When the battle of Vittoria was fought General Clausel, with about 14,000 men, had commenced his march to support Joseph; but now changing his direction, he turned towards Logrono, and then to Saragossa, with the guerilla forces of Mina and Sau-chez hanging on his rear. As for Joseph he scarcely looked back before he reached the walls of Pamplona in Navarre. Joseph was admitted into its walls; but the fugitives from Vittoria were refused an entrance; and when they attempted to scale the walls they were fired upon by their own countrymen, as if they had been mortal foes; and they were compelled to continue their flight across the Pyrenees towards France. Subsequently General Clausel retreated by the central Pyrenees into France; and General Foy likewise, who was with another division of the French army at Bilboa, fell back rapidly upon French territory and the fortress of Bayonne. Except on the eastern coast, where Suchet was with about 40,000 men, there was not a spot in all Spain where the French dared show themselves. Lord Wellington, under these circumstances, turned his attention to the capture of some of the strongholds in which French garrisons were maintained. He established the blockade of Pamplona, and directed Graham to invest San Sebastian; and he then advanced with the main body of his army to occupy the passes of the Pyrenees from Roncesvalles to Irun, at the mouth of the Bidassoa. Early in July, having driven the enemy to his own soil, his sentinels looked down from the rugged frontier of Spain upon the lovely and fertile plains of France. In forty-five days he had conducted the allied army from the frontiers of Portugal to the Pyrenees; he had marched four hundred miles; had gained a great and complete victory; had driven the French through a country abounding in strong positions; had liberated Spain; and now stood as a conqueror upon the skirts of France.
The campaign was not yet over. Sensibly affected by this defeat of Jourdan, Napoleon immediately superseded that officer in the command, and appointed Soult to succeed him, with the title of Lieutenant-general of the empire. His directions were to re-equip the defeated troops, to gather formidable re-enforcements, to lead his masses speedily against Wellington, to clear the French frontier and the passes of the Pyrenees, relieve Pamplona and San Sebastian, and to drive the allied army behind the Ebro. Soult undertook to do all this; and having collected all manner of disposable forces, on the 13th of July he joined the disorganized fragments of Jourdan’s army. On his arrival he forthwith issued one of those boastful addresses for which the French emperor and his marshals had become celebrated. He remarked:—“I have borne testimony to the emperor of your bravery and zeal: his instructions are that you must drive the enemy from those heights, which enable them to look proudly down on our fertile valleys, and then chase them beyond the Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil that your tents must be pitched and your resources drawn. Let the account of our successes be dated from Vittoria, and let the fête-day of his majesty be celebrated in that city.” At this time Wellington’s attention was divided between the care of his army on the frontier of France and the siege of San Sebastian. He was returning from San Sebastian to his head-quarters on the night of the 17th of July, when he received intelligence that the great army of Soult, from 70,000 to 80,000 strong, was in rapid motion; that the French had overpowered his troops in two of the mountain passes on the right of the allied army; had penetrated into the valleys of the Pyrenees, and were pressing onwards for Pamplona. “We must do the best to stop them,” was the prompt reply; and stop them he did after a week’s almost incessant fighting. From the 25th of July to the 2nd of August a series of engagements took place, the result of which was the retreat of Soult from the Spanish frontiers into France, with a loss, in killed and prisoners, of nearly 20,000 men. In a private letter, just after the “battles of the Pyrenees,” Wellington wrote, “I never saw such fighting as we had here. It began on the 25th of Jury, and, excepting the 29th, when not a shot was fired, we had it every day till the 2nd of August. The battle of the 28th was fierce bludgeon work. The fourth division was principally engaged, and the loss of the enemy was immense. I hope Soult will not feel any inclination to renew his expedition. The French army must have suffered considerably. Between the 25th of last month and the 2nd of this they were engaged seriously not less than ten times, on many occasions in attacking very strong positions, in others beat from them or pursued. I understand their officers say they have lost 15,000 men: I thought so; but as they say so, I now think more. I believe we have about four thousand prisoners. It is strange enough that our diminution of strength up to the 31st did not exceed 1,500 men, although I believe our casualties are 6,000.” In his retreat Soult was closely followed by his adversaries; but, after meeting with severe loss, especially in crossing the Bidassoa, he conducted the main body of his army in safety to France. Lord Wellington at first designed to follow the enemy into his own country, but weighty considerations induced him to abandon this design; and the two armies therefore rested quiet in their respective positions. In the interval of repose efforts were made by the French to relieve San Sebastian; and these were met by an increased activity on the part of the allies to capture both, that place and Pamplona. In his attempt to relieve San Sebastian Soult was defeated by the Spanish troops alone, and the place was captured on the 8th of September, when the garrison, consisting of about 1,800 men, were made prisoners. On the 31st of October, also, the French in Pamplona, having lost all hope of relief, surrendered prisoners of war to Don Carlos de Espana, who had latterly commanded the blockading forces. But before the reduction of Pamplona Lord Wellington had called down part of his troops from the heights of the Pyrenees, and had led them forward a march or two on French ground. Early in October he took possession of the French hills of La Rhune; and on the 10th of November he called down the rest of