Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . termine his purpose. He was condemnedby the men in power at Lisbon for what theydeemed an ignominious retreat, as he had been con-demned for leaving Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeidato their fate. His own officers and soldiers whowere in ignorance of the lines, and thought that allbefore them was a long march to the sea, werevexed that they had not measured themselves withthe enemy ; and though Massenas advance had beenslow, the population had only partially wasted thecountry, and the Marshal had all the moral advan
Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . termine his purpose. He was condemnedby the men in power at Lisbon for what theydeemed an ignominious retreat, as he had been con-demned for leaving Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeidato their fate. His own officers and soldiers whowere in ignorance of the lines, and thought that allbefore them was a long march to the sea, werevexed that they had not measured themselves withthe enemy ; and though Massenas advance had beenslow, the population had only partially wasted thecountry, and the Marshal had all the moral advan-tage of a bold offensive. Under these conditionsWellington crossed the Mondego, and standing be-tween Viseu and Coimbra drew up his army alongthe ridge of Busaco, a kind of spur of the SierraAlcoba, itself an offshoot of the great Sierra Cara-mula. The position of the British General was ad-mirably chosen for the defensive battle he haddecided to fight. The ridge afforded a formidableobstacle to the onset of the French, for they couldonly attack from a deep valley below, and they. Busaco, Tories Ved7as, Fuentcs dOnoro 119 would have to ascend very difficult heights. Itscrest afforded space for the first British line, butscreened the reserves which were arrayed made Massenas powerful cavalry completely use-less, for they could not act on ground of the kind, andit greatly impeded the effective fire of the French ar-tillery. The front of the position extended aboutfive miles; it was to be occupied by nearly fortythousand men ; it was probably not to be stormedby a direct attack. But it might have been turnedon the left by a pass of the name of Boyalva, andthis had been left well-nigh unguarded, a mistakewhich might have cost Wellington dear. The advance guard of the French had reachedthe approaches to Busaco on the 25th of September;the corps of Ney and Reynier were close to theridge on the 26th ; they numbered more than thirty-five thousand men, for the most part veter
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectwelling, bookyear1904
