The troops filed out of the long narrow trenches in the night, a tedious operation, and were immediatelyNotes on the siege, by sir C. Smith, MSS. exposed to a fire of grape from their own batteries on the Chofres. This fire, intended to keep down that of the enemy, should have ceased when the globe of compression was sprung in the drain, but owing to the darkness and the noise the explosion could neither be seen nor heard. The effect of it however drove the enemy from the horn-work, the Portuguese on that side advanced to the ditch, and a vigorous escalade would probably have succeeded but they had no ladders. Again the stormers of the great breach marched first, filling up the way and rendering the second breach, as major Smith had foretold, useless, and the ladder-bearers never got to their destination. The attack was certainly ill-digested, and there was a neglect of moral influence followed by its natural consequence want of vigour in execution.
The deferring of the assault from the 24th to the 25th expressly because the breach was too difficult rendered the troops uneasy, they suspected some hidden danger, and in this mood emerging from the trenches they were struck by the fire of their own batteries; then wading through deep pools of water, or staggering in the dark over slippery rocks, and close under the enemy’s flanking works whence every shot told with fatal effect, how could they manifest their natural conquering energy? It is possible that a second and more vigorous assault on the great breach might have been effected by a recognized leader, but no general or staff officer went out of the trenches with the troops, and the isolated exertions of the regimental officers were unavailing. Nor were there wanting other sinister influences. General Oswald had in the councils earnestly and justly urged the dangers arising from the irregular mode of attack, but this anticipation of ill success, in which other officers of rank joined, was freely expressed out of council, and it said even in the hearing of the troops abating that daring confidence which victory loves.
Lord Wellington repaired immediately to St. Sebastian. The causes of the failure were apparent and he would have renewed the attack, but wanting ammunition, deferred it until the powder and additional ordnance which he had written for to England as early as the 26th of June should arrive. The next day other events caused him to resort to a blockade and the battering train was transported to Passages, two guns and two howitzers only being retained on the Chofres and the Monte Olia. This operation was completed in the night of the 26th, but at day-break the garrison made a sally from the horn-work, surprised the trenches and swept off two hundred Portuguese and thirty British soldiers. To avoid a repetition of this disaster the guards of the trenches were concentrated in the left parallel, and patroles only were sent out, yet one of those also was cut off on the 1st of August. Thus terminated the first part of the siege of San Sebastian in which the allies lost thirteen hundred soldiers and seamen, exclusive of Spaniards during Mendizabal’s blockade.
CHAPTER IV.
The battle of Vittoria was fought on the 21st of June.
The 1st of July marshal Soult, under a decree1813. July. issued at Dresden, succeeded Joseph as lieutenant to the emperor, who thus shewed how little his mind had been affected by his brother’s accusations.
The 12th, Soult, travelling with surprising expedition, assumed the command of the armies of the “north,” the “centre” and the “south” now reorganised in one body, called “the army of Spain.” And he had secret orders to put Joseph forcibly aside if necessary, but that monarch voluntarily retired from the army.
At this period general Paris remained at Jaca, as belonging to Suchet’s command, but Clauzel had entered France, and the “army of Spain,” reinforced from the interior, was composed of nine divisions of infantry, a reserve, and two regular divisions of cavalry besides the light horsemen attached to the infantry. Following the imperial muster-rolls this army, including the garrisons and thirteen German Italian and Spanish battalions not belonging to the organisation, amounted to one[Appendix, No. 8.] hundred and fourteen thousand men; and as the armies of Catalonia and of Aragon numbered at the same period above sixty-six thousand, the whole force still employed against Spain exceeded one hundred and eighty thousand men with twenty thousand horses; and of this number one hundred and fifty-six thousand were present under arms, while in Germany and Poland above seven hundred thousand French soldiers were in activity.
Such great forces, guided by Napoleon, seemed sufficient to defy the world, but moral power which he has himself described as constituting three-fourths of military strength, that power which puny essayists declaiming for their hour against the genius of warriors, are unable to comprehend although by far the most important part of the art which they decry, was wanting. One half of this force, organized in peace and setting forth in hope at the beginning of a war, would have enabled Napoleon to conquer; but now, near the close of a terrible struggle, with a declining fate and the national confidence in his fortune and genius shaken, although that genius was never more surpassingly displayed, his military power was a vast but unsound machine. The public mind was bewildered by the intricacy and greatness of combinations the full scope of which he alone could see clearly, and generals and ministers doubted and feared when they should have supported him, neglecting their duty or coldly executing his orders when their zeal should have redoubled. The unity of impulse so essential to success was thus lost, and his numerous armies carried not with them proportionate strength. To have struggled with hope under such astounding difficulties was scarcely to be expected from the greatest minds, but like the emperor, to calculate and combine the most stupendous efforts with calmness and accuracy, to seize every favourable chance with unerring rapidity, to sustain every reverse with undisturbed constancy, never urged to rashness by despair yet enterprizing to the utmost verge of daring consistent with reason, was a display of intellectual greatness so surpassing, that it is not without justice Napoleon has been called, in reference as well to past ages as to the present, the foremost of mankind.