HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES TO CANTO X.
The Passage of the Bidasoa, with the military movements which immediately ensued, completing that operation and establishing the left wing of our army on the soil of France, occupies the entire of this Canto. The events with which it deals will be found very fully and satisfactorily recorded in Napier’s History, book xxii. chap. 4. The thunder-storm which rolled over the district on the eventful morning chosen by Wellington for this remarkable strategical evolution is by no means exaggerated in the text. It is in the Pyrenees that thunder is witnessed to perfection. The exploits which in this Canto I attribute to Nial have all their foundation in the genuine history of the campaign.
General Alten had the command of the Light Division, and the Rifle corps, to which I suppose Nial to have belonged, was under the immediate guidance of the gallant Colborne.
Captain Batty’s description of the Passage of the Bidasoa, with which operation, the first in which he shared, he commences his Campaign of the Western Pyrenees, is very animated, and illustrated by spirited etchings of the event of the Passage and of Pyrenean scenery. His view of Fuenterrabia and of the mountain of Jaizquibel is particularly deserving of praise. It is impossible to describe the effect upon my feelings of going over this heroic mountain ground from Andaye to the Louis Quatorze, from Bildox and Mandale to the Bayonnette and Commissari, and from thence to the greater Rhune.
The allusion in the commencement of this Canto to the Vale of Baigorri refers to the rescue of an enormous amount of forage by Mina’s Guerrilla from the French, including 2,000 sheep.
The pastoral habits, to which large districts in Spain are still addicted, cause the people to occupy five times the extent of land, which with agricultural pursuits would be sufficient for their maintenance. The pastoral institution of the mesta encourages the feeding of sheep, and the enormous migratory flocks of Estremadura and elsewhere move every year some hundreds of miles, devastating the tracts over which they pass. “By the increase of pasture,” says Sir Thomas More, “your sheep, that are naturally mild, may be said now to devour men, and unpeople, not only villages, but towns.”—Utopia, book i. The invaders found their account in this primitive system, and their entire subsistence was derived from ready plunder. The French in their Peninsular prowlings resembled in one other respect, as well as in their Republican and Heathen names, the Lacedæmonians, who held a grand hunt annually, in which the agricultural peasantry were pursued and destroyed like wild beasts—a fact which, though Müller questions the testimony that supports it, is as well authenticated as any other incident in the Dorian history. The argument, taken from the improbable inhumanity of the fact, is refuted by the modern practices of the French in Spain and Portugal, and in their Algerian Razzias to this hour. They differ from the Lacedæmonians, it would seem, in this, that the Spartans perpetrated the enormity only once a year, while the French perform it weekly. I have seen with my own eyes the ravages which they have left in the Peninsula, the glorious monuments of antiquity which they have disfigured and defaced, the desecration which they have brought upon shrine and tomb. And, much as I may be disposed to forget and forgive, it is not easy to suppress one’s choler amidst the mutilated glories of Burgos, Alcobaça, and Batalha.
II. “The Fuéntarábian waters poured between.”
When Charlemagne with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabia.
Milt. Par. Lost, i. 586.
In this name, I have departed slightly from the Spanish orthography, a corruption of the Latin Fons rapidus, and made “errabia” “arabia;” in deference to the example of Milton, and for the sake of the excellent musical effect in connection with one of the finest names in romance.
V. “When first beheld by Vimieiro’s wall.”
Vimieiro is merely a village about 35 miles N.N.W. of Lisbon, where the accommodations are so miserable that it was with difficulty I could procure a calda de gallinha (boiled fowl served up with its broth) the only thing in the shape of comfortable nourishment which is to be had in the country parts of Portugal. The walls referred to are therefore, as may be supposed, not turret-crowned like Berecynthian Cybele. For the allusion to the effect produced on the French by the sight of our Highlanders first met by them in this battle, see Southey, Hist. Penins. War, and Campbell, Ode for the Highland Society.
VI. “Where Bidasoa’s stream impetuous runs.”
The Passage of the Bidasoa took place on the 7th October, a month after the fall of San Sebastian. The morning was heavy and louring, and the day’s work was ushered in by a thunder-storm (already referred to) which caused the early British operations to be happily unperceived.
VII. “To lynx-eyed vigilance their soundings yield.”
“By the help of Spanish fishermen he had secretly discovered three fords, practicable at low water, between the bridge of Behobia and the sea.” Napier, Hist. War in the Penins. book xxii. chap. 4.
