On the 24th the light division and Victor Alten’s cavalry came up with the French rear-guard; two battalions of the riflemen immediately pushed the infantry back though the pass, and then Ross’s horse artillery galloping forward, killed several men and dismounted one of the only two pieces of cannon carried off from Vittoria.
The 25th the enemy covered by the fortress of Pampeluna went up the valley of Roncevalles. He was followed by the light division which turned the town as far as Vilalba, and he was harassed by the Spanish irregular troops now swarming on every side.
Meanwhile Foy and Clauzel were placed in very difficult positions. The former had reached Bergara the 21st, and the garrison of Bilbao and the Italian division of St. Paul, formerly Palombini’s, had reached Durango; the first convoy from Vittoria was that day at Bergara, and Maucune was with the second at Montdragon. The 22d the garrison of Castro went off to Santona; the same day the fugitives from the battle spread such an alarm through the country that the forts of Arlaban, Montdragon, and Salinas, which commanded the passes into Guipuscoa were abandoned, and Longa and Giron penetrated them without hindrance.
Foy who had only one battalion of his division in hand, immediately rallied the fugitive garrisons, and marching upon Montdragon, made some prisoners and acquired exact intelligence of the battle. Then he ordered the convoy to move day and night, towards France; the troops at Durango to march upon Bergara, and the troops from all the other posts to unite at Tolosa, to which place the artillery, baggage, and sick men were now hastening from every side; and to cover their concentration Foy, reinforcing himself with Maucune’s troops, gave battle to Giron and Longa, though three times his numbers, at Montdragon; the Spaniards had the advantage and the French fell back, yet slowly and fighting, to Bergara, but they lost two hundred and fifty men and six guns.
On the 23d Foy marched to Villa Real de Guipuscoa, and that evening the head of Graham’s column having crossed the Mutiol mountain by the pass of Adrian, descended upon Segura. It was then as near to Tolosa as Foy was, and the latter’s situation became critical; yet such were the difficulties of passing the mountain, that it was late on the 24th ere Graham, who had then only collected Anson’s light cavalry, two Portuguese brigades of infantry, and Halket’s Germans, could move towards Villa Franca. The Italians and Maucune’s divisions which composed the French rear, were just entering Villa Franca as Graham came in sight, and to cover that town they took post at the village of Veasaya on the right bank of the Orio river. Halket’s Germans, aided by Pack’s Portuguese, immediately drove Maucune’s people from the villageGraham’s despatch. with the loss of two hundred men, and Bradford’s brigade having engaged the Italians on the French right,General Boyer’s official Journal, MSS. killed or wounded eighty, yet the Italians claimed the advantage; and the whole position was so strong, that Graham had recourse to flank operations, whereupon Foy retired to Tolosa. Giron and Longa now came up by the great road, and Mendizabel, having quitted the blockade of Santona, arrived at Aspeytia on the Deba.
The 25th Foy again offered battle in front of Tolosa, but Graham turned his left with Longa’s division and Mendizabel turned his right from Aspeytia; while they were in march, colonel Williams, with the grenadiers of the first regiment and three companies of Pack’s Portuguese, dislodged him from an advantageous hill in front, and the fight was then purposely prolonged by skirmishing, until six o’clock in the evening, when the Spaniards having reached their destination on the flanks, a general attack was made on all sides. The French being cannonaded on the causeway, and strongly pushed by the infantry in front, while Longa with equal vigour drove their left from the heights, were soon forced beyond Tolosa on the flanks; but that town was strongly entrenched as a field-post and they maintained it until Graham brought up his guns and bursting one of the gates opened a passage for his troops; nevertheless Foy profiting from the darkness made his retreat good with a loss of only four hundred men killed and wounded, and some prisoners who were taken by Mendizabel and Longa. These actions were very severe; the loss of the Spaniards was not known, but the Anglo-Portuguese had more than four hundred killed and wounded in the two days’ operations, and Graham himself was hurt.
The 26th and 27th the allies halted to hear of lord Wellington’s progress, the enemy’s convoys entered France in safety, and Foy occupied a position between Tolosa and Ernani behind the Anezo. His force was now encreased by the successive arrival of the smaller garrisons to sixteen thousand bayonets, four hundred sabres, and ten pieces of artillery, and the 28th he threw a garrison of two thousand six hundred good troops into St. Sebastian and passed the Urumia. The 29th he passed the Oyarsun, and halted the 30th, leaving a small garrison at Passages, which however surrendered the next day to Longa.
On the 1st of July the garrison of Gueteria escaped by sea to St. Sebastian, and Foy passed the Bidassoa, his rear-guard fighting with Giron’s Gallicians; but Reille’s troops were now at Vera and Viriatu, they had received ammunition and artillery from Bayonne, and thus twenty-five thousand men of the army of Portugal occupied a defensive line from Vera to the bridge of Behobie, the approaches to which last were defended by a block-house. Graham immediately invested St. Sebastian, and Giron concentrating the fire of his own artillery and that of a British battery upon the block-house of Behobie obliged the French to blow it up and destroy the bridge.
While these events were passing in Guipuscoa, Clauzel was in more imminent danger. On the evening of the 22d he had approached the field of battle at the head of fourteen thousand men, by a way which falls into the Estella road, at Aracete and not far from Salvatierra. Pakenham with the sixth division was then at Vittoria, and the French general, learning the state of affairs soon retired to Logroño, where he halted until the evening of the 25th. This delay was like to have proved fatal, for on that day, Wellington who before thought he was at Tudela, discovered his real position, and leaving general Hill with the second division to form the siege of Pampeluna, marched himself by Tafalla with two brigades of light cavalry and the third, fourth, seventh, and light divisions of infantry. The fifth and sixth divisions and the heavy cavalry and D’Urban’s Portuguese marched at the same time from Salvatierra and Vittoria upon Logroño; and Mina also, who had now collected all his scattered battalions near Estella, and was there joined by Julian Sanchez’ cavalry, followed hard on Clauzel’s rear.
July. The French general moving by Calahorra, reached Tudela on the evening of the 27th, and thinking that by this forced march of sixty miles in forty hours with scarcely a halt, he had outstripped all pursuers, would have made for France by Olite and Tafalla. Wellington was already in possession of those places expecting him, but an alcalde gave Clauzel notice of the danger, whereupon recrossing the Ebro he marched upon Zaragoza in all haste, and arriving the 1st of July, took post on the Gallego, gave out that he would there wait until Suchet, or the king, if the latter retook the offensive, should come up. Wellington immediately made a flank movement to his own left as far as Caseda, and could still with an exertion have intercepted Clauzel by the route of Jacca, but he feared to drive him back upon Suchet and contented himself with letting Mina press the French general. That chief acted with great ability; for he took three hundred prisoners, and having every where declared that the whole allied army were close at hand in pursuit he imposed upon Clauzel, who, being thus deceived, destroyed some of his artillery and heavy baggage, and leaving the rest at Zaragoza retired to Jacca.