Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . effort to assist thecapital, and to fall on the line of the French com-munications with Bayonne, a bold and a perilous,but a well-conceived design. His army, still sepa-rated from Baird, but joined by Hope, broke upfrom Salamanca on the nth of December; Mooresobject, for the moment, was to reach Valladolid, andso to draw the enemy away from Madrid. But anintercepted letter from Berthier induced the Britishcommander to advance northwards; Soult was iso-lated on the Carrion with an insignificant force;Madrid ha
Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . effort to assist thecapital, and to fall on the line of the French com-munications with Bayonne, a bold and a perilous,but a well-conceived design. His army, still sepa-rated from Baird, but joined by Hope, broke upfrom Salamanca on the nth of December; Mooresobject, for the moment, was to reach Valladolid, andso to draw the enemy away from Madrid. But anintercepted letter from Berthier induced the Britishcommander to advance northwards; Soult was iso-lated on the Carrion with an insignificant force;Madrid had fallen after a mere show of resistance ;Napoleon was about to march to the south, and tocomplete the subjugation of Portugal and resolved to attack and defeat Soult, gracinghis arms with at least a passing triumph : he concen-trated his whole army, perhaps 26,000 strong, and,assisted by a division of Spanish levies, pushed on-ward to Sahagun not far from the French Marshalscamp. But in the meantime Napoleon had changedhis plans ; hearing of the audacious movement of. SIR JOHN HOPE, EARL OF HOPETOUN.(From the painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, ) The Douro—Talavera 77 Moore, he determined on crushing an enemy hedeemed in his grasp : he rapidly assembled a greatarmy, and having crossed the Guadarrama after anextraordinary march, was in full pursuit of Mooreby the last days of December. That General, how-ever, instantly decamped, and hastened to effect hisretreat through Leon ; Napoleon, after many efforts,could not bring him to bay ; at Astorga the Emperorgave up the attempt, perhaps because he had learnedthat Austria was threatening to draw the sword; hecommitted the task of following Moore to is unnecessary to dwell on the tale of the subse-quent retreat; the British soldiery gave proof oftheir wonted valour in more than one sharp andbloody fight; but they also showed their tendency tobecome demoralised under the stress of severehardship and want ; there
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