Light division, supported quickly by cavalry and other troops, who maintained themselves on the south bank. Joseph’s centre was partially forced, while his left was hard pressed by Hill; and, fearing that Gazan and D’Erlon might be cut off from Reille, he ordered them to withdraw to a ridge farther back, which they did, holding Arinez in front. Here there was no hard fighting; but, as Wellington had now passed three divisions, many guns and the cavalry (which, however, from the nature of the ground could be but little used) across the Zadorra, Margarita, Hermandad and Arinez soon fell to the Allies.
Redrawn from Major General C. W. Robinson's Wellington's Campaigns by permission of Hugh Rees, Ltd.
On the left, Graham, having turned the heights north of Zadorra with Longa’s Spaniards, seized Gamarra Menor close to the Bayonne road. He also with heavy loss carried Gamarra Mayor and Abechuco, but the bridges south of these villages, though more than once taken, were always recaptured by Reille. At length, when a brigade from the Allied centre had been pushed up from Hermandad against Reille’s flank, he withdrew from the obstinately defended bridges, and before this Gazan and D’Erlon had also fallen back, fighting, to a third position on a ridge between Armentia and Ali west of Vitoria. Here, at about 6 p.m., they made a last stand, being compelled in the end to yield; and as Graham having now crossed the bridges was close to the Bayonne road, the main body of Joseph’s army fled by a bad cross road towards Pampeluna, abandoning artillery, vehicles and baggage (of which an enormous quantity was parked near Vitoria), Reille afterwards joining it through Betonia. The Allies then occupied Vitoria and pursued the French until nightfall. All Joseph’s equipages, ammunition and stores, 143 guns, a million sterling in money, and various trophies fell into Wellington’s hands, the French loss in men being nearly 7000, that of the Allies over 5000, of whom 1600 were Portuguese and Spaniards. This decisive victory practically freed Spain from French domination. (C. W. R.)
VITRÉ, a town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, situated on a hill rising from the left bank of the Vilaine, 24 m. E. of Rennes by rail. Pop. (1906) town, 7106; commune, 10,092. The town largely retains its feudal aspect. The ramparts on the north side and on the west, consisting of a machicolated wall with towers at intervals, are still standing. Only one gateway remains of the original castle, founded towards the end of the 11th century; the rest was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries (the best period of Breton military architecture) and restored in recent times. It is now occupied by a prison, a museum of natural history and painting and the town library. The church of Notre-Dame, formerly a priory of the abbey of St Mélaine of Rennes, dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. An outside stone pulpit is a fine example of 16th-century sculpture. The church possesses a fine enamelled triptych of the 16th century. A tower of the 16th century is all that remains of the church of St Martin. The château of Les Rochers 3 m. from Vitré was the residence of Madame de Sévigné.
Vitré was formerly a Breton barony, and belonged in the 10th century to the younger branch of the counts of Rennes. In 1295 it passed to Guy IX., baron of Laval, on his marriage with the heiress, and afterwards successively belonged to the families of Rieux, Coligny and La Trémoille. The town was seized by Charles VIII. in 1488. Protestantism spread under the rule of the houses of Rieux and Coligny; Vitré became a Huguenot stronghold; and a Protestant church was established, which was not suppressed till the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. Philip Emmanuel, duke of Mercœur, the head of the members of the League in Brittany, besieged the town in vain for five months in 1589. The estates of Brittany, over which the barons of Vitré and of Leon alternately presided, met here several times.
VITRIFIED FORTS, the name given to certain rude stone enclosures whose walls have been subjected in a greater or less degree to the action of fire. They are generally situated on hills offering strong defensive positions. Their form seems to have been determined by the contour of the flat summits which they enclose. The walls vary in size, a few being upwards of 12 ft. high, and are so broad that they present the appearance of embankments. Weak parts of the defence are strengthened by double or triple walls, and occasionally vast lines of ramparts, composed of large blocks of unhewn and unvitrified stones, envelop the vitrified centre at some distance from it. No lime or cement has been found in any of these structures, all of them presenting the peculiarity of being more or less consolidated by the fusion of the rocks of which they are built. This fusion, which has been caused by the application of intense heat, is not equally complete in the various forts, or even in the walls of the same fort. In some cases the stones are only partially melted and calcined; in others their adjoining edges are fused so that they are firmly cemented together; in many instances pieces of rock are enveloped in a glassy enamel-like coating which binds them into a uniform whole; and at times, though rarely, the entire length of the wall presents one solid mass of vitreous substance.
Since John Williams—one of the earliest of British geologists, and author of The Mineral Kingdom—first described these singular ruins in 1777, about fifty examples have been discovered in Scotland. The most remarkable are Dun Mac Uisneachain (Dun Macsnoichan), the ancient Beregonium, about 9 m. N.N.E. of Oban; Tap o’ Noth, in Aberdeenshire; Craig Phadraic, or Phadrick, near Inverness; Dun Dhardhail (Dunjardil) in Glen Nevis; Knockfarrail, near Strathpeffer; Dun Creich, in Sutherland; Finhaven, near Aberlemno; Barryhill, in Perthshire; Laws, near Dundee; Dun Gall and Burnt Island, in Buteshire; Anwoth, in Kirkcudbright; and Cowdenknowes, in Berwickshire. Dun Mac Uisneachain is the largest in area, being 250 yds. long by 50 yds. broad. In the Tap o’ Noth the walls are about 8 ft. high and between 20 and 30 ft. thick. In Dun Mac Uisneachain, Barryhill and Laws the remains of small rectangular dwellings have been found.
For a long time it was supposed that these forts were peculiar to Scotland; but they are found also in Londonderry and Cavan, in Ireland; in Upper Lusatia, Bohemia, Silesia, Saxony and Thuringia; in the provinces on the Rhine, especially in the neighbourhood of the Nahe; in the Ucker Lake, in Brandenburg, where the walls are formed of burnt and smelted bricks; in Hungary; and in several places in France, such as Châteauvieux, Peran, La Courbe, Sainte Suzanne, Puy de Gaudy and Thauron. They have not been found in England or Wales.
In some continental forts the vitrified walls are supported by masses of unvitrified stone built up on each side. This,
