napoleon's desire for an heir—the archduchess maria louisa—the divorce determined upon—the marriage—napoleon quarrels with his family—abdication of louis buonaparte—napoleon's bloated empire—affairs of sweden—choice of bernadotte as king—he forms an alliance with russia and britain—his breach with napoleon—insanity of george iii.—preparations for a regency—restrictions on the power of the regent—futile negotiations of the prince of wales with grey and grenville—perceval continued in power—the king's speech—reinstatement of the duke of york—the currency question—its effect on the continent—wellington's difficulties—massena's retreat—his defeat at sabugal—surrender of badajoz to the french—battle of barrosa—wellington and massena—battles of fuentes d'onoro and albuera—soult's retreat—end of the campaign—our naval supremacy continues—birth of an heir to napoleon—elements of resistance to his despotism—session of 1812—discussions on the civil list—bankes's bill—assassination of perceval—renewed overtures to grey and grenville—riots in the manufacturing districts—wellington's preparations—capture of ciudad rodrigo and badajoz—wellington and marmont—battle of salamanca—wellington enters madrid—victor's retreat—incapacity of the spaniards—the sicilian expedition—wellington's retreat—its difficulties—wellington's defence of his tactics—a pause in the war.

the spring of 1810 witnessed one of the most important events of the reign of napoleon, and one which, no doubt had a decided influence on his fate—his divorce from josephine and his marriage with maria louisa, the archduchess of austria. it had long been evident to those about[2] napoleon that a change of this kind would take place. josephine had brought the emperor no child, and, ambitious in every way, he was as much so of leaving lineal successors to the throne and empire which he had created, as he was of making that empire co-extensive with europe. josephine, strongly attached to him, as well as to the splendour of his position, had long feared such a catastrophe, and had done all in her power to divert his mind from it. she proposed to him that he should adopt an heir, and she recommended to him her own son, eugene beauharnais. but this did not satisfy buonaparte. she then turned his attention to a child of her daughter, hortense beauharnais, by his brother louis, the king of holland. this would have united her own family to his, and to this scheme buonaparte appeared to consent. he showed much affection for the child, and especially as the boy displayed great pleasure in looking at arms and military man?uvres; and on one occasion of this kind buonaparte exclaimed, "there is a child fit to succeed, perhaps to surpass me!" but neither was this scheme destined to succeed. the child sickened and died, and with it almost the last hope of josephine. whilst at erfurt with the emperor alexander, in 1808, buonaparte had actually proposed for a russian archduchess; nay, in 1807 he had made such overtures at the treaty of tilsit. thus the idea had been settled in his mind three years, at least, before it was realised. the russian match had on both occasions been evaded, on the plea of the difference of religion; but the truth was that the notion of such an alliance was by no means acceptable to the imperial family of russia. the empress and the empress-mother decidedly opposed it; and though the plea of difference of religion was put forward, buonaparte could not but feel that the real reasons were very different—that he was looked on as a successful adventurer, whose greatness might some day dissolve as speedily as it had grown, and that, be this as it might, the russian family were not disposed to receive him, a parvenu monarch, into their old regal status.

the austrian campaign, and buonaparte's sojourn at sch?nbrunn, gave him a sight of the archduchess maria louisa, and determined his conduct. the house of hapsburg, however ancient and however proud, was under the foot of the conqueror, and the sacrifice of an archduchess might be considered a cheap one for more favourable terms than austria was otherwise likely to receive. it had the fate of prussia before its eyes, and the bargain was concluded. it might have seemed to require no little courage in an austrian princess to venture on becoming empress of france after the awful experience of her aunt marie antoinette. but maria louisa was scarcely eighteen. she had seen buonaparte, who had endeavoured to make himself agreeable to her; and so young a girl, of a military nation, might be as much dazzled with the conqueror's glory as older, if not wiser, heads. she made no objection to the match. in appearance she was of light, fair complexion, with light-brown hair, of a somewhat tall figure, blue eyes, and with a remarkably beautiful hand and foot. altogether, she was an animated and agreeable young lady.

buonaparte apparently lost no time, after his return to paris from sch?nbrunn, in communicating to josephine the fact that the business of the divorce and the new marriage was settled. on the 30th of november, 1809, he opened the unpleasant reality to her in a private interview, and she fell into such violent agitation, and finally into so deep a swoon, as to alarm napoleon. he blamed hortense for not having broken the matter to her three days before, as he had desired. but however much napoleon might be affected at this rude disruption of an old and endeared tie, his feelings never stood in the way of his ambitious plans. the preparations for the divorce went on, and on the 15th of december a grand council was held in the tuileries on the subject. at this important council all the family of napoleon, his brothers and sisters, now all kings and queens, were summoned from their kingdoms to attend, and did attend, except joseph from spain, madame bacciochi—that is, elise—and lucien, who had refused to be made a king. cambacérès, now duke of parma and arch-chancellor of the empire, and st. jean d'angély, the minister of state, attended to take the depositions. napoleon then said a few words expressive of his grief at this sad but necessary act, of affection for and admiration of the wife he was about to put away, and of his hope of a posterity to fill his throne, saying he was yet but forty, and might reasonably expect to live to train up children who should prove a blessing to the empire. josephine, with a voice choked with tears, arose, and, in a short speech, made the act a voluntary one on her part. after this the arch-chancellor presented the written instrument of divorce, which they signed, and to which all the family appended their signatures. this act was presented to the senate the very next day by st. jean d'angély, and,[3] strangely enough, eugene beauharnais, josephine's son, was chosen to second it, which he did in a speech of some length. the senate passed the necessary senatus consultum, certifying the divorce, and conferring on josephine the title of empress-queen, with the estate of navarre and two millions of francs per annum. they also voted addresses to both napoleon and josephine of the most complimentary character. this being done, napoleon went off to st. cloud, and josephine retired to the beautiful abode of malmaison, near st. germains, where she continued to reside for the remainder of her life, and made herself beloved for her acts of kindness and benevolence, of which the english détenus, of whom there were several at st. germains, were participants.

another council was immediately summoned to determine on the choice of a new empress. all had been arranged before between the house of austria and napoleon, and the cue was given to the council to suggest accordingly. eugene beauharnais was again strangely appointed to propose to prince schwarzenberg for the hand of the archduchess, and, having his instructions, his proposal was accepted, and the whole of this formality was concluded in four-and-twenty hours. josephine set out for her new estate in navarre, and marshal berthier was appointed to act as proxy for his master in the espousals of the bride at vienna. there were difficulties in the case which, strictly catholic as the hapsburg family is, it is surprising that they could be so easily got over, and which show how much that imperial family was under the control of "the upstart," as they familiarly styled him amongst themselves. the pope had been too grievously insulted and persecuted by buonaparte for it to be possible for him to pronounce the former marriage invalid; had it not been also contrary to the canons of the church to abrogate marriage, which it regards as an entirely sacred and indissoluble ceremony. to remove this difficulty, it was stated to the austrian family that buonaparte's marriage with josephine had been merely a revolutionary marriage before a magistrate, and therefore no marriage at all—the fact being originally true, but it had ceased to be so some days previous to buonaparte's coronation, when, to remove the pope's objection, they had been privately married by buonaparte's uncle, cardinal fesch. the wedding took place at vienna, on the 11th of march, 1810, and a few days afterwards the young empress set out for france, accompanied by the queen of naples. buonaparte, who maintained the strictest etiquette at his court, had had all the ceremonies which were to attend his marriage in paris arranged with the most minute exactness. he then set out himself to meet his austrian bride, very much in the manner that he had gone to meet the pope. near soissons—riding alone, and in an ordinary dress—buonaparte met the carriage of his new wife, got in, and went on with her to soissons and thence to the old chateau of compiègne.

soon after his marriage buonaparte made a tour with his imperial bride. it was very much the same that he had made with josephine shortly before their coronation—namely, through the northern provinces of france, through belgium and holland. he decided, during this journey, on the occasion of his uniting the part of the low countries called zealand with the department of the mouths of the scheldt, on annexing the whole country to france for ever. but whilst conversing with louis buonaparte, his holland king-brother at antwerp, he suddenly stumbled on a discovery of some daring proceedings of fouché, his minister of police, which sent him back to paris in haste, and ruined that subtle diplomatist with him. the arbitrary disposition displayed in this arrangement very soon produced consequences between napoleon and his brothers which made more than ever manifest to the world that no law or consideration could any longer influence napoleon; that his self-will was, and must be, his only guide. his brother lucien, who had from the first refused to become one of his puppets, and who was leading a private life in italy, received an intimation from fouché that napoleon meant to arrest and shut him up. in consequence of this friendly hint, lucien fled from the continent, and ultimately took refuge in england, where he purchased an estate near ludlow, and there resided till 1814, when the fall of his brother permitted him to return to france. lucien buonaparte (the ablest of the family next to napoleon), now styled the prince of canino, from an estate which he purchased in italy, and which the pope raised to a principality, spent the three years in england in writing a poem entitled "charlemagne; or, the church delivered."

but if lucien, who had rendered napoleon such essential services in enabling him to put down the french revolution, could not escape this meddling domination as a private man, much less could his puppet-kings, whether brothers or brothers-in-law. he was beginning to have violent quarrels with murat and his sister caroline, king and queen of[4] naples; nor could the mild and amiable temper of louis, king of holland, protect him from the insults and the pressure of this spoiled child of fortune.

louis was a conscientious man, who was sincerely desirous of studying the comfort and prosperity of the people over whom he was placed. but the system of buonaparte went to extinguish the welfare of holland altogether. to insist upon the dutch shutting out the manufactures of great britain, upon which the large trade of holland subsisted, was to dry up the very means by which holland had made itself a country from low-lying sea-marshes and sand-banks. louis knew this, and winked, as much as possible, at the means by which the trade of his subjects was maintained with england. this produced extreme anger on the part of napoleon, who used terms towards his brother of rudeness and even brutality. relations between louis, and his queen, hortense, the daughter of josephine, had grown unbearable. in fact, they had made a mutual, though not a legal separation; and in 1809 they each demanded that a legal separation should take place. there was such an intimate connection between buonaparte and queen hortense that louis deemed it a matter that concerned his honour as well as his quiet. but napoleon bluntly refused to allow such a legal dissolution of the marriage, and insulted his brother by calling him an ideologist—a man who had spoiled himself by reading rousseau. he did not even return a written answer to louis's demand, but satisfied himself with a verbal one. champagny, the duke of cadore, who had succeeded talleyrand as minister, stated in a report that the situation of louis was become critical from the conflicting sentiments in his heart of duties towards france and duties towards his own subjects; and buonaparte intimated his intention to recall louis to france, and to unite holland, as a province, to the empire. louis, on his part, intimated that unless the dutch were allowed to avoid universal ruin by the prosecution of their commerce, he would abdicate. buonaparte had already annexed zealand to france, and louis displayed a remarkable indifference to retaining the remainder. on this, buonaparte seemed to pause in his menaces; but for all that he did not suspend his resolution to compel an utter exclusion of british goods. the dutch, who esteemed louis for his honest regard for their rights, were alarmed at the idea of losing him; for it could only be for holland to be united to france, and put under the most compulsory system. for some time they and louis contemplated laying the whole country under water, and openly repudiating the influence of napoleon. but cool reflection convinced them that such resistance was useless; and in march of this year louis submitted to a treaty by which the continental system was to be strictly enforced. not only zealand, but dutch brabant and the whole course of the rhine on both its banks were made over to france. louis signed the treaty on the 1st of july, but significantly added, "as far as possible."

but no such easy rendering of the contract was contemplated by buonaparte. he did not even adhere to the letter of it. french officers were to be placed in all the dutch garrisons, and eighteen thousand troops were to be maintained, of whom six thousand were to be french. instead of six thousand soldiers, general oudinot appeared at the head of twenty thousand at utrecht. these, buonaparte informed louis, were to occupy all the strong posts of the country, and to have their headquarters at amsterdam, his capital. louis determined to be no party to this utter subjugation of the country, nor any longer to play the part of a puppet sovereign. on the 1st of july he executed a deed of abdication in favour of his son, napoleon louis, expressing a hope that, though he had been so unfortunate as to offend the emperor, he trusted he would not visit his displeasure on his innocent family. he then drew up a vindication of his conduct, saying that he was placed in an impossible situation, and that he had long foreseen this termination of it. he sent this to be published in england, the only place in which it could appear; and he then gave an entertainment to a number of his friends at his palace at haarlem, and at midnight entered a private carriage and drove away. he proceeded to graz, in styria, where he devoted his leisure to the instruction of his children, and to literature, and wrote "documens hìstoriques et réflexions sur le gouvernement de la holland"—being an account of his administration of the government of that country—and also a novel, called "marie, ou les hollandaises." his wife, hortense, went to paris, where she became a great leader in the world of fashion. on the 9th of july, only eight days after the abdication of louis, buonaparte issued a decree declaring holland "re-united to france!" oudinot marched into amsterdam, and took possession of it in the name of his master. it was declared the third city of the french empire. the french ministers issued reports to vindicate this annexation, which was a disgraceful breach of napoleon's[5] pledge to the senate—that the rhine should be the boundary of france—and also of his repeated assurances that holland should remain an independent kingdom.

napoleon i. (from the portrait by paul delaroche.)

