The day broke with great splendour, and as the first ray of light played on the summit of the lofty Atchubia the signal-guns were fired in rapid succession from its summit. The soldiers instantly leaped up, and the French beheld with astonishment several columns rushing forward from the flank of the great Rhune. Running to their defences with much tumult they opened a few pieces, which were answered from the top of the greater Rhune by the mountain-artillery, and at the same moment two companies of the forty-third were detached to cross the marsh if possible, and keep down the enemy’s fire from the lower part of the hog’s-back. The action being thus commenced the remainder of the regiment, formed partly in line partly in a column of reserve, turned the marsh by the right and advanced against the high rocks. From these crags the French shot fast and thickly, but the quick even movement of the British line deceived their aim, and the soldiers, running forward very swiftly though the ground was rough, turned suddenly between the rocks and the marsh, and were immediately joined by the two companies which had passed that obstacle notwithstanding its depth. Then all together jumped into the lower works, but the men exhausted by their exertions, for they had passed over half a mile of very difficult ground with a wonderful speed, remained for a few minutes inactive within half pistol-shot of the first stone castle from whence came a sharp and biting musketry. When they had recovered breath they arose and with a stern shout commenced the assault.
The defenders were as numerous as the assailants, and for six weeks they had been labouring on their well-contrived castles; but strong and valiant in arms must the soldiers have been who stood in that hour before the veterans of the forty-third. One French grenadier officer only dared to sustain the rush. Standing alone on the high wall of the first castle and flinging large stones with both his hands, a noble figure, he fought to the last and fell, while his men shrinking on each side sought safety among the rocks on his flanks. Close and confused then was the action, man met man at every turn, but with a rattling fire of musketry, sometimes struggling in the intricate narrow paths sometimes climbing the loose stone walls, the British soldiers won their desperate way until they had carried the second castle, called by the French the place of arms, and the magpie’s nest, because of a lofty pillar of rock which rose above it and on which a few marksmen were perched. From these points the defenders were driven into their last castle, which being higher and larger than the others and covered by a natural ditch or cleft in the rocks, fifteen feet deep, was called the Donjon. Here they made a stand, and the assailants, having advanced so far as to look into the rear of the rampart and star fort on the table-land below, suspended the vehement throng of their attack for a while, partly to gather a head for storming the Donjon, partly to fire on the enemy beneath them, who were now warmly engaged with the two battalions of riflemen, the Portuguese Caçadores, and the seventeenth Portuguese. This last regiment was to have followed the forty-third but seeing how rapidly and surely the latter were carrying the rocks, had moved at once against the traverse on the other side of the marsh; and very soon the French defending the rampart, being thus pressed in front, and warned by the direction of the fire that they were turned on the ridge above, seeing also the fifty-second, forming the extreme left of the division, now emerging from the deep ravine beyond the star fort on the other flank, abandoned their works. Then the forty-third gathering a strong head stormed the Donjon. Some leaped with a shout down the deep cleft in the rock, others turned it by the narrow paths on each flank, and the enemy abandoned the loose walls at the moment they were being scaled. Thus in twenty minutes six hundred old soldiers were hustled out of this labyrinth; yet not so easily but that the victors lost eleven officers and sixty-seven men.
The whole mountain was now cleared of the French, for the riflemen dropping perpendicularly down from the greater Rhune upon the post of crags in the hollow between the Rhunes seized it with small loss; but they were ill-seconded by Giron’s Spaniards and were hardly handled by the thirty-fourth French regiment, which maintaining its post on the slope, covered the flight of the confused crowd which came rushing down the mountain behind them towards the neck of land leading to the main position. At that point they all rallied and seemed inclined to renew the action, but after some hesitation continued their retreat. This favourable moment for a decisive stroke had been looked for by the commander of the forty-third, but the officer entrusted with the reserve companies of the regiment had thrown them needlessly into the fight, thus rendering it impossible to collect a body strong enough to assail such a heavy mass.
The contest at the stone rampart and star fort, being shortened by the rapid success on the hog’s-back, was not very severe, but general Kempt, always conspicuous for his valour, was severely wounded, nevertheless he did not quit the field and soon reformed his brigade on the platform he had thus so gallantly won. Meanwhile the fifty-second having turned the position by the ravine was now approaching the enemy’s line of retreat, when general Alten, following his instructions, halted the division partly in the ravine itself to the left of the neck, partly on the table-land, and during this action Longa’s Spaniards having got near Ascain were in connection with Freyre’s Gallicians. In this position with the enemy now and then cannonading Longa’s people and the troops in the ravine, Alten awaited the progress of the army on his right, for the columns there had a long way to march and it was essential to regulate the movements.
The signal-guns from the Atchubia which sent the light division against the Rhune, had also put the fourth and seventh divisions in movement against the redoubts of San Barbe and Grenada. Eighteen guns were immediately placed in battery against the former, and while they poured their stream of shot the troops advanced with scaling ladders and the skirmishers of the fourth division got into the rear of the work, whereupon the French leaped out and fled. Ross’s battery of horse artillery galloping to a rising ground in rear of the Grenada fort drove the enemy from there also, and then the fourth and seventh divisions carried the village of Sarre and the position beyond it and advanced to the attack of Clauzel’s main position.
