victory after victory over them in Spain. In 1809, he defeated Marshal Soult at Oporto, and Marshal Victor at Talavera. He then retreated before a large army under Marshal Massena, and constructed a strong line of defences at Torres Vedras, near Lisbon, and on the coast of Portugal. Massena found he could not pass Wellesley’s fortifications, and he had to retreat with great loss, for Wellesley had caused the whole country to be laid bare of cattle and food, and when Massena’s army began to retreat the stragglers were cut off in great numbers by the enraged Spanish guerilla bands. Wellesley, now Viscount Wellington, followed up the French retreat and won many battles. He took by storm the-two strong fortresses of Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajos in 1812, defeated the French at Salamanca and Vittoria in 1812 and 1813, and drove. Joseph Bonaparte out of Spain. The successful siege of St. Sebastian in 1813, was followed in 1814 by the battle of Toulouse, the last battle of the Peninsular War.
12. Russian Campaign.—In 1812, Napoleon started with an army of half a million into Russia, to conquer that country. The Russian emperor had been on friendly terms with Napoleon for a few years, but Napoleon’s Berlin decree, by which Russia was not permitted to trade with England, proved a great hardship to the Russian people, and they soon began to import English manufactures, against Napoleon’s orders. This led to the breaking up of the alliance between Russia and France, and to Napoleon’s invasion. At the battle of Borodino, in September 1812, the Russians were defeated after a fierce struggle, and then Napoleon pressed on to Moscow, the chief city in Russia. Rather than permit the French army to winter there, the Russians set fire to the city, and Napoleon, without food or shelter for his troops, had to begin a, retreat. Winter now came on, and the retreating French, without proper clothing and food, died daily by the thousand. The Russians hung on the rear, cutting off the weary stragglers as they fell behind the main body of the army. So out of the great host that went with light hearts to an easy conquest, only 20,000 returned. Encouraged by Napoleon’s misfortunes, Austria and Prussia now rose against the tyrant, and joining their forces with those of Russia, met and defeated him after three days of fighting, at Leipzig, in October, 1813. Step by step Napoleon was now driven back, until the armies of the allies entered Paris in 1814, Napoleon
