Alexander Gromnitsky's Blog

The starving troops have resisted heroically

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The aftermath of the battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813), in which the French army under Joseph Bonaparte collapsed & fled from the field:

'As for Joseph he scarcely looked back before he reached the walls of Pamplona in Navarre. [The French troops were still occupying the city, but w/ an inadequate food supply]

Joseph was admitted into its walls; but the [French] fugitives from Vittoria were refused an entrance; and when they attempted to scale the walls they were fired upon by their own countrymen, as if they had been mortal foes; and they were compelled to continue their flight across the Pyrenees towards France.'

(From The History of England, Vol. III, Ch. XXIX, by Edward Henry Nolan, Edward Farr.)

View of Pamplona


Tags: quote, france
Authors: ag