History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6

by William Francis Patrick Napier

CHAPTER IV.

Soult, now on the defensive, was yet so fearful of1813. September. an attack along the Nive, that his uneasy movements made the allies think he was again preparing for offensive operations. This double misunderstanding did not however last long, and each army resumed its former position.

The fall of San Sebastian had given lord Wellington a new port and point of support, had increased the value of Passages as a depôt, and let loose a considerable body of troops for field operations; the armistice in Germany was at an end, Austria had joined the allies, and it seemed therefore certain that he would immediately invade France. The English cabinet had promised the continental sovereigns that it should be so when the French were expelled from Spain, meaning Navarre and Guipuscoa; and the newspaper editors were, as usual, actively deceiving the people of all countries by their dictatorial absurd projects and assumptions. Meanwhile the partizans of the Bourbons were secretly endeavouring to form a conspiracy in the south, and the duke of Berri desired to join the British army, pretending that twenty thousand Frenchmen were already armed and organized at the head of which he would place himself. In fine all was exultation and extravagance. But lord Wellington, well understanding the inflated nature of such hopes and promises, while affecting to rebuke the absurdity of the newspapers, took the opportunity to check similar folly in higher places, by observing, “that if he had done all that was expected he should have been before that period in the moon.”

With respect to the duke of Berri’s views, it was for the sovereigns he said to decide whether the restoration of the Bourbons should form part of their policy, but as yet no fixed line of conduct on that or any other political points was declared. It was for their interest to get rid of Napoleon, and there could be no question of the advantage or propriety of accepting the aid of a Bourbon party without pledging themselves to dethrone the emperor. The Bourbons might indeed decline, in default of such a pledge, to involve their partizans in rebellion, and he advised them to do so, because Napoleon’s power rested internally upon the most extensive and expensive system of corruption ever established in any country, externally upon his military force which was supported almost exclusively by foreign contributions; once confined to the limits of France he would be unable to bear the double expense of his government and army, the reduction of either would be fatal to him, and the object of the Bourbons would thus be obtained without risk. But, if they did not concur in this reasoning, the allies in the north of Europe must declare they would dethrone Napoleon before the duke of Berri should be allowed to join the army; and the British government must make up its mind upon the question.

This reasoning put an end to the project, because neither the English cabinet nor the allied sovereigns were ready to adopt a decisive open line of policy. The ministers exulting at the progress of aristocratic domination, had no thought save that of wasting England’s substance by extravagant subsidies and supplies, taken without gratitude by the continental powers who held themselves no-ways bound thereby to uphold the common cause, which each secretly designed to make available for peculiar interests. Moreover they all still trembled before the conqueror and none would pledge themselves to a decided policy. Lord Wellington alone moved with a firm composure, the result of profound and well-understood calculations; yet his mind, naturally so dispassionate, was strangely clouded at this time by personal hatred of Napoleon.

Where is the proof, or even probability, of that great man’s system of government being internally dependent upon “the most extensive corruption ever established in any country”?

The annual expenditure of France was scarcely half that of England, and Napoleon rejected public loans which are the very life-blood of state corruption. He left no debt. Under him no man devoured the public substance in idleness merely because he was of a privileged class; the state servants were largely paid but they were made to labour effectually for the state. They did not eat their bread and sleep. His system of public accounts, remarkable for its exactness simplicity and comprehensiveness, was vitally opposed to public fraud, and therefore extremely unfavourable to corruption. Napoleon’s power was supported in France by that deep sense of his goodness as a sovereign, and that admiration for his genius which pervaded the poorer and middle classes of the people; by the love which they bore towards him, and still bear for his memory because he cherished the principles of a just equality. They loved him also for his incessant activity in the public service, his freedom from all private vices, and because his public works, wondrous for their number their utility and grandeur, never stood still; under him the poor man never wanted work. To France he gave noble institutions, a comparatively just code of laws, and glory unmatched since the days of the Romans. His Cadastre, more extensive and perfect than the Doomsday Book, that monument of the wisdom and greatness of our Norman Conqueror, was alone sufficient to endear him to the nation. Rapidly advancing under his vigorous superintendence, it registered and taught every man the true value and nature of his property, and all its liabilities public or private. It was designed and most ably adapted to fix and secure titles to property, to prevent frauds, to abate litigation, to apportion the weight of taxes equally and justly, to repress the insolence of the tax-gatherer without injury to the revenue, and to secure the sacred freedom of the poor man’s home. The French Cadastre, although not original, would from its comprehensiveness, have been when completed the greatest boon ever conferred upon a civilized nation by a statesman.

To say that the emperor was supported by his soldiers, is to say that he was supported by the people; because the law of conscription, that mighty staff on which France leaned when all Europe attempted to push her down, the conscription, without which she could never have sustained the dreadful war of antagonist principles entailed upon her by the revolution; that energetic law, which he did not establish but which he freed from abuse, and rendered great, national, and endurable by causing it to strike equally on all classes, the conscription made the soldiers the real representatives of the people. The troops idolized Napoleon, well they might, and to assert that their attachment commenced only when they became soldiers, is to acknowledge that his excellent qualities and greatness of mind turned hatred into devotion the moment he was approached. But Napoleon never was hated by the people of France; he was their own creation and they loved him so as never monarch was loved before. His march from Cannes to Paris, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of poor men, who were not soldiers, can never be effaced or even disfigured. For six weeks, at any moment, a single assassin might by a single shot have acquired the reputation of a tyrannicide, and obtained vast rewards besides from the trembling monarchs and aristocrats of the earth, who scrupled not to instigate men to the shameful deed. Many there were base enough to undertake but none so hardy as to execute the crime, and Napoleon, guarded by the people of France, passed unharmed to a throne from whence it required a million of foreign bayonets to drive him again. From the throne they drove him, but not from the thoughts and hearts of men.