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this conviction of all europe that the ambition of buonaparte would swell till it burst in ruin, quickly received fresh confirmation. the trans-rhenish provinces of holland did not form a proper frontier for him. he immediately gave orders to form oldenburg, bremen, and all the line of coast between hamburg and lübeck, into additional departments of france, which was completed by a senatus consultum of the 13th of december of this year. thus the french empire now extended from denmark to sicily; for naples, though it was the kingdom of joachim murat, was only nominally so; for the fate of the kingdom of holland had dissipated the last delusion regarding the reality of any separate kingdom of napoleon's erection. italy, jerome's kingdom of westphalia, the grand duchy of berg—now given to the infant son of louis—all the territories of the confederation of the rhine, and austria itself were really subject to buonaparte, and any day he could assert that dominion. more than eighty millions of people in europe owned this quondam lieutenant of artillery as their lord and master, whose will disdained all control. no such empire had existed under one autocrat, or under one single sceptre, since the palmiest days of the roman supremacy. denmark retained its nominal independence only by humbly following the intimations of the great man's will. and now sweden appeared to add another realm to his vast dominions; but, in reality, the surprising change which took place there created a final barrier to[6] his progress in the north, and became an immediate cause of his utter overthrow. the story is one of the most singular and romantic in all the wonderful events of the napoleonic career.

gustavus adolphus iv. of sweden—with all the military ardour of charles xii., but without his military talent; with all the chivalry of an ancient knight, but at the head of a kingdom diminished and impoverished—had resisted buonaparte as proudly as if he were monarch of a nation of the first magnitude. he refused to fawn on napoleon; he did not hesitate to denounce him as the curse of all europe. he was the only king in europe, except that of great britain, who withstood the marauder. he was at peace with great britain, but alexander of russia, who had for his own purposes made an alliance with napoleon, called on him to shut out the british vessels from the baltic. gustavus indignantly refused, though he was at the same time threatened with invasion by france, whose troops, under bernadotte, already occupied denmark. at once he found finland invaded by sixty thousand russians, without any previous declaration of war. finland was lost, and alexander saw his treachery rewarded with the possession of a country larger than great britain, and with the whole eastern coast of the baltic, from tornea to memel; the ?land isles were also conquered and appropriated at this time. the unfortunate gustavus, whose high honour and integrity of principle stood in noble contrast to those of most of the crowned heads of europe, was not only deposed for his misfortunes, but his line deprived of the crown for ever. this took place in march, 1809. the unfortunate monarch was long confined in the castle of gripsholm, where he was said to have been visited by the apparition of king eric xiv. he was then permitted to retire into germany, where, disdainfully refusing a pension, he divorced his wife, the sister of the empress of russia, assumed the name of colonel gustavson, and went, in proud poverty, to live in switzerland. these events led to the last of sweden's great transactions on the field of europe, and by far the most extraordinary of all.

alexander of russia, having obtained all that he hoped for from the peace of tilsit and the alliance with napoleon by the conquest of finland, was looking about for a new ally to aid him in freeing himself from the insolent domination of buonaparte, who was ruining russia as well as the rest of europe by his continental system, when these unexpected events in sweden opened up to him a sudden and most marvellous ally. the swedes had chosen the duke of sudermania, the uncle of the deposed king. charles xiii., the brother of gustavus iii. (assassinated by count anckarstr?m in 1792), was old, imbecile, and childless. a successor was named for him in the duke of augustenburg, who was extremely popular in norway, and who had no very distant expectations of the succession in denmark. this prince—a member of an unlucky house—had scarcely arrived in sweden when he died suddenly, not without suspicion of having been poisoned; in fact, various rumours of such a fate awaiting him preceded his arrival. russia, as well as a powerful party in sweden, was bent on restoring the line of vasa. alexander was uncle to the young prince, who, by no fault of his own, was excluded from the throne. whatever was the real cause, augustenburg died, as had been predicted; and while the public mind in sweden was agitated about the succession, the aged king, charles xiii., applied to napoleon for his advice. but napoleon had bound himself at tilsit to leave the affairs of the north in the hands of alexander, and especially not to interfere in those of sweden. he therefore haughtily replied:—"address yourself to alexander; he is great and generous"—ominous words, which were, ere long, applied, to his astonishment and destruction.

yet, on the first view of the case, the selection of the swedes augured anything but a russian alliance; and showed on the surface everything in favour of napoleon and france, for it fell on a french general and field-marshal, bernadotte. the prince royal elect made his public entry into stockholm on the 2nd of november. the failing health of the king, the confidence which the talents of bernadotte had inspired, the prospect of a strong alliance with france through him—all these causes united to place the national power in his hands, and to cast upon him, at the same time, a terrible responsibility. the very crowds and cries which surrounded him expressed the thousand expectations which his presence raised. the peasantry, who had heard so much of his humble origin and popular sentiments, looked to him to curb the pride and oppression of the nobles; the nobles flattered themselves that he would support their cause, in the hope that they would support him; the mass of the people believed that a republican was the most likely to maintain the principles of the revolution of 1809; the merchants trusted that he would be able to obtain from napoleon freedom for trade with great britain, so indispensable to sweden; and the[7] army felt sure that, with such a general, they should be able to seize norway and re-conquer finland. nor was this all. bernadotte knew that there existed a legitimist party in the country, which might long remain a formidable organ in the hands of internal factions or external enemies. how was he to lay the foundation of a new dynasty amid all these conflicting interests? how satisfy at once the demands of france, britain, and russia? nothing but firmness, prudence, and sagacity could avail to surmount the difficulties of his situation; but these bernadotte possessed.

napoleon, seeing that bernadotte was become king of sweden contrary to his secret will and to his expectations, determined, however, that he should still serve him. he gave him no respite. he demanded incessantly, and with his usual impetuosity, that bernadotte should declare war against great britain and shut out of the baltic both british and american merchandise. alexander regarded him first with suspicion but his spies soon dissipated his fears. they soon perceived that bernadotte was not disposed to be at once master of a powerful kingdom and the vassal of france. alexander made offers of friendship; they were accepted by bernadotte with real or affected pleasure, and his course became clearer. for the next two years there was a great strife to secure the alliance of the crown prince; and the proud, disdainful, imperious temper of napoleon, who could not brook that one who had been created by him out of nothing but a sergeant of marines should presume to exercise an independent will, threw the prize into the hands of the more astute russian, and decided the fate of europe and of himself.

great britain, which had made some show of restoring the legitimate prince, soon became satisfied that bernadotte would lean to its alliance. meanwhile alexander of russia displayed more and more decided symptoms of an intention to break with france. he hastened to make peace with the turks, and to pour his sentimental assurances into the ear of count stadingk, the swedish ambassador. as he called god to witness, in 1807, that he had no wish to touch a single swedish village, so now he professed to be greatly troubled that he had been obliged to seize all finland. "let us forget the past," said the czar. "i find myself in terrible circumstances, and i swear, upon my honour, that i never wished evil to sweden. but now that unhappy affair of finland is over, and i wish to show my respect to your king, and my regard for the crown prince. great misfortunes are frequently succeeded by great prosperities. a gustavus adolphus issued from sweden for the salvation of germany, and who knows what may happen again?" and he began to unveil his disgust at the encroachments of buonaparte. "what does he mean," he said, "by his attempt to add the north of germany to his empire, and all its mercantile towns? he might grasp a dozen cities of germany, but hamburg, lübeck, and bremen—'our holy trinity,' as romanoff says—i am weary of his perpetual vexations!" the result was the offer of norway to sweden as the price of bernadotte's adhesion to the proposed alliance. great britain also offered to sweden as a colony, surinam, demerara, or porto rico.

but all this could not have prevailed with bernadotte—who leaned fondly and tenaciously towards france from old associations—had not the unbearable pride, insolence, and domineering spirit of napoleon repelled him, and finally decided his course. so late as march, 1811, bernadotte used this language to m. alquier, the french ambassador, when pressed by him to decide for france:—"i must have norway—norway which sweden desires, and which desires to belong to sweden, and i can obtain it through another power than france." "from england, perhaps?" interposed the ambassador. "well, yes, from england; but i protest that i only desire to adhere to the emperor. let his majesty give me norway; let the swedish people believe that i owe to him that mark of protection, and i will guarantee all the changes that he desires in the system and government of sweden. i promise him fifty thousand men, ready equipped by the end of may, and ten thousand more by july. i will lead them wherever he wishes. i will execute any enterprise that he may direct. behold that western point of norway. it is separated from england only by a sail of twenty-four hours, with a wind which scarcely ever varies. i will go there if he wishes!"

but napoleon would not listen to the transfer of norway; that was the territory of his firm ally, denmark: finland he might have, but not norway. in october of the same year an english agent landed at gothenburg, eluded the french spies, traversed, by night, woods, bogs, and hills, and, in a small village of the interior of sweden, met a swedish agent, where the terms of a treaty were settled, in which russia and turkey, britain and sweden, were the contracting powers;[8] by which sweden was to receive norway, and renounce for ever finland; and alexander and bernadotte were to unite all their talents, powers, and experience against france. in the following january the sudden invasion of swedish pomerania by the french showed that the crisis was come, and that henceforth napoleon and bernadotte were irreconcilable opponents. from that time offers of alliance and aid poured in from all quarters. prussia sent secret messages, and concerted common measures with russia. the insurgents of spain and portugal, where wellington was in active operation—even the old bourbon dynasty—paid court to him. moreau returned from america to fight under his banners, and emigrants flocked from all quarters to combine their efforts against the universal foe—napoleon.

the agents of britain and sweden signing the treaty against napoleon. (see p. 7.)

