352 LON 
the 23d of November, by a party of 250 national guards, 
who marched from the Hague ; but who were next day 
furprifed by a fuperior force from Utrecht, and the town 
re-taken by ftorm. The maflacre and pillage which took 
place in confequence almolt exceeds belief. The houfes 
were broken open, and plundered of jewels, money, plate, 
linen, and clothing; what could not be carried away. 
Rich as china, glafs, feather-beds, and furniture, was 
thrown into the ftreets and deftroyed. Twenty-four in¬ 
habitants were barbarouily murdered, and fifty others fe- 
verely wounded. The blood of the molt virtuous huf- 
bands and fathers, of the belt mothers, of grey-haired el¬ 
ders, of tender infants, ftained the walls ot their peaceful 
habitations, and ftreamed out of the houfes along the 
ftreets. The minifters of religion, who fled to the altar, 
were not fpared. Men upwards of eighty years of age, 
and infants in their mothers’ arms, were ihot or flain by 
the Avoid. A woman in child-bed, and who would have 
been delivered of twins, was fhot through the body whillt 
lying in bed, and the bedltead fet on fire. No tears of 
the poor creatures begging for mercy, no cries of kneel¬ 
ing children, could fatten the hearts of thefe mifcreants. 
On the night of the 27th, they departed with their 
plunder. 
With the exception of Flufhing and Bergen-op-Zoom, 
the whole of Holland was free from French force before 
the end of the year. Breda was carried in a great mea- 
fure by a rufe de guerre: 300 Cofacs appearing before 
the town, and giving out that they formed the advanced- 
guard of an army of 10,000 men, which was approaching, 
the garrifon, 1800 in number, thought of nothing but 
efcaping ; for, while 1200 marched off in all hafte, 600 
were furrounded in the town by the Cofacs, and, with¬ 
out attempting reliftance, gave themfelves up to half their 
number. 
If we now turn our attention to the peninfula, we (ball 
there fee the French eagles flying'apace before the Englilh 
lions, and feeking their fafety in the fortrelles of the Py¬ 
renees; we (hall there witnefs the fucceffes of our armies 
under their brave commander advancing towards France, 
and at length reaching it. 
From the period of the retreat of the allied troops into 
Portugal at the clofe of 1812, (lee p. 303,4.) to the com¬ 
mencement of the enfuing fummer, the armies oppofed to 
each other had remained in a Ifate of almoft total inac¬ 
tion. The French were not in a condition to adt oft’en- 
fively ; and, while the war in the north continued, had 
nothing more in view than to maintain the ground which 
they (till occupied. But, on the part of the allies, this in¬ 
terval was fpent in vigorous preparations for an aftive 
and decilive campaign. After the battle of Salamanca, 
reinforcements had been lent to lord Wellington, to the 
amount of upwards of twenty thoufand men; which, 
though they did not arrive in time to follow up that fuc- 
cefs, or to avert the final dilalters of the campaign, were 
now in readinefs to take the field. Difcipline' had been 
reltored by It rift regulations, enforced during a long pe¬ 
riod of repofe. The troops at prefent dilpoleable might 
be ellimated at 80,000 Britilh and Portuguefe, with 40 or 
50,000 Spanilli regulars; while, as they advanced, a nu¬ 
merous guerilla-force might be expedted to co-operate. 
To thefe were to be added, on the other fide of the pe- 
ninfula, an amount of 50 or 60,000 men, chiefly Spaniards 
indeed, but a great proportion of thefe trained under Bri- 
tilh officers. 
The allied forces were fpread at this time over a very ex- 
tenfive line. Lord Wellington, w ith the main body of Bri¬ 
tilh and Portuguefe, occupied wide cantonments along the 
northern frontier of Portugal. General Hill, with a part 
of the army, and with the Spanilli force under Murillo, 
was polled in Ellremadura. The fecond and third Spanilh 
armies, commanded by the duke del Parque and general 
Elio, were (lationed, the one in La Mancha, and the other 
on the frontier of Murcia and Valencia. The force newly 
levied in Andalufia, which was called the army of referve, 
had let out from Seville under the command of general 
3 
D O N. 
