soldiers passed through France they were
received like men who had already conquered. The civil authorities
spread banquets for them, compliments rained from the honeyed lips of
chosen orators, poets sang sweet strains on the theme of their
glories. This appeared a spontaneous outburst to the troops, and they
marched with the elasticity of enthusiasm to their task. The curious
may read to-day what the army could not know--that by Napoleon's
personal decree the ministry of war had prepared every detail of that
triumph, that the prefects acted under stringent orders, that three
sets of warlike songs were written by commission in Paris, and
forwarded one each to various points, so that, as the Emperor wrote,
"the soldier may not hear the same thing twice." The success of the
plan was complete, and the jubilations had every appearance of being
genuine.

It was therefore not a tired and disheartened army which was gathered
under the walls of Burgos early in November, but a body of picked and
energetic veterans. Joseph, to be sure, had done little in the
interval to take advantage of the foolish and careless tumult into
which the joy of victory had thrown the Spanish people. In spite of
the minute directions which had been received almost daily from
Napoleon, Jourdan, who, having been the King's military adviser in
Naples, had come in the same capacity to Spain, gradually lost every
advantage of position. But the French boys who had fought in the
summer were older and more experienced. The defensive attitude of
their leader had given them the training of camp life, and had secured
the recuperation of their strength. When, therefore, they were mingled
with the newcomers, they might be considered almost as good soldiers
as those who had arrived from Germany.

Moreover, the best generals were now in command: Victor was at
Amurrio, Bessieres at Miranda on the Ebro, Moncey at Tafalla, Lefebvre
near Bilbao, Ney at Logrono on the Ebro, Saint-Cyr at La Junquera,
each with a corps, the smallest of twenty, the largest of thirty
thousand men. Duhesme was shut up in Barcelona with ten thousand.
There was a reserve of thirty-five thousand, the guard and cavalry, at
Tolosa and Vitoria. Mortier's corps of twenty-four thousand was in the
rear, and Junot, who had been better received in Paris than he
expected, was coming up with nineteen thousand more. In all, there
were about two hundred and forty thousand troops. Napoleon, reaching
Bayon