Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . believed, would have failed. The stormers, how-ever, were supported by a body of Portuguese, whocrossed the Urumcea at the very nick of time; thebreaches were at last carried, after a desperatestruggle ; the result was partly due to a mere acci-dent. The castle on the hill held out for some days;it was surrendered on the 9th of September ; SanSebastian had been defended for nearly ten in the case of other assaulted places in that age,the excesses of the victors were, unhappily, great. Soult made an e
Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . believed, would have failed. The stormers, how-ever, were supported by a body of Portuguese, whocrossed the Urumcea at the very nick of time; thebreaches were at last carried, after a desperatestruggle ; the result was partly due to a mere acci-dent. The castle on the hill held out for some days;it was surrendered on the 9th of September ; SanSebastian had been defended for nearly ten in the case of other assaulted places in that age,the excesses of the victors were, unhappily, great. Soult made an effort to relieve San Sebastian ; hecrossed the Bidassoa, but not in force ; the attemptwas tentative, and came to nothing. The belliger-ent armies returned to their former positions alongeither side of the Pyrenees to the west ; no import-ant movements were made for a month. Here Wel-lingtons inaction has again been censured ; butsound military reasons explain his conduct. He hadto form a new base before he invaded France, and toprocure supplies on the seaboard of Biscay ; his ad-. From the Pyrenees to the Garonne 227 vance from Portugal had been unexpectedly rapid ;he was in need of requirements of all kinds for histroops. Besides, faction at Lisbon had raised itshead against him; the Spanish Government hadbeen incensed by exaggerated reports as to the ex-cesses of his men ; it indulged in angry and noisythreats; it was weakened by intestine , it must be borne in mind that the issue ofthe contest in Germany was still doubtful; Napoleonheld his commanding position on the Elbe. Wel-lington well knew what the great warrior was; hehad little faith in the operations of his foes. Shouldthe Emperor win a decisive battle on the plains ofSaxony, he would be able to reinforce his Spanisharmies; he retained many of the fortresses in theEast; Soult and Suchet, if largely strengthened,might make it go hard with the British even if no great additions were made
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