Henry O’Donnel, who, from his exploits in Catalonia, had 
received the title of Conde de Abifbal. To thefe different 
Spanilh armies there is finally to be added the army of 
Galicia, which was ftationed on the frontier of that pro¬ 
vince. The chief command in this and the other northern 
provinces, had been conferred upon Caltanos. It was at 
the particular recommendation and wiffi of lord Welling¬ 
ton, that he had received this appointment. He was not 
a man of very brilliant parts, but extremely upright, zea¬ 
lous, and patriotic; as well as attached to the Englilh na¬ 
tion in fo peculiar a degree, that to give him the com¬ 
mand might be confidered almoll the fame as giving it to 
lord Wellington. The whole force of the north of Spain, 
which, befides the regular troops, comprehended nu¬ 
merous bands of hardy guerillas, might therefore be con¬ 
fidered as completely under the controul of the Britilh 
commander. 
The pofitions of the allies formed thus a very wide fe- 
micircle round thofe which the French occupied in the 
centre of Spain. Upon this circumftance perhaps the lat¬ 
ter founded their hopes of a fuccefsful refiltance; con¬ 
ceiving, that, by the rapid movement of their concentrated 
forces, they might baffle attacks made from fuch a variety 
of different quarters. The plan of the campaign, how¬ 
ever, which lord Wellington had formed, was much more 
profound and judicious. General Hill indeed firlt threat¬ 
ened Madrid ; but, as foon as the feafon for action arrived, 
lie turned to the left, marched through the Puerto de 
Banos, and joined the main army which was affembled iit 
the neighbourhood of Ciudad Rodrigo. At the fame 
time, Abifbal was proceeding through Ellremadura; and 
the whole force of the allied armies directed its march 
northwards upon the line of the Douro. That river, the 
largelt in Spain, had in the preceding campaign proved 
an important barrier ; and the French, who poffeffed along 
its northern bank a feries of fortified pofitions, doubtlels 
hoped for a confiderable time at lealt to difpute the paf- 
fage. Lord Wellington however, by a very able arrange¬ 
ment, completely provided againft this obllacle. While 
the right wing of the army advanced through Salamanca 
along the country fouth of the Douro, the left, under fir 
Thomas Graham, crofted at Torre del Moncarvo, within 
the Portuguefe frontier, and purfued their march along 
the northern bank. This manoeuvre turned all the polls 
which had been eltabliftied along that line. The fuccef- 
five difpofitions now made baffled at once all the provi- 
fions made by the French for arrefting the viftorious pro- 
grels of the allies. Their detachments on both fides of 
the Douro retreated precipitately ; and lord Wellington 
advanced without any obllacle, befides thole which nature 
prefented. 
On the 24th of May, lord Wellington broke up from 
Ciudad Rodrigo; and arrived on the 28th at Salamanca, 
near which place a final 1 detachment of the French rear¬ 
guard, which had not retreated with fufficient prompti¬ 
tude, was cut off. On the 31ft, the left wing, under ge¬ 
neral Graham, crofted the Ella, and, palling through Za¬ 
mora, arrived on the 2d of June at Toro. It had now 
formed a junftion with the Galician army, which com- 
pofed its extreme left. During the 3d, his lordfhip halted 
at Toro, in order that the rear, which had been detained 
by the difficulties of crofting the Ella, might have time to 
clofe in. On the fame day, the right wing, which had 
proceeded along the oppolite bank, crofted the Douro by 
the bridge of Toro; and on the 4th, the whole army 
marched upon Valladolid. 
The French force on the Douro being thus infufficient 
to flop the rapid advance of the allies, that at Madrid was 
placed in a very critical fituation. By remaining there, 
it would foon be cut off from the other armies, and from 
the high road leading to the French frontier. The de¬ 
termination was therefore formed, to abandon the capital 
without ilruggle. On the 27th of May, all the troops 
which were there and on the Tagus began their retreat, 
and on the 3d of June eroded the Douro. Although, 
however, all the French armies were thus united, they did 
pot 