Lord Wellington having shaken off the weight of the continental policy, proceeded to consider the question of invading France simply as a military operation, which might conduce to or militate against the security of the Peninsula while Napoleon’s power was weakened by the war in Germany; and such was his inflexible probity of character, that no secret ambitious promptings, no facility of gaining personal reputation, diverted him from this object, all the renown of which he already enjoyed, the embarrassments mortifications and difficulties, enormous, although to the surface-seeing public there appeared none, alone remaining.

The rupture of the congress of Prague, Austria’s accession to the coalition, and the fall of San Sebastian were favourable circumstances; but he relied not much on the military skill of the banded sovereigns, and a great defeat might at any moment dissolve their alliance. Napoleon could then reinforce Soult and drive the allies back upon Spain, where the French still possessed the fortresses of Santona, Pampeluna, Jaca, Venasque, Monzon, Fraga, Lerida, Mequinenza, Figueras, Gerona, Hostalrich, Barcelona, Tortoza, Morella, Peniscola, Saguntum and Denia. Meanwhile lord William Bentinck, misled by false information, had committed a serious error in sending Del Parque’s army to Tudela, because the Ordal disaster and subsequent retreat shewed that Suchet was strong enough, if it so pleased him, to drive the Anglo-Sicilian army back even to the Xucar and recover all his strong places. In fine the affairs of Catalonia were in the same unsatisfactory state they had been in from the first. It was not even certain that a British army would remain there at all, for lord William assured of Murat’s defection was intent upon invading Italy; and the ministers seemed to have leaned towards the project, since Wellington now seriously desired to know whether the Anglo-Sicilians were to go or stay in Spain.

Lord William himself had quitted that army, making the seventh change in fifteen months; this alone was sufficient to account for its misfortunes, and the Spanish generals, who had been placed under the English commander, ridiculed the latter’s ill success and spoke vauntingly of themselves. Strenuously did lord Wellington urge the appointment of some commander for the Anglo-Sicilian troops who would devote his whole attention to his business, observing that at no period of the war would he have quitted his own army even for a few days without danger to its interests. But the English minister’s ignorance of every thing relating to war was profound, and at this time he was himself being stript of generals. Graham, Picton, Leith, lord Dalhousie, H. Clinton, and Skerrit, had gone or were going to England on account of ill health wounds or private business; and marshal Beresford was at Lisbon, where dangerous intrigues to be noticed hereafter menaced the existence of the Portuguese army. Castaños and Giron had been removed by the Spanish regency from their commands, and O’Donnel, described as an able officer but of the most impracticable temper, being denied the chief command of Elio’s, Copons’, and Del Parque’s troops, quittedWellington’s Dispatches, MSS. the army under pretext that his old wounds had broken out; whereupon, Giron was placed at the head of the Andalusians. The operations in Catalonia were however so important, that lord Wellington thought of going there himself; and he would have done so, if the after misfortunes of Napoleon in Germany, had not rendered it impossible for that monarch to reinforce his troops on the Spanish frontier.

These general reasons for desiring to operate on the side of Catalonia were strengthened also by the consideration, that the country, immediately beyond the Bidassoa, being sterile, the difficulty of feeding the army in winter would be increased; and the twenty-five thousand half-starved Spaniards in his army, would certainly plunder for subsistence and incense the people of France. Moreover Soult’s actual position was strong, his troops still numerous, and his entrenched camp furnished a secure retreat. Bayonne and St. Jean Pied de Port were so placed that no serious invasion could be made until one or both were taken, or blockaded, which, during the tempestuous season and while the admiralty refused to furnish sufficient naval means, was scarcely possible; even to get at those fortresses would be a work of time difficult against Soult alone, impracticable if Suchet, as he well might, came to the other’s support. Towards Catalonia therefore lord Wellington desired to turn when the frontier of the western Pyrenees should be secured by the fall of Pampeluna. Yet he thought it not amiss meanwhile to yield something to the allied sovereigns, and give a spur to public feeling by occupying a menacing position within the French territory. A simple thing this seemed but the English general made no slight concession when he thus bent his military judgment to political considerations.

