26] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 18U. 



to the church of Notre Dame, to 

 return thaaks for the happy change 

 in affairs. He was welcomed, ac- 

 cording to the authorised account, 

 with the most loyal acclamations, 

 and received a congratulatory ad- 

 dress from the municipal body of 

 Paris, presented by the prefect of 

 the department of the Seine. But 

 before we proceed farther in re- 

 cording the events of France, pa- 

 cified and renovated, it is proper 

 to wind up the narrative of its 

 warlike transactions, unhappily not 

 yet brought to a conclusion. 



Lord Wellington, under the date 

 of March 26th, communicated the 

 intelligence of the retreat of the 

 French, after the affair near Tarbes, 

 with such celerity, that they ar- 

 rived at Toulouse on the 24th, 

 offering no other opportunity of 

 action to their pursuers, except 

 one attack of cavalry upon their 

 rear-guard, in which they sus- 

 tained some loss. The approach 

 of the combined army on the 28th, 

 caused the French to withdraw 

 into the city of Toulouse, and the 

 swoln state of the Garonne from 

 rain and melted snow, would not 

 permit Lord Wellington for some 

 days to throw a bridge over it, 

 below the town. It was not till 

 April 8th, that he was enabled to 

 move any part of his army across 

 the river, at which time, no in- 

 formation had reached either army 

 of the great events that had taken 

 place in Paris. The defences of 

 Toulouse, which on three sides is 

 surrounded by the canal of Lan- 

 guedoc and the Garonne, con- 

 sisted chiefly in a fortified suburb, 

 on the left of that river, forming 

 a good tete de pont, works at each 

 bridge of the canal, and strong 

 redoubts on a height between the 

 canal and the river Ers. Of these 



positions every advantage had been 

 made by the diligence of marshal 

 Soult ; and the roads from the 

 Ariege to Toulouse being imprac- 

 ticable for cavalry and artillerj', it 

 became necessary at all hazards to 

 make the approaches on this quar- 

 ter. The 8th and 9th were chiefly 

 occupied in preparatory move- 

 ments; and on the morning of the 

 lOth, a general attack was made, 

 the particulars of which cannot 

 be rendered intelligible without a 

 plan. The result was, that after a 

 day spent in sanguinary conflicts 

 at various points, at its close the 

 allied troops were established on 

 three sides of Toulouse, and the 

 light cavalry was dispatched to 

 cut off the communication by the 

 only road for carriages, which re- 

 mained to the enemy. Arrange- 

 ments were making for a further 

 advance ; but on the night of the 

 11th, the French retired, leaving 

 three generals and 1,600 men pri- 

 soners. This success was not ob- 

 tained without a loss to the troops 

 of the three nations of about COO 

 killed, and 4,000 wounded. Lord 

 Wellington entered Toulouse on 

 the following morning, where he 

 was received with general accla- 

 mations, and the town hoisted the 

 white Hag. It was not till the 

 evening of that day, that his lord- 

 ship received from Paris intelli- 

 gence of the events which had 

 occurred in that capital on the 

 7th. It was brought by col. 

 Cooke, who was accompanied by 

 a French officer, directed by the 

 provisional government to convey 

 the same information to marshals 

 Soult and Suchet. The former 

 did not at first consider it to be so 

 authentic as to induce him to send 

 his submission to the new govern- 

 ment ; but proposed to Lord Wei- 



