Attacking the French before they had concentrated from their scattered winter-quarters, he chased them before him in disorder all across northern Spain. It was only at Vittoria, close under the Pyrenees, that they could collect in numbers strong enough to face him. But there he fell upon them, routed Marshal Jourdan, cut off his retreat on France, and drove him into the mountains with the loss of every single cannon and waggon that the French army possessed (June 21, 1813). The autumn of the year was occupied in subduing St. Sebastian and Pampeluna, the two fortresses that guarded the French frontier, and in repulsing, at the "Battles of the Pyrenees," two gallant attempts made by Marshal Soult to relieve the beleaguered fortresses. At last they fell, and Wellington prepared to invade France in the next spring.
Fall of Napoleon.—Restoration of Louis XVIII.
Meanwhile, Napoleon, with a horde of conscripts and the few veteran troops that he could collect, had been fighting hard in Germany. Against the Russians and Prussians he held his ground for some time, but when his own father-in-law, Francis of Austria, joined the enemy, he was overwhelmed by numbers. The three-days' strife at Leipzig, which the Germans call the "battle of nations," sealed his fate. It was only with the wrecks of an army that he escaped across the Rhine in the autumn of 1813. The allies followed him without giving him a moment's respite, a wise strategy that they had learnt from his own earlier doings. The Emperor made a desperate fight in France, but the odds were too many against him. After some ephemeral successes he was defeated at Laon by one body of the allies, and their main army slipped past him and took Paris (April 4, 1814). On the news of the fall of the capital the French marshals compelled Napoleon to abdicate, and laid down their arms. The humbled despot vainly attempted to commit suicide, fearing death at the victors' hands. But they spared his life, gave him the little Tuscan island of Elba as an appanage, and bade the man who had been the ruler of all Europe to spend the rest of his life in governing a rock and 10,000 Italian peasants. The crown of France was given—with questionable wisdom—to the representative of the Bourbons, the eldest surviving grandson of Lewis XV. This shrewd and selfish old invalid, who was known as the Count of Provence, now took the title of Lewis XVIII. and mounted his martyred brother's long-lost throne.
Wellington in France.—Battle of Toulouse.
While the Austrians, Russians, and Prussians had been conquering Napoleon and capturing Paris, Wellington had not been idle. He had invaded France from the south, taken the great city of Bordeaux, and beaten Marshal Soult at the battle of Toulouse, when the news of Napoleon's abdication brought his brilliant campaign to a conclusion (April 14, 1814).
The American War.—Naval successes of the United States.
All Europe now began to disarm, dreaming that the deadly struggles of the last twenty-two years were over at last. Diplomatists from all nations were summoned to meet at Vienna, to rearrange the map of Europe and parcel out Napoleon's ill-gotten spoils. England alone was unable to disband her armies, for she had still got a war on hand. In 1812 Napoleon had succeeded in stirring up against us the United States of America. Their grievance was the Orders in Council, by which we had prohibited neutral ships from trading with France, in retaliation for the Emperor's Berlin Decrees against our own commerce. After five years of bickering and recrimination the Americans declared war on us—though they might with equally good logic have attacked Napoleon, whose conduct to them had been even more harsh and provoking than that of the Perceval cabinet. With all her attention concentrated on the Peninsula in 1812-13, England had little attention to spare for this minor war, and Canada was left much undermanned. But the small garrison and the Canadian militia fought splendidly, and three separate attempts to overrun the colony were beaten back, and two American armies forced to capitulate. But while so successful on land, the English were much vexed and surprised to suffer several small defeats at sea in duels between single vessels. The few frigates which the United States owned were very fine vessels, heavily armed and well manned; on three successive occasions an American frigate captured an English one of slightly inferior force in single combat, a feat which no French ship had ever been able to accomplish in the whole war. [55] In course of time the American vessels were hunted down and destroyed by our squadrons, but it was a great blow to English naval pride that the enemy had to be crushed by superiority of numbers instead of being beaten in equal fight. But the fact was that individually the American ships were larger and carried heavier guns than our own, so that the first defeats were no matter of shame to our navy.
Battles of Bladensburg and New Orleans.—End of the war.
When Napoleon had been crushed, England was able to turn serious attention to America, and to send many of the old Peninsular veterans over the Atlantic. But their arrival did not crush the enemy so easily as had been expected. One expedition under General Ross, landing in Maryland, beat the Americans at Bladensburg, and burnt Washington, the capital of the United States (1814). But two others failed: the imbecile Sir George Prevost invaded the State of New York, but turned back without having done any serious fighting. On the other hand, the overbold Sir Edward Pakenham, one of the bravest of Wellington's officers, was slain at New Orleans with 2000 of his followers because he endeavoured to storm from the front impregnable earthworks held by a steady foe (January 8, 1815). The war, however, had ceased just before Pakenham fell. Napoleon having abdicated, and the English having withdrawn the Orders in Council, the causes of our strife with America had been removed, and the two powers had signed the peace of Ghent on December 24, 1814. This agreement restored the old condition of affairs, each party surrendering its conquests, and agreeing to let bygones be bygones. But the struggle had bred much ill blood, not to be forgotten for many a year.
Napoleon escapes from Elba.