better deserves to be
told. Wellington was preparing for his great forward movement into
Spain, the campaign which led to Salamanca, the battle in which "40,000
Frenchmen were beaten in forty minutes." As a preliminary he had to
capture, under the vigilant eyes of Soult and Marmont, the two great
border fortresses, Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos. He had, to use Napier's
phrase, "jumped with both feet" on the first-named fortress, and
captured it in twelve days with a loss of 1200 men and 90 officers.

But Badajos was a still harder task. The city stands on a rocky ridge
which forms the last spur of the Toledo range, and is of extraordinary
strength. The river Rivillas falls almost at right angles into the
Guadiana, and in the angle formed by their junction stands Badajos,
oval in shape, girdled with elaborate defences, with the Guadiana 500
yards wide as its defence to the north, the Rivillas serving as a wet
ditch to the east, and no less than five great fortified
outposts--Saint Roque, Christoval, Picurina, Pardaleras, and a
fortified bridge-head across the Guadiana--as the outer zone of its
defences. Twice the English had already assailed Badajos, but assailed
it in vain. It was now held by a garrison 5000 strong, under a
soldier, General Phillipson, with a real genius for defence, and the
utmost art had been employed in adding to its defences. On the other
hand Wellington had no means of transport and no battery train, and had
to make all his preparations under the keen-eyed vigilance of the
French. Perhaps the strangest collection of artillery ever employed in
a great siege was that which Wellington collected from every available
quarter and used at Badajos. Of the fifty-two pieces, some dated from
the days of Philip II. and the Spanish Armada, some were cast in the
reign of Philip III., others in that of John IV. of Portugal, who
reigned in 1640; there were 24-pounders of George II.'s day, and
Russian naval guns; the bulk of the extraordinary medley being obsolete
brass engines which required from seven to ten minutes to cool between
each discharge.

Wellington, however, was strong in his own warlike genius and in the
quality of the troops he commanded. He employed 18,000 men in the
siege, and it may well be doubted whether--if we put the question of
equipment aside--a more perfect fighting instrument than the force
under his orders ever existed. The men were veterans, but the officers
on the whole were