9 
than himself but strongly posted too. In vain was the elan of the French 
columns, in vain the brilliant charges of their horsemen, in vain did the vive 
? Empereur resound as loudly and heartily as when he himself commanded. As at 
Busaco and Fuentes d’Onoro all the assaults on the frosty defensive and over- 
powering artillery of the English died away. When the sun went down that night 
the summits of the Arapiles saw an army flying from a defeat in the open field. 
The French, according to their own admission, lost more than 6000 men killed 
and wounded, 7000 prisoners, 2 eagles and 11 guns. With 5000 killed and 
wounded Wellington did not buy his victory too dearly. 
The Englishmen followed the beaten army to Valladolid, then suddenly turned 
southwards, and moved by forced marches on Madrid. 
King Joseph, who wanted to come to the aid of Marmont with the Central 
army, which was only 18,000 strong, had got as far as Villacastin on his way. 
On the receipt of the news of the defeat at Salamanca and the approach of the 
Hnglish, the King however ceased to move forward and fell back to Madrid. At 
the same time he sent orders to Soult to raise the siege of Cadiz, and to move on 
Madrid by the shortest possible road. A few days afterwards this order was 
modified however, and the Southern army was ordered to march to Murcia vid 
Granada, there to effect a junction with the army of the Hast. 
The King had perceived that Soult could not be in time to save the capital, and 
had therefore with a heavy heart resolyed to abandon Madrid, and to move the 
Central army also to Murcia. 
When the French rear-guard left Madrid on the 12th of August a deathlike 
stillness lay on the broad streets of the capital; but scarcely had the hated 
strangers disappeared at one end of the town when the fantastically dressed 
guerrillas came rushing in at the other, with their dreaded leader Empecinado, at 
once the terror and scourge of the French at their head. Immediately all the 
streets became alive, the houses decked themselves with flags and carpets, 
and on that very evening resounding music announced the arrival of the leading 
troops of the English and Portuguese armies. On the 13th Wellington, at the 
head of his guards, made a triumphal entry into the town, which was decorated 
as if for a festival, and had set all its bells ringing. When finally the proud 
Duke appeared on the balcony of the Town Hall, and received the homage of the 
magistrates and inhabitants, hand in hand with the simple charcoal burner, 
Empecinado, the jubilation and vivas of the hot-blooded Southern people seemed to 
know no bounds. ‘The liberation of Spain appeared at length an accomplished fact, 
although it was only an alteration in the strategical situation from defensive to 
offensive which had been brought about. I have purposely said “ offensive,” and 
not ‘‘ decisive operations,’ because the fortune of war and the superior strategy 
of Soult were destined once more to snatch the laurel wreath from the brow of 
Wellington. 
At the end of September, in accordance with the orders of King Joseph, it had 
really come about that three French armies forming a total of nearly 90,000 men 
were united in Murcia. The beaten Western army was known to have united 
with the Northern army, and to have occupied Burgos. The strength of this 
force might be placed at 30,000 men. As to its exact whereabouts and plans 
nothing was known, neither were the intentions of the enemy revealed in any 
way. It was certain however that the Anglo-Portuguese army mustered some 
60,000 men, and that Wellington occupied Madrid. 
Thus the French forces were divided into two large groups 90 miles! apart, 
and their opponent stood between them. 
As the council of war assembled at Fuentes Higuera, when Soult, Jourdan, and 
Suchet each put forward their suggestions in writing, Soult’s plan of campaign 
1 German. 
