the passages by which the assailant can possibly seek to pass-in which case his front, thus dangerously extended, should be broken.1

Passage of the Douro, by Wellington.

13. The passage of the Douro, by Sir Arthur Wellesley, 12th May, 1809, was immediately after the river had been passed by the French under Soult, continuing their retreat, and destroying the bridge across it from Villa Nova to Oporto. Soult, at Salamanca, would be more formidable than Soult at Oporto, and hence the ultimate object of the campaign, and the immediate safety of Eeresford's corps, alike demanded that the Douro should be quickly passed. But, how force the passage of a river, deep, swift, and more than 300 yards wide, while 10,000 veterans guarded the opposite bank? Alexander the Great might have turned from it without shame!

From the summit of the height of Sarea, the English general, with an eagle's glance, searched all the opposite bank and the city and country beyond it. He observed horses and baggage moving on the road to Vallonga, and the dust of columns as if in retreat, and no large body of troops was to be seen under arms near the river. The French guards were few, and distant from each other, and the patrols were neither many nor vigilant; but a large unfinished building standing alone, yet with a short and easy access to it from the river, soon fixed Sir Arthur's attention. This building, called the Seminary, was surrounded by a high stone wall, which coming down to the water on either side, enclosed an area sufficient to contain at least two battalions in order of battle; the only egress being by an iron gate opening on the Vallonga road. The structure itself commanded everything in its neighbourhood, except a mound, within cannon shot, but too pointed to hold a gun. There were no French posts near, and the direct line of passage from the height of Sarea, across the river to the building, being to the right hand, was of course hidden from the troops in the town. Here, then, with a marvellous hardihood, Sir Arthur resolved, if he could find but

1 Hamley, Part V., Chap. III.

one boat, to make his way, in the face of a veteran army and a renowned general. A boat was soon obtained; for a poor barber of Oporto, evading the French patrols, had, during the night, come over the water in a small skiff; this being discovered by Colonel Waters, a staff officer, of a quick and daring temper, he and the barber, and the prior of Amarante, who gallantly offered his aid, crossed the river, and in half an hour returned, unperceived, with three or four large barges. Meanwhile, eighteen or twenty pieces of artillery were got up to the convent of Sarea; and Major-General John Murray, with the German brigade, some squadrons of the 14th Dragoons, and two guns, reached the Barca de Avintas, three miles higher up the river, his orders being to search for boats, and to effect a passage there also, if possible. Some of the British troops were now sent towards Avintas, to support Murray; while others came cautiously forwards to the brink of the river. It was ten o'clock; the enemy were tranquil and unsuspicious; and an officer reported to Sir Arthur Wellesley that one boat was brought up to the point of passage, "Well, let the men cross," was the reply; and upon this simple order, an officer and twenty-five soldiers, of the Buffs, entered the vessel, and in a quarter of an hour were in the midst of the French army. The Seminary was thus gained without any alarm being given, and everything was still quiet in Oporto; not a movement was to be seen; not a hostile sound was to be heard: a second boat followed the first, and then a third passed a little higher up the river; but scarcely had the men from the last landed, when a tumultuous noise of drums and shouts arose in the city; confused masses of the enemy were seen hurrying forth in all directions, and throwing out clouds of skirmishers, who came furiously down upon the Seminary. The citizens were descried gesticulating vehemently, and making signals from their houses; and the British troops instantly crowded to the bank of the river; Paget's and Hill's divisions at the point of embarkation, and Sherbrooke's, where the old boat-bridge had been cut away from Villa Nova. Paget himself passed in the third boat, and mounting the roof of the Seminary, was immediately struck down, severely wounded. Hill took Paget's place; the musketry was sharp, voluble and increasing every moment as the number accumulated on both sides. The enemy's attack was fierce and constant; his fire augmented faster than that of the British, and his artillery, also, began to play on the

building. But the English guns, from the convent of Sarea, commanded the whole enclosure round the Seminary, and swept the left of the wall in such a manner as to confine the French assault to the side of the iron gate. Murray, however, did not appear; and the struggle was so violent, and the moment so critical, that Sir Arthur would himself have crossed, but for the earnest representations of those about him, and the just confidence he had in General Hill. Some of the citizens now pushed over to Villa Nova with several great boats; Sherbrooke's people began to cross in large bodies; and, at the same moment, a loud shout in the town, and the waving of handkerchiefs from all the windows, gave notice that the enemy had abandoned the lower part of the city and now, also, Murray's troops were seen descending the right bank from Avintas. By this time three battalions were in the Seminary; and Hill, advancing to the enclosure wall, opened a destructive fire upon the French columns as they passed, in haste and confusion, by the Vallonga road.

