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felt that he could not dispense with the assistance of Soult, and accordingly called 
him at the end of February to Germany in order that he might take over command 
of the Guard Corps. But Soult only stayed a short time at Imperial head-quarters. 
Disastrous news from the Peninsula caused Napoleon again to send the Duke of 
Dalmatia to the Pyrenees as commander of all his forces that were fighting there. 
The remedy should however have been tried earlier. 
On the 11th of May the English had begun their fourth offensive movement, 
and had directed their stroke this time at the French line of communications. On 
the 21st of June the army of King Joseph was attacked while retreating at Vittoria, 
was surrounded, beaten, and almost completely annihilated. When Soult reached 
Bayonne on the 18th of July, 1818, and took over command of the decimated and 
demoralized army, it had already been for six days on French soil. 
Spain was free from the pillars of Hercules to the Pyrenees. 