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in england a remarkable event closed the year 1810—the appointment of a regency. for some time the old malady of the king had returned upon him. he had not attended to open and close the last session of parliament, and there was a general impression as to the cause. but on the 25th of october, when parliament had voted the celebration of a general jubilee, on the king's entrance upon the fiftieth year of his reign, it was announced publicly that his majesty was no longer capable of conducting public business, and the house of commons adjourned for a fortnight. this was a melancholy jubilee, so far as the king and his family were concerned; but the nation celebrated it everywhere with an affectionate zeal and loyalty. the royal malady had been precipitated by the death of his favourite daughter amelia. on the 20th or 21st of october he visited her on her death-bed, and she put on his finger a ring, containing her own hair, and with the motto, "remember me when i am gone." this simple but sorrowful act completed the mischief in progress, and george retired from the bedside of his dying daughter a confirmed lunatic. the princess died on the 2nd of november, but her father was past consciousness of the event.

at the end of the fortnight lord grenville and lord grey pointed out the necessity of proceeding to appoint a regent. ministers replied that the[9] physicians were confident of the king's speedy recovery; but as there were repeated adjournments and the reports of the physicians still held the same language, the sense of parliament prevailed. on the 17th of december mr. perceval moved that on the 20th they should go into committee on the question of the regency; and on that day the same resolutions were passed as had been passed in 1788—namely, that the prince of wales should be regent under certain restrictions; that the right of creating peerages, and granting salaries, pensions, and offices in reversion, should be limited specifically, as in 1788. the royal dukes made a protest against these limitations; but on the 30th they were confirmed by both houses, with additional resolutions for the care of his majesty's person and the security of his private property, which were passed on the last day of the year 1810.

carlton house, london (1812).

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the business of the regency was so important that parliament—without adjourning, as usual, for the christmas holidays—opened the year 1811, on the very first of january, by proceeding with it. an alteration in the fifth resolution, somewhat reducing the expense of the royal household, and also limiting more strictly the authority of the queen, was proposed, and carried against ministers, by two hundred and twenty-six votes against two hundred and thirteen. perceval in the commons, and lord liverpool in the lords, moved amendments on this change but without effect. another alteration was proposed by lord grenville, that the regent should be allowed to elevate lawyers and other civilians to the peerage, as well as military men; and this was readily agreed to. the remaining restrictions were to terminate in february, 1812, if the house had been sitting then six weeks, or otherwise, after the sitting of the house for six weeks after its next assembling. deputations were appointed by both houses to announce these resolutions to the regent and the queen. the regent complained of the restrictions, but the queen expressed herself quite satisfied. the great seal was then affixed to a commission for opening parliament under the regent, after some opposition by lord grey. the house then adjourned till the 15th of january.

it was now expected by the whigs, and by a[10] great part of the public, that they should come into office. at first the conduct of the prince regent favoured this supposition. he applied to grey and grenville to draw up the answer that he should return to the two houses on their addresses on his appointment. but he did not quite like this answer, and got sheridan to make some alterations in it. he then returned the paper to grey and grenville, as in the form that he approved. but these noblemen declared that they would have nothing more to do with the paper so altered; and sheridan, on his part, suggested to the prince that he would find such men as ministers very domineering and impracticable. nor was this all—lord grenville and his family held enormous patronage. like all the whigs, the grenvilles, however they might study the interests of the country, studied emphatically their own. grenville had long held, by a patent for life, the office of auditor to the exchequer; and in accepting office in "all the talents" ministry, he managed to obtain also the office of first lord of the treasury. the auditorship of the exchequer was instituted as a check on the treasury, but neither lord grenville nor his friends saw any impropriety in destroying this check by putting both offices into the same hands. they declared this union was very safe and compatible, and a bill was brought in for the purpose. but when the king had become both blind and insane, and no regent was yet appointed, lord grenville, being no longer first lord of the treasury, but perceval, he suddenly discovered that he could not obey the order of the treasury for the issues of money to the different services. it was strictly necessary that the great seal, or the privy seal, or the sign manual, should be attached to the treasury orders, or, failing these, that they should be sanctioned by an express act of parliament. as neither great nor privy seal, nor sign manual was possible until a regent was appointed, lord grenville's conscience would not let him pass the orders of the treasury, and all payments of army, navy, and civil service were brought to a stand. perceval, after in vain striving hard to overcome the scruples, or rather the party obstinacy of grenville, was compelled to go to the house of parliament, and get the obstacle removed by a resolution of both houses. the notice of the public being thus turned by grenville to his holding of this office, and his readiness to unite the two offices in his own person, which his pretended scruples of conscience now invested with so much danger, produced a prejudice against him and his party, which was hostile to their coming into power. besides this, the opposition were greatly divided in their notions of foreign policy. grey and his immediate section of the party felt bound, by their advocacy of fox's principles, to oppose the war; grenville and his friends were for a merely defensive war, and for leaving portugal and spain, and the other continental nations, to fight their own battles; whilst lord holland, who had travelled in spain, and was deeply interested in its language and literature, was enthusiastic for the cause of the peninsula, and the progress which wellington was making there. it was utterly impossible that, with such divided views, they could make an energetic ministry at this moment, and it was equally certain that they could not again form an "all the talents" by coalition with the conservatives. and, beyond all this, it does not appear that the regent was anxious to try them. like all heirs-apparent of the house of hanover, he had united with the opposition during his youth, but his friendship appeared now anything but ardent. sheridan still possessed something of his favour, and the earl of moira was high in it; but for the rest, the prince seemed quite as much disposed to take the tories into his favour; and he, as well as the royal dukes, his brothers, was as much bent on the vigorous prosecution of the war as the tories themselves. no ministry which would have carried that on languidly, still less which would have opposed it, would have suited him any more than it would have done his father. the king, too, was not so deeply sunk in his unhappy condition but that he had intervals lucid enough to leave him alive to these questions, and he showed so much anxiety respecting the possible change of the ministry, and fresh measures regarding the war, that his physicians declared that such a change would plunge him into hopeless madness and probably end his life. the queen wrote to the prince, saying how much satisfaction his conduct in regard to these matters had given to his father, and he wrote to mr. perceval, declaring that this consideration determined him not to change the ministry at all. at the same time he expressed to the minister his dissatisfaction with the restrictions which had been imposed upon him. perceval, even at the risk of offending the prince, justified the conduct of ministers and parliament. in this he might be the more bold, as it was clear that there was no longer any danger of a whig government.

on the 12th of february parliament was opened by a speech, not from the prince regent in person, but by commission, the commissioners being the[11] archbishop of canterbury, the lord chancellor, the duke of montrose, and the earls camden and westmoreland. the speech was of the most belligerent character, recounting the success of our arms in the indian seas, in repelling the attack of the neapolitans on sicily, and, above all, in the peninsula. lord grenville opposed the address, considering the war as hopeless, and as mischievous to our interests. it was carried in both houses without a division. perceval, on the 21st, announced that the prince was desirous not to add any fresh burdens to the country in existing circumstances, and therefore declined any addition to his establishment as regent.

one of the first things which the regent did was to re-appoint the duke of york to the post of commander-in-chief of the forces. old sir david dundas, as thoroughly aware of his unfitness for the office as the army itself was, had requested leave to retire, and on the 25th of may the appointment of the duke was gazetted. there was a considerable expression of disapproval in the house of commons of this measure. lord milton moved that it was highly improper and indecorous, and he was supported by lord althorp, mr. wynn, mr. elliot, mr. whitbread, and others; but the facts which had come to light through mrs. clarke's trials, both regarding her and her champion, colonel wardle, had mitigated the public feeling towards the duke so far, that the motion was rejected by a majority of two hundred and ninety-six against forty-seven. it is certain that the change from the duke to sir david dundas, so far as the affairs of the army were concerned, was much for the worse. the duke was highly popular in that office with the soldiers, and he rendered himself more so by immediately establishing regimental schools for their children on dr. bell's system.

the unnatural state of things induced by the war had now brought about a great change in our currency. as we could manage to get in our goods to the continent by one opening or another, but could not get the produce of the continent in return, it would have appeared that we must be paid in cash, and that the balance of specie must be in our favour; but this was not the case. by our enormous payments to our troops in spain, portugal, and sicily, as well as in the east and west indies, and by our heavy subsidies, gold had flowed out of the country so steadily that there appeared very little left in it, and bank paper had taken its place. on the continent, impoverished as they were, the people tenaciously clung to their gold, and buonaparte alone could draw it from them in taxes. he always took a heavy military chest with him on his expeditions, and his officers also carried the money necessary for themselves in their belts, or otherwise about their immediate persons. the gold being enormously diminished in quantity in england, was carefully hoarded on all hands, thus again increasing the scarcity, and raising the value of it. the price of bullion had risen from twenty to thirty per cent., and here was a further strong temptation to hoard or send guineas to the melting-pot. this state of things led a certain class of political economists to call for a repeal of the act for suspension of cash payments, and francis horner obtained a committee of inquiry into the causes of the decrease of gold and the increase of paper: and this committee came to the conclusion that the true cause of the evil lay in the excess of paper, and that the way to restrain it would be to allow the demand for gold at the bank. but the truth was that the cause of the evil was not the excess of paper, but the enormous diminution of gold; and to have opened a legal demand for gold which could not be had would only have produced a panic, and a complete and horrible assassination of all credit and all business. but there were clearer-sighted men in parliament, who declared that, though bullion had risen in price, bank-notes would still procure twenty shillings' worth of goods in the market, and that they were not, therefore, really depreciated in value. that was true, but guineas had, notwithstanding, risen to a value of five- or six-and-twenty shillings, and might be sold for that. gold had risen, but paper had not fallen; and gold could not take the place of paper, because it did not, to any great extent, exist in the country; if it had, paper must have fallen ruinously. mr. vansittart and his party, therefore, moved resolutions that the resumption of cash payments being already provided for six months after the conclusion of peace, was an arrangement which answered all purposes, and ought not to be disturbed; that this would keep all real excess of paper in check, and leave gold to resume its circulation when, by the natural influence of peace, it flowed again into the country. these were, accordingly, carried.

but the bullionists were still bent on forwarding their scheme, or on throwing the country into convulsions. lord king announced to his tenants in a circular letter that he would receive his rents in specie or in bank-notes to an amount equalling the advanced value of gold. this raised a loud[12] outcry against the injustice of the act, which would have raised the rents of his farms twenty or more per cent.; and lord stanhope brought in a bill to prevent the passing of guineas at a higher value than twenty-one shillings, and one-pound banknotes at a less value than twenty shillings. there was a strenuous debate on the subject in both houses. in the lords, lord chancellor eldon demonstrated the enormity of people demanding their rents in gold when it did not exist, and when, if the person who could pay in notes carried these notes to the bank of england, he could not procure gold for them. he denominated such a demand from landlords as an attempt at robbery. yet the bill was strongly opposed in both houses—in the commons by sir francis burdett, sir samuel romilly, brougham, and others. it underwent many modifications, but it passed, maintaining its fundamental principles, and landlords were obliged to go on taking their rents in paper.

but the agitation of this question produced a strong sensation on the continent. buonaparte, who watched every movement of the british parliament and government with the deepest anxiety, immediately seized on the discussion as a proof that great britain was fast sinking under his continental system. that system, indeed, was rapidly prostrating the continent. from all sides complaints had long been pouring in upon him that the suppression of commerce was ruining the great mercantile cities—hamburg, bremen, amsterdam, rotterdam, antwerp, naples, genoa, and the other parts of italy; and that it was diffusing universal poverty and distress. the breach which the emperor alexander had made in it, and the determined resistance which the swedes made to it, had caused him to feel the necessity of relaxing the rigour of his system. but now he took fresh courage. he believed that great britain was at her last gasp; that there would speedily be universal rebellion within her from starving citizens; and he held on in his plan, and this proved his ultimate destruction; for it made him all the more determined to coerce russia, and thus precipitated his fatal campaign against that country.

after violent debates on the subject of catholic emancipation, but with the usual negative result, parliament was prorogued on the 24th of july. ministers proceeded to prosecute the war in the peninsula with increased vigour. lord wellington needed all the support they could give him. notwithstanding his success and the millions of money that great britain was sending to portugal, the portuguese government continued to annoy him, and showed itself as ignorant, as meddling and as unthankful as the spaniards had done. though he and his army were the sole defence of the country, which would at once have been overrun by the french were he not there, and though he was fighting their battles and defending their persons at the expense of england, they appeared to have not the slightest sense of these obligations, but continued to pester him on every possible occasion. they endeavoured to compel him to maintain the portuguese army, too, by themselves neglecting to furnish it with pay and provisions. they demanded to have the expenditure of the very money remitted for the needs of the british forces. they raised a vast clamour because the soldiers cut down timber for firewood. to all these disgraceful annoyances lord wellington replied with a wonderful command of temper, but with firmness and plain-spokenness. his dispatches abound with complaints of the scurvy treatment of the portuguese authorities. the aspect of things in spain was worse. there the spaniards continued to lose every force that they raised, but nevertheless to criticise all the movements of wellington as if they knew, or had shown, that they understood the management of campaigns better than he did. in fact, if the interests of spain and portugal alone had been concerned, the best thing would have been to have quietly withdrawn, and have left the french to trample on them, as a proper punishment for their stupid and ignorant pride. but the attention which wellington compelled buonaparte to give to the peninsula, and the constant drain which this war was to him of men and money, were enabling russia, and sweden, and the north of germany to prepare for another and decisive struggle with the oppressor.

