains,

and on the 28th of November he encountered Kellermann at Alba de

Tormes, and received a most thorough defeat. His men, both cavalry and

infantry, scarcely stayed to cross swords or bayonets with the French,

but, flinging down their arms, and leaving all their baggage and

artillery behind them, they fled in every direction. Kellerman pursued

and cut them down without mercy--according to his own account, killing

three thousand men and making three hundred prisoners.

Lord Wellington, notwithstanding that the destruction of these armies,

on which the defence of Andalusia and the provinces of the south

depended, completely proved the justice of his statements to the Junta,

was deeply chagrined by the circumstance. "I lament," he said, in his

despatches, "that a cause which promised so well a few weeks ago,

should have been so completely lost by the ignorance, presumption, and

mismanagement of those to whose direction it was entrusted. I declare

that, if they had preserved their two armies, or even one of them, the

cause was safe. The French could have sent no reinforcements which

could have been of any use; time would have been gained; the state of

affairs would have daily improved; all the chances were in our favour;

and, in the first moment of weakness, occasioned by any diversion on

the Continent, or by the growing discontent of the French themselves

with the war, the French armies must have been driven out of Spain."

Lord Wellington's position was, by the destruction of these armies,

left totally open, and he had for some time resolved to retire wholly

into Portugal, and had been planning that system of defence which

afterwards proved so astonishing to the French. Though he was left

with about twenty thousand men to maintain himself against the whole

French host in Spain, he never for a moment contemplated quitting the

Peninsula, nor despaired of the final result. The experienced eye of

Lord Wellington, after the battle of Vimiera, had, at a glance, seen

the admirable capability of the mountain ranges of Torres Vedras for

the construction of impregnable lines of defence for Lisbon. So far

from holding any notion of being driven to his ships, like Sir John

Moore, he was satisfied that, by fortifying the defiles through these

hills, and keeping our ships on the Tagus and on the coast, he could

defy all the armies of France. He proceeded now to Lisbon, where he

arrived on the 10th of October, reconnoitred the hills, and, having

done so, left with Colonel Fletcher, of the Engineers, a clearly

written statement of all that he desired to be done, so as to make the

double line of defences complete: to erect batteries on each side of

the defiles through which the necessary roads ran, to erect breastworks

and entrenchments where required, and to break down the bridges in

front of them. He ascertained the precise time it would require to

accomplish all this, and, ordering all to be carried on with the utmost

quickness, he returned to Badajos, and next proceeded to Seville, to

join his brother in urging on the Spanish Government the necessary

measures for the defence of the country. After visiting Cadiz with

his brother, he returned to his headquarters, where he had scarcely

arrived on the 17th of November, when he received the news of the

total overthrow of the Spaniards at Ocaña. He then made a deliberate

and orderly retreat from Spain, crossing the Tagus at Abrantes, where

he left General Hill with his division, supported by General Fane's

brigade of heavy horse, and marched to Almeida, and quartered his

army there in a more healthy situation. His troops were now also well

supplied with provisions. During the long interval of repose--that

is, till the following May--Wellington actively employed himself in

putting life and order into the commissariat, baggage, and conveyance

departments; and General Beresford, to whom the important function of

disciplining the Portuguese troops was assigned, laboured in that with

such effect, that he produced at the next campaign troops which, led by

British officers, and mixed with British regiments, fought admirably.

The Portuguese were wise enough to allow the British commander full

control, and by this means they avoided those defeats and calamities

which fell long and heavily on the Spaniards.

Whilst these events had been taking place in Spain and Portugal, Great

Britain had been sending money and troops to oppose Buonaparte in

other quarters. Early in the spring Austria was in the field; in July

a powerful fleet, carrying an army, sailed from the Downs, to create a

diversion on the coast of the Netherlands, and other operations were

commenced in the south of Italy. The army destined for the Netherlands

amounted to forty thousand men, attended by a fleet of thirty-five sail

of the line and twenty frigates, to assist where they might be needed.