The French position was the base of a triangle of which Bayonne was the apex, and the great roads leading from thence to Irun and St. Jean Pied de Port, were the sides. A rugged mass of mountains intervened between the left and centre, but nearly all the valleys and communications, coming from Spain beyond the Nive, centred at St. Jean Pied de Port and were embraced by an entrenched camp which Foy occupied in front of that fortress. That general could, without calling upon Paris who was at Oleron, bring fifteen thousand men including the national guards into action, and serious dispositions were necessary to dislodge him; but these could not be made secretly, and Soult calculated upon having time to aid him and deliver a general battle on chosen ground. Meanwhile Foy barred any movement along the right bank of the Nive, and he could, either by the great road leading to Bayonne or by shorter communications through Bidaray, reach the bridge of Cambo on the Nive and so gain Espelette behind the camps of Ainhoa. From thence, passing the Nivelle by the bridges at Amotz and Serres he could reach St. Jean de Luz, and it was by this route he moved to aid in the attack of San Marcial. However, the allies marching from the Alduides and the Bastan could also penetrate by St. Martin D’Arosa and the Gorospil mountain to Bidaray, that is to say, between Foy’s and D’Erlon’s positions. Yet the roads were very difficult, and as the French sent out frequent scouting detachments and the bridge of Cambo was secured by works, Foy could not be easily cut off from the rest of the army.

D’Erlon’s advanced camps were near Urdax, and on the Mondarain and Choupera mountains, but his main position was a broad ridge behind Ainhoa, thePlans 5 and 6. right covering the bridge of Amotz. Beyond that bridge Clauzel’s position extended along a range of strong hills, trending towards Ascain and Serres, and as the Nivelle swept with a curve quite round his rear his right flank rested on that river also. The redoubts of San Barbe and the camp of Sarre, barring the roads leading from Vera and the Puerto de Echallar, were in advance of his left, and the greater Rhune, whose bare rocky head lifted two thousand eight hundred feet above the sea level overtopped all the neighbouring mountains, formed, in conjunction with its dependants the Commissary and Bayonette, a mask for his right.

From the Bayonette the French position run along the summit of the Mandale or Sulcogain mountain, on a single line, but from thence to the sea the ridges suddenly abated and there were two lines of defence; the first along the Bidassoa, the second commencing near St. Jean de Luz stretched from the heights of Bordegain towards Ascain, having the camps of Urogne and the Sans Culottes in advance. Reille’s divisions guarded these lines, and the second was connected with Clauzel’s position by Villatte’s reserve which was posted at Ascain. Finally the whole system of defence was tied to that of St. Jean Pied de Port, by the double bridge-head at Cambo which secured the junction of Foy with the rest of the army.

The French worked diligently on their entrenchments, yet they were but little advanced when the castle of San Sebastian surrendered, and Wellington had even then matured a plan of attack as daring as any undertaken during the whole war. This was to seize the great Rhune mountain and its dependents, and at the same time to force the passage of the Lower Bidassoa and establish his left wing in the French territory. He would thus bring the Rhune Commissary and Bayonette mountains, forming a salient menacing point of great altitude and strength towards the French centre, within his own system, and shorten his communications by gaining the command of the road running along the river from Irun to Vera. Thus also he would obtain the port of Fuentarabia, which, though bad in winter, was some advantage to a general whose supplies came from the ocean, and who with scanty means of land-transport had to encounter the perverse negligence and even opposition of the Spanish authorities. Moreover Passages, his nearest port, was restricted in its anchorage-ground, hard to make from the sea and dangerous when full of vessels.

He designed this operation for the middle of September, immediately after the castle of San Sebastian fell and before the French works acquired strength, but some error retarded the arrival of his pontoons, the weather became bad, and the attack, which depended as we shall find upon the state of the tides and fords, was of necessity deferred until the 7th of October. Meanwhile to mislead Soult, to ascertain Foy’s true position about St. Jean Pied de Port, and to strengthen his own right, he brought part of Del Parque’s force up from Tudela to Pampeluna. The Andalusian division which had remained at the blockade after the battle of Sauroren then rejoined Giron at Echallar, and at the same time Mina’s troops gathered in the neighbourhood of Roncesvalles. Wellington himself repaired to that quarter on the 1st of October, and in his way, passing throughOctober. the Alduides, he caused general Campbell to surprize some isolated posts on the rock of Airola,Foy’s report to Soult, 2d October, MSS. a French scouting detachment was also cut off near the foundry of Baygorry, and two thousand sheep were swept from the valley.

These affairs awaked Soult’s jealousy. He was in daily expectation of an attack without being able to ascertain on what quarter the blow would fall, and at first, deceived by false information that the fourth division had reinforced Hill, he thought the march of Mina’s troops and the Andalusians was intended to mask an offensive movement bySoult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. the Val de Baygorry. The arrival of light cavalry in the Bastan, lord Wellington’s presence at Roncesvalles, and the loss of the post at Airola seemed to confirm this; but he knew the pontoons were at Oyarzun, and some deserters told him that the real object of the allies was to gain the great Rhune. On the other hand a French commissary, taken at San Sebastian and exchanged after remaining twelve days at Lesaca, assured him, that nothing at Wellington’s head-quarters indicated a serious attack, although the officers spoke of one and there were many movements of troops; and this weighed much with the French general, because the slow march of the pontoons and the wet weather had caused a delay contradictory to the reports of the spies and deserters. It was also beyond calculation that Wellington should, against his military judgment, push his left wing into France merely to meet the wishes of the allied sovereigns in Germany, and as the most obvious line for a permanent invasion was by his right and centre, there was no apparent cause for deferring his operations.

