if the French army were allowed to pass through Spain to seize the little kingdom. Charles consented, and the Portuguese royal family, thinking it in vain to resist, took ship and went off to their possessions in Brazil, in South America; but their people had more spirit, and called upon the English to help them.

4. Napoleon had now obtained a footing in Spain. There was a family quarrel between the King and his eldest son, Ferdinand; and Napoleon offered to meet them at Bayonne and judge between them. They foolishly consented, and were no sooner there, than they were both seized and kept captives, closely guarded by French soldiers, while Napoleon sent his army to master their country and set his own brother Joseph Bonaparte up as King of the whole Peninsula.

5. The Spaniards were angry at this wicked robbery, and rose against the French all over the country, and they too asked aid from England. An army was sent out in 1808 under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, an officer who had gained great distinction in India, while his brother the Marquis Wellesley was Governor there. Sir Arthur gave the French a total rout at Vimiera, which forced them to quit Portugal immediately, and he then returned home.

6. Sir John Moore came out with some more troops, and entered Spain in the north-east, meaning to join the Spaniards and prevent the French from taking Madrid. He found, however, that it was too late to save, the Spanish capital, and that

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197

the French were stronger and the Spaniards not so strong as had been reported to him. He, therefore, had to make his way to the port of Corunna, where the fleet was. It was winter, and he had to go through rough mountain roads in Galicia, where his army suffered sadly and all stragglers were cut off by the French, who followed closely on his rear.

7. On the heights above Corunna, to protect the embarkation, the British army turned to bay, and gained a splendid victory, but with the loss of their brave leader, whose shoulder was shattered by a cannon ball, and who died in the evening, glad to have saved the honour of his country. He was buried on the ramparts that night, just before his sorrowful friends embarked for England.

8. The French returned to Portugal when the English had left it, but another army was at once sent out with Sir Arthur Wellesley, and before long they were driven out of Portugal. Following them closely, Sir Arthur beat them at Talavera. After this victory he was raised to the peerage by the title of Wellington.

9. The ablest of Napoleon's generals was sent in 1810 to make a third attempt on Portugal, but was beaten at Busaco. However, his troops were so numerous that Wellington afterwards kept within a great entrenched camp, called Torres Vedras, or the Green Towers, which protected Lisbon, and where the French durst not attack him. In the spring of the next year he again followed them into Spain, and defeated them at Fuentes d'Onor.

10. In 1812, the English army took the two cities of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos by storm, and won the great battle of Salamanca. They even entered Madrid, but they had to fall back for the winter upon Ciudad Rodrigo. However, in the spring of 1813, they advanced again, and met the French army at Vittoria, the place of the victory of the Black Prince more than four centuries before.

11. Joseph Bonaparte, the so-called King of Spain, was with the French army, carrying off all the money, plate, jewels, and pictures he had been able to collect. The French tried to make a stand, but were utterly routed at Vittoria, and all this treasure fell into the hands of the English, while Joseph made his escape as best he could.

12. Right up to the Pyrenees were the French now driven before the English. Nothing was left to Bonaparte in all the Peninsula except the two cities of St. Sebastian and Pamplona, and another French force was sent to try to save them. Two more battles, called the battles of the Pyrenees, were fought, and the French again were defeated, St. Sebastian was stormed and Pamplona surrendered.

13. Wellington next hunted the French over the mountains into their own country, beating them again at the towns of Orthes and Toulouse. This last battle, fought on the 10th of April, 1814, was the final one of the Peninsular war, which had lasted six years, without the British having received a

THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. 199

single defeat, nor even lost so much as a gun or the colours of a single regiment.

Lord

Persons: Spencer Perceval-George Canning Castlereagh-William Wilberforce-Charles IV. of SpainJoseph Bonaparte—Sir Arthur Wellesley-Sir John Moore. Battles: Vimiera, 1808-Corunna and Talavera, 1809— Busaco, 1810-Fuentes d'Onor, 1811-Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, 1812-Vittoria, 1813-Pyrenees, Orthes, and Toulouse, 1814.

XLV. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN
MOORE AT CORUNNA.

NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sod with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeams' misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him, But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him!

Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow,

But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,

And we bitterly thought of the morrow.

[BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.]

We thought as we hollowed his narrow bed, And smoothed down his lowly pillow,