Vitoria Ends French Spain

June 21, 1813

Wellington's polyglot army caught King Joseph's retreating column at Vitoria and looted it down to the coronation silver. Napoleon's brother fled over the Pyrenees in a carriage that had been a treasury. Beethoven wrote a noisy battle symphony. Spain was free; the way into France lay open. The captured baggage included a collection of Spanish old masters that Wellington kept and that still hangs at Apsley House.