Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/190

 Wellesley  that his enemy would escape him, he pushed out two divisions of his left towards the Rodrigo road without waiting for all his army to come up. They were met and repulsed by the third division, under Pakenham, while several other divisions advanced against their flank. A mass of British cavalry fell on the disordered troops, and, as a French officer put it, forty thousand men were beaten in forty minutes (, iv. 296). Marmont was wounded, and Bonnet. Clausel, to whom the command then passed, made a brave stand at the Arapiles, and drew off his troops after nightfall across the Tormes. In this he was aided by the withdrawal of the Spaniards, unknown to Wellington, from the fort of Alba de Tormes. This battle was Wellington's masterpiece: 'There was no mistake; everything went as it ought; and there never was an army so beaten in so short a time' (Desp. 24 July; cf., ii. 120; , Mémoires, iv. 226). The loss of the British and Portuguese was 5,224, that of the French more than twice as much.

Clausel made a rapid retreat to Valladolid, and thence to Burgos, He was not hard pressed, for 'the vigorous following of a beaten enemy was not a prominent characteristic of Lord Wellington's warfare' (, iv. 278); but his army was so disorganised that a fortnight afterwards only twenty-two thousand men had been brought together. Wellington followed him to the Duero, and occupied Valladolid; then, leaving one division and some Spanish troops to watch Clausel, he marched with twenty-eight thousand men upon Madrid. Joseph had been within a few miles of the retreating army of Portugal on the 24th, but, on learning of its defeat, he retired towards Madrid. On Wellington's approach the court quitted that city, and, with the army of the centre, went to join Suchet in Valencia. On 12 Aug. Wellington entered Madrid. He was received with an enthusiasm which he tried to turn to some practical account by a proclamation issued on the 29th.

His object still was to force Soult out of Andalusia, and he was prepared, if necessary, to march there himself. But on 25 Aug., the day on which Joseph joined Suchet at Almanza, Soult, in obedience to the king's reiterated orders, raised the blockade of Cadiz, and began his march to Murcia. Wellington remained at Madrid till 1 Sept. By that time he was satisfied that Soult was not moving on the capital, and he had learnt that the army of Portugal had reoccupied Valladolid. Leaving Hill to cover Madrid, he marched northward with three divisions, hoping to dispose of Clausel before the armies gathering in the south-east were ready to advance. But the Galicians kept him waiting, and Clausel fell back slowly and skilfully behind Burgos, giving no opportunity for a decisive action.

Wellington reached Burgos on 18 Sept., and before going further he thought it necessary to take the castle. It was a poor place, but situated on a steep hill with three successive lines of defence, and it had an excellent garrison of two thousand men. He was doubtful of success from the outset. The want of guns, ammunition, and trained men was even more marked here than before, and he was unwilling to sacrifice British soldiers to make up for it (Desp. 27 Sept.) An outwork was stormed on the 19th, but a month afterwards the main works still held out, though four assaults had been delivered, and the loss of the besiegers exceeded the number of the garrison. The assaults were made by too small parties, and the troops employed were inexperienced (Desp. 23 Nov.;, i. 318-30). Meanwhile the army of Portugal, joined by the army of the north and by other reinforcements, had grown to forty-four thousand men. Souham, who was now in command of it, advanced from the Ebro. Wellington prepared to meet him with thirty-three thousand, more than one-third of whom were Spaniards, and on 20 Oct. a battle was imminent. 'Fortunately they did not attack me: if they had I must have been destroyed,' he wrote (Suppl. Desp. 25 Nov.) Souham received orders from the king not to fight, and Wellington had news next day from Hill which determined him to retreat. He raised the siege, disengaged himself skilfully, and by the 30th he was holding the line of the Duero opposite Tordesillas.

By that time the king, with Soult and fifty-eight thousand men, had reached the Tagus, so that Wellington had on his hands more than a hundred thousand of the enemy as the result of his victory at Salamanca. The expedition from Sicily, which had landed at Alicant under Maitland, though not in such force as had been promised, detained Suchet on the coast; but the Spaniards, as usual, had failed to do their part. The cortes had appointed Wellington generalissimo of the armies of Spain on 22 Sept.; but Ballesteros, instead of threatening the flank of Joseph's army, as he was ordered to do, remained at Granada, and published a protest against the degradation of serving under a foreigner. On the 30th Hill received instructions from Wellington either to join him or to retreat down the Tagus. He