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 Wellesley it. On 22 May he passed the frontier, waved farewell to Portugal, and moved with his right wing on Salamanca. Driving out a French division, he went on to the Duero, which was reached on the 28th. The left wing, forty thousand strong, under Graham, had great difficulties to overcome in marching through the Tras os Montes and crossing the Esla; but by 3 June the whole army was united at Toro, on the right bank of the Duero. Wellington afterwards said that this was 'the most difficult move he ever made—that it was touch and go, and required more art than anything he ever did' (, Life of Sir William Napier, i. 147). But the French were too weak and scattered to hinder the junction.

By 3 June 1813 Joseph had brought together fifty-five thousand men on the Pisuerga; he had summoned troops from the north and east, and hoped to make a stand at Burgos. But he was overmatched and out-generalled. Abandoning Burgos, he fell back to the Ebro; and Wellington pushed on, against the advice of his staff, hoping to 'hustle' the French out of Spain before they were reinforced (, i. 336, ii. 232). Adhering to his system of turning their positions by the right, he passed the Ebro above Fries, and provided himself with a new base at Santander. To give time for his detached troops to join him, and for his convoys to get away, Joseph took up a position near Vitoria, behind the Zadora. The army of the south under Gazan fronted west, with the army of the centre behind it; while Reille, with two divisions of the army of Portugal, barred the roads which led to Vitoria from the north. The line of retreat to Bayonne was in prolongation of Reille's front. On 21 June Wellington attacked Gazan with fifty thousand men, while Graham with thirty thousand attacked Reille, and seized the Bayonne road. The French fought well, but pressed on two sides, and still encumbered with a huge train, they were forced to retreat on Pamplona by a bad road, and in extreme confusion. Their loss in men was not much greater than that of the allies, about five thousand; but they left behind them nearly all their guns, their stores, and treasure. Joseph's private papers and Jourdan's baton were among the spoil, and a large number of pictures, including many Spanish masterpieces from Madrid, which were afterwards given to Wellington by King Ferdinand (Suppl. Desp. 16 March 1814).

The beaten army continued its retreat across the Pyrenees. Of the French troops not present at the battle, seventeen thousand under Foy retired by the Bayonne road, followed by Graham; fourteen thousand under Clausel, pursued by Wellington, marched down the Ebro to Zaragoza, and crossed the Pyrenees by Jaca. Only the armies of Aragon and Catalonia remained in Spain, numbering nearly sixty thousand men. Murray had failed badly at Tarragona; but Suchet, on learning Joseph's defeat, concentrated his troops on Catalonia, and did not interfere with Wellington's operations. The victory and the expulsion of Joseph from Spain came most opportunely; they influenced the negotiations at Prague and the course of Austria. The prince regent sent Wellington the baton of field marshal in return for that of Jourdan (3 July); the thanks of parliament were voted him (7 July); and the Spanish regency bestowed on him the estate of Soto de Roma, near Granada, reputed to be of much more value than it actually proved (, p. 284;, Spain, i. 326).

French garrisons had been left in Pamplona and St. Sebastian. Wellington blockaded the former and laid siege to the latter, as he needed a good port. But the truth of Vauban's saying, that precipitation in sieges often means failure and always bloodshed, was shown once more. The batteries opened fire on 14 July, and on the 25th the breaches were assaulted. But the guns of the fortress had not been silenced, the assault was repulsed, and next day the siege had to be suspended. As soon as Napoleon learnt that the allies had passed the Ebro, he had sent off Soult from Dresden as his lieutenant. Soult reached Bayonne on 12 July, and reorganised the troops on the frontier as 'the army of Spain.' It consisted of three corps—Reille's, D'Erlon's, and Clausel's—and a reserve, and had a strength of seventy thousand men. Wellington had eighty-two thousand regulars, but one-third were Spaniards, and, while blockading two fortresses, he had fifty miles of the Pyrenees to guard.

Soult decided to relieve Pamplona first, not St. Sebastian, as Wellington expected. On 25 July D'Erlon forced the pass of Maya, and Reille and Clausel the pass of Roncesvalles. The two latter, following up the right of the allies, were within a few miles of Pamplona on the 27th. But Picton, who commanded the right, took a position east of Sorauren covering Pamplona. Wellington rode up and was recognised by both sides, and Soult deferred his attack till the 28th. By that time troops had arrived from the left, and after very hard fighting the attack was repulsed (, i. 304).