the Peninsular war. Wellington had
encountered serious physical difficulties in his passage from the valley
of the Ebro to that of the Zadorra; but for once his plans had been
executed with admirable precision, and all his troops arrived at the
appointed time on the field of battle. The French, conscious of their
impending expulsion from Spain, were encumbered by enormous
baggage-trains containing the fruits of five years' merciless spoliation
"not of a province but of a kingdom," including treasures of art from
Madrid and all the provincial capitals, with no less than 5,500,000
dollars in hard cash, besides two years' arrears of pay which Napoleon
had sent to fill the military chest of Joseph's army. A vast number of
vehicles, loaded with the whole imperial and royal treasure, overspread
the plain and choked the great road behind the French position, by which
alone such a mass of waggons could find its way into France.

The French army consisted of about 60,000 men, with 150 pieces of
cannon, but strong detachments, under Foy and Clausel respectively, had
been sent away to guard the roads to Bilbao and Pamplona. The British
army numbered nearly 80,000, inclusive of Portuguese and Spanish, with
90 guns. The French were posted on strong ground, and held the bridges
across the river. Graham, with the left column of the British, made a
circuit in the direction of Bilbao, working round to cut off the French
rear on the Bayonne road. Hill, with the right column, forced the pass
of Puebla, in the latter direction, carried the ridge above it after
much hard fighting, and made good his position on the left flank of the
French. Wellington himself, in the centre, under the guidance of a
Spanish peasant, pushed a brigade across one of the bridges in his
front, weakly guarded, and thus mastered the others; his force then
expanded itself on the plain and bore down all opposition. Graham had
met with a more obstinate resistance from the French right, under
Reille, but at last got possession of the great Bayonne road.
Thenceforward a retreat of the French army, partly encircled, became
inevitable, but it was conducted at first in good order and with
frequent halts at defensible points. The only outlet left open was the
mountain road to Pamplona, and this was not only impracticable for heavy
traffic but obstructed by an overturned waggon. The orderly retreat was
soon converted into a rout; the flying throng made its way across
country