Buonaparte had contemplated making a great port of Antwerp, and had

expended much money and labour in docks and fortifications there; but

finding that the port of Antwerp was not deep enough for first-rate

ships of war, he undertook to render Flushing capable of receiving and

protecting a large fleet. He still contemplated, by the co-operation

of Denmark and Russia, the sending forth a fleet, some day, which

might cope with the British navy, or enable him to invade England.

For this purpose he was building ships at Antwerp and Flushing; and

it was, no doubt, these circumstances which determined the British to

direct their attack on Flushing and Antwerp. Captain, afterwards Sir

George Cockburn, was of opinion that these preparations of Napoleon

could never affect England; that no possession of Zealand, or any

part of it, could be kept by England, from its extreme unhealthiness

to foreigners, and even to Dutchmen; and that it was much better for

Britain to let Buonaparte build ships, and take them whenever they came

out to sea, than to sacrifice the lives of our troops for no permanent

benefit in this region of bogs, stagnant water, and malaria. Had these

forty thousand troops been sent to support Wellington, and half the

money that this fatal expedition cost, they would have enabled him

to drive the French triumphantly out of Spain, and create the most

magnificent diversion for Austria, as well as the most honourable to

England.

But the surprise of Antwerp and the destruction of the docks of

Flushing were determined upon; and Lord Chatham, rather for his name

than for any military talent that he possessed, was appointed the

commander of the forces. Lord Chatham was so notorious for his sluggish

and procrastinating nature, that he had long been nicknamed the _late_

Lord Chatham; the justice of this epithet had been too obvious in all

the offices that he had hitherto held; and yet this expedition which

demanded the utmost promptness and active skill, was entrusted to him.

At the head of the fleet was placed Sir Richard Strachan, a man of no

energy. The commander of the ships on such an occasion should have

been Lord Cochrane, for Sir Sidney Smith was already engaged on the

coast of Italy. The orders for each commander were extremely loose and

indefinite thereby leaving every chance of disputes and consequent

delays and mishaps; and, to complete the disgraceful management of

the Government, no inquiries had been made as to the healthiness or

unhealthiness of the district where the army would have to encamp.

Though the island of Walcheren had been occupied by our troops under

William III., no record was to be found, or, indeed, was sought for, as

to the cost of life to our men on that occasion from the climate. The

whole plan was laid in ignorance and carried out with carelessness, and

it was no wonder, therefore, that it ended in misery and disgrace.

[Illustration: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. (_After the Portrait by Sir

Thomas Lawrence._)]

The fleet sailed from the Downs on the 28th of July, 1809, and on

the 30th it touched at the islands of South Beveland and Walcheren.

The orders of the Government were, "the capture or destruction of

the enemy's ships, building or afloat at Antwerp and Flushing; the

destruction of the arsenals at Antwerp, Terneuse, and Flushing; the

reduction of the island of Walcheren, and, if possible, the rendering

of the Scheldt no longer navigable for ships." Nelson, who had

contemplated this enterprise, had calculated that it would require

four or five thousand men, and could be accomplished in a week. But

now Buonaparte had rendered the task more difficult, and there was no

Nelson to do it. The most sagacious of the officers pointed out that

the first rush should be for Antwerp, as the extreme point of the

expedition, so as to destroy or capture the vessels there before the

French could come to the rescue. The places nearer to the sea could

be taken in returning. Had the troops landed at Blankenberg, they

could have made a rapid march along a paved road through Bruges and

Ghent, and captured Antwerp, only forty-five miles distant, whilst

the fleet ascended the Scheldt to receive them on their return; but

no such common-sense ideas found acceptance with the commanders.