[13]

marshal beresford. (from the portrait by sir w. beechey, r.a.)

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we left wellington occupying his impregnable lines at torres vedras during the winter, and massena occupying santarem. buonaparte thought he could suggest a mode of putting down the provoking english general which massena did not seem able to conceive. after studying the relative situations of the belligerents, he sent word to soult to make a junction with massena by crossing the tagus, and then, as he would be much superior in strength, to continually attack wellington, and cause him, from time to time, to lose some of his men. he observed that the british army was small, and that the people at home were anxious about their army in portugal, and were not likely to increase it much. having thus weakened wellington, as soon as the weather became favourable they were to make an attack from the south bank of the tagus. but there were two difficulties to overcome of no trivial character in this plan. wellington was not the man to be drawn into the repeated loss of his men, and the tagus was too well guarded by our fleet and by batteries for any chance of taking him in the rear. however, napoleon sent massena a reinforcement, under general drouet, who carried along with him a great supply of provisions: he assembled an army in the north of spain, under bessières, of seventy thousand men, and soult moved from cadiz, leaving sebastiani to continue the blockade, and advanced to make the ordered junction with massena. but he deemed it necessary, before crossing into southern portugal, to take possession of badajoz. in his advance, at the head of twenty thousand men, he defeated several spanish corps, and sat down before badajoz towards the end of february. could massena have maintained himself at santarem, this junction might have been made; but, notwithstanding the provisions brought by drouet, he found that he had no more than would serve him on a retreat into spain. he had ten thousand of his army sick, and therefore, not waiting for soult, he evacuated santarem on the 5th of march, and commenced his march spain-ward. wellington was immediately after him, and the flight and pursuit continued for a fortnight. to prevent massena from finding a temporary refuge in coimbra, wellington ordered sir robert wilson and colonel trant to destroy an arch of the bridge over the mondego, and thus detain him on the left bank of that river[14] till he came up. but massena did not wait; he proceeded along a very bad road on the left bank of the river to miranda, on the river coira. along this track massena's army was sharply and repeatedly attacked by the british van under picton, and suffered severely. ney commanded the rear-division of the enemy, and, to check the advance of the british, he set fire to the towns and villages as he proceeded, and, escaping over the bridge on the coira, he blew it up. but before this could be effected, picton was upon him, accompanied by pack's brigade and a strong body of horse, and drove numbers of the french into the river, and took much baggage. five hundred french were left on the ground, and to facilitate their flight from miranda, which they also burnt, they destroyed a great deal more of their baggage and ammunition. lord wellington was detained at the coira, both from want of means of crossing and from want of supplies; for the french had left the country a black and burning desert. the atrocities committed by the army of massena on this retreat were never exceeded by any host of men or devils. the soldiers seemed inspired with an infernal spirit of vengeance towards the portuguese, and committed every horror and outrage for which language has a name. the portuguese, on the other hand, driven to madness, pursued them like so many demons, cutting off and destroying all stragglers, and shooting down the flying files as they hurried through the woods and hills. the whole way was scattered with the carcases of the fugitives.

a quarrel took place between massena and ney on the subject of attacking the british and portuguese who invested almeida, where was a french garrison, and ney threw up his command, and retired to salamanca. massena was daily expecting the junction of soult, who had taken badajoz; but wellington did not give time for this junction. he attacked massena at sabugal on the 3rd of april, and defeated him with heavy loss. massena then continued his retreat for the frontier of spain, and crossed the agueda into that country on the 6th. wellington then placed his army in cantonments between the coa and the agueda, and made more rigorous the blockade of almeida.

having, for the third time, expelled the french from portugal, with the exception of the single fortress of almeida, wellington proceeded to reconnoitre the situation of affairs in spain. whilst on his march after massena he had sent word to general menacho to maintain possession of badajoz, promising him early assistance. unfortunately, menacho was killed, and was succeeded in his command by general imaz, who appears to have been a regular traitor. wellington, on the 9th of march, had managed to convey to him the intelligence that massena was in full retreat, and that he should himself very soon be able to send or bring him ample assistance. imaz had a force of nine thousand spaniards, and the place was strong. he was besieged by about the same number of french infantry and two thousand cavalry, yet the very next day he informed soult of wellington's news, and offered to capitulate. soult must have been astonished at this proceeding, if he had not himself prepaid it in french money—the surrender of badajoz, under the imminent approach of wellington, being of the very highest importance. on the 11th the spaniards were allowed to march out with what were called the "honours of war," but which, in this case, were the infamies of treachery, and soult marched in. he then gave up the command of the garrison to mortier, and himself marched towards seville.

during his absence from the extreme south, general graham, with about four thousand british and portuguese, had quitted cadiz by sea, and proceeded to alge?iras, where he landed, intending to take victor, who was blockading cadiz, in the rear. his artillery, meanwhile, was landed at tarifa; and on marching thither by land, over dreadful mountain roads, he was joined, on the 27th of february, by the spanish general lape?a, with seven thousand men. graham consented to the spaniard taking the chief command—an ominous concession; and the united force—soon after joined by a fresh body of about one thousand men, making the whole force about twelve thousand—then marched forward towards medina sidonia, through the most execrable roads. victor was fully informed of the movements of this army, and advanced to support general cassagne, who held medina sidonia. no sooner did he quit his lines before cadiz than the spanish general de zogas crossed from the isle de leon, and menaced the left of the french army. on this victor halted at chiclana, and ordered cassagne to join him there. he expected nothing less than that lape?a would manage to join de zogas, and that fresh forces, marching out of cadiz and the isle of leon, would co-operate with them, and compel him to raise the siege altogether. but nothing so vigorous was to be expected from a spanish general. lape?a was so slow and cautious in his movements that[15] graham could not get him to make any determined advance; and on arriving at the heights of barrosa, which a spanish force had been sent forward to occupy, this body of men had quitted their post, and victor was in possession of these important positions, which completely stopped the way to cadiz and at the same time rendered retreat almost equally impossible. lape?a was skirmishing, at about three miles' distance, with an inconsiderable force, and the cavalry was also occupied in another direction. seeing, therefore, no prospect of receiving aid from the spaniards, general graham determined to attack marshal victor, and drive him from the heights, though the latter's force was twice as strong as the former's. this graham did after a most desperate struggle. had lape?a shown any vigour or activity, victor's retreating army might have been prevented from regaining its old lines; but it was in vain that graham urged him to the pursuit. lord wellington eulogised the brilliant action of the heights of barrosa, in a letter to graham, in the warmest terms, declaring that, had the spanish general done his duty, there would have been an end of the blockade of cadiz. as it was, victor returned to his lines and steadily resumed the siege. in the meantime, admiral keats, with a body of british sailors and marines, had attacked and destroyed all the french batteries and redoubts on the bay of cadiz, except that of catina, which was too strong for his few hundred men to take.

another attempt of the french to draw the attention of wellington from massena was made by mortier, who marched from badajoz, of which soult had given him the command, entered portugal, and invested campo mayor, a place of little strength, and with a very weak garrison. marshal beresford hastened to its relief at the head of twenty thousand men, and the portuguese commandant did his best to hold out till he arrived; but he found this was not possible, and he surrendered on condition of marching out with all the honours of war. scarcely, however, was this done when beresford appeared, and mortier abruptly quitted the town, and made all haste back again to badajoz, pursued by the british cavalry. mortier managed to get across the guadiana, and beresford found himself stopped there by a sudden rising of the water and want of boats. he had to construct a temporary bridge before he could cross, so that the french escaped into badajoz. mortier then resigned his command to latour maubourg, and the british employed themselves in reducing oliven?a, and some other strong places on the valverde river, in the month of april. lord wellington made a hasty visit to the headquarters of marshal beresford, to direct the operations against badajoz, but he was quickly recalled by the news that massena had received reinforcements, and was in full march again to relieve the garrison in almeida. wellington, on the other hand, had reduced his army by sending reinforcements to beresford, so that while massena entered portugal with forty thousand foot and five thousand cavalry, wellington had, of british and portuguese, only thirty-two thousand foot and about one thousand two hundred horse. this force, too, he had been obliged to extend over a line of seven miles in length, so as to guard the avenues of access to almeida. the country, too, about almeida was particularly well adapted for cavalry, in which the french had greatly the superiority. notwithstanding, wellington determined to dispute his passage. he had no choice of ground; he must fight on a flat plain, and with the coa flowing in his rear. his centre was opposite to almeida, his right on the village of fuentes d'onoro, and his left on fort concepcion.

on the 5th of may, towards evening, massena attacked the british right, posted in fuentes d'onoro, with great impetuosity, and the whole fury of the battle, from beginning to end, was concentrated on this quarter. at first the british were forced back from the lower part of the town, driven to the top, where they retained only a cluster of houses and an old chapel. but wellington pushed fresh bodies of troops up the hill, and again drove down the french at the point of the bayonet, and over the river das casas. the next day the battle was renewed with the greatest desperation, and again the british, overwhelmed with heavy columns of men, and attacked by the powerful body of cavalry, seemed on the point of giving way. the cannonade of massena was terrible, but the british replied with equal vigour, and a highland regiment, under colonel mackinnon, rushed forward with its wild cries, carrying all before it. the battle was continued on the low grounds, or on the borders of the river, till it was dark, when the french withdrew across the das casas. the battle was at an end. massena had been supported by marshal bessières, but the two marshals had found their match in a single english general, and an army as inferior to their own in numbers as it was superior in solid strength. four hundred french lay dead in fuentes d'onoro itself, and the killed, wounded,[16] and prisoners amounted, according to their own intercepted letters, to over three thousand. the british loss was two hundred and thirty-five killed—amongst whom was colonel cameron,—one thousand two hundred and thirty-four wounded, and three hundred and seventeen missing, or prisoners. almeida was at once evacuated; the garrison blowing up some of the works, then crossing the agueda, and joining the army of massena, but not without heavy loss of men, besides all their baggage, artillery, and ammunition.

the fame of this battle, thus fought without any advantage of ground, and with such a preponderance on the side of the french, produced a deep impression both in great britain and france. the major part of the british side was composed of british troops, most of the portuguese having been sent to marshal beresford, and this gave a vivid idea of the relative efficiency of british and french troops. buonaparte had already satisfied himself that massena was not the man to cope with wellington, and marshal marmont was on the way to supersede him when this battle was fought, but he could only continue the flight of massena, and take up his headquarters at salamanca. with massena returned to france also ney, junot, and loison; king joseph had gone there before; and the accounts which these generals were candid enough to give, in conversation, of the state of things in spain, spread a very gloomy feeling through the circles of paris.

