occupied Madrid in August, and obliged Soult to evacuate Andalusia; but
his siege of Burgos failed, and as the French generals concentrated
their scattered forces, Wellington was obliged to abandon Madrid once
more. October 21st he was again in full retreat on Portugal. The
apparent failure of his campaign was almost simultaneous with the
apparent success of Napoleon's; for the Emperor entered Moscow September
14th, and the news of this triumph, probably decisive of Russian
submission, reached England about October 3d. Three days later arrived
intelligence of William Hull's surrender at Detroit; but this success
was counterbalanced by simultaneous news of Isaac Hull's startling
capture of the Guerriere, and the certainty of a prolonged war.

In the desponding condition of the British people,--with a deficient
harvest, bad weather, wheat at nearly five dollars a bushel, and the
American supply likely to be cut off; consols at 57 1/2, gold at thirty
per cent premium; a Ministry without credit or authority, and a general
consciousness of blunders, incompetence, and corruption,--every new tale
of disaster sank the hopes of England and called out wails of despair.
In that state of mind the loss of the Guerriere assumed portentous
dimensions. The Times was especially loud in lamenting the capture:--

"We witnessed the gloom which that event cast over high and
honorable minds.... Never before in the history of the world
did an English frigate strike to an American; and though we
cannot say that Captain Dacres, under all circumstances, is
punishable for this act, yet we do say there are commanders
in the English navy who would a thousand times rather have
gone down with their colors flying, than have set their
fellow sailors so fatal an example."

No country newspaper in America, railing at Hull's cowardice and
treachery, showed less knowledge or judgment than the London Times,
which had written of nothing but war since its name had been known in
England. Any American could have assured the English press that British
frigates before the Guerriere had struck to American; and even in
England men had not forgotten the name of the British frigate Serapis,
or that of the American captain Paul Jones. Yet the Times's ignorance
was less unreasonable than its requirement that Dacres should have gone
down with his ship,--a cry of passion the more unjust to Dacres because
he fought his ship as lon