His intent was to attack Soult’s entrenched camp on the 29th, thinking Pampeluna would fall before that period. In this he was mistaken; and bad weather stopped his movements, for in the passes above Roncesvalles the troops were knee-deep in snow. The preparations however continued and strict precautions were taken to baffle the enemy’s emissaries. Soult was nevertheless perfectly informed by the deserters of the original design and the cause of the delay; and he likewise obtained from a serjeant-major of artillery who losing his road was taken on the 29th, certain letters and orders indicating an attack in the direction of the bridge of Amotz, between D’Erlon’s right and Clauzel’s left. Some French peasants also who had been allowed to pass the allied outposts declared they had been closely questioned about that bridge and the roads leading to it. The defences there were therefore augmented with new redoubts and abbatis, and Soult having thus as he judged, sufficiently provided for its safety, and being in no pain for his right, nor for Clauzel’s position, covered as the latter was by the smaller Rhune, turned his attention towards Foy’s corps.
That general had been posted at Bidarray, half way between St. Jean Pied de Port and Cambo, to watch certain roads, which leading to the Nive from Val Baigorry by St. Martin d’Arosa, and from the Bastan by Yspegui and the Gorospil mountain, gave Soult anxiety for his left; but now expecting the principal attack at the bridge of Amotz, and not by these roads, nor by St. Jean Pied de Port, as he at first supposed and as lord Wellington had at one time designed, he resolved to use Foy’s division offensively. In this view on the 3d of November he instructed him if St. Jean Pied de Port should be only slightly attacked, to draw all the troops he could possibly spare from its defence to Bidarray, and when the allies assailed D’Erlon, he was to seize the Gorospil mountain and fall upon their right as they descended from the Puerto de Maya. If on the other hand he was himself assailed by those lines, he was to call in all his detached troops from St. Jean Pied de Port, repass the Nive by the bridge of Bidarray, make the best defence possible behind that river, and open a communication with Pierre Soult and Trielhard, whose divisions of cavalry were at St. Palais and Orthes.
On the 6th Foy, thinking the Gorospil difficult to pass, proposed to seize the Col de Yspegui from the side of St. Jean Pied de Port, and so descend into the Bastan. Soult however preferred Bidarray as a safer point and more united with the main body of the army; but he gave Foy a discretionary power to march along the left of the Nive upon Itzatzu and Espelette, if he judged it fitting to reinforce D’Erlon’s left rather than to attack the enemy.
Having thus arranged his regular defence, the French general directed the prefect of the Lower Pyrenees to post the organized national guards at the issues of all the valleys about St. Jean Pied de Port, but to keep the mass of the people quiet until the allies penetrating into the country should at once provoke and offer facilities for an irregular warfare.
On the 9th, being still uneasy about the San Martin d’Arosa and Gorospil roads, he brought up his brother’s cavalry from St. Palais to the heights above Cambo, and the next day the long-expected storm burst.
Allured by some fine weather on the 6th and 7th of November, lord Wellington had moved sir Rowland Hill’s troops from the Roncesvalles to the Bastan with a view to attack Soult, leaving Mina on the position of Altobiscar and in the Alduides. The other corps had also received their orders, and the battle was to commence on the 8th, but general Freyre suddenly declared, that unable to subsist on the mountains he must withdraw a part of his troops. This was a scheme to obtain provisions from the English magazines, and it was successful, for the projected attack could not be made without his aid. Forty thousand rations of flour with a formal intimation that if he did not co-operate the whole army must retire again into Spain, contented Freyre for the moment; but the extravagant abuses of the Spanish commissariat were plainly exposed when the chief of the staff declared that the flour would only suffice for two days, although there were less than ten thousand soldiers in the field. Spain therefore furnished at the rate of two rations for every fighting man and yet her troops were starving!
When this difficulty was surmounted heavy rain caused the attack to be again deferred, but on the 10th ninety thousand combatants of all[Appendix, 7], No. 3. arms and ranks above seventy-four thousand being Anglo-Portuguese, descended to the battle, and with them went ninety-five pieces of artillery, which under the command of colonel Dickson were all with inconceivable vigour and activity thrown into action. Nor in this host do I reckon four thousand five hundred cavalry, nor the Spaniards of the blockading division which remained in reserve. On the other hand the French numbers were now increased by the new levy of conscripts, but many had deserted again into the interior, and the fighting men did not exceed seventy-nine thousand including the garrisons. Six thousand of these were cavalry, and[Appendix, No. 8.] as Foy’s operations were extraneous to the line of defence scarcely sixty thousand infantry and artillery were opposed to the allies.
Lord Wellington seeing that the right of Soult’s line could not be forced without great loss, resolved to hold it in check while he turned it by forcing the centre and left, pushing down the Nivelle to San Pé. In this view the second and sixth British division, Hamilton’s Portuguese, Morillo’s Spaniards, four of Mina’s battalions, and Grant’s brigade of light cavalry, in all twenty-six thousand fighting men and officers with nine guns, were collected under general Hill in the Bastan to attack D’Erlon. The position of Roncesvalles was meanwhile occupied by the remainder of Mina’s troops supported by the blockading force under Carlos D’España.
The third fourth and seventh divisions, andWellington’s Order of Movements, MSS. Giron’s Andalusians, the whole under the command of marshal Beresford, were disposed about Zagaramurdi, the Puerto de Echallar, and the lower parts of those slopes of the greater Rhune which descended upon Sarre. On the left of this body the light division and Longa’s Spaniards, both under Charles Alten, were disposed on those slopes of the greater Rhune which led down towards Ascain. Victor Alten’s brigade of light cavalry and three British batteries, were placed on the road to Sarre, and six mountain-guns followed Giron’s and Charles Alten’s troops. Thus thirty-six thousand fighting men and officers, with twenty-four guns, were concentrated in this quarter to attack Clauzel.