shaped by incessant care and pains into a perfect weapon, the use
of which he perfectly understood. Further than this, his
experience in India, where conditions had made him the
responsible administrator of vast native states, made him the
right man to conduct a campaign in the peninsula, where, between
the French and the Nationalists, civil administration had fallen
into great disorder, and where all sorts of extraordinary tasks
devolved upon the British representative. His management of his
uncertain allies, the guerrilla chiefs, and his relations with
the revolutionary "juntas" called for qualities as rare as those
which defeated one after another of Napoleon's marshals and
finally worsted the great captain himself. Thoroughness of
preparation, the ability to see things as they are, to wait
patiently, decide promptly, and act with energy--these are
perhaps simple military virtues, but they bring success, and they
were in high degree the possession of the young Indian officer,
who was now to undertake a difficult campaign in a foreign
country. The event proved that with such qualities a general may
compass the most difficult tasks, though he may be "cold" in
temperament, and incapable of kindling in the breasts of his men
that passionate personal devotion which some hold to be the true
test of a great soldier.

Wellesley disembarked his expeditionary force in August, at
Mondego Bay, a hundred miles north of Lisbon, which Junot held
with twelve thousand men. Junot advanced to meet the English, and
at Vimiero Wellesley met and defeated the first of Napoleon's
marshals. Before the close of the day the arrival of a superior
officer terminated Wellesley's command. He had, however,
inflicted such a blow that Junot was glad to sign a convention