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.