brigades. A strong French force forded the Bidassoa, and made a desperate attack on the Spaniards posted on the heights of St. Marcial. The Spaniards bravely stood the attack, charged the enemy with the bayonet, and drove them down the height into the river. A second attack was made and repelled in the same manner. Lord Wellington, who hap pened to be present, was highly pleased, and said in his dispatch that "the conduct of the Spanish troops was equal to that of any troops he had ever seen engaged."

In the month of October Lord Wellington moved his left across the Bidasoa upon French ground, and took possession of the hills called La Rhune. The French made only a slight resistance, as their commander, Marshal Soult, had already fixed upon the line of the river Nivelle in his rear for a position. On the 31st of October the French garrison of Pamplona, 4000 strong, having lost all hopes of relief, surrendered prisoners of war. Early in November Lord Wellington made his preparations to march his whole army into France, where they would find good cantonments for the winter. Before, however, taking this serious step he issued an order of the day to all his troops of the various nations that composed his army, in which he told "the officers and soldiers to remember that their nations were at war with France solely because the ruler of the French nation would not allow them to be at peace, and wanted to force them to submit to his yoke; and not to forget at the same time that the worst of the evils suffered by the enemy in his profligate invasion of Spain and Portugal had been occasioned by the irregularities of his soldiers and their cruelties towards the unfortunate and peaceful inhabitants of the country. To avenge this conduct on the peaceful inhabitants of France would be unmanly and unworthy of the Allied nations." But Lord Wellington was not satisfied with mere proclamations and general orders; he enforced them strictly; and whenever he found any part of his troops attempting to plunder, he not only punished by military law those who were caught in the fact, but he placed the whole regiment or brigade under arms to prevent further offence. His greatest trouble was with the Spanish troops, which being badly supplied with provisions by their own government, half starved, and without shoes or money, and having moreover the fresh recollection of the treatment which their countrymen in Spain had met with at the hands of the French, could only be restrained by the strongest measures from retaliating upon the French peasants. Lord Wellington's letters to the Spanish Generals Morillo, Wimpffen, and Freyre are evidence of his earnestness and determination not to allow any irregularity of the sort. "Where I command," he says to Freyre, "I declare that no one shall be allowed to plunder. If plunder must be had, then another must have the command. You have large armies in Spain, and if it is wished to plunder the French peasantry you may enter France, but then the Spanish government must remove me from the command of their armies.

It is a

matter of indifference to me whether I command a large or a small army, but, whether large or small, the army must obey me, and above all must not plunder.”—(' Dispatches,' xi. 395.) -At last he took the measure of moving back most of the Spanish troops within the Spanish frontiers.

On the 10th of November the Allied army left their cold and cheerless position in the highlands of the Pyrenees, and descended into the valleys on the French side. Soult had a strong position on the Nivelle from St. Jean de Luz to Ainhoe, about 12 miles in length. General Hill, with the British right, advanced from the valley of Baztan, and, attacking the French on the heights of Ainhoe, drove them towards Cambo on the Nive, while the centre of the Allies, consisting of English and Spanish troops under Marshal Beresford and General Alten, carried the works behind Sarre, and drove the French beyond the Nivelle, which the Allies crossed at St. Pé, in the rear of the enemy. Upon this the French hastily abandoned their ground and works on the left of the Nivelle, and in the night withdrew to their entrenched camp in front of Bayonne. Lord Wellington's head-quarters were established

