Some individual or individuals were kind enough to bestow upon Sir William Stuart the appellation of the enthusiastic madman. I only pray, that in every future war in which my country may be engaged, every officer, from the general of division, to the youngest ensign, may prove himself worthy of being admitted a member of that distinguished body of which the gallant and enthusiastic General was one of the chief ornaments. Sir William Stewart was without doubt an enthusiast in his profession. On service, his military duties engrossed his whole attention. Late and early he was to be seen visiting the out-posts,—reconnoitring the approaches towards his posts and encampment, from the advanced posts and encampment of the enemy,—or in making observations, which, in case of an attack from, or upon the enemy, might be of service to him in making the necessary disposition of his troops. And in regard to the comfort, &c. of the men, he trod as nearly as possible in the footsteps of his gallant superior.
Sir William being wounded in the leg on the 25th of July, was reluctantly forced to leave us on the 27th. But on hearing of the battle of the 30th, he caused his leg to be properly bandaged, and with a pillow fastened so as to keep the leg from coming in contact with the stirrup, or the sides of the horse, mounted, and rejoined us a little before we came up with the French on the 31st. The loud and enthusiastic cheers of the soldiers welcomed him back. But their joy was soon turned into mourning,—for in less than three hours a musket-ball passed through the General's arm, a little above the elbow, and compelled him once more to go to the rear. On rejoining the division a few weeks afterwards, a party of the private soldiers of the 92d, placed themselves near to the road by which Sir William had to pass to their corps,—and on his arrival, one of them stepped forward and said, "Oh, General, ye maun drink wi' us!" to which unexpected request the latter replied, "With all my heart, my man." On taking the cup in his hand, Sir William expressed himself much gratified by their attention, and in finding them in such good health and spirits,—and then returning it, rode off towards the encampment, where the rest of the regiment, drawn up in front of their tents, received their General and friend with joyous acclamations, every bonnet flying into the air as high as its owner could heave it. The concluding part of the ceremony, though gratifying to the feelings of Sir William, had nearly proved the means of depriving him of one of his personal staff, whose horse having never before been honoured with a Highland welcome, was so unprepared for such a reception, that it wheeled to the right about, and to the great amusement of the spectators, but to the imminent hazard of the rider's neck, galloped down the hill at a winning pace.
When the French attacked the heights of Maya, on the 25th of July, a great proportion of the baggage animals of the 92nd regiment were five or six miles from the encampment on a foraging excursion. In this number both my company and private mules were included. Some few returned in time to carry away the tents and baggage; others, in making the attempt, were taken by the enemy, but my two, when about half a mile from the camp ground, seeing the French quite close to it, wheeled about, and by the great exertion of the batman escaped, but the fatigue proved too great for my company mule, for it was seized with an inward complaint, and died a few days after.
I provided another mule for the company, and applied for compensation, which I received in the following year. Having lost at the same time all my personal baggage, except a few articles saved by the attention of my servant, who emptied his knapsack of his own property, and filled it with mine; I made out a list of the articles I had lost, affixed to each the price at which I could replace it, and transmitted the state signed by the commanding officer to the secretary of the Board of Claims in London. Along with this I also transmitted a separate note of a few articles of use to the men, which I had paid for on taking over the accounts of the company. Some time after, I received intimation that I was to be allowed the value of the last mentioned articles, but not a farthing of the value of my own baggage. To be deprived of any compensation for articles which I had actually lost, I certainly considered a great hardship, and I do so still; for some who did not lose so much (though perhaps their all) received the full allowance of Forty Pounds.
The members of the Board, I conceive, must have been influenced in their decision, by the fact, that my private mule was preserved, nothing being more natural than for them to conclude, that as my mule had been saved, so must my personal baggage also. Though their decision, therefore, may have been warranted by the facts before them, yet I think that before they had decided upon my claim under these circumstances, the members of the Board should have applied to the commanding officer, whose signature was affixed to the list of articles, to know whether my mule had been in camp any time from the first appearance of the enemy, to the period we abandoned our all to them. Had they taken this trouble, they would have discovered that a more just claim for compensation was never laid before them. Having neglected to do so, however, I am still minus the value of my baggage, and my claim still remains in the office of the Board of Claims, furnishing rather strong testimony against the old maxim, that "Honesty is the best policy."
CHAPTER XXVI.
Early in the morning of the 9th of August, the 2nd division, on being relieved by the 6th, quitted the heights of Maya, and in the evening encamped within the French territory at Los-Alduides. Next day, after a long and tough pull, we arrived on the summit of one of the tremendous ridges near Roncesvalles, on which our companions were so long engaged on the 25th of July, the rain pelting us with merciless violence the greater part of the way. Water was much wanted, but the fog was so dense that the men were afraid to proceed in search of it, lest they might pop into the enemy's camp in place of their own. A few men, therefore, from each company, paraded in fatigue clothing, and formed a complete chain of guides at a few paces from each other, till they succeeded in their object at some hundred yards distant. From this wilderness not a house was to be seen, nor a living creature, save ourselves, our baggage animals, and flocks of carnivorous birds hovering over the unburied corpses of friends and foes, which strewed the heights in every direction. Here lay the body of a friend—the tongue, the eyes, and large portions of the flesh torn from various parts of the body. There lay a foe with his bowels strewed around him in every direction. In many parts of the mountain, the birds were seen in the very act of tearing the flesh from the bones of the dead, a spectacle of the most sickening and heart-rending description imaginable.
On the 11th, and subsequent days of August, our engineers chalked out various redoubts, blockhouses, and breast-works, which when finished, occupied the following commanding points on the position of Roncesvalles.
The road from Pampluna into France, after running through the village of Roncesvalles, ascends about half a mile, then on the summit of the lowest part of the whole range, branches into two roads, that to the right, running with an easy ascent along the Spanish side of a high mountain, till it reaches the summit,—thence two miles down the opposite side, till it crosses the French frontier, when it runs down the top of a ridge towards St Jean Peid-de-Port. The left branch first runs along the side of the mountain, facing the French territory, with an easy ascent for two miles, then descends rapidly into a deep valley, whence it again ascends for a mile and a-half, and then descends again towards Los Alduides.
Our advanced posts were stationed between four and five miles from Roncesvalles, on the road to St Jean Peid-de-Port, the advanced piquet being posted at a point where the road has been cut through a rocky ridge, which runs to the left as far down as the rivulet in the valley, and on the French side the greater part of it is inaccessible. It was here that the gallant Byng and his brigade made such a noble stand against Soult on the 25th of July. On a height immediately in rear of this ridge, we erected a block-house into which the piquets were to throw themselves in case of an attack. On another height, a little in rear of the first, we raised a redoubt, and as it commanded the road, we planted a few pieces of cannon in it. This fort the in-lying piquets were to occupy in every case of alarm. On the highest point of ground, and about half way between the latter and Roncesvalles, there was another redoubt, and a little in rear of it a block-house. The face of the hill looking to France was pretty thickly studded with breast-works, as also was each side of the pass, immediately in front of Roncesvalles. Two miles from the pass, on the road to Los-Alduides, a high, and extremely steep narrow ridge, runs straight towards the French territory. On the highest peak of this ridge, and about a mile and a half from the road, the advanced piquet of the left brigade was posted. In a kind of ravine, half a mile in rear of the latter, there was a captain's piquet, and a little in rear of it, a block-house, into which the captain was to throw himself in case of an attack. At a short distance from the road, and a few hundred yards from the ridge on the left, we raised a pretty strong redoubt, which commanded the road and ground all around it.