Andalusia. The people of Cadiz, contented with the security for which they were indebted to their situation, seemed little disposed to make any vigorous efforts against the besiegers, Marshal Soult, the Duke of Dalmatia, found himself at liberty to detach a force for the purpose of undertaking the siege of Badajoz. The skill of the French engineers, and the means which the army possessed, rendered the fall of that fortress inevitable, unless the garrison could be relieved by an army capable of meeting the besiegers in the field. To obtain any force equal to this undertaking was found extremely difficult; the long expected reinforcements from England had not arrived; the Spanish army in the south had endeavoured in vain to arrest the progress of the march of the French troops under Mortier; and the embarrassments of the allies were considerably increased by the sudden death of the Marquis de la Romana.† As a general, the talents of the marquis were not of the first order, but he was a real patriot, and a man of inflexible integrity. Unallured by the temptations held out to him by the enemy, he had served his country with zeal and fidelity; and he was snatched away at a moment when Lord Wellington was congratulating himself on having a colleague, to whose wise councils and co-operation his lordship was proud to acknowledge his obligations.

General Mendizabal, on whom the command of the army of the Marquis de la Romana now devolved, finding himself unable to resist the advance of the French army, retreated from Llerena, and threw three thousand men into Olivença, a small fortress in Estramadura, which was placed under the command of Manual Herk; but the garrison, though thus reinforced, surrendered on the 22d, after a very feeble resistance. Marshal Soult, having left Seville to direct the military operations in Estramadura in person, now advanced to Badajoz, and immediately invested that place; but, before the investment could be made complete, it was necessary to drive the Spanish army under Mendizabal from their position, and to close the communication with Fort San Christoval. For this purpose, the cavalry under Soult crossed the Guadiana on the 19th of February, to cooperate with the infantry, which had been suffered to pass that river on the preceding night without opposition. At break of day the French cavalry rushed upon the left wing of the Spaniards, and overthrew them, while General Girard attacked and carried the right, in spite of a vigorous resistance made by the flower of the patriot army.

When Marshal Soult had ascer

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tained the extent of the advantage gained on the BOOK IV: right and left, he collected all his troops against the centre, and by this masterly manoeuvre, CHAP.XVI. forced a corps of six thousand Spaniards to lay down their arms, while the remainder of Mendizabal's army were either killed or dispersed. This victory opened the gates of Badajoz to the besiegers. During the month of February the fortress, however, was defended with much courage and ability; but in the last sortie made by the Spaniards, the governor, Don Raphael Menacho, was killed; and on the 11th of March, Don Josse de Imaz, his successor, surrendered this important fortress into the hands of the enemy; "and thus," in the words of Lord Wellington, "Olivença and Badajoz were given up without any sufficient cause; while Marshal Soult, with a corps of troops which was never supposed to exceed twenty thousand, besides capturing those two places, made prisoners and destroyed about twenty-two thousand Spanish troops."

on

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-BOOK IV. stigmatised as wantonly outrageous. From the moment the retreat commenced the troops gave CHAP.XVI. themselves up to a spirit of cruelty and rapine; and after inducing the inhabitants of many of the towns and villages through which they passed to remain at their homes under the promise of good treatment, they plundered their property, and destroyed their habitations.

Almeida, which was now the only place in Portugal in the hands of the enemy, was immediately blockaded by the British troops, and Lord Wellington, under a persuasion that Massena would not for some time be in a situation to attempt the relief of that fortress, committed the command of his army to Sir Brent Spencer, while he took the opportunity of visiting the army of Estramadura, under Sir William Beresford. On the 15th of April, the fortress of Olivença had again opened its gates to the allies; and on the 22d of the same month, a conference took place between Marshal Beresford and Lord Wellington at Elvas, at which it was determined immediately to invest Badajoz, and to prosecute the siege of that place with vigour. Soon after the conferences at Elvas, the hostile indications of the French army of Portugal recalled Lord Wellington to the north. The overflowing of the waters of the Guadiana delayed the operations against Badajoz till the 3d of May, and on the 12th of that month, Marshal Beresford was under the necessity of raising the siege in order to advance against Marshal Soult, who had left Seville on the 10th, and was marching to the Portuguese frontier in order to throw succours into the besieged fortress.

