The Duke of Wellington was upon the frontiers, with an army of seventy thousand English and Portuguese. If Joseph remained in Spain, it was clear that he had a long and bloody struggle before him. If he threw down the crown and abandoned the enterprise, it was surrendering Spain to England, to be forced inevitably into the coalition against France. Thus the existence of the new regime in France seemed to depend upon the result of the struggle in Spain. Joseph could not abandon the enterprise without being apparently false to his brother, to his own country, and to the principle of equal rights for all throughout Europe. CHAPTER IX. THE WAR IN SPAIN CONTINUED. 1809-1812 Wellington in Spain.--Battle of Talavera.--Retreat of Wellington. --Complaints of the English.--Remarks of Alison.--Battle of the 3d of November.--Triumph of Joseph.--Failure of Wellington.--Persistent Hostility of the British Government.--The Conflict renewed.--Causes of the Strife.--Conscientiousness of the Antagonists.--Painful Position of Joseph.--Birth of the King of Rome.--Dispatch from Napoleon.--The Emperor's Address.--Grandeur of Napoleon.--The Constitution of 1812. --Letter from Joseph to Napoleon.--Spanish Antipathy to the Duke of Wellington.--Embarrassments of the British Government.--The Campaign to Moscow.--Miseries of the Conflict.--Destitution of the Army.--Ciudad Rodrigo.--Badajoz.--Famine in Spain.--Desperate Condition of Joseph. In July of 1809 Joseph was in Madrid, with an army of about forty thousand men. The rest of the French army was widely dispersed. The Duke of Wellington thought this a favorable opportunity to make a rapid march and seize the Spanish capital. Collecting a force of eighty-five thousand troops, he pressed rapidly forward to Talavera, within two days' march of Madrid. Joseph, being informed of the approach of this formidable allied army, and that they were expecting still very considerable re-enforcements, resolved to advance and attack them before those new troops should arrive. By great exertions he collected about forty-five thousand veterans, and on the 27th of July found himself facing his vastly-outnumbering foes, very formidably posted among the groves and hills of Talavera. For two days the battle raged. It was fearfully destructive. The allied army lost between six and seven thousand men, the French between eight and nine thousand. The tall grass took fire, and, sweeping along like a prairie conflagration, fearfully burned many of the wounded. The Spaniards and Portuguese were easily dispersed. They seemed to care but little for the conflict, regarding themselves as the paid soldiers of England, fighting the battles of England. But the British troops fought with the determination and bravery which has ever characterized the men of that race.