Jourdan,
fifteen thousand under Regnier, besides many more thousand troops in
the various garrisons,--in all over three hundred thousand men,--held
Spain in military subjection. Against these immense forces, marshalled
under the greatest generals of France, Spain and her allies could
oppose only about ninety thousand men, for the most part ill
disciplined and equipped.

The vital point of resistance was to be found shut up within the walls
of Cadiz, which made a successful defence. But Tortosa, Tarragona,
Saguntum, and Valentia, after making most desperate resistance, fell.
But Wellington gained, on the other hand, the great battle of Albuera,
one of the bloodiest ever fought, and which had a great effect in
raising the spirits of his army and of the Spaniards. The tide of
French conquest was arrested, and the English learned from their
enemies those arts of war which had hitherto made Napoleon triumphant.

In the next campaign of 1812, new successes were obtained by
Wellington, and against almost overwhelming difficulties. He renewed
the siege of Badajoz, and carried this frontier fortress, which
enabled him now to act on the offensive, and to enter the Spanish
territories. The fall of Ciudad Rodrigo was attended with the same
important consequences. Wellington now aimed to reduce the French
force on the Peninsula, although vastly superior to his own. He had
only sixty thousand men; but, with this force, he invaded Spain,
defended by three hundred thousand. Salamanca was the first place of
consequence which fell: Marmont was totally defeated. Wellington
advanced to Madrid, which he entered the 12th of August, amid the
enthusiastic shouts of the Spanish population. Soult was obliged to
raise the siege of Cadiz, abandon Andalusia, and hasten to meet the
great English general, who had turned the tide of French aggression.
Wellington was compelled, of course, to retire before the immense
forces which were marching against him, and fell back to Salamanca,
and afterwards to Ciudad Rodrigo. The campaign, on the part of the
English, is memorable in the annals of successful war, and the French
power was effectually weakened, if it was not destroyed.

[Sidenote: Invasion of Russia.]

In the midst of these successes, Napoleon prepared for his disastrous
invasion of Russia; the most gigantic and most unfortunate expedition
in the whole history of war.

Napoleon was probably induced to invade Russia in order to keep up the
s