In this manner did the British fight the battles of Spain and drive from her soil the armies of France. It was not altogether a disinterested task, of course, but a sagacious move of the highest diplomacy, for, as England’s ministry had foreseen, Spain became the “grave of France.” By continually weakening his armies to accomplish her conquest, Napoleon only paved the way for the complete triumph of his enemies in the north: the allied forces of Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Wellington received great rewards from his own country, and Spain eventually bestowed upon him vast estates, which his descendants own to–day. Here, also, he first met and checked the great conqueror of Europe; and he utilized the invaluable experience of this five–years’ war the next summer, when, on the field of Waterloo, he finally crushed Napoleon, and drove him into eventual exile at St. Helena. He may truly be called the saviour of Spain, for, aside from a few detached battles and a desultory though persistent guerrilla warfare, the Spaniards conducted no wise scheme of defence. The battle of Vittoria shows the relative parts played by them and their allies, when their total loss was but 553, the Portuguese 1,049, and the English 3,308. This was the end of the great “Napoleonic storm cloud” that burst over distracted Europe and shattered against the Spanish Pyrenees. * * * * * “The unfortunate war in Spain was the first cause of the misfortunes of France,” wrote the exiled Napoleon years afterward, when in St. Helena. His first step, after he found it impossible to retain Joseph on the Spanish throne, was to treat with Ferdinand, still a prisoner, in December, 1813. But before he could return the latter to his country he himself was deposed, and another Bourbon, Louis XVIII, had entered Paris as the choice of the allied conquerors.