The British commander, who, on his way to Albuera, had been joined by the Spanish forces under Generals Castanos and Blake, drew up his army in two lines nearly parallel to the Albuera, on the ridge of the hill which gradually rises from that river. The allied forces consisted of eight thousand British, seven thousand Portuguese, and ten thousand Spaniards, comprehending in the whole not more than two thousand cavalry. Soult left Seville with sixteen thousand men, and had been joined on his route by a reinforcement of five thousand, under Latour Maubourg. At eight o'clock in the morning of the 16th, the enemy's troops were observed in motion, and his cavalry, of which he had at least four thousand, crossed the Ferdia, and formed under cover of the wood in the fork between two rivulets. A strong force of cavalry, with two heavy columns of infantry, then marched out of the wood, pointing towards the front of the allied position, as if to attack the village and bridge of Albuera; while, at the same time, their infantry filed over the river under the protection of the cavalry. The intention of the enemy to turn the allies, and to

cut off their communication with Olivença and Valverde, now became apparent, but this manœuvre was defeated by a counter-movement on the part of General Cole's division, and General Blake's forces. The attack commenced about nine o'clock, and while the French General Godinot made a false attack upon Albuera, Soult, with the rest of his army, bore on the right wing of the allies. After a determined and gallant resistance, the Spaniards were forced from the heights, and the enemy, knowing the importance of this position, set up a shout of triumph which reverberated through the hills, and was heard to the utmost extremity of the lines. The Spaniards displayed the greatest courage, but their want of discipline was felt, and a great error was undoubtedly committed in assigning to them that precise station upon which the fate of the whole army depended. No sooner had the Spaniards arrived at the bottom of the hill than they rallied, while Colonel Colbourne brought up the right brigade of General Stewart's division for the purpose of re-possessing the allies of the ground which they had lost. Finding that the enemy's column was not to be moved by their fire, they proceeded to an attack with the bayonet; but while in the act of charging, they were themselves suddenly turned, and attacked in the rear by a body of Polish lancers, armed with long lances, from the end of each of which is suspended a small red flag, which, while it is so carried by the rider as to prevent his own horse from seeing any other object, serves to frighten those horses to which he is opposed. Never was any charge more unexpected or more destructive; the rain, which fell in torrents, and thickened the atmosphere, partly concealed the lancers in their advance, and those of the brigade who saw them approach, mistook them for Spanish cavalry, and therefore did not fire. A tremendous slaughter was made upon the troops thus surprised. The three regiments of Colonel Colbourne's brigade lost their colours at this time, but those of the Buffs were recovered, after signal heroism had been displayed in their defence.

The fate of the day at this moment was every thing but desperate; and nothing but the most determined and devoted courage saved the allies from a defeat of which the consequences would have been more deplorable than the immediate slaughter. The third brigade, under Major-general Houghton, and General Cole's division, advanced to recover the lost heights, their officers declaring that they would carry the position or perish in the attempt. General Houghton fell while leading on his brigade, and cheering his men as they advanced to the charge; and Sir William Myers shared the same fate. The charge, though destructive, was successful.

