the state of the road led Wellington to call off the pursuit up the
Pamplona track after five miles. The panic-stricken French did not halt
their flight until the Pyrenean border and Joseph retired in disgrace to
Paris.
Wellington was now the cynosure of Europe; he received his field
marshal baton and Beethoven composed 'Wellington's Victory' in his
honour. But he was frustrated at not being able to press on into Aragon
and Catalonia to deal with Suchet and Clausel. In a word, the discipline
of his troops broke down completely; it was their crazed looting after
Vitoria that drew from their commander the celebrated remark that his
men were the scum of the earth. If Joseph had been able to regroup and
counterattack, he would have found the entire British army roaring
drunk. By the time Wellington had restored order with the gallows and
the lash, Clausel had retreated into France, leaving only Pamplona and
San Sebastian in French hands.
News of Vitoria reached Dresden on I July and simply hardened
Austrian resolve to join the Allies. Even if Austria, Prussia and Russia
had been willing to come to terms with Napoleon, this was not really an
option now, for the British called in the quid pro quo for their subsidies,
insisting that the Allies remain in the field lest Napoleon turn his full
power against Wellington in Spain. Napoleon sent an unwilling Soult
from Dresden to Bayonne to form a new army from the escapees of
Vitoria and gave him a warrant for Joseph's arrest (which Soult tactfully
did not use). For once Soult bestirred himself, retrained the scattered
remnants of the former French armies in Spain and recrossed the border
into the Peninsula with a force of 8o,ooo hoping to relieve Pamplona.
Soult contrived to delay Wellington's invasion of France for four
months by launching a two-pronged attack on the besiegers of Pamplona.
Defeated twice by Wellington and with dwindling food supplies, he
managed to delay the fall of Pamplona and San Sebastian before
withdrawing into France; he had done enough to escape the worst rages
of the Emperor. The cautious Wellington was not the man to invade
France with San Sebastian and Pamplona still untaken in his rear. In any
case England's military hero had his own problems, for the United States
was at war with Britain, and American warships and privateers made
serious inroads on British shipping in the Bay of Biscay. And when San
Sebastian did finally fall, on 3 I August, there was the almost predictable
orgy of rape, murder and pillage from the 'scum of the earth'.
In Dresden Napoleon awaited the results of the Prague conference,
where Caulaincourt was his envoy. Historians divide on Napoleon's
intentions at this time. Some claim that he genuinely wanted peace,
marcin
(Marcin)
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