“Never was victory more complete. The trophies were innumerable. Marshal Jourdan’s baton of command was brought to Lord Wellington, who sent it to the Prince Regent, from whom he quickly received one of an English marshal in return. The loss of the French was never ascertained; that of the Allies was 3,567 English, 1,059 Portuguese, and 550 Spanish. The spoil taken was enormous. “The soldiers of the army,” wrote Lord Wellington, “have got among them about 1,000,000 sterling in money, with the exception of about 100,000 dollars found in the military chest. Rich vestures of all sorts, gold and silver plate, pictures, jewels, parrots, monkeys, and children, lay scattered about the field amidst weeping mothers and wailing children. Joseph himself narrowly escaped; a squadron of dragoons pursued his carriage and fired into it.”
All the remaining bodies of the French in Spain fell in the fall of Vittoria. They escaped out of the kingdom by various roads as quickly as possible. “Joseph’s reign was over, the crown had fallen from his head, and after years of toil and combats, which had rather been admired than understood, the great English leader, emerging from the chaos of the Peninsular struggle, stood on the summit of the Pyrenees a recognized conqueror. From those lofty pinnacles the clangour of his trumpets pealed clear and loud, and the splendour of his genius appeared as a flaming beacon to warring nations.”[15]
Thus, in some five or six weeks, had a great kingdom been cleared of its invaders and oppressors—not by the power of superior numbers, but by the natural ascendency of a consummate military genius. “Here,” remarks Napier, “was a noble army driven like sheep before prowling wolves, although in every action the officers had been prompt and skilful, and the soldiers brave, firm, and obedient. The French troops were excellent and numerous, and the country strong and favourable for defence; but the soul of a great Commander was wanting; and hence, the Esla, the Tormes, the Douro, the Pisuerga, seemed to be all dried up, the mountains to be levelled; and 60,000 veteran soldiers, willing to fight at every step, were hurried with all the tumult and confusion of defeat across the Ebro.”
The deliverance of the Peninsula, by a force so far inferior to that of the French, must always remain one of Wellington’s greatest glories. The same French writer, whom we have already quoted, Jules Maurel, remarks this surprising fact. He says: “The truth is, that from 1808 to 1813, Wellington never had 30,000 English under his orders, even at a period when the Imperial armies deluged the Peninsula with no fewer than 370,000 men.”
Nor were the results of this great day confined to the Spanish peninsula. Like its predecessor, the victory of Salamanca, the battle of Vittoria shook the whole continent of Europe. Napoleon himself, holding his ground at Dresden, had, up to this moment, succeeded in withholding Austria from any actual participation in the confederacy against him. He had even succeeded, on the 30th of June, in obtaining a convention for the restoration of peace between himself, Russia and Prussia. But the very next day the news of the expulsion of the French from Spain reached Dresden, filling Napoleon and his ministers with consternation, and giving new life and vigour to the Russian and Prussian councils. The Allies regretted that any cessation of arms had been agreed to, and they began to long for its termination. The very moment it expired by lapse of time, Austria joined the Allies; war was actively resumed, and the autumn had not ended before Napoleon had been driven across the Rhine, and Germany freed from the presence of the French armies.
The French writer from whom we have just quoted, Jules Maurel, thus notices this remarkable passage in modern history:
“Scarcely had the armistice been signed when intelligence arrived that the French had lost everything in Spain. In 40 days Wellington had turned, one after another, all the positions occupied by the French armies of the centre, of the south and of the north, and had crossed the Tormes, the Douro, the Esla, the Carrion, and the Ebro. He had reached Vittoria; he had gained a decisive battle; he had expelled King Joseph from the Peninsula, and had planted his army on the Pyrenees. In the beginning of May he was in Portugal; on the 23rd of June he was on the frontiers of France. The defeat of Vittoria entirely neutralized the victories of Lutzen and Bautzen, and at once restored the coalition.”
VOUGLE, BATTLE OF.—Fought between Alaric II and Clovis of France. Alaric was entirely overthrown, and the whole country subdued. Clovis afterwards made Paris the capital, and became the founder of the French Monarchy.