12 
battle, and when fighting on interior lines such an one almost amounts to a 
defeat. But now Wellington during three years showed undisputed skill and 
talent in organizing and training his Anglo-Portuguese army. When he entered 
on the campaign of 1812 his army was therefore one of the best in Europe, and 
its failure is not to be attributed to anything but defective leadership. 
Critics of all nations are agreed that Wellington, after the battle of Salamanca, 
might, and should, have destroyed Marmont’s army by pursuing it energetically 
and vigorously through Valladolid and Burgos or even to Bayonne, Then would 
the veins which supplied life blood to the French armies in Spain have been tied, 
and soon that paralysis (to use an expression of Napoleon’s), which is the precurser 
of death, would have supervened. Instead of doing this, Wellington turns on 
Madrid, and having spent four weeks there doing nothing, returns once more to go 
to—Burgos. Although usually the centre of gravity of resistance in centralized 
states lies in their capitals, and though there also is located the centre of force 
and movement, and although therefore, when the field forces have been shattered, 
capitals generally form the most important objects of operations, Madrid, in view 
of the independence of Spanish provinces, was an exception to the general rule. 
In this case therefore the march on the hostile capital, and the delay there of four 
weeks duration, was a veritable waste of time, and made it possible for Soult first 
of all to march from Cadiz to Murcia, and then from Murcia to Salamanca, and 
thus twice traverse the whole Peninsula. 
The French forces in both campaigns were divided into two groups with their 
opponent between them. They operated therefore on exterior lines, and in both 
cases it was the army led by Soult that brought about decisive results. Yet 
wonderful to relate it is Soult in both cases who is most bitterly blamed by French 
historians, who are led astray here principally by Thiers. The author of “The 
Consulate and the Empire” throughout judges the most gifted of Napoleon’s 
generals unjustly and with prejudice. The future President of the third Republic 
displays a warmer interest in such persons as the weak and good-natured King 
Joseph, the plebeian Jourdan, the revolutionary General Massena, and the heroically 
brave, but indiscreet Ney. When he speaks of them his language assumes a 
glow, they appear to him to be representative of the French national character, 
their errors are explained away, or sometimes shouldered on to some one else with 
the dialectical skill of a trained advocate. 
The proud, aristocratically-minded, self-contained, masterful Duke of Dalmatia, 
who had courage enough to aim at a kingly diadem, such an one as he must per- 
force be regarded unsympathetically by an historian of Republican proclivities. 
John Nicholas Soult, the son of a peasant, was 39 years of age when the 
Peninsular war broke out, but had already been a General for 14 years. He had 
held the command of the Imperial Guard ever since 1802, and had distinguished 
himself in all the wars of the Consul-Emperor. During the Pyrenean campaigns 
he was the real leader of the French, although Massena, Marmont, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, Suchet at times occupy the foreground more prominently. The 
Spaniards were perfectly well aware of this, and they hated and feared no French- 
man (with the exception of Napoleon) so cordially, notwithstanding which, 
however, they conferred on him the title of “the great Captain.” 
Singularly well fitted for a soldier’s life, and with high intellectual endowments, 
Soult presented in his person a commanding appearance. In stature and features 
he was not unlike Gneisenau, without, however, possessing the amiable qualities 
of that General. He was, on the contrary, overbearing, haughty, self-willed, and 
fond of display. His head-quarters glittered like a royal court ; his relations to 
Napoleon were quite exceptional. One who knew Napoleon’s court society well, 
the gifted Madame de Remusat, tells us in her memoirs that the Emperor had 
seen something of a rival in Soult, had often been jealous of him, had even 