They determined to reduce Flushing first, and the other forts on the

Scheldt, as Lillo and Liefkenshoek, in succession, by which time it was

certain that the French would appear at Antwerp in numbers sufficient

to protect it. Flushing was attacked on the 1st of August, and did not

surrender till the 16th. Had this been the reduction of Antwerp, the

rest of the objects of the expedition would have followed of course;

but Lord Chatham and Rear-Admiral Strachan were in no hurry. They

remained signing the capitulation, securing six thousand prisoners that

they had taken, and reducing two small islands to the north of the

eastern Scheldt, till the 21st (three whole weeks virtually wasted!),

and on the 23rd they landed at Ter Goes, on the neighbouring island of

South Beveland. Here, again, they delayed another precious fortnight,

whilst the French were planting batteries at every turn of the river

between them and Antwerp; had drawn a boom-chain across the channel

between Lillo and Liefkenshoek; and had sunk vessels to obstruct the

narrowest part of the channel beyond. They still talked of forcing

their way to Antwerp; but according to a satiric rhyme of the time--

"The Earl of Chatham, with his sword drawn,

Stood waiting for Sir Richard Strachan;

Sir Richard, eager to be at 'em,

Stood waiting too, for whom? Lord Chatham."

Meantime Cambacérès and Fouché had dispatched couriers to Louis

Buonaparte, in Holland, to march down troops to the defence of Antwerp;

and he had not only done that, but had opened the sluices on the

borders of the Scheldt, and laid the country under water, to prevent

the march of the British. He also had ordered the erection of numerous

batteries, and Bernadotte arrived in about a fortnight, by orders of

Napoleon, to resist the advance of the British. From forty to fifty

thousand troops were assembled in and around Antwerp, and hosts of

Dutch and Belgian militia swarmed over the country. This was certain

to be the case if any time was allowed, and it was now agreed, in a

council of war, that it was not possible to proceed further. In fact,

they were no longer allowed to remain where they were. Their provisions

were rapidly being exhausted, sickness was spreading amongst the

troops, and the fire of the enemy's batteries from both sides of the

river compelled them to fall down the stream. That was the end of the

campaign; the rest was a foolish and murderous delay in the island

of Walcheren, without any conceivable purpose. There was no use in

retaining the island, for we could at any time blockade the mouths

of the Scheldt, and our men on board the ships were comparatively

healthy; but in this swamp of death the soldiers continued dying

like rotten sheep. The island of Walcheren, to which they were now

confined, is a spongy swamp, below the level of the sea at high water.

The wet oozes through the banks, and stagnates in the dykes, and is

only capable of being pumped out by windmills. The ground is covered

often with mud and slime, and the inhabitants are sickly and sallow in

aspect, and of loose and flaccid muscles. Yet, in this den of fever

and death, the commanders seemed determined to retain the army till

it perished entirely. The Earl of Chatham himself returned to London

on the 14th of September, with as many of the sick as he could take.

At this time he left eleven thousand, out of the seventeen thousand

quartered on the island of Walcheren, on the sick-list, and rapidly

dying; yet neither he nor Sir Eyre Coote, who succeeded him, seems to

have felt the necessity of saving the army by retiring from the place.

They attributed the unhealthiness to the dykes being cut, and the

surrounding country being flooded in the hot season. No matter what was

the cause, the army was perishing, and ought to have been removed; but,

so far from this, the Ministers seemed determined to keep possession

of this useless and pestilential swamp at any cost. As it was imagined

that the drinking of the water was the cause of the fever, Thames water

was carried over for the troops, five hundred tons per week being

required. But it was not the drinking it only that caused disease and

death, but the standing and working in it, as many of them did, up

to the middle for many hours together, and the malaria arising from

the oozy soil. As the roofs in Flushing were knocked to pieces by the

storming of the town, British workmen, with bricks, mortar, tiles, and

tools, were sent over to repair them, so as to protect the sick in the

hospitals, though plenty of workmen and materials might have been had

in the country.

As it was necessary that some doctors of note and experience should be

sent over to examine the nature of the illness and the condition of

the men, the Surgeon-General was ordered to proceed to the spot and

make the necessary inquiries; but he replied that it was not in his

department, but in that of the Physician-General, Sir Lucas Pepys.

