I hear that we have quite ruined Bayonne market by our higher prices, &c., and things are not only dear there, but not to be had, for no one will there give the price we do for such luxuries, as poultry, vegetables, &c., certainly are; and therefore they are brought here.
Saturday, 12th.—The news now is, that Soult and about three thousand infantry, and one thousand eight hundred cavalry, are gone off to the rear, and it seems to be believed; for it has come through so many channels to us. Another report is, that seven of the thirty tyrants (senators) have gone over to the Allies, to pay their respects to the Bourbons; this is not in such credit as the other story. In short, we have what the military men call “shaves” (I suppose barbers’ stories) every day and every hour. The best fact I can tell you is, that we have had three days’ fine weather now together, and this last is absolutely warm, I only fear too warm to last; thermometer in my room, window open, and no fire, 58° in the sun. I rode a league out and back yesterday almost without a splash. The mule roads across the country, though improved, are, however, still very bad; three more such days will, nevertheless, do wonders, and about that time I hope we shall be ready.
All the carpenters, &c., are ordered from the Guards to the front. The Rocket Brigade also went up last night; and ships are ordered round from Passages. Dr. Macgregor, who was there yesterday, tells me that he thinks it will be three days before they will have procured ropes and all they require with them. This smiling sun makes every one cheerful, though it prognosticates many broken heads.
The only thing, it appears to me, the Guards look blue about, is the prospect of an aquatic expedition. Our sick, though nothing compared to last year, have increased this last month. To show you how much depends on seasoning them, two regiments, the 84th, and, I think, the 62nd, who came out two months since, and have scarcely had any work, but arrived after all the bad quarters in the mountains, and have not marched forty miles and been generally housed, are absolutely unfit for the field. One has four hundred and more sick out of six hundred. They are obliged, in consequence, to be sent in a body, as regiments, to Vera, one of the hospital stations. They are, I believe, two battalions, and mostly young lads or elderly men, neither of which class of soldiers can stand this work at all. Some of our old regiments have scarcely a man in the hospital, except the wounded, and it is astonishing how well some of the Portuguese regiments stand it, who are more exposed than our men. The last month’s rest, and the new clothes, which most regiments have now received, will revive the army amazingly; some who are still without their clothes are, to be sure, absolutely in rags, or like the king of the beggars.
Head-Quarters, St. Jean de Luz, Sunday the 13th, Post-day, 5 o’clock.—Our “shave” of to-day is a Congress. Yesterday the Allies were at Paris. I am sorry to say the sea has risen, and the wind changed, and the weather threatens again. All are hard at work, however, at the bridges, &c. It will be a ticklish thing to cross at the mouth of the Adour.
Head-Quarters, St. Jean de Luz, February 15th, 1814.—The plot now thickens a little. Lord Wellington was off at three in the morning yesterday for Hasparren, for two or three days, to superintend a movement which is to take place: first, on our right, to drive the French divisions of General Foy and Harispe across the Gave d’Oleron, and prevent their molesting our right flank, whilst the passage of the Adour is attempted on the left. The accounts this morning are, that the troops assembled for this purpose yesterday, but that no affair has hitherto taken place. General Pakenham was yesterday at Passages to see to the shipping there, and clear out the hospital; and to-day he has gone over to the right, to report to Lord Wellington and to assist there. All is in motion: two bridges are preparing, one, as I supposed, below Bayonne, and another above; the former will be accompanied by an aquatic expedition.
With regard to this grand bridge, a most provoking occurrence has taken place. An embargo was laid on about twenty-four vessels in the St. Jean de Luz river to form this bridge, and to assist in the conveyance of troops, &c. Old Ocean, however, did not approve; and as he is not under Lord Wellington’s orders, and seems, like the Spaniards, to like to thwart Lord Wellington a little, he (Old Ocean) threw up the day before yesterday such a mound of shingle at the mouth of the river, that he has most effectually embargoed the whole shipping, and made a dry bank, a hundred feet wide, quite firm across the entrance, which all yesterday was used as a road backwards and forwards from Sibour to this place. From the present state of the tides there was no prospect of an opening in the natural way for a week and more, until the springs; so to-day a fatigue party of the Guards are at work digging and shovelling.
In my early walk this morning I found them at it, with a young engineer officer, doing it, it struck me, very ill. I could not help meddling; however, I had no weight, until an old Frenchman came, sent by the mayor, to whom I advised them to apply; and then, as the young engineer did not understand French, I acted as interpreter. The old man’s plan and mine agreed, and so I carried my point. It is hoped we shall be able to dig a way through by this evening, and to-morrow to let the shipping out. It has never happened before since we have been here, though very often the river is nearly dry.
One brig of war has arrived and the Gleaner ketch, and Lieutenant Douglas is on shore here superintending the fastening together of a quantity of masts, &c., to form a boom, I believe, across the Adour—I suppose to prevent anything floating down from destroying the bridge. I heard yesterday, what one can scarcely believe, that the naval officer asked leave to survey the mouth of the Adour, but that Lord Wellington told him to go to the engineers, and they would give him plans and soundings, &c.: that he went to E—— accordingly, and found he had none at all; and Toffini’s coast stops short at Passages!
It is surely very odd, now that we have been in front of Bayonne for three months, that no plans should have been sent out, without being asked for, from England. I since have heard from E—— that he did write, and has nothing in consequence but a little printed plan of Bayonne, and no soundings, &c. I trust still that Lord Wellington will poke out his way across. Our outposts’ reports to-day are that the Cossacks are close to Paris, and Fontainebleau pillaged by them. I am sorry for that, as that palace escaped the Revolution almost entirely. The truth of the whole story may well be questioned.