on the return of wellington to the north, beresford strictly blockaded badajoz, and made all the preparations that he could for taking it by storm. but he was almost wholly destitute of tools for throwing up entrenchments, and of men who understood the business of sapping and mining. he was equally short of artillery, and the breaching-guns which he had, had no proper balls. the howitzers were too small for his shells, and he had few, if any, well-skilled officers of artillery. besides this, the ground was very rocky, and the enemy, owing to their slow progress in the works, were able to make repeated sorties, so that they had killed four or five hundred of our men. in this situation, on the 12th of may, beresford received the intelligence that soult was advancing against him with nearly thirty thousand infantry and four thousand horse. soult had been set at liberty to leave seville by the conclusion of graham's and lape?a's expedition, and he had received reinforcements both from sebastiani and from madrid. beresford immediately raised the siege, but instead of retiring he advanced against soult to give him battle. beresford had about twenty-five thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry, but unfortunately ten thousand of these were spaniards, for casta?os had joined him. casta?os was one of the best and most intelligent generals of spain, and had a mind so far free from the absurd pride of his countrymen that he was willing to serve under beresford. blake was also in his army with a body of spanish troops; but blake was not so compliant as casta?os, and their troops were just as undisciplined as ever.

on the morning of the 16th of may beresford fell in with the french at albuera, a ruined village, standing on ground as favourable for horse as that at fuentes d'onoro. blake's corps occupied the right wing of the allied army, the british the centre, opposite to the village and bridge of albuera. soult advanced in great strength towards the centre; but beresford soon saw that the attack was not intended to be made there, but on the division of blake on the right. he sent to desire blake to alter his front so as to face the french, who would else come down on his right flank; but blake thought he knew better than the british general, and would not move, declaring that it was on the british centre where the blow would fall. but a little time showed the correctness of beresford's warning, and blake, attempting to change his front when it was too late, was taken at disadvantage and rapidly routed.

by this dispersion of the spaniards the british battalions were wholly exposed, and the whole might of soult's force was thrown upon them. a tremendous fire from the hills, where the spaniards ought to have stood, was opened on the british ranks, and several regiments were almost annihilated in a little time. but the 31st regiment, belonging to colborne's brigade, supported by horton's brigade, stood their ground under a murderous fire of artillery, and the fiery charge of both horse and foot. they must soon have fallen to a man, but beresford quickly sent up a portuguese brigade, under general harvey, to round the hill on the right, and other troops, under abercrombie, to compass it on the left; while, at the suggestion of colonel (afterwards lord) hardinge, he pushed forward general cole with his brigade of fusiliers up the face of the hill. these three divisions appeared on the summit simultaneously. the advance of these troops through the tempest of death has always been described as something actually sublime. moving onward, unshaken, undisturbed, though opposed by the furious onslaught of soult's densest centre, they cleared the hill-top with the most deadly and unerring fire; they swept away a troop of polish lancers that were murderously riding about goring our wounded men, as they lay on the ground, with their long lances.

the fusiliers at albuera. (see p. 18.)

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[18]

napier, in his "history of the peninsular war," describes the scene with the enthusiasm of a soldier:—"such a gallant line issuing from the smoke, and rapidly separating itself from the confused and broken multitude, startled the enemy's heavy masses, which were increasing and pressing onwards as to an assured victory. they wavered, hesitated, and then, vomiting forth a storm of fire, hastily endeavoured to enlarge their front, while a fearful discharge of grape from all their artillery whistled through the british ranks. sir william myers was killed; cole, and three colonels—ellis, blakeney, and hawkshawe—fell wounded; and the fusilier battalions, struck by the iron tempest, reeled and staggered like sinking ships. suddenly and sternly recovering, they closed on their terrible enemies, and then was seen with what a strength and majesty the british soldier fights. in vain did soult, by voice and gesture, animate his frenchmen; in vain did the hardiest veterans, extricating themselves from the crowded columns, sacrifice their lives to gain time for the mass to open out on such a fair field; in vain did the mass itself bear up, and, fiercely arising, fire indiscriminately on friends and foes, while the horsemen, hovering on the flank, threatened to charge the advancing line. nothing could stop that astonishing infantry. no sudden burst of undisciplined valour, no nervous enthusiasm, weakened the stability of their order. their flashing eyes were bent on the dark columns in their front; their measured step shook the ground; their dreadful volleys swept away the head of every formation; their deafening shouts overpowered the dissonant cries that broke from all parts of the tumultuous crowd, as foot by foot, and with a horrid carnage, it was driven by the incessant vigour of the attack to the farthest edge of the hill. in vain did the french reserves, joining with the struggling multitudes, endeavour to sustain the fight; their efforts only increased the irremediable confusion, and the mighty mass, giving way like a loosened cliff, went headlong down the ascent. the rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and one thousand five hundred unwounded men—the remnant of six thousand unconquerable british soldiers—stood triumphant on the fatal hill." the loss on both sides was fearful, for no battle had ever been more furiously contested. the french are said to have lost nine thousand men; the allies, in killed and wounded, seven thousand, of whom two-thirds were british. the french had two generals killed and three wounded. some persons were inclined to blame marshal beresford for risking a battle in the circumstances; but wellington gave him the highest praise, and declared that the frightful loss was owing to the utter failure of the spaniards; that their discipline was so bad that it was found impossible to move them without throwing them into inextricable confusion; that at both talavera and albuera the enemy would have been destroyed if the spaniards could have been moved; and that the same course had prevented lape?a from supporting graham at barrosa. beresford maintained his position for two days in expectation of a fresh attack by soult; but, no doubt, that general had heard that lord wellington was rapidly advancing to support beresford; and on the morning of the 18th soult commenced his retreat to seville. with his small handful of cavalry beresford pursued him, and cut off a considerable number of his rear, and, amongst them, some of the cavalry itself at usagnè, taking about a hundred and fifty of them prisoners. had we had a proper body of horse, the slaughter of the flying army would have been awful. soult did but quit the ground in time; for, the very day after, wellington arrived at albuera with two fresh divisions.

the siege of badajoz was again resumed, but with the same almost insurmountable obstacle of the deficiency of the requisite material for siege operations; and on the 10th of june, learning that marmont, the successor of massena, was marching south to join soult, who was also to be reinforced by drouet's corps from toledo, wellington fell back on campo mayor, gave up the siege of badajoz, and gathered all his forces together, except a considerable body of british and portuguese, whom he left at alemtejo. marmont, observing wellington's movement, again retired to salamanca. some slight man?uvring followed between the hostile commanders, which ended in wellington resuming his old quarters on the river coa. on this, soult also retired again to seville.

prisoners of war.

from the picture by w. f. yeames, r.a.

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on the 28th of october general hill surprised a french force, under general drouet, near estremadura, and completely routed it, taking all the baggage, artillery, ammunition, and stores, with one thousand five hundred prisoners. by this[19] action the whole of that part of estremadura except badajoz was cleared of the french. this done, general hill went into cantonments, and the british army received no further disturbance during the remainder of the year. thus wellington had completely maintained the defence of portugal, and driven back the french from its frontiers. wherever he had crossed the french in spain, he had severely beaten them too.

but the most discouraging feature of this war was the incurable pride of the spaniards, which no reverses, and no example of the successes of their allies could abate sufficiently to show them that, unless they would condescend to be taught discipline, as the portuguese had done, they must still suffer ignominy and annihilation. blake, who had been so thoroughly routed on every occasion, was not content, like the british and portuguese, to go into quarters, and prepare, by good drilling, for a more auspicious campaign. on the contrary, he led his rabble of an army away to the eastern borders of spain, encountered suchet in the open field on the 25th of october, was desperately beaten, and then took refuge in valencia, where he was closely invested, and compelled to surrender in the early part of january next year, with eighteen thousand men, twenty-three officers, and nearly four hundred guns. such, for the time, was the end of the generalship of this wrong-headed man. suchet had, before his encounter with blake, been making a most successful campaign in the difficult country of catalonia, which had foiled so many french generals. he had captured one fortress after another, and in june he had taken tarragona, after a siege of three months, and gave it up to the lust and plunder of his soldiery.

whilst our armies were barely holding their own in spain, our fleets were the masters of all seas. in the north, though sweden was nominally at war with us, in compliance with the arrogant demands of buonaparte, bernadotte, the elected crown prince, was too politic to carry out his embargo literally. the very existence of sweden depended on its trade, and it was in the power of the british blockading fleet to prevent a single swedish vessel from proceeding to sea. but in spite of the angry threats of napoleon, who still thought that bernadotte, though become the prince and monarch elect of an independent country, should remain a frenchman, and, above all, the servile slave of his will, that able man soon let it be understood that he was inclined to amicable relations with great britain; and sir james de saumarez, admiral of our baltic fleet, not only permitted the swedish merchantmen to pass unmolested, but on various occasions gave them protection. thus the embargo system was really at an end, both in sweden and in russia; for alexander also refused to ruin russia for the benefit of buonaparte, and both of these princes, as we have seen, were in a secret league to support one another. denmark, or, rather, its sovereign, though the nephew of the king of great britain, remained hostile to us, remembering not only the severe chastisements our fleets had given copenhagen, but also the facility with which napoleon could, from the north of germany, overrun denmark and add it to his now enormous empire. in march of this year the danes endeavoured to recover the small island of anholt, in the cattegat, which we held; but they were beaten off with severe loss, leaving three or four hundred men prisoners of war.

in the east indies we this year sent over from madras an army and reduced batavia, the capital of the dutch east india settlements, and the island of java, as well as the small island of madura, so that the last trace of the dutch power was extinguished in the east, as it was at home by the domination of buonaparte. in the west indies we had already made ourselves masters of all the islands of france, denmark, and holland; and our troops there had nothing to do but to watch and keep down the attempts at insurrection which french emissaries continued to stir up in the black populations. we had some trouble of this kind in st. domingo and in martinique, where the negroes, both free and slaves, united to massacre the whites, and set up a black republic like that of hayti. but the french settlers united with the english troops in putting them down, and a body of five hundred blacks, in an attempt to burn down the town of st. pierre, were dispersed with great loss, and many were taken prisoners, and fifteen of them hanged.

there was little for our fleets in various quarters to do but to watch the coasts of europe where france had dominions for any fugitive french vessel, for the ships of france rarely dared to show themselves out of port. in march, however, captain william hoste fell in with five french frigates, with six smaller vessels, carrying five hundred troops up the adriatic, near the coast of dalmatia, and with only four frigates he encountered and beat them. captain schomberg fell in with three french frigates and a sloop off madagascar, seized one of them, and followed the[20] rest to the seaport of tamatave, in the island of madagascar, of which they had managed to recover possession. schomberg boldly entered the port, captured all the vessels there, and again expelled the french from tamatave. on the american coast our ships were compelled to watch for the protection of our merchantmen and our interests, in consequence of the french mania which was prevailing amongst the north americans, and which was very soon to lead to open conflict with us.

such were the circumstances of france in every quarter of the globe, except on the continent of europe; and there already, notwithstanding the vast space over which buonaparte ruled by the terror of his arms, there were many symptoms of the coming disruption of this empire of arms, which sprang up like a tempest and dispersed like one. spain and portugal, at one end of the continent, were draining the very life's blood from france, and turning all eyes in liveliest interest to the spectacle of a successful resistance, by a small british army, to this power so long deemed invincible. in the north lowered a dark storm, the force and fate of which were yet unsuspected, but which was gathering into its mass the elements of a ruin to the napoleonic ambition as sublime as it was to be decisive. in france itself never had the despotic power and glory of buonaparte appeared more transcendent. everything seemed to live but at his beck: a magnificent court, parliament the slave of his will, made up of the sham representatives of subjected nations, the country literally covered with armies, and nearly all surrounding nations governed by kings and princes who were but his satraps. such was the outward aspect of things; and now came the long-desired event, which was to cement his throne with the blood of kindred kings, and link it fast to posterity—the birth of a son. on the 20th of march it was announced that the empress maria louisa was delivered of a son, who was named napoleon francis charles joseph, prince of the french empire, and king of rome.

