uring this year with great
rapidity. At the commencement of this year the progress of Lord
Wellington was retarded by the state of the weather, but as soon as it
became favourable he broke up his cantonments, resolving to penetrate as
far as possible into the interior of France. He first cleared the ground
on his right wing by driving the enemy eastward, and by pushing forward
his centre with a corresponding movement, after which he prepared with
his left wing, under Sir John Hope, to invest Bayonne. Marshal Beresford
was also detached with two divisions to occupy Bordeaux, the mayor and
inhabitants of which, on his arrival, of their own accord, proclaimed
Louis XVIII. Lord Wellington himself, with the main army, advanced to
Vig Bigorre, while Soult retreated to some good positions at Tarbes, and
then to Toulouse. Soult arrived at Toulouse on the 24th of March, and on
the 27th Wellington was close to him in front of that city. Between them
lay the deep and rapid river Garonne, and it was not till the 9th of
April that Wellington was enabled to get the allied army to the right
bank of that stream. On the 10th of April was fought the bloody battle
of Toulouse, in which Wellington was again victorious. Soult was driven
from his entrenched camp on the eastern side of the city of Toulouse
with a terrible loss: the victors also suffered severely. Soult
evacuated Toulouse on the 11th of April, retiring by Castlenaudry to
Carcassonne. He left behind him in the town 1,600 wounded men, and three
generals, besides artillery and ammunition, all of which were taken by
the allies, Wellington entered the city on the 12th, when a deputation
waited on him, requesting him to receive the key of the good and loyal
city in the name of King Louis XVIII. The battle of Toulouse was the
last real battle that Wellington had to fight during this campaign.
Four days after Soult's defeat, indeed, and when the allies were in
possession of the city, and the French were flying from it, General
Thouvenot, who commanded in Bayonne, chose to make a desperate sortie
on the allies in their cantonments, while the troops were all buried in
sleep, but though he succeeded in cutting off many, he was repulsed with
an equal loss. In the meantime the English Colonel Cooke and the French
Colonel St, Simon arrived from Paris with the news that the allies
had entered the French capital; that a provisional government had been
established in the name of Louis XVIII.; an