Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/175

 retreated towards the coast where he expected to find his ships. He was pursued at first by Napoleon, and afterwards by Marshal Soult, with a large army, in the hope of overtaking him before he reached the coast. When Moore arrived at Corunna the vessels in which he meant to embark his men were nowhere to be seen, and while waiting for them, the French army attacked his small force. On the



16th Jan. 1809, was fought the famous battle of Corunna, in which Moore, perhaps the most promising general in the British army, was killed. The French were defeated with a loss of 3,000 men, and Moore's army was allowed to embark without molestation. Moore himself was buried by his sorrowing comrades on the battlefield. So ended England's first effort to drive the French out of Spain.

But Canning was not dismayed. He sent Wellesley back again, but with an army altogether too small, and too badly supplied, for such a campaign as he had to carry on. For four years did Wellesley struggle against large French armies, with little support from his friends in England, or from his Spanish allies. In spite of tremendous difficulties he drove the French out of Portugal, and won