Leaving our resting-place a little after nine o'clock, we crossed before mid-night the summit of that memorable ridge, where, far from friends or home, many of our companions had reposed ever since the 25th of July.
O valiant race,
Though overpowered—triumphant, and in death
Unconquered.
From the heights we moved down the top of a ridge which leads thence towards the village of Urdax. The march, though short, was of the most unpleasant description. The night being dark, the ground uneven, and covered with long grass and heather, and the eyes of the whole being more than half-closed in sleep, every moment some of us were tumbling heels over head, to the imminent danger of our noses, but to the great amusement of those few who kept themselves awake.
The rear of the first brigade was in the act of crossing the small river Nivelle, when at half-past six o'clock, A.M. on the 10th, the artillery of the left wing announced to us that the grand struggle had commenced. A few hundred yards from the left bank of the river, we were ushered into a field, where we found the other brigades of our division preparing to take part in the business of the day. Being by this time dreadfully jaded, our brigade was permitted to take a little repose before being called into active employment.
The left of the enemy's position rested on a height in rear, and considerably to the left of the village of Anhoe, and thence extended along a range of connected little hills, which there runs across the country in front of the towns of St Pe and St Jean-de-Luz to the sea. On their extreme left the French had crowned the heights with two strong redoubts, and occupied them with a considerable body of infantry. A little lower down, on the same ridge, and immediately behind the village of Anhoe, there were three redoubts, each mounting several pieces of cannon of large calibre. Farther to their right, and towards the left centre of their position, the enemy had every little eminence decorated with a field work of some description or other; and from the centre to the extreme right, the whole was very strong, Soult expecting that our principal attack would be made in that direction.
The third, fourth, sixth, and light divisions were directed to move against the centre, and right and left centre of the French lines. The first and fifth were to amuse the enemy on the right, and the second division, General Hamilton's division of Portuguese infantry, and Morillo's Spanish corps, were directed to attack the redoubts in rear of Anhoe.
The first operations of the armies were completely hid from our view; but by degrees the tide of war began to roll towards us from the centre, and by ten o'clock the battle had begun to rage with considerable fury along almost every part of the enemy's line. In the centre, our companions had warm work of it for some time; but having, after a desperate struggle, obtained possession of one of the enemy's principal redoubts, in which were nearly six hundred men, the others deemed it more prudent to walk off, after doing all the mischief they could, than yielding without or braving assault.
The grand object of the attack on the centre, the breaking the enemy's chain of fortified posts, being obtained, the troops engaged at that point were ordered to bring up their right and left shoulders;—the sixth division, and General Hamilton's Portuguese their left;—and the third, fourth, and light their right, and attack the inward flanks of the enemy's right and left wings, and in conjunction with the troops on their right and left, endeavour to make them relinquish their hold of the other portions of the position.
Generals Stewart, Clinton, and Hamilton, severally led their divisions to the attack of the enemy behind Anhoe in fine style. Nothing indeed could possibly be more beautiful than the operations of all the three, preceding, and pending the assault of the heights and redoubts. The face of the ridge being in some places a good deal cut up, and in others thickly studded with breast-works, our companions found the ascent more difficult than some of them anticipated. But these obstacles, instead of dispiriting the assailants, rather urged them forward with a firmer and more determined pace, for
The love of praise, howe'er concealed by art,
Reigns, more or less, and glows in every heart:
It aids the dancer's heels—the writer's head,
And heaps the plain with mountains of the dead.