the allied army, and began to descend into the valleys on the French side. Before taking this decisive step he told the officers and soldiers of the various nations that followed his standard, to remember that they were at war with France because the ruler of the French would not allow them to be at peace, and wanted to force them to submit to his yoke; and he exhorted them not to retaliate on the peaceable inhabitants of France the injuries that the soldiers of Napoleon had inflicted on their own countrymen. It was difficult to convince the Spanish and Portuguese troops that they ought not to retaliate upon the French; but the Portuguese at least attended to the exhortation. The admirable discipline maintained, indeed, the care bestowed to see that the property and persons of the French were protected, converted all around into friends, and they came flocking to the English camp with provisions and wine as to a friendly market. Men, women, and children, struck with admiration at their conduct, followed our troops and wished them success in their enterprise. In the meantime, Soult had retired to a strong position on the Nivelle, his right resting upon St. Jean de Luz, and his left upon Ainhoe. From this position he was driven on the 10th of November, and Lord Wellington established his head-quarters at St. Jean de Luz, on the right bank of the Nivelle, while the allies went into cantonments between the sea and the river Nive, where their extreme right rested on Cambo. The enemy guarded the right bank of the Nive from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port; but Lord Wellington, being straitened for room and supplies for his army, resolved to cross the Nive, and occupy the country between that river and the Adour. This was effected, and the French were driven to Bayonne. Subsequently, during the month of December, Soult made several attempts to dislodge the British; but all his attacks were repulsed with great loss, and the French marshal finally drew off his troops in despair, and retired into his entrenched camp The allied army had also need of rest and re-enforcements, and it went into winter-quarters. The campaign of 1813, in which the troops of France had been taught the frail tenure of human fame, was terminated.
In the meantime, ill-success had attended the British arms on the eastern coast of the Peninsula. On the 3rd of June, General Sir John Murray had invested Tarragona, but after advancing his batteries against it he received reports that Suchet was marching from Valencia for its relief, and he immediately re-embarked his army, leaving his cannon in the batteries. General Murray was succeeded in his command in August by Lord William Bentinck, who resumed the siege of Tarragona, but it was abandoned on the approach of Suchet, and the French marshal entered the city, destroyed the works, withdrew the garrison, and retired towards Barcelona. At this time the state of affairs in Sicily, and the ill-success of political changes there, rendered it necessary for Lord Bentinck to repair thither, and the command devolved on Sir William Clinton; who as soon as arrangements could be made for restoring the works at Tarragona and supplying with provisions the Spanish troops attached to his command, fixed his head-quarters at Villa-franca With an inadequate force, Sir William had to prevent Suchet from following up his recent advantages, and so to occupy his attention, as to stop the succours which he might send to Soult.
AMERICAN CAMPAIGN.
In the midst of the important affairs on the continent, the events of the war with the United States scarcely attracted public attention. These events were various, though unimportant. In the month of January the Americans collected a large force in the back settlements, and again approached Detroit, when Colonel Proctor routed their advanced guard, and captured five hundred men, with their commander, General Winchester. In April, the American general, Dearborn, took possession of York, at the head of the Lake Ontario, from whence General Sheaffe and the garrison was compelled to retire. About the same time, also, General Vincent was obliged by superiority of numbers to vacate Fort St. George, on the Niagara frontier, and on the 5th of June he compelled the enemy to fall back again on Niagara; but soon after Colonel Proctor was attacked by the American General, Harrison, with 10,000 men, who captured nearly the whole of his force, he himself escaping with a few attendants. Towards the end of October three American armies, each amounting to 10,000 men, marched from different points upon Lower Canada: but this great effort was frustrated by the vigilance of Sir George Prévost. During the autumn a squadron of six British vessels was captured by a superior American squadron, on Lake Erie, but on the whole the campaign was honourable to the British arms. When defeated, it was only by dint of overwhelming numbers. Between the “Shannon” and the “Chesapeak,” ships of superior force, there was a fierce battle in Boston Bay, which resulted in the capture of the American vessel, the “Chesapeak,” although she had in number and weight of guns, as well as in the number of its crew, a considerable superiority over the “Shannon.” After a fierce conflict of fifteen minutes’ duration, the “Chesapeak” was on its way with the conqueror, Captain Broke, to Halifax. In St. George’s Channel, also, an American sloop of war was captured by the British sloop, “Pelican.”
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Parliament met on the 4th of November. In his speech the prince declared that no disposition to require sacrifices from France, inconsistent with her honour and just pretensions, would ever be an obstacle to peace; and that he was ready to enter into discussion with the United States, on principles not opposed to the established maxims of public law and the maritime right of the British empire. The speech naturally noticed the successes which had crowned his majesty’s arms and those of his allies in the present year, and it also spoke of the now prosperous state of British commerce, despite the enemy’s efforts to crush it. The speech of the prince regent was received with universal assent and joy. The voice of opposition, indeed, was entirely hushed, and in both houses the addresses were carried nem. con.