but this prosperity lay only on the surface, and scarcely even there or anywhere but in the pride and lying assertions of buonaparte. if we contemplate merely the map of europe, the mighty expanse of the french empire seemed to occupy nearly the whole of it, and to offer an awful spectacle of one man's power. this empire, so rapidly erected, had absorbed holland, belgium, part of switzerland—for the valais was united to france,—a considerable part of germany, with austria and prussia diminished and trembling at the haughty usurper. italy was also made part of the great french realm, and a fierce struggle was going on for the incorporation of spain and portugal. from travemünde on the baltic to the foot of the pyrenees, from the port of brest to terracina on the confines of neapolitan territory, north and south, east and west, extended this gigantic empire. eight hundred thousand square miles, containing eighty-five millions of people, were either the direct subjects or the vassals of france. the survey was enough to inflate the pride of the conqueror, who had begun his wonderful career as a lieutenant of artillery. but this vast dominion had been compacted by too much violence, and in outrage to too many human interests, to remain united, or to possess real strength, even for the present. the elements of dissolution were already actively at work in it. the enormous drafts of men to supply the wars by which the empire had been created had terribly exhausted france. this drain, still kept up by the obstinate resistance of spain and portugal, necessitated conscription on conscription, and this on the most enormous scale. the young men were annually dragged from the towns, villages, and fields, from amid their weeping and despairing relatives, to recruit the profuse destruction in the armies, and there scarcely remained, all over france, any but mere boys to continue the trade and agriculture of the country, assisted by old men, and women. beyond the boundaries of france, the populations of subdued and insulted nations were watching for the opportunity to rise and resume their rights. in germany they were encouraging each other to prepare for the day of retribution; and in numerous places along the coasts bands of smugglers kept up a continual warfare with the french officers of the customs, to introduce british manufactures. the contributions which had been levied in holland and the hanse towns before they were incorporated in the gallic empire were now not readily collected in the shape of taxes. beyond the continent ceased the power of napoleon; over all seas and colonies reigned his invincible enemy, great britain. there was scarcely a spot the wide world over where the french flag, or those of the nations whom he had crushed into an odious alliance, waved on which great britain had not now planted her colours. she cut off all colonial supplies, except what she secretly sold to his subjects in defiance of his system. she was now victoriously bearing up his enemies in spain,[21] portugal, and sicily against him, and encouraging russia, sweden, prussia, and austria to expect the day of his final overthrow. there was scarcely a man of any penetration who expected that this vast and unwieldy government could continue to exist a single day after him who had compelled it into union, rather than life; but, perhaps, none suspected how suddenly it would collapse. yet the very birth of a son was rather calculated to undermine than to perpetuate it. his great generals, who had risen as he had risen, were suspected of looking forward, like those of alexander of macedon, to each seizing a kingdom for himself when the chief marauder should fall. it was certain that they had long been at enmity amongst themselves—a cause of weakness to his military operations, which was especially marked in spain.

the conscription in france: recruiting for napoleon's wars. (see p. 20.)

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on the other hand, the kings whom he had set up amongst his brothers and brothers-in-law added nothing to his power. joseph proved a mere lay figure of a king in spain; louis had rejected his domination in holland, and abdicated; lucien had refused to be kinged at all; murat managed to control naples, but not to conciliate the brave mountaineers of the country to french rule. the many outrages that buonaparte had committed on the brave defenders of their countries and their rights were still remembered to be avenged. prussia brooded resentfully over the injuries of its queen; the tyrol over the murder of hofer and his compatriots. contemptible as was the royal family of spain—the head of which, the old king charles, with his queen, made a long journey to offer his felicitations on the birth of the king of rome,—the spaniards did not forget the kidnapping of their royal race, nor the monstrous treatment of the queen of etruria, the daughter of charles ix. and the sister of ferdinand. buonaparte first conferred on her the kingdom of etruria, and then took it away again, to settle ferdinand in it instead of in spain; but as he reduced ferdinand to a prisoner, he reserved etruria to himself, and kept the queen of etruria in durance at nice. indignant at her restraint, she endeavoured to fly to england, as her oppressor's brother, lucien, had done. but her[22] two agents were betrayed, and one of them was shot on the plain of grenelle, and the other only reprieved when the fear of death had done its work on him, and he only survived a few days. she herself was then shut up, with her daughter, in a convent.

but of all the parties which remembered their wrongs and indignities, the roman catholic clergy were the most uncomplying and formidable. they had seen the pope seized in his own palace at rome, and forced away out of italy and brought to fontainebleau. but there the resolute old man disdained to comply with what he deemed the sacrilegious demands of the tyrant. numbers of bishoprics had fallen vacant, and the pontiff refused, whilst he was held captive, to institute successors. none but the most abandoned priests would fill the vacant sees without the papal institution. at length buonaparte declared that he would separate france altogether from the holy see, and would set the protestant up as a rival church to the papal one. "sire," said the count of narbonne, who had now become one of buonaparte's chamberlains, "i fear there is not religion enough in all france to stand a division." but in the month of june buonaparte determined to carry into execution his scheme of instituting bishops by the sanction of an ecclesiastical council. he summoned together more than a hundred prelates and dignitaries at paris, and they went in procession to notre dame, with the archbishop maury at their head. they took an oath of obedience to the emperor, and then buonaparte's minister of public worship proposed to them, in a message from the emperor, to pass an ordinance enabling the archbishop to institute prelates without reference to the pope. a committee of bishops was found complying enough to recommend such an ordinance, but the council at large declared that it could not have the slightest value. enraged at this defiance of his authority, buonaparte immediately ordered the dismissal of the council and the arrest of the bishops of tournay, troyes, and ghent, who had been extremely determined in their conduct. he shut them up in the castle of vincennes, and summoned a smaller assembly of bishops as a commission to determine the same question. but they were equally uncomplying, in defiance of the violent menaces of the man who had prostrated so many kings but could not bend a few bishops to his will. the old pope encouraged the clergy, from his cell in fontainebleau, to maintain the rights of the church against his and its oppressor, and thus buonaparte found himself completely foiled.

the year 1812 opened, in england, by the assembling of parliament on the 7th of january. the speech of the regent was again delivered by commission. the great topic was the success of the war in spain under lord wellington, whose military talents were highly praised. there was a reference also to the disagreements with america, and the difficulty of coming to any amicable arrangement with the united states. lords grey and grenville, in the peers, pronounced sweeping censures on the continuance of the war with france, and on the policy of ministers towards america, from which source they prognosticated many disasters. in the commons, the opposition used similar language; and sir francis burdett took a very gloomy view of our relations both with france and north america, and declared that we could anticipate no better policy until we had reformed our representative system.

another topic of the speech was the mental derangement of the king, which was now asserted, on the authority of the physicians, to be more hopeless; mr. perceval argued, therefore, the necessity of arranging the royal household so as to meet the necessarily increased expenditure. resolutions were passed granting an addition of seventy thousand pounds per annum to the queen towards such augmented expenditure, and to provide further income for the prince regent. two courts were to be maintained, and the regent was to retain his revenue as prince of wales. the civil list chargeable with the additional seventy thousand pounds to the queen was vested in the regent; and no sooner were these particulars agreed to than he sent letters to both houses, recommending separate provision for his sisters; so that the civil list was at once to be relieved of their maintenance and yet increased, simply on account of the charge of a poor blind and insane old man, who could only require a trusty keeper or two. the separate income agreed to for the princesses was nine thousand pounds a-year each, exclusive of the four thousand pounds a-year each already derived from the civil list—so that there was needed an annual additional sum of thirty-six thousand pounds for the four princesses, besides the sixteen thousand pounds a-year now being received by them. some members observed that the grant to the regent, being retrospective, removed altogether the merit of his declaration during the last session of parliament that, "considering the unexampled contest in which the[23] kingdom was now engaged, he would receive no addition to his income." in fact, little consideration was shown by any part of the royal family for the country under its enormous demands. it was understood that there was once more a deficiency in the civil list, which would have to be made up.

mr. bankes again introduced his bill—which was about to expire—for prohibiting the grant of offices in reversion; and he endeavoured again to make it permanent, but, as before, he was defeated on the second reading in the commons. he then brought in a bill confined to two years only, and this, as before, was allowed to pass both houses. great discussion arose on the grant of the office of paymaster of widows' pensions to colonel macmahon, the confidential servant of the prince regent. this was a mere sinecure, which had been held by general fox, the brother of charles james fox; and it had been recommended that, on the general's death, it should be abolished; but ministers—more ready to please the regent than to reduce expenditure—had, immediately on the general's decease, granted it to colonel macmahon. ministers met the just complaints of the opposition by praising the virtues and ability of macmahon—as if it required any ability or any virtue to hold a good sinecure! but there was virtue enough in the commons to refuse to grant the amount of the salary, mr. bankes carrying a resolution against it. but ministers had their remedy. the prince immediately appointed macmahon his private secretary, and a salary of two thousand pounds was moved for. but mr. wynne declared that any such office was unknown to the country—that no regent or king, down to george iii., and he only when he became blind, had a private secretary; that the secretary of state was the royal secretary. ministers replied that there was now a great increase of public business, and that a private secretary for the regent was not unreasonable; but they thought it most prudent not to press the salary, but to leave it to be paid out of the regent's privy purse.

on the 19th of february lord wellesley resigned his office of secretary of foreign affairs, because he did not approve of the employment of some of his colleagues. the prince regent now showed that he had no intention of dismissing the present administration. he proposed to lords grey and grenville to join it, but they absolutely declined, knowing that, with the difference of the views of the two parties on many essential questions, especially on those of the catholic claims, of the prosecution of the war, and of our relations with america, it was impossible for any coalition cabinet to go on. lord castlereagh succeeded the marquis of wellesley in the foreign office, but on the 11th of may a fatal event put an end to the ministry and the life of spencer perceval.

on the afternoon of this day, monday, the 11th of may, as the minister was entering the house, about five o'clock, a man of gentlemanly appearance presented a pistol, and shot him dead—at least, he did not survive two minutes. in the confusion and consternation the man might have escaped, but he made no such attempt; he walked up to the fireplace, laid down his pistol on a bench, and said, in answer to those inquiring after the murderer, that he was the person. he gave his name as bellingham, expressed satisfaction at the deed, but said that he should have been more pleased had it been lord leveson gower. in fact, his prime intention was to shoot lord gower, but he had also his resentment against perceval, and therefore took the opportunity of securing one of his victims. it appeared that he had been a liverpool merchant, trading to russia, and that, during the embassy of lord leveson gower at st. petersburg he had suffered severe and, as he deemed, unjust losses, for assistance in the redress of which with the russian government he had in vain sought the good offices of the ambassador. on his return to england he had applied to perceval; but that minister did not deem it a case in which government could interfere, and hence the exasperation of the unhappy man against both diplomatists. the trial of the murderer came on at the old bailey, before chief justice mansfield, on the friday of the same week. a plea of insanity was put in by bellingham's counsel, and it was demanded that the trial should be postponed till inquiries could be made at liverpool as to his antecedents. but this plea was overruled. bellingham himself indignantly rejected the idea of his being insane. he declared that the act was the consequence of a cool determination to punish the minister for the refusal of justice to him, and he again repeated, in the presence of lord leveson gower, that his chief object had been himself for his cruel disregard of his wrongs. both lord mansfield and the rest of the judges would hear of no delay; a verdict of "wilful murder" was brought in by the jury, and they condemned him to be hanged, and he was duly hanged on the following monday at nine o'clock, exactly the day week of the perpetration of the act.

[24]

assassination of spencer perceval. (see p. 23.)

