In this state of affairs Soult’s policy was to maintain a strict defensive, under cover of which the spirit of the troops might be revived, the country in the rear organized, and the conscripts disciplined and hardened to war. The loss of the Lower Bidassoa was in a political view mischievous to him, it had an injurious effect upon the spirit of the frontier departments, and gave encouragement to the secret partizans of the Bourbons; but in a military view it was a relief. The great development of the mountains bordering the Bidassoa had rendered their defence difficult; while holding them he had continual fear that his line would be pierced and his army suddenly driven beyond the Adour. His position was now more concentrated.
The right, under Reille, formed two lines. One across the royal road on the fortified heights of Urogne and the camp of the Sans Culottes; the other in the entrenched camps of Bourdegain andPlan 6. Belchena, covering St. Jean de Luz and barring the gorges of Olhette and Jollimont.
The centre under Clauzel was posted on the ridges between Ascain and Amotz holding the smaller Rhune in advance; but one division was retained by Soult in the camp of Serres on the right of the Nivelle, overhanging Ascain. To replace it one of D’Erlon’s divisions crossed to the left of the Nivelle and reinforced Clauzel’s left flank above Sarre.
Villatte’s reserve was about St. Jean de Luz but having the Italian brigade in the camp of Serres.
D’Erlon’s remaining divisions continued in their old position, the right connected with Clauzel’s line by the bridge of Amotz; the left, holding the Choupera and Mondarin mountains, bordered on the Nive.
Behind Clauzel and D’Erlon Soult had commenced a second chain of entrenched camps, prolonged from the camp of Serres up the right bank of the Nivelle to San Pé, thence by Suraide to the double bridge-head of Cambo on the Nive, and beyond that river to the Ursouia mountain, covering the great road from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port. He had also called general Paris up from Oleron to the defence of the latter fortress and its entrenched camp, and now drew Foy down the Nive to Bidarray half-way between St. Jean Pied de Port and Cambo. There watching the issues from the Val de Baygorry he was ready to occupy the Ursouia mountain on the right of the Nive, or, moving by Cambo, to reinforce the great position on the left of that river according to circumstances.
To complete these immense entrenchments, which between the Nive and the sea were double and on an opening of sixteen miles, the whole army laboured incessantly, and all the resources of the country whether of materials or working men were called out by requisition. Nevertheless this defensive warfare was justly regarded by the duke of Dalmatia as unsuitable to the general state of affairs. Offensive operations were most consonant to the character of the French soldiers, and to the exigencies of the time. Recent experience had shown the impregnable nature of the allies’ positions against a front attack, and he was too weak singly to change the theatre of operations. But when he looked at the strength of the armies appropriated by the emperor to the Spanish contest, he thought France would be ill-served if her generals could not resume the offensive successfully. Suchet had just proved his power at Ordal against lord William Bentinck, and that nobleman’s successor, with inferior rank and power, with an army unpaid and feeding on salt meat from the ships, with jealous and disputing colleagues amongst the Spanish generals, none of whom were willing to act cordially with him upon a fixed and well-considered plan, was in no condition to menace the French seriously. And that he was permitted at this important crisis to paralyze from fifty to sixty thousand excellent French troops possessing all the strong places of the country, was one of the most singular errors of the war.
Exclusive of national guards and detachments of the line, disposed along the whole frontier to guard the passes of the Pyrenees against sudden marauding excursions, the French armies counted at this time about one hundred and seventy thousand men and seventeen thousand horses. Of these one hundred[Appendix 8], sect. 2. and thirty-eight thousand were present under arms, and thirty thousand conscripts were in march to join them. They held all the fortresses of Valencia and Catalonia, and most of those in Aragon Navarre and Guipuscoa, and they could unite behind the Pyrenees for a combined effort in safety. Lord Wellington could not, including the Anglo-Sicilians and all the Spaniards in arms on the eastern coast, bring into line one hundred and fifty thousand men; he had several sieges on his hands, and to unite his forces at any point required great dispositions to avoid an attack during a flank march. Suchet had above thirty thousand disposable men, he could increase them to forty thousand by relinquishing some unimportant posts, his means in artillery were immense, and distributed in all his strong places, so that he could furnish himself from almost any point. It is no exaggeration therefore to say that two hundred pieces of artillery and ninety thousand old soldiers might have united at this period upon the flank of lord Wellington, still leaving thirty thousand conscripts and the national guards of the frontier, supported by the fortresses and entrenched camps of Bayonne and St. Jean Pied de Port, the castles of Navarens and Jaca on one side, and the numerous garrisons of the fortresses in Catalonia on the other, to cover France from invasion.
To make this great power bear in a right direction was the duke of Dalmatia’s object, and his plans were large, and worthy of his reputation. Yet he could never persuade Suchet to adopt his projects, and that marshal’s resistance would appear to have sprung from personal dislike contracted during Soult’s sojourn near Valencia in 1812. It has been already shown how lightly he abandoned Aragon and confined himself to Catalonia after quitting Valencia. He did not indeed then know that Soult had assumed the command of the army of Spain and was preparing for his great effort to relieve Pampeluna; but he was aware that Clauzel and Paris were on the side of Jaca, and he was too good a general not to know that operating on the allies’ flank was the best mode of palliating the defeat of Vittoria. He might have saved both his garrison and castle of Zaragoza; the guns and other materials of a very large field-artillery equipment were deposited there, and from thence, by Jaca, he could have opened a sure and short communication with Soult, obtained information of that general’s projects, and saved Pampeluna.
It may be asked why the duke of Dalmatia did not endeavour to communicate with Suchet. The reason was simple. The former quitted Dresden suddenly on the 4th of July, reached Bayonne the 12th, and on the 20th his troops were in full march towards St. Jean Pied de Port, and it was during this very rapid journey that the other marshal abandoned Valencia. Soult therefore knew neither Suchet’s plans nor the force of his army, nor his movements, nor his actual position, and there was no time to wait for accurate information. However between the 6th and the 16th of August, that is to say, immediately after his own retreat from Sauroren, he earnestly prayed that the army of Aragon should march upon Zaragoza, open a communication by Jaca, and thus drawing off some of Wellington’s forces facilitate the efforts of the army of Spain to relieve San Sebastian. In this communication he stated, that his recent operations had caused troops actually in march under general Hill towards Catalonia to be recalled. This was an error. His emissaries were deceived by the movements, and counter-movements in pursuit of Clauzel immediately after the battle of Vittoria, and by the change in Wellington’s plans as to the siege of Pampeluna. No troops were sent towards Catalonia, but it is remarkable that Picton, Hill, Graham, and the Conde de La Bispal were all mentioned, in this correspondence between Soult and Suchet, as being actually in Catalonia, or on the march, the three first having been really sounded as to taking the command in that quarter, and the last having demanded it himself.