On his march to the Spanish capital, Napoleon found his road blocked at the mountain pass of Sommo-Sierra. The insurgents had fortified the heights, their cannon completely controlling the defile. So strong was the position that a handful of veterans there might have checked an army. But the impudence of these Spanish bands in presuming to resist his march threw Napoleon into a fury. He would not wait till his infantry could advance upon either side, turn the enemy, and almost certainly secure a bloodless victory. He raged and stormed, “What! my army stopped by armed bands, wretched peasants!” “Patience, sire, I pray,” pleaded General Walthour, who assured him that in a few minutes the pass would be cleared by infantry, which was even then advancing on either side. But no; the enemy must be charged with cavalry--a bristling battery, on the crest of a mountain gorge, must be swept out of the way by a cavalry dash. “Go, Ségur! Go at once; make my Poles charge, make them take everything!” There was astonishment--but the order had to be obeyed. At full speed the splendid soldiers of the Polish squadron dashed up the pass, to melt away in an awful fire from the battery above. Historians say that the cavalry charge succeeded. Ségur, who led the dash and was shot down in it, relates that the flanking infantry columns did the work. “Does anybody know how Ségur came to be hurt? Was he carrying an order?” Napoleon asked, after the battle. When reminded that he had himself given Ségur the order, he was silent, and “fell into a very thoughtful mood.”