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an attempt was again made on the part of grey and grenville to form a ministry, but without effect. overtures were then made to lord wellesley and canning, who declined to join the cabinet, alleging differences of opinion on the catholic claims and on the scale for carrying on the war in[25] the peninsula. in the house of commons, on the 21st of may, mr. stuart wortley, afterwards lord wharncliffe, moved and carried a resolution for an address to the regent, praying him to endeavour to form a coalition ministry. during a whole week such endeavours were made, and various audiences had by lords moira, wellesley, eldon, the chancellor of the exchequer, etc., and moira was authorised to make proposals to wellesley and canning, to grey and grenville. but all these negotiations fell through. grey and grenville refused to come in unless they could have the rearrangement of the royal household. this demand was yielded by the regent, but sheridan, who hated them, did not deliver the message, and so the attempt failed. but at the same time, apart altogether from this matter, they could not have pursued any effectual policy. it was therefore much better that they should not come in at all.

on the 8th of june the earl of liverpool announced to the house of lords that a ministry had been formed; that the prince regent had been pleased to appoint him first lord of the treasury, and to authorise him to complete the cabinet. earl bathurst succeeded liverpool as secretary of the colonies and secretary at war; sidmouth became secretary of the home department; the earl of harrowby president of the council; nicholas vansittart chancellor of the exchequer; lord melville, the son of the old late lord, first lord of the admiralty; the earl of buckinghamshire president of the board of control; castlereagh secretary of foreign affairs; mulgrave master-general of the ordnance; eldon lord chancellor; mr. f. robinson became vice-president of the board of trade and treasurer of the navy; lord clancarty president of the board of trade; sir thomas plumer was made attorney-general, and sir william garrow succeeded him as solicitor-general. in ireland, the duke of richmond became lord-lieutenant; lord manners lord chancellor; and mr. robert peel, who now first emerged into public notice, chief secretary. the cabinet, thus reconstructed, promised exactly the policy of the late premier, and, indeed, with increased vigour. on the 17th of june the new chancellor of the exchequer introduced the budget—professedly that of spencer perceval—which exceeded the grants of the former year by upwards of six millions—that having been fifty-six millions twenty-one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine pounds, this being sixty-two millions three hundred and seventy-six thousand three hundred and forty-eight pounds. new taxes were imposed, and two more loans raised and added to the debt.

the effects of the monstrous drain of the war on the revenues of the country were now beginning to show themselves in the manufacturing districts, and the workpeople had broken out in serious riots in lancashire, yorkshire, and cheshire. instead of attributing their distresses to the vast system of taxation, they attributed them to the increase of machinery, and broke into the mills in many places and destroyed it. this was only adding to the misery by destroying capital, and stopping the very machinery which gave them bread. a committee of inquiry was instituted, and the result showed that the members of parliament were not a whit more enlightened than the artisans themselves. instead of attempting to find some means of ameliorating the condition of the starving population—which, indeed, they could not do, for nothing but peace and reduction of taxation, and the restoration of the natural conditions of commerce could do it,—they recommended coercion, and lord castlereagh brought in a severe bill for the purpose,—the first of many such bills of his, which nearly drove the people eventually to revolution, and, by a more fortunate turn, precipitated reform of parliament. this bill, the operation of which was limited to the following march, was carried by large majorities, and parliament, thinking it had done enough to quiet hungry stomachs in the north, was prorogued on the 30th of july, and on the 20th of september dissolved.

the changes in, and uncertainty about, the ministry gave great uneasiness to lord wellington, whose operations in spain depended so much on earnest support at home. during the latter part of the autumn and the commencement of winter, whilst his army was in cantonments, he was actively preparing to surprise the french, and make himself master of ciudad rodrigo and badajoz. with much activity, but without bustle, he made his preparations at almeida. pretending to be only repairing the damages to its fortifications, he got together there ample stores and a good battering train. he prepared also a portable bridge on trestles, and regulated the commissariat department of his army; he also had a great number of light, yet strong waggons constructed for the conveyance of his provisions and ammunition, to supersede the clumsy and ponderous carts of the portuguese.

all being ready, on the 6th of january wellington suddenly pushed forward to gallegos, and[26] on the 8th invested ciudad rodrigo. nothing could be more unexpected by marshal marmont, who had never suspected any attack in winter, and had placed his army in cantonments, and had, moreover, sent several divisions to distant points. on the very first evening wellington stormed an external redoubt called the great teson, and established his first parallel. on the 13th he also carried the convent of santa cruz, and on the 14th that of san francisco. he then established his second parallel, and planted fresh batteries. on the 19th he made two breaches, and, hearing that marmont was advancing hastily to the relief of the place, he determined to storm at once, though it would be at a more serious exposure of life. the assault was rapid and successful, but the slaughter on both sides was very severe. a thousand killed and wounded were reckoned on each side, and one thousand seven hundred prisoners were taken by the british. what made the british loss the heavier was that general mackinnon and many of his brigade were killed by the explosion of a powder magazine on the walls. general craufurd of the light division, was killed, and general vandeleur, colonel colborne, and major napier were wounded. much ammunition and a battering train were found in ciudad rodrigo. marmont was astounded at the fall of the place. the spanish cortes, who had been so continually hampering and criticising wellington, now created him duke of ciudad rodrigo. he was also, in england, advanced to the dignity of an earl, and an annuity of two thousand pounds was voted him by parliament.

but wellington was not intending to stop here. he immediately made preparations for the siege of badajoz. he had artillery sent out to sea from lisbon, as for some distant expedition, and then secretly carried, in small boats, up the setubal, to alcacer do sal, and thence, by land, across alemtejo to the guadiana. on the 16th of march, after a rapid march, he reached, with a strong body of troops, the guadiana, crossed, and at once invested badajoz. by the 26th he had carried the picurina and the advanced work separated from the city by the little river rivillas, and made two breaches in the city walls. there was the same want of besieging tools and battering trains which had retarded his operations before; but the men worked well, and on the 6th of april, there being three breaches open, orders were given to storm, for soult was collecting his forces at seville to raise the siege. one of the breaches had been so strongly barricaded by general philippon, the governor of badajoz, by strong planks bristling with iron spikes, and with chevaux-de-frise of bayonets and broken swords, that no effect could be produced on the obstruction; whilst the french, from the ramparts and the houses overlooking them, poured down the most destructive volleys. but the parties at the other two breaches were more successful, and on their drawing away the french from this quarter, the spike-beams and chevaux-de-frise were knocked down, and the british were soon masters of the place. philippon endeavoured to escape with a number of men, but he was obliged to throw himself into fort san christoval, on the other side the guadiana, where he was compelled to surrender. the loss of the allies was nearly one thousand men killed, including seventy-two officers, and three hundred and six officers and three thousand four hundred and eighty men wounded. the french, though they fought under cover of batteries and houses, lost nearly one thousand five hundred men; they also delivered up upwards of five thousand prisoners of their own nation, and nearly four thousand spaniards, british, and portuguese, who had been kept at badajoz as a safe fortress. the british soldiers fought with their usual undaunted bravery, but they disgraced themselves by getting drunk in the wine cellars during the night of the storming, and committed many excesses. wellington, who was extremely rigorous in suppressing all such conduct, reduced them to discipline as quickly as possible, and on the 8th badajoz was completely in his hands. soult, who was at villafranca when he received the news, immediately retreated again on seville, briskly pursued by the british cavalry, who did much execution on his rear-guard at villagarcia.

wellington proceeded to put badajoz into a strong state of defence, but he was soon called off by the movements of marmont, who, in his absence, had advanced and invested both ciudad rodrigo and almeida. wellington left general hill to watch the south, which was the more necessary as soult was in strong force at seville, and victor before cadiz. that general had made a vigorous attack on tarifa towards the end of december, but was repulsed with much loss by colonel skerrett. hill, who had about twelve thousand men, made a successful attack on some strong forts near almaraz, on the tagus, erected by the french to protect their bridge of boats there—thus closing the communication between soult in the south and marmont in the north. in these satisfactory circumstances, wellington[27] broke up his cantonments between the coa and the agueda on the 13th of june, and commenced his march into spain with about forty thousand men. of these, however, one column consisted of spaniards, on whom he wisely placed little reliance, and his cavalry was small and indifferently officered in comparison with the infantry. marmont had as many infantry as himself, and a much more numerous and better disciplined cavalry. as wellington advanced, too, he learned that general bonnet, with a force upwards of six thousand strong, was hastening to support marmont. that general abandoned salamanca as wellington approached, and on the 17th the british army entered the city, to the great joy of the people, who, during the three years which the french had held it, had suffered inconceivable miseries and insults; not the least of these was to see the usurper destroy twenty-two of the twenty-five colleges in this famous seat of learning, and thirteen out of twenty-five convents. troops were left in different forts, both in the city and by the bridge over the river tormes, which forts had chiefly been constructed out of the materials of the schools and monasteries. these were soon compelled to surrender, but not without heavy loss. major bowes and one hundred and twenty men fell in carrying those by the bridge. after different man?uvres, marmont showed himself on the british right, near san christoval, where he was met by a division under sir thomas graham, who had beaten the french at barrosa. fresh man?uvres then took place: marmont crossing and recrossing the douro, and marching along its banks, to cut off wellington from his forces in salamanca, and to enable himself to open the way for king joseph's troops from madrid. this being accomplished, and being joined by general bonnet, he faced the army of wellington on the guare?a. on the 20th of july he crossed that river, and there was a rapid movement of both armies, each trying to prevent the other from cutting off the way to salamanca and ciudad rodrigo. on that day both armies were seen marching parallel to each other, and now and then exchanging cannon-shots. the military authorities present there describe the scene of those two rival armies—making a total of ninety thousand men, and each displaying all the splendour and discipline of arms, each general intent on taking the other at some disadvantage—as one of the finest spectacles ever seen in warfare. the next day both generals crossed the river tormes—wellington by the bridge in his possession, the french by fords higher up. they were now in front of salamanca, marmont still man?uvring to cut off the road to ciudad rodrigo. on the morning of the 22nd marmont, favoured by some woods, gained some advantage in that direction; but wellington drew up his troops in great strength behind the village of arapiles, and marmont extending his left to turn the british right flank, wellington suddenly made a desperate dash at his line, and cut it in two. marmont's left was quickly beaten on the heights that he had occupied, and was driven down them at the point of the bayonet. marmont was so severely wounded that he was compelled to quit the field, and give up the command to bonnet; but bonnet was soon wounded too, and obliged to surrender the command to general clausel, who had just arrived with reinforcements from "the army of the north," of which wellington had had information, and which induced him to give battle before he could bring up all his force. clausel reformed the line, and made a terrible attack on the british with his artillery; but wellington charged again, though the fight was up hill; drove the french from their heights with the bayonet once more, and sent them in full rout through the woods towards the tormes. they were sharply pursued by the infantry, under general anson, and the cavalry, under sir stapleton cotton, till the night stopped them. but at dawn the same troops again pursued them, supported by more horse; and overtaking the enemy's rear at la serna, they drove it in—the cavalry putting spurs to their horses, and leaving the foot to their fate. three battalions of these were made prisoners. as the french fled, they encountered the main body of clausel's army of the north, but these turned and fled too; and on the night of the 23rd the fugitives had reached flores de avila, thirty miles from the field of battle. the flight and pursuit were continued all the way from salamanca to valladolid.

