brave officers and soldiers, and was wounded himself; but he soon had the satisfaction of seeing the two French columns reeling from before his British bayonets, and rolling down the steeps. In these attacks on the hill, the French lost about 2,500 men: entire brigades had been destroyed.

Another long pause ensued; but about the hour of noon, the French renewed their attack upon the whole part of the position occupied by the British army. In consequence of the repeated attempts upon the height on his left, by the valley which ran round the hill, Sir Arthur had placed two brigades of British cavalry in that valley, supported in the rear by a division of Spanish cavalry. The general attack began by the march of several columns of French infantry into the valley, with a view to try the hill once more. These columns were charged by our horse, who prevented the execution of their plan; but the assailants suffered great loss in the fight, the 23rd Light Dragoons having nearly one-half of their number killed or wounded. While this was going on on the left, heavy columns of the infantry of Sebastiani's corps twice attacked the British right under General Campbell, but they were each time repulsed by the steady fire of the English; and, when a Spanish regiment of horse came gallantly up and charged them in flank, they retired in disorder, leaving ten guns, and heaps of killed and wounded, behind them. But the principal attack made by Victor, was against Sir Arthur Wellesley's centre, which consisted of the guards and the German Legion. Here the French marshal employed nearly every man he could spare. His massy columns came close up to the British line, as if confident in their vastly superior numbers, and as if absolutely determined, at any cost, to crush the centre, and pass over it to exterminate the disjointed remnants of Wellesley's forces; but they were most gallantly repulsed by a charge with bayonets by the whole division, and they reeled back in helpless disorder. Unluckily the brigade of guards on the right, elated by their success, and by the inward and intimate conviction that it was not Frenchmen that could withstand a charge of British bayonets, advanced too far in pursuit, and so exposed their left flank to the fire of the French batteries; as they began to fall back, some of the troops they had been pursuing rallied and turned against them, some supporting columns

and French dragoons advanced; and now the guards in their turn retired in some disorder. At the same time the German Legion, which was on the left of the guards, and which had not advanced with them, fell into some confusion, and being hard pressed by the French, the legion gave way completely. Sir Arthur's centre was thus broken; but, as soon as he saw from the summit of the steep hill on the left the over hot charge of the guards, he foresaw what might happen, and provided for it by instantly sending from the hill the 48th regiment, and ordering General Cotton's light cavalry to advance. And now the brave 48th, led on by Colonel Donellan, came up to fill the gap made in the centre, moving in beautiful order amidst the retiring crowds, wheeling back by companies to let the guards and the legion pass through the intervals, and then resuming its line, and marching against the right of the pursuing columns, who, at one moment, seemed almost mixed with our guardsmen and legionaries. When close on the French flank, the 48th plied them with destructive discharges of musketry, and closing upon them with a firm and regular pace, completely checked their forward movement. Our centre was presently restored, for the guards and the German Legion quickly rallied; and then Cotton's brigade of light cavalry, coming up from the rear at a smart trot, the French columns, whose success had been so momentary, began to waver, their general, Lapisse, was mortally wounded, their loss from the fire of the 48th alone was dreadful, and at last they gave way and retired to their own lines, their retreat being protected by their light troops and artillery. No other attempt was made either to break our centre or to carry the murderous hill: there was, in fact, no more fighting. The British, reduced to less than 14,000 men, and exhausted by fatigue, were unable to pursue the French, and the Spanish army, which had been scarcely engaged, was incapable of making any evolutions. King Joseph's guards and the French reserve had not been engaged during the day, and had Napoleon been there, perhaps a last effort might have been tried; but, as it was, the French, having been repulsed at all points, were evidently but too happy to desist; and thus, at about six o'clock in the evening all fighting and firing ceased, each army retaining the position that it had occupied in the morning. Out of the 50,000

men which they had on the field at the beginning of the battle, the French had lost 7,000 in killed and wounded, an immense number of officers, and two generals being among the killed. Out of the less than 20,000 British, 857 had been killed, and 3,913 wounded; 653 were reported missing; and two general officers, Major-General Mackenzie and Brigadier-General Langworth, were among the slain. The French also lost a considerable number of men as prisoners; and, as they retired, they left in the hands of the English seventeen pieces of artillery, with tumbrils and ammunition complete. The next morning at daybreak the whole French army, who had begun retreating during the night, were on the other side of the Alberche, and taking up a position in the rear of that river, on the heights of Salinas. Except at Albuera, the French never again fought so well throughout the rest of this war, and yet France confessed, in a hurried night-retreat, that she had been beaten and humiliated.