at St. Jean de Luz on the right bank of the Nivelle. 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. Lord Wellington, being straitened for room and supplies for his large army, determined to cross the Nive and occupy the country between that and the Adour. On the 9th of December General Hill forded the Nive above Cambo, while the sixth division crossed at Ustaritz, and the French were dislodged from their position at Ville Franque. In the night all their posts were withdrawn to Bayonne, and on the 10th the British right rested on the Adour. On that day Soult, resuming the offensive, issued out of Bayonne, and attacked the British left under Sir John Hope, which covered St. Jean de Luz, where the Allies had considerable depôts of stores. The French came on with great spirit and twice succeeded in driving in the fifth division of the Allies, and twice were repulsed again, the first time by the 9th British and a Portuguese battalion, and the second time by the brigade of Guards: at last night put an end to the fight. Next morning, 11th December, Soult, having withdrawn in the night most of his force from the position in front of the British left, prepared to attack the light division with overwhelming numbers. General Hope, suspecting this, had moved part of his troops to their right to support the light division. This occasioned another change in Soult's movements, who again directed several columns against the left at Barouilles. The troops were occupied in receiving their rations, and their fatigue parties were engaged in cutting wood, when shouts were heard from the front of "en avant," answered by a corresponding cry of" to arms" among the British. The French columns were close at hand, and the Allies had barely time to run to their arms, when they withstood the attack, and at the close of the day both armies remained in their respective positions. Marshal Soult now giving up any further attempt on the left of the Allies, and imagining that his repeated attacks on that side must have induced Lord Wellington to weaken his right, changed his plan, and during the night of the 12th moved with his main force to his left to attack the British right. Lord Wellington, however, had foreseen this, and had given orders to the fourth and sixth divisions to support the right, and the third division was held in readiness for the same object. General Hill had under his immediate command above 13,000 men, and his position extended across from the Adour beyond Vieux Monguerre to Ville Franque and the Nive. Soult directed from Bayonne on the 13th a force of 30,000 men against his position. His columns of the centre gained some ground, but were fiercely repulsed. An attack on Hill's right was likewise successful at first, but was ultimately defeated. Soult at last drew back his troops towards his entrenched camp near Bayonne. General Hill had withstood all the efforts of the enemy without any occasion for the assistance of the divisions which Lord Wellington had moved towards him. Lord Wellington, well pleased at this, told him-" Hill, the day is all your own. ,,

Nothing of importance occurred during the few remaining days of the year 1813. Both armies remained in winter quarters.

Campaign of 1814.-The mighty contest which had been carried on for ten years between France and the rest of Europe was drawing fast to a close. The battle of Leipzig (October, 1813) had given the death-blow to the ambition of Napoleon. He had lost another fine army which he had got together with great pains after the disasters of the Russian campaign of the previous year. The scanty remains of his host were driven out of Germany across the Rhine; that river which, according to his early declarations, constituted the natural frontier of France, but which he had not had self-command enough to respect. He was now left to his own resources, or rather to those of France. Lord Wellington had long foretold that, when that should come to be the case, the feelings of the French population would turn against him. Napoleon had hitherto supported

his enormous armies chiefly at the expense of foreign states. "War must be with him a financial resource," thus wrote Lord Wellington in January, 1812, to Baron Constant, an officer of distinction attached to the Prince of Orange, "and this appears to me the greatest misfortune which the French revolution has entailed upon the present generation. I have great hopes, however, that this resource is beginning to fail, and I think there are symptoms of a sense in France either that war is not so productive as it was, or that nations who have still something to lose may resist as those of the Peninsula have, in which case the expense of collecting this resource becomes larger than its produce.”—( Dispatches,' viii. p. 581 and following.)

On his return to Paris in November, 1813, Napoleon decreed by a senatus consultum a new levy of 300,000 conscripts. This was not a pacific prelude. In December he ordered the assembling of 180,000 national guards to garrison the towns and fortresses. He talked, however, of peace, but he wanted Antwerp, Ostend, Belgium, Savoy, &c.; he hesitated, he lost time in agreeing to the preliminary basis of a treaty such as was offered to him by the Allied powers at Châtillon; he left his own envoy there without instructions or powers; he wished, in short, to try once more the chances of war. On the 25th of January, 1814, he left Paris for Châlons to attack the Prussians and Russians.