The true reason of the procrastination, namely the state of the tides and fords on the Lower Bidassoa, was necessarily hidden from Soult, who finally inclined to the notion that Wellington only designed to secure his blockade at Pampeluna from interruption by menacing the French and impeding their labours, the results of which were now becoming visible. However, as all the deserters and spies came with the same story he recommended increased vigilance along the whole line. And yet so little did he anticipate the nature of his opponent’s project, that on the 6th he reviewed D’Erlon’s divisions at Ainhoa, and remained that night at Espelette, doubting if any attack was intended and no way suspecting that it would be against his right. But Wellington could not diminish his troops on the side of Roncesvalles and the Alduides, lest Foy and Paris and the light cavalry under Pierre Soult should unite at St. Jean Pied de Port to raise the blockade of Pampeluna; the troops at Maya were already posted offensively, menacing Soult between the Nive and the Nivelle, and it was therefore only with his left wing and left centre, and against the French right that he could act.

Early in October a reinforcement of twelve hundred British soldiers arrived from England. Mina was then in the Ahescoa, on the right of general Hill, who was thus enabled to relieve Campbell’s Portuguese in the Alduides; and the latter marching to Maya replaced the third division, which, shifting to its left occupied the heights above Zagaramurdi, to enable the seventh division to relieve Giron’s Andalusians in the Puerto de Echallar.

These dispositions were made with a view to the attack of the great Rhune and its dependents, the arrangements for which shall now be described.

Giron, moving with his Andalusians from the Ivantelly, was to assail a lofty ridge or saddle, uniting the Commissari and the great Rhune. A battalion, stealing up the slopes and hollows on his right flank, was to seize the rocky head of the last-named mountain, and after placing detachments there in observation of the roads leading round itWellington’s Order of Movements, MSS. from Sarre and Ascain, was to descend upon the saddle and menace the rear of the enemy’s position at the Puerto de Vera. Meanwhile the principalPlan 5. attack was to be made in two columns, but to protect the right and rear against a counter-attack from Sarre, the Spanish general was to leave one brigade in the narrow pass leading from Vera, between the Ivantelly and the Rhune to that place.

On the left of Giron the light division was to assail the Bayonette mountain and the Puerto de Vera, connecting its right with Giron’s left by skirmishers.

Longa, who had resumed his old positions above the Salinas de Lesaca, was to move in two columns across the Bidassoa. One passing by the ford of Salinas was to aid the left wing of the light division in its attack on the Bayonette; the other passing by the bridge of Vera, was to move up the ravine separating the slopes of the Bayonette from the Puerto de Vera, and thus connect the two attacks of the light division. During these operations Longa was also to send some men over the river at Andarlasa, to seize a telegraph which the French used to communicate between the left and centre of their line.

Behind the light division general Cole was to take post with the fourth division on Santa Barbara, pushing forward detachments to secure the commanding points gained by the fighting troops in front. The sixth division was meanwhile to make a demonstration on the right by Urdax and Zagaramurdi, against D’Erlon’s advanced posts. Thus without weakening his line between Roncesvalles and Echallar lord Wellington put nearly twenty thousand men in motion against the Rhune mountain and its dependents, and he had still twenty-four thousand disposable to force the passage of the Lower Bidassoa.

It has been already shewn that between Andarlasa and Biriatu, a distance of three miles, there were neither roads nor fords nor bridges. The French trusting to this difficulty of approach, and to their entrenchments on the craggy slopes of the Mandale, had collected their troops principally, where the Bildox or green mountain, and the entrenched camp of Biriatu overlooked the fords. Against these points Wellington directed general Freyre’s Spaniards, who were to descend from San Marcial, cross the upper fords of Biriatu, assail the Bildox and Mandale mountains, and turn the left of that part of the enemy’s line which being prolonged from Biriatu crossed the royal road and passed behind the town of Andaya.

Between Biriatu and the sea the advanced points of defence were the mountain of Louis XIV., the ridge called the Caffé Republicain, and the town of Andaya. Behind these the Calvaire d’Urogne, the Croix des Bouquets, and the camp of the Sans Culottes, served as rallying posts.

For the assault on these positions Wellington designed to employ the first and fifth divisions and the unattached brigades of Wilson and lord Aylmer, in all about fifteen thousand men. By the help of Spanish fishermen he had secretly discovered three fords, practicable at low water, between the bridge of Behobia and the sea, and his intent was to pass his column at the old fords above, and at the new fords below the bridge, and this though the tides rose sixteen feet, leaving at the ebb open heavy sands not less than half a mile broad. The left bank of the river also was completely exposed to observation from the enemy’s hills, which though low in comparison of the mountains above the bridge, were nevertheless strong ridges of defence; but relying on his previous measures to deceive the enemy the English general disdained these dangers, and his anticipations were not belied by the result.

The unlikelihood that a commander, having a better line of operations, would pass such a river as the Bidassoa at its mouth, deceived the French general. Meanwhile his lieutenants were negligent. Of Reille’s two divisions La Martiniere’s, now commanded by general Boyer, was at the camp of Urogne, and on the morning of the seventh was dispersed as usual to labour at the works; Villatte’s reserve was at Ascain and Serres; the five thousand men composing Maucune’s division were indeed on the first line but unexpectant of an attack, and though the works on the Mandale were finished and those at Biriatu in a forward state, from the latter to the sea they were scarcely commenced.

