GENERAL HISTORY. 



1167 



took his position on those heights ; 

 and upon the 'same day General 

 Hill occupied the town and castle 

 of Alba, posting troops on the Tor- 

 mes to support them. The ene- 

 my, on the 10th, having brought 

 up their forces near the positions 

 of the allies on the Tormes, at- 

 tacked the troops in Alba with a 

 considerable body of infantry, and 

 twenty pieces of cannon : but find- 

 ing that they made no impression, 

 they withdrew at night. On the 

 14th, the enemy having crossed 

 the Tormes in force, Lord Wel- 

 lington broke up from St. Christo- 

 val, and moved with an intention 

 to attack them ; but finding them 

 too strongly posted, he withdrew 

 all the troops from the neighbour- 

 hood of Alba to the Ari piles, or 

 heights near Salamanca which had 

 been the scene of his victory. Find- 

 ing, on the 15th, that the enemy 

 were strengthening their positions, 

 and pushing on bodies to inter- 

 rupt the communications of the al- 

 lied army with Ciudad Rodrigo, 

 his lordship determined to move 

 upon that place, which he reached 

 on the 19th, followed by a large 

 body of the enemy, which, how- 

 ever, did not press upon his rear. 

 Some loss was sustained from a 

 cannonade in passing a river ; and 

 Lieutenant- General Sir Edward 

 Paget had the misfortune to be 

 taken prisoner, as he was riding 

 alone through a wood. Lord Wel- 

 lington had reason to believe that 

 the whole of the enemy's dispos- 

 able force was upon the Tormes in 

 the middle of this month, and he 

 computed them at 80 or 90,000 

 men, with 200 pieces of cannon. 

 On the 24th of November, the 

 head-quarters of the allies were 

 again established at Freynada on 



the Portuguese frontier, and the 

 greater part of the enemy's forces 

 had re-crossed the Tormes, and 

 were marching towards the Douro. 

 General Hill had withdrawn south- 

 wards to Coria, in Estremadura. 



Such, in its main points, was 

 the peninsular campaign of the 

 year 1812 ; for the numerous con- 

 flicts between the Guerilla parties 

 and the scattered forces of the in- 

 vaders, besides that they are repre- 

 sented in totally different colours 

 by the several antagonists, had too 

 little influence on the general re- 

 sult to require a particular narra- 

 tive. It will be seen, that the vi- 

 gorous efforts made by Lord Wel- 

 lington to penetrate to the centre 

 of Spain, and take advantage of 

 the weakened condition of the 

 French, whose ruler had in this 

 year directed the chief force of his 

 empire to a very distant quarter, 

 formed the great chain of events. 

 They obliged the invaders to with- 

 draw their forces from the south- 

 ern provinces, to break up the 

 lines of Cadiz, which had so long 

 held the Spanish government in 

 inglorious fetters, to remain merely 

 on the defensive on the eastern 

 coast after the capture of Valencia, 

 and to concentrate all their dispos- 

 able force against the progress of 

 the conqueror at Salamanca. That 

 they were at last successful, and 

 that the high hopes of the British 

 nation, elevated by repeated tri- 

 umph, were finally frustrated, only 

 proves that the strength and acti- 

 vity of the French in Spain were 

 greater than had been calculated 

 upon, and, probably, that the ex- 

 ertions of the Spaniards were as 

 much less. The conduct of Lord 

 Wellington obtained universal ap- 

 plause and admiration from his 

 countrymen 