"Far from the field where late she fought,
The tents where late she lay,

With rapid step and humbled thought,
All night she holds her way;
Leaving to Britain's conquering sons,
Standards rent and ponderous guns,
The trophies of the fray,

The weak, the wounded, and the slain,
The triumph of the battle plain,

The glory of the day."*

In the course of the same day, the 29th of July, General Robert Craufurd reached Sir Arthur Wellesley's camp from Lisbon, with the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th (rifles). The reinforcement altogether amounted to nearly 3,000 men. This was the light brigade, which was ever after in advance during the Peninsular campaigns, and which acquired military celebrity for its gallantry and quickness of movement. Sir Arthur passed the 29th and 30th in establishing his hospitals in the town of Talavera, and in endeavouring to get provisions for his half-starved men. In this he was assisted neither by the Spanish authorities nor by the Spanish inhabitants. This was the more unpardonable as there were at the moment large

Right Hon. J. Wilson Croker-"The Battles of Talavera."

deposits of grain-more than sufficient to supply both the Spanish and the English army in Talavera. But the truth was, the Spanish holders of the grain concealed it, and were determined to produce it only for a high price and for ready money. In the state of poverty in which the army of Sir John Moore had been left, that general had been obliged to contract some debts at Salamanca and in various towns in Galicia, and to give buenas or promissory notes on his government for the payment of them; the British Government had not yet paid these debts, which for Spaniards were rather heavy; and, as this evil news got spread over other provinces, it destroyed English credit, and increased the tenacity with which Spaniards generally hold what they have. But the Spaniards of Talavera and that neighbourhood were not more disposed to open their grain deposits to Cuesta than to Wellesley. "They have no magazines," says Sir Arthur, ́ ́nor have we, nor can we collect any, and there is a scramble for everything. . . . . I wish that Don Martin de Garay, or the gentlemen of the junta, before they blame me for not doing more, or impute to me beforehand the probable consequence of the blunders or the indiscretion of others, would either come or send here somebody to satisfy the wants of our half-starved army, which although they have been engaged for two days, and have defeated twice their numbers in the service of Spain, have not bread to eat. It is positively a fact that during the last seven days the British army have not received one-third of their provisions, that at this moment there are nearly 4,000 wounded soldiers dying in the hospital in this town from want of common assistance and necessaries, which any other country in the world would have given even to its enemies, and that I can get no assistance of any description from this country. I cannot prevail upon them even to bury the dead carcases in the neighbourhood, the stench of which will destroy themselves as well as us." + At the same time General Beresford, from Almeida, was crying out, "Blankets! blankets!" and for clothes wherewith to cover his Portuguese troops, and for provisions wherewith to feed them.

WELLINGTON CAMPAIGNS.

A. D. 1809-1810.

NOTWITHSTANDING his brilliant victories at Talavera, Sir Arthur Wellesley was constrained, by want of provisions, by Spanish selfishness and mismanagement, and by fresh blunders committed by old Cuesta and other Spanish generals, to retreat to the line of the Guadiana, where he placed his army in cantonments to cover Portugal from Soult, who cantoned his army in Estremadura and Leon.

These

In the month of November (1809), two numerous Spanish armies, the one commanded by General Areizaga, the other by the Duke del Parque, rushed madly to battle with the French veterans, and sustained the usual defeats. disasters and the projects and movements of the French made it necessary for Lord Wellington to quit Spain altogether, to fall back upon the Tagus, to cross that river and to march on the Mondego. These countermarches, in the rainy season of the year, were admirably performed by our troops.

At the beginning of January, 1810, his lordship fixed his head quarters at Viseu, at the distance of 134 miles N.N.E. from Lisbon, having his outposts along that frontier of Spain towards Ciudad Rodrigo.

The peace with Austria enabled Bonaparte to send large reinforcements from Germany into Spain. During the winter Junot, Drouet, and other chiefs had crossed the Pyrenees with strong corps. Marshal Massena, who had much practice in mountain warfare, and who had obtained the name of the darling child of victory, was sent to take the

On the 4th of September, 1809, almost as soon as the news of his last remarkable battles reached England, Sir Arthur was raised to the peerage with the titles of Baron Douro of Wellesley, and Viscount Wellington of Talavera.