BOOK IV. force, General Houston, to whom the protection of the passage had been confided, was comCHAP.XVI. pelled to retire with some loss. The French

having thus established themselves in the village, 1811 their cavalry turned the right of the 7th division, between Poço Velho and Navedeaver, from whence Don Julian, the Spanish general, had been obliged to fall back. Lord Wellington, finding his line too far extended, concentrated his troops, by which movement his lordship lost bis communication with Sabugal, but he thus prevented the approach of the French to Almeida, which was the ultimate object of Massena's attacks. Generals Houston, Crawford, and Sir Stapleton Cotton, were now ordered to charge the enemy's centre, while the right wing fell on his rear; this operation, which was executed with the greatest precision, had a powerful influence in deciding the fate of the day. About the same time General Montbrun charged the cavalry of the allied army in columns, and gained some advantage; but this attack, upon which the French marshal built his hopes of complete victory, was not attended by any decisive result. Against Fuentes d'Onoro, which was in front of the left, the chief efforts of the French were directed, and this place was several times won and lost in the course of the day; but the enemy were finally driven through the village by Colonel Mackinnon, and when night closed upon the combatants, four hundred of their dead were lying in that place, which continued in possession of the allied troops.

For two days after the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, the hostile armies remained in their position, the French feeling no inclination to repeat an attempt in which they had already suffered so severely; and Lord Wellington, from the inferiority of his numbers, and the emaciated state of his cavalry, not choosing to risk a general action. On the night of the 7th, Massena, having entirely failed in his intention to relieve Almeida, crossed the Agueda, and left that fortress to its fate, but not till he had sent orders to General Brennier, the governor, to blow up the fortifications, and to retire with his garrison to San Felices. These orders, owing to the culpable remissness of that part of the allied army which was stationed before Almeida, General Brennier was enabled to execute; at ten o'clock on the night of the 10th, giving his men the watch-word," Bonaparte and Bayard," he quitted the garrison in silence, and on the 11th joined the French army with 1,500 men on the Agueda.

The failure of Marshal Massena inflicted a severe wound upon the military renown of that general, and determined him to resign the command of an army which seemed doomed to disaster only. After having re-crossed the Agueda,

he left Spain on the plea of bad health, and was succeeded in his command by Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa.

On the 16th of May, Lord Wellington set out from Almeida, and arrived at Elvas on the 19th, where he first received the report of the battle of Albuera. His lordship learned also with pleasure that Badajoz was again invested by the allies, and that Marshal Soult's army was in full retreat towards Seville, harassed in their rear by Marshal Beresford. Lord Wellington, on receiving this intelligence, immediately under.. took the direction of the operations on the Guadiana, and on the night of the 29th of May, the trenches were opened before Badajoz. On the 6th of June, the breach made in Fort San Christoval was judged practicable. The assault was made in the evening of the same day, about ten o'clock; but notwithstanding the valour of the assailants, such were the preparations made by the French Governor, Philippon, and such the determined courage of his troops, that the besiegers, after three sanguinary assaults, were obliged to retire. The English engineers, it appears, had not taken the precaution to make themselves masters of the ditch; and the governor, availing himself of this omission, had dispatched his miners to clear the fort of the breach, which was thus rendered to a certain extent impracticable. The firing against San Christoval was again renewed on the following morning, and continued to the 9th, in the evening of which day another assault was made; but similar obstacles again presented themselves, and the troops, after displaying an ardour and bravery worthy of a better result, were once more forced to desist from the enterprise. The fatal issue of these repeated assaults, combined with the formidable preparations now making by the French armies under Soult and Marmont, induced Lord Wellington to raise the siege of Badajoz, and to take up a position within the Portuguese frontier.

General Graham, to whom the command of the British force in Cadiz was confided, finding that the besieging army before that city had been much weakened by drafts for the purpose of raising the siege of Badajoz, resolved to profit by this circumstance, and after destroying the works of the ehemy, to open a communication with the island of Leon. With this design an expedition was prepared, consisting of four thousand British and eight thousand Spanish troops, commanded by the Spanish General Don Manuel de Lapena, and under whom General Graham consented to act. On the 20th of February the expedition sailed from Cadiz roads, and on the 27th the combined army was collected on the coast between Terifa and St. Roque; but owing to the almost impassable state of the roads, it was not