ot
after breaking up their winter quarters, until they skirmished with
the French in the hills near the source of the Ebro. The French
retreat was really necessary in order to bring the King's forces into
touch with the corps of Generals Clausel and Foy, in Navarre and
Biscay respectively. Joseph had already sent urgent orders to call in
these corps; for, as he explained to Clarke, the supreme need now was
to beat Wellington; that done, the partisan warfare would collapse.

But Clausel and Foy took their orders, not from the King, but from
Paris; and up to June 5th, Joseph heard not a word from Clausel. At
last, on June 15th, that general wrote from Pamplona that he had
received Joseph's commands of May 30th and June 7th, and would march
to join him. Had he at once called in his mobile columns and covered
with all haste the fifty miles that separated him from the King, the
French army would have been the stronger by at least 14,000 men. But
his concentration was a work of some difficulty, and he finally drew
near to Vittoria on June 22nd, when the French cause was irrecoverably
lost.[316]

Wellington, meanwhile, had foreseen the supreme need of despatch.
Early in the year he had urged our naval authorities to strengthen our
squadron on the north of Spain, so that he might in due course make
Santander his base of supplies. Naval support was not forthcoming to
the extent that he expected;[317] but after leaving Burgos he was able
to make some use of the northern ports, thereby shortening his line of
communications. In fact, the Vittoria campaign illustrates the immense
advantages gained by a leader, who is sure of his rear and of one
flank, over an enemy who is ever nervous about his communications. The
British squadron acted like a covering force on the north to
Wellington: it fed the guerilla warfare in Biscay, and menaced Joseph
with real though invisible dangers. This explains, in large measure,
why our commander moved forward so rapidly, and pushed forward his
left wing with such persistent daring. Mountain fastnesses and roaring
torrents stayed not the advance of his light troops on that side. Near
the sources of the Ebro, the French again felt their communications
with France threatened, and falling back from the main stream, up the
defile carved out by a tributary, the Zadora, they halted wearily in
the basin of Vittoria.

There Joseph and Jourdan determined to fight. As usual, there had been
recriminations at