ack rapidly upon
French territory and the fortress of Bayonne. Except on the eastern
coast, where Suchet was with about 40,000 men, there was not a spot in
all Spain where the French dared show themselves. Lord Wellington, under
these circumstances, turned his attention to the capture of some of the
strongholds in which French garrisons were maintained. He established
the blockade of Pamplona, and directed Graham to invest San Sebastian;
and he then advanced with the main body of his army to occupy the passes
of the Pyrenees from Roncesvalles to Irun, at the mouth of the Bidassoa.
Early in July, having driven the enemy to his own soil, his sentinels
looked down from the rugged frontier of Spain upon the lovely and
fertile plains of France. In forty-five days he had conducted the allied
army from the frontiers of Portugal to the Pyrenees; he had marched four
hundred miles; had gained a great and complete victory; had driven the
French through a country abounding in strong positions; had liberated
Spain; and now stood as a conqueror upon the skirts of France.

The campaign was not yet over. Sensibly affected by this defeat of
Jourdan, Napoleon immediately superseded that officer in the command,
and appointed Soult to succeed him, with the title of Lieutenant-general
of the empire. His directions were to re-equip the defeated troops, to
gather formidable re-enforcements, to lead his masses speedily against
Wellington, to clear the French frontier and the passes of the Pyrenees,
relieve Pamplona and San Sebastian, and to drive the allied army behind
the Ebro. Soult undertook to do all this; and having collected
all manner of disposable forces, on the 13th of July he joined the
disorganized fragments of Jourdan's army. On his arrival he forthwith
issued one of those boastful addresses for which the French emperor
and his marshals had become celebrated. He remarked:--"I have borne
testimony to the emperor of your bravery and zeal: his instructions are
that you must drive the enemy from those heights, which enable them to
look proudly down on our fertile valleys, and then chase them beyond the
Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil that your tents must be pitched and
your resources drawn. Let the account of our successes be dated from
Vittoria, and let the fete-day of his majesty be celebrated in that
city." At this time Wellington's attention was divided between the care
of his army on the frontier of France and the siege of San Seba