Lord Wellington now made his preparations to drive the army of Soult from the country on the left of the Adour. About the middle of February, by a succession of movements and partial engagements, he drove the French first across the Bidasoa, and afterwards across the Gave d'Oléron, an affluent of the Adour. On the 27th of February he met Soult's army concentrated at Orthez on the Gave de Pau, attacked and beat it and pursued it to the Adour, the French retiring to the eastward towards Auch. On the 1st of March Lord Wellington's head-quarters were at St. Sever, north of the Adour. The loss of the Allies at the battle of Orthez was 277 killed, and about 2000 wounded or missing. The loss of the French army was considerable during the battle, and still more during the retreat, owing to desertion having spread to a great extent, especially among the conscripts, who threw away their arms in vast numbers. The battle of Orthez had important results. The garrison of Bayonne was now left to its fate, and the road to Bordeaux lay open to the Allies. Lord Wellington gave orders to General Hope for the siege of Bayonne, and detached Marshal Beresford with two divisions to occupy Bordeaux. On the arrival of the Allies at the latter city, the mayor and most of the inhabitants, of their own accord, proclaimed Louis XVIII. This movement is partly explained by the circumstance that Bordeaux, as a great commercial town, had suffered most severely under Bonaparte's continental system, which annihilated its maritime trade.

Lord Wellington was placed in a very delicate position. He was making war against the existing government of France, which was acknowledged by almost all the great powers of Europe, and he knew that a congress of their ministers and of Napoleon's envoys was then still sitting at Châtillon, notwithstanding the hostilities that were carried on between the belligerent armies. He was always extremely cautious about interfering, without positive orders from his government, in the internal affairs of other countries, and his whole correspondence proves his caution and discretion with regard to Spain, and the va rious factions of liberals and absolutists, which were already quarrelling there. (See among others his letter to the Conde de la Bisbal, dated St. Jean de Luz, 3rd February, 1814.)— His business was purely military-it was to drive the invader out of the country, and leave the people to settle their own affairs. In France, from a similar principle, he was extremely anxious not to countenance a civil war. The Duke of Angoulême having landed in the south of France to excite a movement in favour of the Bourbons, Lord Wellington advised him politely to keep incoguito, and to wait for some important demonstration in his favour. When Beresford

marched upon Bordeaux he directed him most particularly not to originate or encourage any rising of the Bourbon party. "If they should ask you for your consent to proclaim Louis XVIII., to hoist the white standard, &c., you will state that the British nation and their Allies wish well to Louis XVIII. ; and as long as the public peace is preserved where our troops are stationed, we shall not interfere to prevent that party from doing what may be deemed most for its interest: nay, further, that I am prepared to assist any party that may show itself inclined to aid us in getting the better of Bonaparte. That the object of the Allies, however, in the war, and, above all, in entering France, is, as is stated in my proclamation, peace; and that it is well known the Allies are now engaged in negotiating a treaty of peace with Bonaparte. That however I might be inclined to aid and support any set of people against Bonaparte while at war, I could give them no further aid when peace should be concluded; and I beg the inhabitants will weigh this matter well before they raise a standard against the government of Bonaparte and involve themselves in hostilities. If, however, notwithstanding this warning, the town should think proper to hoist the white standard, and should proclaim Louis XVIII., or adopt any other measure of that description, you will not oppose them; and you will arrange with the authorities the means of drawing, without loss of time, for all the arms, ammunition, &c., which are at Dax, which you will deliver to them. If the municipality should state that they will not proclaim Louis XVIII. without your orders, you will decline to give such orders, for the reasons above stated." And to the mayor of St. Sever he wrote on the same subject:-"I have not interfered in any way in what has happened at Bordeaux, and if the department of the Landes, or any town of the department, chooses to acknowledge the house of Bourbon, I shall not oppose it; but I cannot enjoin to the individuals or the authorities of those districts which, by the operations of the war, have fallen under my order, to take a step which must commit them personally, because if peace should be made, I must cease to give them that assistance which I could afford them under existing circumstances." -(Dispatches,' xi. pp. 558 and 590.)-And yet this was the commander whom Napoleon's partisans and generals accused of fomenting revolt and civil war in France (See a turgid proclamation dated 8th March, 1814, Dispatches,' xi. 594), while the more headlong royalists blamed him for not protecting them from the consequences of their own rash conduct contrary to his advice.-(See Lord Wellington's letter to the Duke of Angoulême, 29th of March, 1814; ib. p. 608 and following.)—All this serves to prove what Lord Wellington observes in one of his letters, that it was impossible to know the truth in France in those times; the whole system of Napoleon's government being based upon deception and trickery.

