headquarters. "Jourdan, ill and angry, kept his
room; and the King was equally invisible."[318] Few orders were given.
The town was packed with convoys and vehicles of all kinds, and it was
not till dawn of that fatal midsummer's day that the last convoy set
out for France, under the escort of 3,000 troops. Nevertheless, Joseph
might hope to hold his own. True, he had but 70,000 troops at hand, or
perhaps even fewer; yet on the evening of the 19th he heard that
Clausel had set out from Pamplona.

At once he bade him press on his march, but that message fell into the
enemy's hands.[319] Relying, then, on help which was not to arrive,
Joseph confronted the allied army. It numbered, in all, 83,000 men,
though Napier asserts that not more than 60,000 took part in the
fighting. The French left wing rested on steep hills near Puebla,
which tower above the River Zadora, and leave but a narrow defile.
Their centre held a less precipitous ridge, which trends away to the
north parallel to the middle reaches of that stream. Higher up its
course, the Zadora describes a sharp curve that protects the ridge on
its northern flank; and if a daring foe drove the defenders away from
these heights, they could still fall back on two lower ridges nearer
Vittoria. But these natural advantages were not utilized to the full.
The bridges opposite the French front were not broken, and the
defenders were far too widely spread out. Their right wing, consisting
of the "Army of Portugal" under General Reille, guarded the bridge
north of Vittoria, and was thus quite out of touch with the main force
that held the hills five miles away to the west.

The dawn broke heavily; the air was thick with rain and driving mists,
under cover of which Hill's command moved up against the steeps of
Puebla. A Spanish brigade, under General Morillo, nimbly scaled those
slopes on the south-west, gained a footing near the summit, and, when
reinforced, firmly held their ground. Meanwhile the rest of Hill's
troops threaded their way beneath through the pass of Puebla, and,
after a tough fight, wrested the village of Subijana from the foe. In
vain did Joseph and Jourdan bring up troops from the centre; the
British and Spaniards were not to be driven either from the village or
from the heights. Wellington's main array was also advancing to attack
the French centre occupying the ridge behind the Zadora; and Graham,
after making a long detour to the north through very broken