at the failure of Massena in
the battle of Fuentes de Onoro led to the disgrace of the old marshal,
and Marmont was sent to replace him. Such was the difficulty which the
French experienced in securing commissary stores from an impoverished
land that Wellington seemed content to let want fight his battles. The
season of 1811 was marked by inactivity on both sides except in the
east, where Suchet captured Aragon and Valencia, annihilating the
Spanish army under Blake. But at the close of the year Soult was
compelled to withdraw southward toward the coast, in the hope of
securing indispensable supplies. The Spanish guerrillas of central
Spain harassed the French soldiers and took the heart out of them.
Wellington at once resumed the offensive; Ciudad Rodrigo fell before
him on January twelfth, 1812, and on April eighth, after one of the
bravest and bloodiest assaults recorded in English annals, Badajoz
also was carried.

Marmont drew back for concentration, and the English advanced to the
Duero. Thereupon the French turned again, Wellington retreated on
Salamanca, and there made his stand, defeating his enemy on July
twenty-second, in a brilliant engagement. The French commander then
marched to Burgos, but his opponent, instead of following, turned
toward Madrid, in order first to drive Joseph from his capital. By
that time Burgos had been made so strong that all efforts to capture
it proved unavailing, Soult at once abandoned Cadiz and turned
northward to aid Joseph. The English were thus between two foes, and
such was the demoralization of the British soldiery when they
understood their danger that Wellington could with difficulty lead
them back into Portugal. At the close of 1812 the French were in
control of all Spain except the south, which had been freed by Soult's
northward movement. Cadiz became the capital of the nationalists, but
they could not restrain their revolutionary impulses long enough to
form a respectable or trustworthy government, and Wellington was once
more relegated to inactivity. His enforced leisure was occupied by the
consideration of plans for the great successes with which he crowned
the following season.

Viewed from a military standpoint, the French warfare in Spain
appeared utterly disastrous.[37] Regiments melted away like ice before
an April sun; desertions became ominously numerous, and disease laid
thousands low. Guerrilla warfare demoralized the regular forces. The
new conscripts a