Passage of the Bidassoa. The night set in heavily. A sullen thunder-storm gathering about the craggy summit of the Pena de Haya came slowly down its flanks, and towards morning rolling over the Bidassoa fell in its greatest violence upon the French positions. During this turmoil Wellington whose pontoons and artillery were close up to Irun, disposed a number of guns and howitzers along the crest of San Marcial, and his columns attained their respective stations along the banks of the river. Freyre’s Spaniards one brigade of the guards and Wilson’s Portuguese, stretching from the Biriatu fords to that near the broken bridge of Behobia, were ensconced behind the detached ridge which the French had first seized in the attack of the 31st. The second brigade of guards and the Germans of the first division were concealed near Irun, close to a ford below the bridge of Behobia called the great Jonco. The British brigades of the fifth division covered themselves behind a largePlan 5. river embankment opposite Andaya; Sprye’s Portuguese and lord Aylmer’s brigade were posted in the ditch of Fuenterabia.

As all the tents were left standing in the camps of the allies, the enemy could perceive no change on the morning of the 7th, but at seven o’clock, the fifth division and lord Aylmer’s brigade emerging from their concealment took the sands in two columns, that on the left pointing against the French camp of the Sans Culottes, that on the right against the ridge of Andaya. No shot was fired, but when they had passed the fords of the low-water channel a rocket was sent up from the steeple of Fuenterabia as a signal. Then the guns and howitzers opened from San Marcial, the troops near Irun, covered by the fire of a battery, made for the Jonco ford, and the passage above the bridge also commenced. From the crest of San Marcial seven columns could be seen at once, attacking on a line of five miles, those above the bridge plunging at once into the fiery contest, those below it appearing in the distance like huge sullen snakes winding over the heavy sands. The Germans missing the Jonco ford got into deep water but quickly recovered the true line, and the French, completely surprised, permitted even the brigades of the fifth division to gain the right bank and form their lines before a hostile musket flashed.

The cannonade from San Marcial was heard by Soult at Espelette, and at the same time the sixth division, advancing beyond Urdax and Zagaramurdi, made a false attack on D’Erlon’s positions; the Portuguese brigade under colonel Douglas, were however pushed too far and repulsed with the loss of one hundred and fifty men, and the French marshal instantly detecting the true nature of this attack hurried to his right, but his camps on the Bidassoa were lost before he arrived.

When the British artillery first opened, Maucune’s troops had assembled at their different posts of defence, and the French guns, established principally near the mountain of Louis XIV. and the Caffé Republicain, commenced firing. The alarm spread, and Boyer’s marched from the second line behind Urogne to support Maucune without waiting for the junction of the working parties; but his brigades moved separately as they could collect, and before the first came into action, Sprye’s Portuguese, forming the extreme left of the allies, menaced the camp of the Sans Culottes; thither therefore one of Boyer’s regiments was ordered, while the others advanced by the royal road towards the Croix des Bouquets. But Andaya, guarded only by a piquet, was abandoned, and Reille thinking the camp of the Sans Culottes would be lost before Boyer’s men reached it, sent a battalion there from the centre, thus weakening his force at the chief point of attack; for the British brigades of the fifth division, were now advancing left in front from Andaya, and bearing under a sharp fire of artillery and musquetry towards the Croix des Bouquets.

By this time the columns of the first division had passed the river, one above the bridge, preceded by Wilson’s Portuguese, one below, preceded by Colin Halkett’s German light troops, who aided by the fire of the guns on San Marcial, drove back the enemy’s advanced posts, won the Caffé Republicain, the mountain of Louis XIV. and drove the French from those heights to the Croix des Bouquets: this was the key of the position, and towards it guns and troops were now hastening from every side. The Germans who had lost many men in the previous attacks were here brought to a check, for the heights were very strong, and Boyer’s leading battalions were now close at hand; but at this critical moment colonel Cameron arrived with the ninth regiment of the fifth division, and passing through the German skirmishers rushed with great vehemence to the summit of the first height. The French infantry instantly opened their ranks to let their guns retire, and then retreated themselves at full speed to a second ridge, somewhat lower but where they could only be approached on a narrow front. Cameron as quickly threw his men into a single column and bore against this new position, which curving inwards enabled the French to pour a concentrated fire upon his regiment; nor did his violent course seem to dismay them until he was within ten yards, when appalled by the furious shout and charge of the ninth they gave way, and the ridges of the Croix des Bouquets were won as far as the royal road. The British regiment however lost many men and officers, and during the fight the French artillery and scattered troops, coming from different points and rallying on Boyer’s battalions, were gathered on the ridges to the French left of the road.

The entrenched camp above Biriatu and the Bildox, had been meanwhile defended with success in front, but Freyre turned them with his right wing, which being opposed only by a single battalion soon won the Mandale mountain, and the French fell back from that quarter to the Calvaire d’Urogne and Jollimont. Reille thus beaten at the Croix des Bouquets, and his flanks turned, the left by the Spaniards on the Mandale, the right by the allies along the sea-coast, retreated in great disorder along the royal causeway and the old road of Bayonne. He passed through the village of Urogne and the British skirmishers at first entered it in pursuit, but they were beaten out again by the second brigade of Boyer’s division, for Soult now arrived with part of Villatte’s reserve and many guns, and by his presence and activity restored order and revived the courage of the troops at the moment when the retreat was degenerating into a flight.