It was now eight o’clock and from the smaller Rhune a splendid spectacle of war opened upon the view. On one hand the ships of war slowly sailing to and fro were exchanging shots with the fort of Socoa; Hope menacing all the French lines in the low ground sent the sound of a hundred pieces of artillery bellowing up the rocks, and they were answered by nearly as many from the tops of the mountains. On the other hand the summit of the great Atchubia was just lighted by the rising sun, and fifty thousand men rushing down its enormous slopes with ringing shouts, seemed to chase the receding shadows into the deep valley. The plains of France so long overlooked from the towering crags of the Pyrenees were to be the prize of battle, and the half-famished soldiers in their fury, broke through the iron barrier erected by Soult as if it were but a screen of reeds.
The principal action was on a space of seven or eight miles, but the skirts of battle spread wide, and in no point had the combinations failed. Far on the right general Hill after a long and difficult night march had got within reach of the enemy a little before seven o’clock. Opposing Morillo’s and Mina’s Spaniards to Abbé’s troops on the Mondarain and Atchuleguy rocks, he directed the second division against D’Armagnac’s brigade and brushed it back from the forge of Urdax and the village of Ainhoa. Meanwhile the aid of the sixth division and Hamilton’s Portuguese being demanded by him, they passed the Nivelle lower down and bent their march along the right bank towards the bridge of Amotz. Thus while Mina’s battalion and Morillo’s division kept Abbé in check on the mountains, the three Anglo-Portuguese divisions, marching left flank in advance, approached D’Erlon’s second position, but the country being very rugged it was eleven o’clock before they got within cannon-shot of the French redoubts. Each of these contained five hundred men, and they were placed along the summit of a high ridge which being thickly clothed with bushes, and covered by a deep ravine was very difficult to attack. However general Clinton, leading the sixth division on the extreme left, turned this ravine and drove the enemy from the works covering the approaches to the bridge, after which wheeling to his right he advanced against the nearest redoubt, and the garrison not daring to await the assault abandoned it. Then the Portuguese division passing the ravine and marching on the right of the sixth menaced the second redoubt, and the second division in like manner approached the third redoubt. D’Armagnac’s troops now set fire to their hutted camp and retreated to Helbacen de Borda behind San Pé, pursued by the sixth division. Abbé’s second brigade forming the French left was separated by a ravine from D’Armagnac’s ground, but he also after some hesitation retreated towards Espelette and Cambo, where his other brigade, which had meanwhile fallen back from the Mondarain before Morillo, rejoined him.
It was the progress of the battle on the left of the Nive that rendered D’Erlon’s defence so feeble. After the fall of the St. Barbe and Grenada redoubts Conroux’s right and centre endeavoured to defend the village and heights of Sarre; but while the fourth and seventh divisions, aided by the ninety-fourth regiment detached from the third division, attacked and carried those points, the third division being on their right and less opposed pushed rapidly towards the bridge of Amotz, forming in conjunction with the sixth division the narrow end of the wedge into which Beresford’s and Hill’s corps were now thrown. The French were thus driven from all their new unfinished works covering the approaches to that bridge on both sides of the Nivelle, and Conroux’s division, spreading from Sarre to Amotz, was broken by superior numbers at every point. That general indeed vigorously defended the old works around the bridge itself, but he soon fell mortally wounded, his troops were again broken, and the third division seized the bridge and established itself on the heights between that structure and the redoubt of Louis the XIV. which having been also lately commenced was unfinished. This happened about eleven o’clock and D’Erlon fearing to be cut off from St. Pé yielded as we have seen at once to the attack of the sixth division, and at the same time the remainder of Conroux’s troops fell back in disorder from Sarre, closely pursued by the fourth and seventh divisions, which were immediately established on the left of the third. Thus the communication between Clauzel and D’Erlon was cut, the left flank of one and the right flank of the other broken, and a direct communication between Hill and Beresford secured by the same blow.
D’Erlon abandoned his position, but Clauzel stood firm with Taupin’s and Maransin’s divisions. The latter now completed by the return of Barbot’s brigade from the smaller Rhune, occupied the redoubt of Louis the XIV. and supported with eight field-pieces attempted to cover the flight of Conroux’s troops. The guns opened briskly but they were silenced by Ross’s battery of horse artillery, the only one which had surmounted the difficulties of the ground after passing Sarre, the infantry were then assailed, in front by the fourth and seventh divisions, in flank by the third division, the redoubt of Louis XIV. was stormed, the garrison bayonetted, Conroux’s men continued to fly, Maransin’s after a stiff combat were cast headlong into the ravines behind their position, and Maransin himself was taken but escaped in the confusion. Giron’s Spaniards now came up on the left of the fourth division, somewhat late however, and after having abandoned the riflemen on the lower slopes of the smaller Rhune.
On the French side Taupin’s division and a large body of conscripts forming Clauzel’s right wing still remained to fight. The left rested on a large work called the signal redoubt, which had no artillery but overlooked the whole position; the right was covered by two redoubts overhanging a ravine which separated them from the camp of Serres, and some works in the ravine itself protected the communication by the bridge of Ascain. Behind the signal redoubt, on a ridge crossing the road to San Pé and along which Maransin and Conroux’s beaten divisions were now flying in disorder, there was another work called the redoubt of Harastaguia, and Clauzel thinking he might still dispute the victory, if his reserve division, posted in the camp of Serres, could come to his aid, drew the thirty-first French regiment from Taupin, and posted it in front of this redoubt of Harastaguia. His object was to rally Maransin’s and Conroux’s troops there and so form a new line, the left on the Harastaguia, the right on the signal redoubt, into which last he threw six hundred of the eighty-eighth regiment. In this position having a retreat by the bridge of Ascain he resolved to renew the battle, but his plan failed at the moment of conception, because Taupin could not stand before the light division which was now again in full action.