lord wellington did not give the retreating enemy much time for repose; within the week he was approaching valladolid and clausel was quitting it in all haste. on the 30th of july wellington entered that city amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the people. in his haste, clausel abandoned seventeen pieces of artillery, considerable stores, and eight hundred sick and wounded. the priests were preparing to make grand processions and sing a te deum in honour of wellington's victories, as they had done at salamanca; but he was much too intent on following up[28] his blows to stay. he was on his march the very next day. he re-crossed the douro to advance against king joseph buonaparte, who had set out from madrid to make a junction with marmont, but on arriving at arevalo joseph had learnt with amazement of the french defeat, and diverted his march, with twenty thousand men, on segovia, in order to reinforce clausel. wellington left a division to guard against clausel's return from burgos, whither the latter had fled, and, collecting provisions with difficulty, he marched forward towards madrid. joseph fell back as the british advanced. wellington was at san ildefonso on the 9th of august, and on the 11th issued from the defiles of the mountains into the plain on which madrid stands. on the 12th he entered the capital amid the most enthusiastic cheers—joseph having merely reached his palace to flee out of it again towards toledo. he had, however, left a garrison in the palace of buon retiro; but this surrendered almost as soon as invested, and twenty thousand stand of arms, one hundred and eighty pieces of ordnance, and military stores of various kinds were found in it. these were particularly acceptable; for it can scarcely be credited in what circumstances wellington had been pursuing his victorious career. we learn this, however, from his dispatch to lord bathurst, dated july 28th—that is, very shortly before his arrival at madrid. after declaring that he was in need of almost everything, he particularises emphatically: "i likewise request your lordship not to forget horses for the cavalry, and money. we are absolutely bankrupt. the troops are now five months in arrears, instead of being one month in advance. the staff have not been paid since february, the muleteers not since july, 1811; and we are in debt in all parts of the country. i am obliged to take the money sent to me by my brother for the spaniards, in order to give a fortnight's pay to my own troops, who are really suffering from want of money."

the news of wellington's defeat of marmont, and his occupation of the capital, caused soult to call victor from the blockade of cadiz; and uniting his forces, he retired into granada. the french, after destroying their works,—the creation of so much toil and expenditure,—retreated with such precipitation from before cadiz that they left behind a vast quantity of their stores, several hundred pieces of ordnance—some of which, of extraordinary length, had been cast for this very siege—and thirty gunboats. they were not allowed to retire unmolested. the british and spanish troops pursued them from tarifa, harassed them on the march, drove them out of san lucar, and carried seville by storm, notwithstanding eight battalions being still there to defend it. the peasantry rushed out from woods and mountains to attack the rear of soult on his march by carmona to granada, and the sufferings of his soldiers were most severe from excessive fatigue, heat, want of food, and these perpetual attacks. general hill meanwhile advanced from the guadiana against king joseph, who fell back to toledo, hoping to keep up a communication with soult and suchet, the latter of whom lay on the borders of valencia and catalonia. but general hill soon compelled him to retreat from toledo, and the british general then occupied that city, ypez, and aranjuez, thus placing himself in connection with lord wellington, and cutting off the french in the south from all approach to madrid.

but wellington had no expectation whatever of maintaining his headquarters at that city. his own army was not sufficient to repel any fresh hordes of french who might be poured down upon him; and as for the spaniards, they had no force that could be relied upon for a moment. the incurable pride of this people rendered them utterly incapable of learning from their allies, who, with a comparatively small force, were every day showing them what discipline and good command could do. they would not condescend to be taught, nor to serve under a foreigner, though that foreigner was everywhere victorious, and they were everywhere beaten. they continued, as they had been from the first, a ragged, disorderly rabble, always on the point of starvation, and always sure to be dispersed, if not destroyed, whenever they were attacked. only in guerilla fight did they show any skill, or do any good.

when, therefore, lord wellington pondered over matters in madrid, he looked in vain for anything like a regular spanish army, after all the lessons which had been given to them. the army of galicia, commanded by santocildes, considered the best spanish force, had been defeated by clausel, himself in the act of escaping from wellington. ballasteros had a certain force under him, but his pride would not allow him to co-operate with lord wellington, and he was soon afterwards dismissed by the cortes from his command. o'donnel had had an army in murcia, but he, imagining that he could cope with the veteran troops of suchet, had been most utterly routed, his men flinging away ten thousand muskets[29] as they fled. moreover, wellington had been greatly disappointed in his hopes of a reinforcement from sicily. he had urged on ministers the great aid which an efficient detachment from the army maintained by us in sicily might render by landing on the eastern coast of spain, and clearing the french out of catalonia, valencia, and murcia. this could now be readily complied with, because there was no longer any danger of invasion of sicily from naples, murat being called away to assist in buonaparte's campaign in russia. but the plan found an unexpected opponent in our commander-in-chief in sicily, lord william bentinck. lord william at first appeared to coincide in the scheme, but soon changed his mind, having conceived an idea of making a descent on the continent of italy during murat's absence. lord wellington wrote earnestly to him, showing him that suchet and soult must be expelled from the south of spain, which could be easily effected by a strong force under british command landing in the south-east and co-operating with him from the north, or he must himself again retire to portugal, being exposed to superior forces from both north and south. the expedition was at length sent, under general maitland, but such a force as was utterly useless. it did not exceed six thousand men; and such men! they were chiefly a rabble of sicilian and other foreign vagabonds, who had been induced to enlist, and were, for the most part, undisciplined.

marshal soult. (from the portrait by rouillard.)

[see larger version]

this armament, with which sir john falstaff certainly would not have marched through coventry, arrived off tosa, on the coast of catalonia, on the 1st of august. the brave catalans, who had given the french more trouble than all the[30] spaniards besides, were rejoiced at the idea of a british army coming to aid them in rooting out the french; but maitland received discouraging information from some spaniards as to the forces and capabilities of suchet, and refused to land there. admiral sir edward pellew and captain codrington in vain urged him to land, declaring that the spaniards with whom he had conferred were traitors. maitland called a council of war, and it agreed with him in opinion. this was precisely what lord wellington had complained of to lord william bentinck, who had propagated the most discouraging opinions amongst the officers regarding the service in spain. he had assured him that a discouraged army was as good as no army whatever. the fleet then, much to the disappointment of the catalans, conveyed the force to the bay of alicante, and there landed it on the 9th of august. suchet, who was lying within sight of that port, immediately retired, and maitland, so long as he withdrew, marched after him, and occupied the country; but soon hearing that king joseph was marching to reinforce suchet, and that soult was likely to join them, he again evacuated the country, cooped himself up in alicante, and lay there, of no use whatever as a diversion in favour of wellington, who was liable at madrid to be gradually surrounded by a hundred thousand men. wellington must proceed against one of the french armies, north or south. had a proper force, with a bold commander, been sent to the south, he could soon have dealt with the northern enemies. a more dubious necessity now lay before him; but it required no long deliberation as to which way he should move. clausel was expecting reinforcements from france, and he proposed to attack him before they could arrive.

on the 1st of september wellington marched out of madrid, and directed his course towards valladolid, leaving, however, hill in the city with two divisions. he then proceeded towards burgos, and, on the way, fell in with the spanish army of galicia, commanded by santocildes, ten thousand in number, but, like all the spanish troops, destitute of discipline and everything else which constitutes effective soldiers—clothes, food, and proper arms. clausel quitted burgos on the approach of wellington, but left two thousand, under general dubreton, in the castle. wellington entered the place on the 19th, and immediately invested the castle. the french stood a desperate siege vigorously, and after various attempts to storm the fort, and only gaining the outworks, the news of the advance of the army of the north, and of that of soult and king joseph from the south, compelled the british to abandon the attempt. general ballasteros had been commanded by the cortes, at the request of lord wellington, to take up a position in la mancha, which would check the progress of soult; but that proud and ignorant man neglected to do so, because he was boiling over with anger at the cortes having appointed lord wellington commander-in-chief of the spanish armies. general hill, therefore, found it prudent to quit madrid, and fall back on salamanca; and lord wellington, on the 21st of october, raised the siege of the castle of burgos, and moved to palencia, to be near to general hill. at palencia lord dalhousie joined him with a fresh brigade from england; and he continued his retreat to the douro, pursued briskly by the french, under general souham. at tudela souham halted to wait for soult, who was approaching.

wellington did not feel himself secure till he had crossed the tormes. on his march general hill came up, and once more taking up his old position on the heights of san christoval, in front of salamanca, which he did on the 9th of november, he declared, in his dispatch to the secretary at war, that he thought he had escaped from the worst military situation that he ever was in, for he could not count at all on the spanish portion of his army. on the 10th souham and soult united their forces, now amounting to seventy-five thousand foot and twelve thousand cavalry; wellington's army mustering only forty-five thousand foot and five thousand cavalry. he now expected an immediate attack, and posted his army on the heights of the two arapiles for the purpose; but the french generals did not think well to fight him, and he continued his retreat through salamanca, and on to ciudad rodrigo, where he established his headquarters, distributing part of his army in their old cantonments between the agueda and the coa. this was accomplished before the end of november; and general hill proceeded into spanish estremadura, and entered into cantonments near coria. the french took up their quarters at some distance in old castile.

this retreat had been made under great difficulties; the weather being excessively wet, the rivers swollen, and the roads knee-deep in mud. provisions were scarce, and the soldiers found great difficulty in cooking the skinny, tough beef that they got, on account of the wet making it hard to kindle fires. the spaniards, as usual,[31] concealed all the provisions they could, and charged enormously for any that they were compelled to part with. in fact, no enemies could have been treated worse than they treated us all the while that we were doing and suffering so much for them. the soldiers became so enraged that they set at defiance the strict system which wellington exacted in this respect, and cudgelled the peasantry to compel them to bring out food, and seized it wherever they could find it. in fact, the discipline of the army was fast deteriorating from these causes, and wellington issued very stern orders to the officers on the subject. till they reached the tormes, too, the rear was continually harassed by the french; and sir edward paget, mounting a hill to make observations, was surprised and made prisoner.

as usual, a great cry was raised at the retreat of wellington. the spaniards would have had him stand and do battle for them, as foolishly as their own generals did, who, never calculating the fitting time and circumstances, were always being beaten. amongst the first and loudest to abuse him was ballasteros, the man who, by his spiteful disregard of orders, had been the chief cause of the necessity to retreat. but it was not the spaniards only, but many people in england, especially of the opposition, who raised this ungenerous cry. wellington alluded to these censures with his wonted calmness in his dispatches. "i am much afraid," he said, "from what i see in the newspapers, that the public will be much disappointed at the result of the campaign, notwithstanding that it is, in fact, the most successful campaign in all its circumstances, and has produced for the common cause more important results than any campaign in which the british army has been engaged for the last century. we have taken by siege ciudad rodrigo, badajoz, and salamanca, and the retiro has surrendered. in the meantime the allies have taken astorga, consuegra, and guadalaxara, besides other places. in the ten months elapsed since january, this army has sent to england little short of twenty thousand prisoners; and they have taken and destroyed, or have themselves retained the use of, the enemy's arsenals in ciudad rodrigo, badajoz, salamanca, valladolid, madrid, astorga, seville, the lines before cadiz, etc.; and, upon the whole, we have taken and destroyed, or we now possess, little short of three thousand pieces of cannon. the siege of cadiz has been raised, and all the country south of the tagus has been cleared of the enemy. we should have retained greater advantages, i think, and should have remained in possession of castile and madrid during the winter, if i could have taken burgos, as i ought, early in october, or if ballasteros had moved upon alcaraz, as he was ordered, instead of intriguing for his own aggrandisement."

the interval of repose now obtained continued through the winter, and late into the spring of 1813. it was greatly required by the british army. lord wellington stated that the long campaign, commencing in january, had completely tired down man and horse; that they both required thorough rest and good food, and that the discipline of the army, as was always the case after a long campaign, needed restoration; and he set himself about to insure these ends, not only in the troops immediately under his own eye, but in those under maitland and his successors in the south. he had, even during his own retreat, written to maitland, encouraging him to have confidence in his men, assuring him that they would repay it by corresponding confidence in themselves. lord william bentinck, however, ordered maitland to return to sicily with his army in october; lord wellington decidedly forbade it. maitland therefore resigned, and was succeeded by general clinton, who found himself completely thwarted in his movements by the governor of alicante, who treated the allies much more like enemies, and would not allow the british to have possession of a single gate of the town, keeping them more like prisoners than free agents. at the beginning of december a fresh reinforcement of four thousand men, under general campbell, arrived from sicily, and campbell took the chief command; but he did not venture to take any decisive movement against the french, but waited for lord william bentinck himself, who now determined to come over, but did not arrive till july, 1813. whilst campbell remained inactive from this cause, his motley foreign troops continued to desert, and many of them went and enlisted with suchet.