and over mountains towards Pamplona, leaving all the artillery,
military stores, and accumulated spoils as trophies of the British
victory.

The value of these was prodigious, but the great mass of booty, except
munitions of war, fell into the hands of private soldiers and
camp-followers. Wellington reported to Bathurst that nearly a million
sterling in money had been appropriated by the rank and file of the
army, and, still worse, that so dazzling a triumph had "totally
annihilated all order and discipline".[51] The loss in the battle had
been about 5,000, but Wellington stated that on July 8 "we had 12,500
men less under arms than we had on the day before the battle". He
supposed the missing 7,500, nearly half of whom were British, to be
mostly concealed in the mountain villages.[52] A large number of
stragglers afterwards rejoined their colours, but too late to aid in an
effectual pursuit of the enemy. The immediate consequence of this great
victory was the evacuation by the French of all Spain south of the Ebro.
Even Suchet abandoned Valencia and distributed his forces between
Tarragona and Tortosa. To his great credit, Wellington addressed to the
cortes an earnest protest against wreaking vengeance on the French party
in Spain, many of whom might have been driven into acceptance of a
foreign yoke "by terror, by distress, or by despair". At the same time,
he vigorously followed up his success by chasing and nearly surrounding
Clausel's division, while Hill invested Pamplona, and Graham drove Foy
across the Bidassoa, in his advance upon the fortress of St. Sebastian.

[Pageheading: _THE BATTLE OF THE PYRENEES._]

The fortifications of St. Sebastian were in a very imperfect condition,
but the governor, Emmanuel Rey, was nevertheless able to defend the
place with success. Wellington, after laying siege to it, sanctioned a
premature attempt to scale the breaches which cost Graham's force a loss
of more than 500 men. This check was succeeded by another, still more
serious, in the historic pass of Roncesvalles. Napoleon, hearing at
Dresden of the battle of Vitoria, and instantly fathoming its momentous
import, despatched Soult, as "lieutenant of the emperor," to assume
command of all the French armies at Bayonne and on the Spanish frontier,
still amounting nominally to 114,000 men, besides 66,000 under Suchet in
Catalonia. Soult reached Bayonne on July 13, fortified it strongly, and
reorganised his troops with amazing