Sir Lucas excused himself on account of his age, and recommended

some other physicians to be sent out. Both gentlemen were content to

receive the country's money easily at home, but although a whole army

was perishing, they would not risk their own precious lives. They were

dismissed, and their conduct showed the necessity of a thorough reform

of the medical establishment of the army. Sir Richard Strachan, though

he saw the continuous destruction of the soldiers, strongly recommended

Government to retain possession of Walcheren, as a very important

naval station, and the Ministry were besotted enough to contemplate

fortifying it on an extensive scale, and more men and materials were

sent over for that purpose. But, fortunately for the remains of our

army there, the Emperor of Austria had now made peace with Buonaparte,

and our diversion in his favour here was useless, so, on the 13th of

November, orders were sent to Lieutenant-General Don, who had succeeded

Sir Eyre Coote, to destroy the docks and fortifications of Flushing,

and come away. Thus ended this most fatal expedition, which cost Great

Britain twenty millions of money, and many thousands of lives. Of those

who survived, thousands had their constitutions broken for ever; and

even such as appeared to get over the lingering and insidious Walcheren

fever, on being sent to the war in the Peninsula, proved so liable to

its return on exposure to wet or cold, that often one-third of these

troops were not fit for service. So far from wishing to remove us from

Walcheren, Buonaparte wrote to the Minister of War, saying: "We are

rejoiced to see that the English have packed themselves in the morasses

of Zealand. Let them be only kept in check, and the bad air and fevers

peculiar to the country will soon destroy their army." The fatal

results of this expedition introduced dissensions into the Cabinet, and

soon after occasioned the resignation of Canning.

Our forces on the Italian coast were met by the active spirit of the

new King of Naples, Joachim Murat. Sir John Stuart, who had won the

splendid victory of Maida, embarked, on the 13th of June, fifteen

thousand British troops in Sicily, and proceeded to menace Naples, and

create alarm in various quarters, so as to draw the French from Upper

Italy, and thus relieve the Austrians. With part of these forces siege

was laid to Scylla; with the other Sir John anchored off Cape Miseno,

close to Baiæ and Puzzuoli, and directly across the bay, about a dozen

miles from Naples. The greatest alarm was excited, and nothing would

have been easier for Sir John than to have battered the town about

the ears of the intruder king; but this the interests of the old king

did not permit, especially as Ferdinand's second son, Don Leopold,

was present as nominal commander, but he was of no use really, being

a most effeminate and incapable person. Sir John then sailed to the

islands of Procida and Ischia, compelled the garrisons to capitulate,

dismantled the fortifications, and then abandoned these islands. During

all this time our warships were scouring the whole of the coasts of

Southern Italy, capturing every vessel that ventured out, and keeping

the French generals on shore in constant agitation. In the encounters

with the enemy's vessels on these coasts many brilliant exploits were

performed by our captains, and by none more than by Captain Staines, of

the _Cyane_ frigate, who, on the 27th of June, stood a stout but most

unequal fight with a Neapolitan frigate and corvette, under the very

batteries of Naples. The siege of Scylla was raised by a strong French

force, and Sir John Stuart returned to Sicily. Scylla was, however,

shortly after abandoned again by the French, and its guns and stores,

which appeared to have been left in some panic, fell into the hands of

the British.

Sir John Stuart did not long remain idle at Palermo. At the suggestion

of Lord Collingwood, he sent out an expedition to seize on a number of

the Ionian Isles, which had been taken possession of by the French,

who were calculating on further conquests in that direction--namely,

in continental Greece itself. The _Warrior_, commanded by Captain

Spranger, attended by other vessels, carried over one thousand six

hundred troops, under command of Brigadier-General Oswald. The troops

were half of them British, and half Corsicans, Sicilians, Calabrians,

and other foreigners in British pay. They carried with them Signor

Foresti and an Ionian Greek as interpreters and agents with their

countrymen, many of whom, they were aware, had an indignant hatred

of the French domination. They arrived off Cephalonia on the 28th of

September, and on the 1st of October, being joined by their transports

and gunboats, they anchored in the bay of Zante, and the following

morning commenced a landing, under the cover of a brisk fire from some

of the ships and gunboats. The land-batteries were soon silenced, and

before night the French commander had not only surrendered the castle,

but the islands of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo. Two of the

seven islands remained for the time in the hands of the French--Santa

Maura and Corfu. But Santa Maura, after a sharp contest, was carried,

in the following April, by General Oswald, most brilliantly supported

by Lieutenant-Colonel Hudson Lowe, Major Church, and other officers.