XI. “Their cannon from the Grand Monarque on high.”
The mountain of Louis XIV., overhanging the Bidasoa at Biriatú, where the French had their principal battery.
XII. “The Lusitan battalion’s fairest flower,”
The Portuguese brigade lost one hundred and fifty men.
XIV. “The peak where stands the wreathéd cross.”
The Croix des Bouquets—a height adjoining the mountain of Louis XIV.
XV. “The British bayonet ne’er withstanding in its ire.”
This is no boast. It is a fact attested by the whole of our Peninsular and Belgian campaigns that the French never withstood one bayonet charge, and scarcely ever, indeed, would cross that weapon with us.
XVI. “Where the green mountain glistens in the sun.”
Bildox, called the Sierra Verde, a little northward of the Mandale mountain.
“The Bidasoa’s won—not least of England’s deeds.”
“This stupendous operation.”
Napier, Hist. War in the Penins., book xxii. chap. 4.
XXII. ——“Colborne’s bold brigade
Of Rifles far above, like huntsmen gay.”
Des jägers muth ist immer grün,
Und aus dem grünen muth soll blühn
Ein blümlein blutig roth,
Soll heissen feindes tod. * *
Mein schatz gab mir ’nen silbern ring,
Dass ich ihr einen gold’nen bring’;
Der ring soll sein entwandt
Von eines Franzmanns hand!
Rückert.
“The jäger’s courage (like his raiment) is evergreen, and out of the green courage shall spring a blood-red flowret, and be called Death to the Foe! * * My beloved gave to me a silver ring, that I may bring her a ring of gold. The ring shall be taken from a Frenchman’s hand!”
XXIV. ——“A firelock snatched
From forth a Frenchman’s hand whom he did urge
At sword point till he slew him,” &c.
Tancredi con un colpo il ferro crudo
Del nemico ribatte, e lui fere anco:
Nè poi, ciò fatto, in ritirarsi tarda,
Ma si raccoglie, e si ristringe in guarda.
Tasso, Gerus. Lib. vi. 43.
XXVI. “Like gallant chief whose port gives courage to each man.”
——como sabio capitão,
Tudo corria, e via, e a todos dava
Com presença e palavras coração.
Camóens, Lus. iv. 36.
XXIX. ——“The mountain’s brow
Doth bear a signal tower whose beechen arms.”
“Longa was also to send some men over the river to Andarlasa, to seize a telegraph which the French used to communicate between the left and centre of their line.” Napier, xxii. 4.
XXXIV. “And ‘adelante!’ crying, waved his sword.”
“Adelante!” which signifies “forward,” is the word of encouragement used at charging in the Spanish service.
“Saved ‘the fair boy,’ and smote the French with one accord.”
This act of bravery was performed almost literally as described, by an officer of the 43rd regiment named Havelock. The Spaniards shouted for el chico blanco, “the fair boy,” and followed him into the abatis.
XXXVIII. “But saw great Arthur now with Lyncean ken.”
ἴδεν Λυγκεὺς. κείνου γὰρ ἐπιχθονίων
πάντων γένετ’ ὀξύτατον
ὄμμα.
Pind. Nem. x.
“Lynceus saw. For his sight was of all men’s the sharpest.” See also Theocritus. (Idyl. 27.) “Lynceo perspicacior” became an adage.
——Prolesque Aphareïa Lynceus
Et velox Idas.
Ovid. Met. viii. 304.
XL. “‘Lay down your arms!’ he shouted to the host.”
This adventure actually occurred to the gallant Colborne. “Accompanied by only one of his staff and half-a-dozen riflemen, he crossed their march unexpectedly, and with great presence of mind and intrepidity ordered them (three hundred men) to lay down their arms, an order which they thinking themselves entirely cut off obeyed.” (Napier, Hist. book xxii. chap. 4.)
XLV. “And vultures strip the bones which Heaven will clothe at
last!”
——οἱ δ’ ἐπὶ γαίῃ
Κείατο, γύπεσσιν πολὺ φίλτεροι ἢ ἀλόχοισιν.
Hom. Il. xi. 161.
“Upon the ground they lay, far dearer to the vultures than to their wives!”—one of the most terrible lines that ever was written.
IBERIA WON.