Reille lost eight pieces of artillery and about four hundred men, the allies did not lose more than six hundred of which half were Spaniards, so slight and easy had the skill of the general rendered this stupendous operation. But if the French commander penetrating Wellington’s design, and avoiding the surprize, had opposed all his troops, amounting with what Villatte could spare to sixteen thousand, instead of the five thousand actually engaged, the passage could scarcely have been forced; and a check would have been tantamount to a terrible defeat, because in two hours the returning tide would have come with a swallowing flood upon the rear.

Equally unprepared and equally unsuccessful were the French on the side of Vera, although the struggle there proved more fierce and constant.

At day-break Giron had descended from the Ivantelly rocks and general Alten from Santa Barbara; the first to the gorge of the pass leading from Vera to Sarre, the last to the town of Vera, where he was joined by half of Longa’s force.

One brigade, consisting of the forty-third the seventeenth Portuguese regiment of the line and the first and third battalions of riflemen, drew up in column on an open space to the right of Vera. The other brigade under colonel Colborne, consisting of the fifty-second two battalions of Caçadores and a battalion of British riflemen, was disposed on the left of Vera. Half of Longa’s division was between these brigades, the other half after crossing the ford of Salinas drew up on Colborne’s left. The whole of the narrow vale of Vera was thus filled with troops ready to ascend the mountains, and general Cole displaying his force to advantage on the heights of Santa Barbara presented a formidable reserve.

Taupin’s division guarded the enormous positions in front of the allies. His right was on the Bayonette, from whence a single slope descended to a small plain about two parts down the mountain.Plan 5. From this platform three distinct tongues shot into the valley below, each was defended by an advanced post, and the platform itself secured by a star redoubt, behind which, about half-way up the single slope, there was a second retrenchment with abbatis. Another large redoubt and an unfinished breast-work on the superior crest completed the system of defence for the Bayonette.

The Commissari, which is a continuation of the Bayonette towards the great Rhune, was covered by a profound gulf thickly wooded and defended with skirmishers, and between this gulf and another of the same nature the main road, leading from Vera over the Puerto, pierced the centre of the French position. Rugged and ascending with short abrupt turns this road was blocked at every uncovered point with abbatis and small retrenchments; each obstacle was commanded, at half musquet shot, by small detachments placed on all the projecting parts overlooking the ascent, and a regiment, entrenched above on the Puerto itself, connected the troops on the crest of the Bayonette and Commissari with those on the saddle-ridge, against which Giron’s attack was directed.

But between Alten’s right and Giron’s left was an isolated ridge called by the soldiers the Boar’s back, the summit of which, about half a mile long and rounded at each end, was occupied by four French companies. This huge cavalier, thrown as it were into the gulf to cover the Puerto and saddle ridges, although of mean height in comparison of the towering ranges behind, was yet so great that the few warning shots fired from the summit by the enemy, reached the allies at its base with that slow singing sound which marks the dying force of a musquet-ball. It was essential to take the Boar’s back before the general attack commenced, and five companies of British riflemen, supported by the seventeenth Portuguese regiment, were ordered to assail it at the Vera end, while a battalion of Giron’s Spaniards preceded by a detached company of the forty-third attacked it on the other.

At four o’clock in the morning Clauzel had received intelligence that the Bayonette was to be assaulted that day or the next, and at seven o’clock he heard from Conroux, who commanded at Sarre, that Giron’sClauzel’s Official Report, MSS. camps were abandoned although the tents of the seventh division were still standing; at the same time the sound of musquetry was heard on the side of Urdax, a cannonade on the side of Irun, and then came Taupin’s report that the vale of Vera was filled with troops. To this last quarter Clauzel hurried. The Spaniards had already driven Conroux’s outposts from the gorge leading to Sarre, and a detachment was creeping up towards the unguarded head of the great Rhune. He immediately ordered four regiments of Conroux’s division to occupy the summit the front and the flanks of that mountain, and he formed a reserve of two other regiments behind. With these troops he designed to secure the mountain and support Taupin, but ere they could reach their destination that general’s fate was decided.

Second Combat of Vera.—Soon after seven o’clock a few cannon-shot from some mountain-guns, of which each side had a battery, were followed by the Spanish musquetry on the right, and the next moment the “Boars back” was simultaneously assailed at both ends. The riflemen on the Vera side ascended to a small pine-wood two-thirds of thePlan 5. way up and there rested, but soon resuming their movement with a scornful gallantry they swept the French off the top, disdaining to use their rifles beyond a few shots down the reverse side, to show that they were masters of the ridge. This was the signal for the general attack. The seventeenth Portuguese followed the victorious sharp-shooters, the forty-third, preceded by their own skirmishers and by the remainder of the riflemen of the right wing, plunged into the rugged pass, Longa’s troops entered the gloomy wood of the ravine on the left, and beyond them Colborne’s brigade moving by narrow paths and throwing out skirmishers assailed the Bayonette, the fifty-second took the middle tongue, the Caçadores and riflemen the two outermost and all bore with a concentric movement against the star redoubt on the platform above. Longa’s second brigade should have flanked the left of this attack with a wide skirting movement, but neither he nor his starved soldiers knew much of such warfare, and therefore quietly followed the riflemen in reserve.

