After the victory of Talavera, Sir Arthur was raised to the peerage, under the title of Baron Duro of Wellesley, and Viscount Wellington of Talavera. "We have at this time the entire cohort of French marshals in Estramadura," wrote Wellington: "Soult, Ney, Mortier, Kellerman, Victor and Sebastiani, without counting King Joseph and the five thousand men of Suchet." Wellington fixed his headquarters at Badajoz. Everywhere the Spanish generals were defeated by the French. "It is deplorable," said Wellington, "that affairs which were in such good condition a few weeks ago, have been ruined by the ignorance and presumption of those who have the charge of directing them. {429} I declare that if they had preserved their two armies, or even one of them, the cause was safe. The French could have no reinforcements which could have been of any use; time would have been gained; the state of affairs would have improved daily: all the chances were in our favor. The French armies must have been driven out of Spain. But no, they must fight great battles on the plains, where the defeat of the Spanish troops was assured from the first. They have never been willing to believe what I have told them regarding the French forces. Up to the present time, when upon the field of battle, they have found them superior to themselves under all circumstances." Austria re-opened hostilities. A great English expedition was directed, against the naval preparations of Napoleon in the Scheldt. The fleet invested and took Flushing. The troops occupied the Isle of Walcheren, the possession of which, however, was of no practical utility, and led to no important results, but was attended with great suffering and frightful mortality. Another English expedition, directed against the south of Italy, was equally unsuccessful, although Sir John Stuart took possession of the Ionian Islands. Napoleon pursued his triumphant way in Germany, but his victories were more severely contested and more dearly bought. At Paris Prince Talleyrand had been disgraced, and the most violent councils prevailed. "It appears," said Napoleon to Prince Metternich, the Austrian ambassador, "that the waters of Lethe, and not those of the Danube flow by Vienna. New lessons are necessary, and they will be terrible, I promise you. Austria saved the English in 1805, when I was about to cross the Straits of Calais, and has just saved them once more, by hindering me from pursuing them at Corunna: she will pay dear for this new diversion. I have no desire to draw the sword except against Spain and England, but if Austria persists, the struggle will be immediate and decisive, and will be such, that in the future, England will find no allies upon the continent." {430}