With regard to those, and they were but few, who manifested a wish to carry on a partisan warfare in the interest of Napoleon, and against the Allies, Lord Wellington wrote to the mayors and other authorities that the inhabitants could not be allowed to remain in their villages, and act as soldiers at the same time. "Those who wish to be soldiers must go and serve in the enemy's lines, and those who wish to live quietly at home, under the protection of the allied troops, must not bear arms. The Commander-in-Chief will not allow any one to follow both courses; and any person found in arms in the rear of the army shall be judged according to military laws, and treated in the same manner as the enemy's generals have treated the Spaniards and Portuguese."—(Ib. p. 618.)

On the 18th of March Lord Wellington moved his army to Vic Bigorre, and Soult retired to Tarbes, which he abandoned on the 20th, and continued his retreat to Toulouse, where he arrived on the 24th. On the 27th the Allies arrived on the left of the Garonne, in front of Toulouse. The object of Soult was to facilitate a junction with Suchet, who was withdrawing his troops from Catalonia, in consequence of Ferdinand having been sent back to Spain, and acknowledged as King

it, on the 14th of April, and attacked the lines of the Allies, who lost about 800 men in this affair, including General Hay, who was killed, and the general in command, Sir John Hope, who was wounded and taken prisoner. General Stopford, of the Guards, was also wounded.

On the 30th of April Lord Wellington set off for Paris, whither he was sent for by Lord Castlereagh. He left General Hill in charge of the army. On the 13th of May he returned to Toulouse, and soon after set off for Madrid, where "things were getting on very fast, and the army had already taken different sides; O'Donnell and Elio for the king, the former having issued a very violent declaration, and Freyre and the Prince of Anglona for the constitution. I think, however, I shall keep them both quiet."—(' Dispatches,' xii. p. 18.) On the 25th of May he wrote from Madrid to Sir Charles Stuart:-"You will have heard of the extraordinary occurrences here, though not probably with surprise. Nothing can be more popular than the king and his measures, as far as they have gone to the overthrow of the Constitution. The imprisonment of the Liberales is thought by some, I believe with justice, unnecessary, and it is certainly highly impolitic; but it is liked by the people at large.. However, I arrived only yesterday, and I have not had time to learn much. Those to whom I have talked, who pretend and ought to know, say that his majesty will certainly perform the promise made in his decree of the 4th of May, and will give a free constitution to Spain. I have urged and shall continue to urge this measure upon them, as very essential to his majesty's credit abroad."

In a subsequent letter to Lord Castlereagh, dated 1st of June, he says:-" I have been very well received by the king and his ministers, but I fear that I have done very little good." He repeats a conversation he had with the Duke de San Carlos, in which he urged the necessity of the king governing on liberal principles; and he thus ends :-" The fact is that there are no public men in this country who are acquainted either with the interests or the wishes of the country; and they are so slow in their motions that it is impossible to do anything with them."

On the 11th of June Lord Wellington was again with his army at Bordeaux, giving orders for the evacuation of France by the allied troops. On the 14th of June he issued his farewell general orders to the army (Dispatches,' xii. p. 62); (he had been created a Duke on the 10th of May). On the 23rd of June the Duke of Wellington arrived in London, and on the 28th received in his place in the House of Peers the thanks of that House, and on the 1st of July he received likewise the thanks of the House of Commons, through the Speaker. In the following August he proceeded to Paris as Ambassador of Great Britain to the King of France.