To the left, General Sherbrooke, with the brigade of Guards, and the 29th Regiment, was in the town, and pressing the rear of the enemy, who were quitting it. In the centre, General Hill, holding the Seminary and the wall of the enclosure, with the Buffs, the 48th, the 66th, the 16th Portuguese, and a battalion of detachments, sent a damaging fire into the masses as they passed him; and his line was prolonged on the right, although with a considerable interval, by General Murray's Germans, and two squadrons of the 14th Dragoons. The remainder of the army kept passing the river at different points; and the artillery, from the height of Sarea, still searched the enemy's columns as they hurried along the line of retreat.1

14. The passage of the Douro, at Oporto, would, at first sight, seem a rash undertaking; but, when examined closely, it proves to be an example of consummate generalship, both in the conception and the execution. The careless watch maintained by the French may, indeed, be called fortunate, because it permitted the English general to get a few men over unperceived; but it was not 25, nor 2500 soldiers that could have maintained themselves, if heedlessly cast on the other side.

Sir Arthur, when he so coolly said-" Let them pass,"-was prepared to protect them when they had passed. He did not give that order, until he knew that Murray had found boats at Avintas, to ferry over a considerable number of troops, and, consequently, that that general, descending the Douro, could cover the right flank of the Seminary, while the guns planted on the heights of Sarea could sweep the left flank, and search all the ground enclosed by the wall round the building. If General Murray's troops only had passed, they would have been compromised; if the whole army had made the attempt at Avintas, its march would have been discovered; but in the double passage all was secured the men in the Seminary by the guns, by the strength of the building, and by Murray's troops; the latter, by the surprise on the town, which drew the enemy's attention away from them. Hence, it was only necessary to throw a few brave men into the Seminary unperceived, and then the success was almost certain; because, while that building was maintained, the troops in the act of passing could neither be prevented nor harmed by the enemy. To attain great objects by simple means is the highest effort of genius.1

Passage of the Garonne, at Toulouse.

15. The Garonne, flowing on the west, presented to the Allies a deep loop, at the bottom of which was the bridge, completely covered by the suburb of St. Cyprien, itself protected by an ancient brick wall three feet thick and flanked by two massive towers; these defences Soult had improved and he added a line of exterior intrenchments. Beyond the Garonne was the city, surrounded by an old wall flanked with towers, and so thick as to admit of sixteen and twenty-four pounder guns. The great canal of Languedoc, which joined the Garonne a few miles below the town, wound for the most part within point-blank shot of the walls, covering them on the north and east, as the Garonne and St. Cyprien did on the west. The suburbs of St. Stephen and Guillermerie, built on both sides of this canal, furnished outworks on the west, for they were intrenched and connected with and covered by the hills of Sacarin

1 Napier, Vol. II.

and Cambon, also intrenched and flanking the approaches to the canal both above and below these suburbs. 800 yards beyond these hills a strong ridge, called the Mont Rave, ran nearly parallel with the canal, its outer slope was exceedingly rugged and overlooked a marshy plain through which the Ers river flowed. The south side of the town opened on a plain, but the suburb of St. Michael lying there, between the Garonne and the canal, furnished another advanced defence and at some distance beyond, a range of heights called the Peck David commenced, trending up the Garonne in a direction nearly parallel to that river. Such being the French general's position, he calculated that, as Lord Wellington could not force the passage by the suburb of St. Cyprien without an enormous sacrifice of men, he must seek to turn the flanks above or below Toulouse, and leave a sufficient force to blockade St. Cyprien under the pain of having the French army issue on that side against his communications. If he passed the Garonne above its confluence with the Arriege, he would have to cross that river also, which could not be effected nearer than Cintegabelle, one march higher up. Then he must come down by the right of the Arriege, an operation not to be feared in a country which the recent rains had rendered impracticable for guns. If the Allies passed the Garonne below the confluence of the Arriege, Soult judged that he could from Peck David, and its continuation, overlook their movements, and that he should be in position to fall upon the head of their column while in the disorder of passing the river: if he failed in this he had still Toulouse and the heights of Mont Rave to retire upon, where he could fight again, his retreat being secure upon Montauban. For these reasons the passage of the Garonne above Toulouse would lead to no decisive result and he did not fear it, but a passage below the city was a different matter. Lord Wellington could thus cut him off from Montauban and attack Toulouse from the northern and eastern quarters; and if the French then lost the battle they could only retreat by Carcassonne to form a junction with Suchet in Roussillon, where having their backs to the mountains and the Allies between them and France they could not exist.

It has been already shewn that in a strategic view the passage should have been made below the town, but seeing that the south side was the most open to attack, the English general resolved to cast his bridge at