Soon the open slopes of the mountains were covered with men and with fire, a heavy confused sound of mingled shouts and musquetry filled the deep hollows between, and the white smoke came curling up above the dark forest trees which covered their gloomy recesses. The French compared with their assailants seemed few and scattered on the mountain side, and Kempt’s brigade soon forced its way without a check through all the retrenchments on the main pass, his skirmishers spreading wider and breaking into small detachments of support as the depth of the ravine lessened and the slopes melted into the higher ridges. When about half-way up an open platform gave a clear view over the Bayonette slopes, and all eyes were turned that way. Longa’s right brigade, fighting in the gulf between, seemed labouring and overmatched, but beyond, on the broad open space in front of the star fort, the Caçadores and riflemen of Colborne’s brigade, were seen coming out, in small bodies, from a forest which covered the three tongues of land up to the edge of the platform. Their fire was sharp, their pace rapid, and in a few moments they closed upon the redoubt in a mass as if resolved to storm it. The fifty-second were not then in sight, and the French thinking from the dark clothing that all were Portuguese rushed in close order out of the entrenchment; they were numerous and very sudden; the rifle as a weapon is overmatched by the musket and bayonet, and this rough charge sent the scattered assailants back over the rocky edge of the descent. With shrill cries the French followed, but just then the fifty-second appeared, partly in line partly in column, on the platform, and raising their shout rushed forward. The red uniform and full career of this regiment startled the hitherto adventurous French, they stopped short, wavered, and then turning fled to their entrenchment; the fifty-second following hard entered the works with them, the riflemen and Caçadores who had meanwhile rallied passed it on both flanks, and for a few moments every thing was hidden by a dense volume of smoke. Soon however the British shout pealed again and the whole mass emerged on the other side, the French, now the fewer, flying the others pursuing, until the second entrenchment, half-way up the parent slope, enabled the retreating troops to make another stand.

The exulting and approving cheers of Kempt’s brigade now echoed along the mountain side, and with renewed vigour the men continued to scale the craggy mountain, fighting their toilsome way to the top of the Puerto. Meanwhile Colborne after having carried the second entrenchment above the star fort, was brought to a check by the works on the very crest of the mountain, from whence the French not only plied his troops with musquetry at a great advantage, but rolled huge stones down the steep.

These works were extensive well lined with men and strengthened by a large redoubt on the right, but the defenders soon faltered, for their left flank was turned by Kempt and the effects of lord Wellington’s skilful combinations were now felt in another quarter. Freyre’s Spaniards after carrying the Mandale mountain, between Biriatu and the Bayonette, had pushed to a road leading from the latter by Jollimont to St. Jean de Luz, and thisPlan 5. was the line of retreat from the crest of the Bayonette for Taupin’s right wing; but Freyre’s Spaniards got there first, and if Longa’s brigade instead of slowly following Colborne had spread out widely on the left, a military line would have been completed from Giron to Freyre. Still Taupin’s right was cut off on that side, and he was forced to file it under fire along the crest of the Bayonette to reach the Puerto de Vera road, where he was joined by his centre. He effected this but lost his mountain battery and three hundred men. These last, apparently the garrison of the large fort on the extreme right of the Bayonette crest, were captured by Colborne in a remarkable manner. 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 to lay down their arms, an order which they thinking themselves entirely cut off obeyed. Meanwhile the French skirmishers in the deep ravine, between the two lines of attack, being feebly pushed by Longa’s troops, retreated too slowly and getting amongst some rocks from whence there was no escape surrendered to Kempt’s brigade.

The right and centre of Taupin’s division being now completely beaten fled down the side of the mountain towards Olette, they were pursued by a part of the allies until they rallied upon Villatte’s reserve, which was in order of battle on a ridge extending across the gorge of Olette between Urogne and Ascain. The Bayonette and Commissari, with the Puerto de Vera, were thus won after five hours’ incessant fighting and toiling up their craggy sides. Nevertheless the battle was still maintained by the French troops on the Rhune.

Giron after driving Conroux’s advanced post from the gorge leading from Vera to Sarre had, following his orders, pushed a battalion from that side towards the head of the great Rhune, and placed a reserve in the gorge to cover his rear from any counter-attack which Conroux might make. And when his left wing was rendered free to move by the capture of the “Boar’s back” he fought his way up abreast with the British line until near the saddle-ridge, a little to his own right of the Puerto. There however he was arrested by a strong line of abbattis from behind which two French regiments poured a heavy fire. The Spaniards stopped, and though the adventurer Downie, now a Spanish general, encouraged them with his voice and they kept their ranks, they seemed irresolute and did not advance. There happened to be present an officer of the forty-third regiment named Havelock, who being attached to general Alten’s staff was sent to ascertain Giron’s progress. His fiery temper could not brook the check. He took off his hat, he called upon the Spaniards to follow him, and putting spurs to his horse, at one bound cleared the abbattis and went headlong amongst the enemy. Then the soldiers, shouting for “El chico bianco” “the fair boy” so they called him, for he was very young and had light hair, with one shock broke through the French, and this at the very moment when their centre was flying under the fire of Kempt’s skirmishers from the Puerto de Vera.