General Camus, the French commandant, surrendered with his garrison

of one thousand men. There remained only Corfu, but this, the most

important island of the group, would have required a much stronger

force to reduce it; and as it was completely useless to the French,

being cut off from all communication with France by our ships, it

remained under France till 1814, when, at the Congress of Paris, it was

made over by Louis XVIII., and the whole seven islands were declared a

republic, under the protection of Great Britain. Such was the origin

of our connection with the Ionian Islands, where we maintained a

Commissioner and a body of troops, much to the discontent of a party in

the islands, who desired to join the kingdom of Greece.

At the opening of 1810 a peace was contracted with Turkey; but not

with the Sultan Selim, with whom we had been at war, nor with his

successor, Mahmoud. Whilst the throne of Turkey was occupied by a mere

boy, and whilst his regular troops were dispersed, Alexander of Russia,

famed for his piety, thought it a fine opportunity to seize on his

neighbour's lands. His Ministers, at the commencement of 1809, at the

Congress of Jassy, demanded, as a condition of peace, the cession of

the Turkish provinces on the left bank of the Danube. The Turks, of

course, refused to thus dismember their empire for the aggrandisement

of Russia; and Alexander, who was resolved to have those provinces by

hook or by crook, immediately declared war on Turkey, on the shameless

plea that it had made peace with Britain. The Russians were supported

by the Greeks, and other inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia; but

on crossing the Danube and pushing forward into Bulgaria they were

beaten on every occasion. On the 22nd of October, 1809, a desperate

conflict took place between them under the walls of Silistria, which

continued from morning till night, in which the Russians were driven

back, and, in a second engagement, routed with such slaughter that

they retired from Bulgaria, and went into winter-quarters in Moldavia

and Wallachia. In this campaign it was found that the guns were served

by French officers, though Buonaparte professed to be willing that

Alexander should possess himself of Constantinople. By the peace with

Turkey, the trading ports of that empire were again opened to us, and

our manufactures, entering there, spread over all the Continent, and

were sold and worn in Hamburg, Bremen, and other towns where they were

strictly excluded by sea.

The naval transactions of 1810 were almost wholly confined to watching

the French, Spanish, and Italian coasts, to thwart the French, who, on

their part, were continually on the watch for any of our blockading

ships being driven by the weather, or called to some other station, in

order to run out and convey men and stores into Spain. The last action

of Lord Collingwood took place in this service. Though his health

was fast failing, and he had repeatedly entreated the Admiralty to

allow him to give up the command and go home to his family--the only

chance of his long survival--they always refused. His complaint was

declared by the faculty to be owing to his long confinement on board

ships, and he had now scarcely set foot on shore for three years. But

notwithstanding all this, with a singular selfishness the Admiralty

kept him on board, and he was too high-minded to resign his commission

whilst he could be of service to his country. In this state of health

he was lying off Toulon, blockading that port, when he was driven to

Minorca by a gale of wind. He had regained the coast of Catalonia,

when he heard that the French fleet had issued from Toulon, and were

making for Barcelona. The whole British fleet were in exultation;