Campaign of Waterloo, 1815.—In the month of January the Duke of Wellington repaired to Vienna to attend the general Congress of the European powers. In the beginning of March, Napoleon, having escaped from Elba, landed at Cannes, on the French coast, and from thence marched to Paris, without meeting any obstacle (Louis XVIII. withdrew to Ghent). On the 13th of March the ministers of the eight powers assembled at Vienna, including the ministers of the King of France, signed a paper, by which they declared Bonaparte an outlaw, a violator of treaties, and a disturber of the peace of the world, and delivering him over to public justice, "vindicte publique."-(Dispatches,' xii., 269, 352.) At the same. time they declared that they would maintain inviolate the treaty of Paris of the 30th of May, 1814. At the beginning of April the Duke of Wellington repaired to Brussels to examine the military state of affairs on that frontier. An English army was assembled in Flanders, including the Hanoverian Legion, and was joined by the troops of the King of the Netherlands, of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the Prince of Nassau; and the chief command of the whole was given to the Duke of Wellington. In all, he had about 76,000 men under him, of whom 43,000 were British, or Hanoverians in

British pay. Of these, deducting sick, detached, &c., there remained present in the field about 37,000 British and Hanoverians. The head-quarters were fixed at Brussels. Marshal Blücher, with the Prussian army, estimated at about 80,000 men, was on the left of the British; his head-quarters were at Namur.

During the month of May, Bonaparte, by great exertions, collected an army of about 120,000 men, chiefly composed of veterans, on the frontiers of Flanders; and on the 11th of June he left Paris to take the command. On the 15th the French crossed the Sambre, and marched to Charleroi, 'the Prussian corps of General Ziethen retiring to Fleurus. Marshal Blucher concentrated his army upon Sombref, holding the villages of St. Amand and Ligny in front of his position. The Duke of Wellington marched his army upon Quatre Bras, on the road from Charleroi to Brussels. Napoleon attacked Blucher on the 16th, with superior numbers, carried the village of Ligny, and penetrated to the centre of the Prussian position; but the Prussians fought with great gallantry until night, when Blücher withdrew his army in good order to Wavre. In the mean time the Duke of Wellington, with part of his army, was attacked at Quatre Bras by the 1st and 2nd corps of the French army, commanded by Ney, and a corps of cavalry under Kellermann, which, however, made no impression upon the British position.

On the 17th the Duke of Wellington made a retrograde movement upon Waterloo, corresponding to that of Marshal Blücher. He took up a position in front of the village of Waterloo, across the high roads from Charleroi and Nivelles his right thrown back to a ravine near Merke Braine, and his left extended to a height above the hamlet of Ter la Haye; and he occupied the house and gardens of Hougoumont, near the Nivelles road, in front of his right centre, and the farm of La Haye Sainte in front of his left centre.

The French collected their army, with the exception of the 3rd corps, which had been sent to observe the Prussians, on a range of heights in front of the British position. About 10 o'clock on the morning of the 18th the French began a furious attack on the post of Hougoumont, which was occupied by a detachment of the Guards, who maintained their ground against all the efforts of the enemy throughout the day. There was no manœuvring on the part of Napoleon on that day. He made repeated attacks on the British position with heavycolumns of infantry, supported by a numerous cavalry, and by a deadly fire from his numerous artillery. His attacks were repulsed with great loss on both sides. In one of these attacks the French carried the post of La Haye Sainte, which was occupied by a detachment of Hanoverians, who, having expended all their ammunition, were cut to pieces. Napoleon then ordered his cavalry to attack the British infantry, which formed in squares to receive them. The French cavalry for a time walked about the British squares, as if they had been of the same army, but all their efforts could make no impression on the British infantry, by whose steady fire they were brought down in great numbers. The French cavalry was nearly destroyed in these attacks, as well as in a charge from Lord E. Somerset's brigade of heavy cavalry, consisting of the Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, and the 1st Dragoon Guards, in which the French cuirassiers were completely cut up. At last, about 7 o'clock in the evening, when General Bulow's Prussian corps began to be engaged upon the French right, Napoleon moved forwards his guard, which he had kept in reserve, to make a last desperate effort on the British left centre near La Haye Sainte, of which the French had already possession. The French guard marched resolutely on in column, with supported arms, under a destructive fire from the British position they halted at the distance of about 50 yards from the British line, and attempted to deploy, but they became mixed together, whilst uninterrupted discharges of musketry from the British infantry made fearful havoc in their dense mass; they were broken, and gave way down the slope of the hill in irretrievable confusion. On this the Duke of Wellington