The two regiments thus defeated by the Spaniards retired by their left along the saddle-ridge to the flanks of the Rhune, so that Clauzel had now eight regiments concentrated on this great mountain. Two occupied the crest including the highest rock called the Hermitage; four were on the flanks, descending towards Ascain on one hand, and towards Sarre on the other; the remaining two occupied a lower and parallel crest behind called the small Rhune. In this situation they were attacked at four o’clock by Giron’s right wing. The Spaniards first dislodged a small body from a detached pile of crags about musket-shot below the summit, and then assailed the bald staring rocks of the Hermitage itself, endeavouring at the same time to turn it by their right. In both objects they were defeated with loss. The Hermitage was impregnable, the French rolled down stones large enough to sweep away a whole column at once, and the Spaniards resorted to a distant musketry which lasted until night. This day’s fighting cost Taupin’s division two generals and four hundred men killed and wounded, and five hundred prisoners. The loss of the allies was nearly a thousand, of which about five hundred were Spaniards, and the success was not complete, for while the French kept possession of the summit of the Rhune the allies’ new position was insecure.

The front and the right flank of that great mountain were impregnable, but lord Wellington observing that the left flank, descending towards Sarre, was less inaccessible, concentrated the Spaniards on that side on the 8th, designing a combined attack against the mountain itself, and against the camp of Sarre. At three o’clock in the afternoon the rocks which studded the lower parts of the Rhune slope were assailed by the Spaniards, and at the same time detachments of the seventh division descended from the Puerto de Echallar upon the fort of San Barbe, and other outworks covering the advanced French camp of Sarre. The Andalusians soon won the rocks and an entrenched height that commanded the camp, for Clauzel, too easily alarmed at some slight demonstrations made by the sixth division towards the bridge of Amotz inPlan 6. rear of his left, thought he should be cut off from his great camp, and very suddenly abandoned not only the slope of the mountain but all his advanced works in the basin below, including the fort of San Barbe. His troops were thus concentrated on the height behind Sarre still holding with their right the smaller Rhune, but the consequences of his error were soon made apparent. Wellington immediately established a strong body of the Spanish troops close up to the rocks of the Hermitage, and the two French regiments there, seeing the lower slopes and the fort of San Barbe given up, imagined they also would be cut off, and without orders abandoned the impregnable rocks of the Hermitage and retired in the night to the smaller Rhune. The next morning some of the seventh division rashly pushed into the village of Sarre, but they were quickly repulsed and would have lost the camp and works taken the day before if the Spaniards had not succoured them.

The whole loss on the three days of fighting was about fourteen hundred French and sixteen hundred of the allies, one half being Spaniards, but many of the wounded were not brought in until the third day after the actions, and several perished miserably where they fell, it being impossible to discover them in those vast solitudes. Some men were also lost from want of discipline; having descended into the French villages they got drunk and were taken the next day by the enemy. Nor was the number small of those who plundered in defiance of lord Wellington’s proclamation; for he thought it necessary to arrest and send to England several officers, and renewed his proclamation, observing that if he had five times as many men he could not venture to invade France unless marauding was prevented. It is remarkable that the French troops on the same day acted towards their own countrymen in the same manner, but Soult also checked the mischief with a vigorous hand, causing a captain of some reputation to be shot as an example, for having suffered his men to plunder a house in Sarre during the action.

With exception of the slight checks sustained at Sarre and Ainhoa, the course of these operations had been eminently successful, and surely the bravery of troops who assailed and carried such stupendous positions must be admired. To them the unfinished state of the French works was not visible. Day after day, for more than a month, entrenchment had risen over entrenchment, covering the vast slopes of mountains which were scarcely accessible from their natural steepness and asperity. This they could see, yet cared neither for the growing strength of the works, the height of the mountains, nor the breadth of the river with its heavy sands, and its mighty rushing tide; all were despised, and while they marched with this confident valour, it was observed that the French fought in defence of their dizzy steeps with far less fierceness than, when, striving against insurmountable obstacles, they attempted to storm the lofty rocks of Sauroren. Continual defeat had lowered their spirit, but the feebleness of the defence on this occasion may be traced to another cause. It was a general’s not a soldier’s battle. Wellington had with overmastering combinations overwhelmed each point of attack. Taupin’s and Maucune’s divisions were each less than five thousand strong, and they were separately assailed, the first by eighteen the second by fifteen thousand men, and at neither point were Reille and Clauzel able to bring their reserves into action before the positions were won.

Soult complained that he had repeatedly told his lieutenants an attack was to be expected, andSoult’s Official Correspondence with the Minister of War, MSS. recommended extreme vigilance; yet they were quite unprepared, although they heard the noise of the guns and pontoons about Irun on the night of the 5th and again on the night of the 6th. The passage of the river he said had commenced at seven o’clock, long after daylight, the allies’ masses were then clearly to be seen forming on the banks, and there was full time for Boyer’s division to arrive before the Croix des Bouquets was lost. The battle was fought in disorder with less than five thousand men, instead of with ten thousand in good order, and supported by a part of Villatte’s reserve. To this negligence the generals added also discouragement. They had so little confidence in the strength of their positions, that if the allies had pushed vigorously forward before the marshal’s arrival from Espelette, they would have entered St. Jean de Luz, turned the right of the second position and forced the French army back upon the Nive and the Adour.

This reasoning of Soult was correct, but such a stroke did not belong to lord Wellington’s system. He could not go beyond the Adour, he doubted whether he could even maintain his army during the winter in the position he had already gained, and he was averse to the experiment, while Pampeluna held out and the war in Germany bore an undecided aspect.