but on sighting this supposed fleet it was found to consist only of

three sail of the line, two frigates, and about twenty other vessels,

carrying provisions to the French army at Barcelona. They no sooner

caught view of the British fleet than they made off in all haste, and

the British gave chase. Admiral Martin was the first to come up with

them in the Gulf of Lyons, where two of the ships of the line ran

ashore, and were set fire to by the French admiral, Baudin. Two others

ran into the harbour of Cette; and eleven of the store-ships ran into

the Bay of Rooas, and took refuge under the powerful batteries; but

Lord Collingwood, in spite of the batteries, sent in the ships' boats,

and in the face of the batteries, and of boarding nets, set fire to and

destroyed them. Five other store-ships were captured. This was the last

exploit of the brave and worthy Collingwood. His health gave way so

fast, that, having in vain endeavoured again to induce the Admiralty to

relieve him of his command, expressly assuring them that he was quite

worn out, on the 3rd of March he surrendered his post to Rear-Admiral

Martin, and set sail in the _Ville de Paris_ for England. But it was

too late; he died at sea on the 7th of March, 1810. Very few admirals

have done more signal service, or have displayed a more sterling

English character than Lord Collingwood; and perhaps none were ever

more grudgingly rewarded or so unfeelingly treated by the Admiralty,

who, in fact, killed him by a selfish retention of his services, when

they could be continued only at the cost of his life.

[Illustration: THE "MEDIATOR" BREAKING THE BOOM AT LA ROCHELLE. (_See

p._ 585.)]

Another attempt was to burn a portion of the Brest fleet, which was

found lying off La Rochelle, in the Basque Roads. Lord Gambier, on the

11th of March, wrote to the Admiralty proposing to send fire-ships

amongst them and destroy them. The Admiralty seized on the idea;

but instead of leaving Lord Gambier to work out his own plan, they

appointed Lord Cochrane to that service, under Gambier. This was sure

to create jealousies, not only in the mind of Gambier--to whom the

Admiralty had written on the 19th, approving his design, and ordering

him to execute it according to his own ideas--but also in the minds

of other officers in Gambier's fleet. Lord Cochrane proceeded to the

Basque Roads in a frigate, arriving there on the 3rd of April, and

presenting Gambier with a letter informing him of the change of plan

by the Admiralty. Mr. Congreve, with a supply of his rockets, was to

accompany the fire-ships from England; and on the 11th, these having

arrived, and being joined by several large transports which Lord

Gambier had converted into fire-ships, the attack was made. The French

squadron was lying between the isle of Aix and the town of La Rochelle,

in a narrow passage, commanded by powerful batteries both on the land

and on the island of Aix. Besides this, numbers of gunboats were

placed so as to defend the approach to the vessels; but still more, a

very strong boom was stretched across the passage, formed of enormous

cables, secured by equally enormous anchors, and supported by buoys.

None of the officers, not even Gambier or Cochrane, seem to have been

aware of this boom till some of the foremost fire-ships ran against it;

and several of the ships, whilst thus detained, exploded, being too far

off to do any harm. But Captain Woolridge, in the _Mediator_, burst the

boom asunder, and the fire-ships sailed up towards the French ships in

the dark, and exploded, one after another, with a terrible uproar--one

fire-ship alone containing fifteen hundred barrels of gunpowder,

besides three or four hundred shells and three or four thousand

hand-grenades. But the only mischief done was to cause the French to

cut their cables, and run their ships ashore. There, the next morning,

they were seen; and Lord Cochrane signalled to Lord Gambier to stand in

and destroy them before the rising of the tide should float them, and

enable them to run up the river Charente. No ships, however, arriving,

Cochrane again more urgently signalled that all the fleet was aground,

except two vessels, and might easily be destroyed. Lord Gambier paid no

attention to these signals, and, as the tide rose, the vessels floated

and escaped up the river, except four, which still stuck fast, and were

destroyed by Cochrane. Those which escaped were all greatly damaged.

Had Gambier stood in with his vessels promptly, no doubt the whole

squadron would have been destroyed.

On his return Lord Cochrane received the honour of the red riband

of the Bath; but he could not conceal his dissatisfaction at Lord

Gambier's conduct, and declared that he would oppose any vote of thanks

to him in Parliament. On this, Gambier demanded a court-martial, which

was held, and acquitted him of all blame. Cochrane complained that the

court was strongly biassed in favour of Gambier, and against himself,

and the public was very much of his opinion.