student may be excused. Doubtless, the want of adequate ordnance was often severely felt by the Duke of Wellington, and compelled him to an exaggerated use of the other arms; but this fact was hardly an excuse for neglecting its employment, when available in sufficient quantities, and obtainable with moderate exertions. Nor was the fact that he--as he justly complained--_never_ had a proper amount of Artillery with his armies any excuse for his making occasionally but an indifferent use of that which he had. Fortunately, the Duke of Wellington had merely to encounter Napoleon’s Marshals in Spain: had he had to meet their master, it is probable that the creed which he believed and practised might have received some rude assaults. If one could free oneself of all but purely professional considerations, one would wish, for the sake of the student in the art of war, that Napoleon, instead of Marmont and Clausel, had faced Wellington in the campaign of 1812. The result would, doubtless, have been the same; but the ways and means would have been very different. As it happened, Wellington’s sole encounter with Napoleon took place on ground chosen by himself, and under circumstances which yet further assisted his military creed, by testing yet again that which he had so often extravagantly proved, the marvellous endurance, discipline, and courage of the British Infantry. The results of the mistaken siege of Burgos are curtly described by Sir J. T. Jones, in his ‘Journal of the Sieges in the Peninsula.’ “By its means,” he writes, “a beaten enemy gained time to recruit his forces, concentrate his scattered armies, and regain the ascendancy.” The same author writes, with regard to the service of the Royal Artillery during the siege: “It is a pleasing act of justice to the Artillery officers, employed in this attack, to state that they vied with each other in their exertions and expedients to meet the hourly difficulties they encountered, and that no set of men could possibly have drawn more service than they did from the limited means at their command.” CHAPTER XX. VITTORIA AND SAN SEBASTIAN.