In December the allies seized the island of Holriague near La Honce on the Adour, which gave them a better command of that river, but Foy kept possession of the islands of Berens and Broc above Holriague. The allies’ bridges of communication on the Nive were now carried away by floods which occasioned some embarrassment, and meanwhile, without any orders from lord Wellington, probably with a view to plunder, for his troops were exceedingly licentious, Morillo obtained from Victor Alten two squadrons of the eighteenth hussars, under pretence of exploring the enemy’s position towards Mendionde and Maccaye. Their commander, major Hughes, having with difficulty ascertained that he was to form an advanced guard in a close wooded country, demanded the aid of some Spanish Caçadores, and then moving forwards drove in the picquets, crossed the bridge of Mendionde and commenced a skirmish. But during this action Morillo withdrew his division without giving any notice, and at the same time the Caçadores fled in a shameful manner from the left, the cavalry were thus turned and escaped with difficulty, having had one captain killed, two other captains and a lieutenant, and Hughes himself, badly wounded. The unfortunate issue of this skirmish was attributed at the time to the bad conduct of the eighteenth hussars, against whom lord Wellington was by malicious misrepresentation previously prejudiced; for at Vittoria they were unjustly accused of being more licentious than others in plundering the captured property on the field, whereas they had fought well and plundered less than many who were praised for their orderly demeanour.
About the same time that this disaster occurred at Mendionde, Mina, acting independently, and being pressed for provisions in the mountains, invaded the Val de Baigorry and the Val des Osses, where his men committed the greatest enormities, plundering and burning, and murdering men women and children without distinction. The people of these valleys, distinguished amongst the Basques for their warlike qualities, immediately took arms under the command of one of their principal men, named Etchevery, and being reinforced with two hundred and fifty men from St. Jean Pied de Port, surprised one of Mina’s battalions, and attacked the rest with great vigour. This event gave Soult hopes of exciting the Basques to commence such a war as they had carried on at the commencement of the French revolution. His efforts to accomplish it were unceasing, and he had for two months been expecting the arrival of general Harispe an officer whose courage and talents have been frequently noticed in this History, and who being the head of an ancient Basque family had great local influence, which was increased by his military reputation. It was thought that if he had come when first expected, about November, lord Wellington’s strict discipline being then unknown to the people, he would have raised a formidable partizan war in the mountains. But now the English general’s attention to all complaints, his proclamation, and the proof he gave of his sincerity by sending the Spaniards back when they misconducted themselves, had, in conjunction with the love of gain that master passion with all mountaineers, tamed the Basque spirit and disinclined them to exchange ease and profit for turbulence and ravage. Nevertheless this incursion by Mina and the licentious conduct of Morillo’s troops, awakened the warlike propensities of the Val de Baygorry Basques, and Harispe was enabled to make a levy with which he immediately commenced active operations, and was supported by general Paris.
Soult with a view to aid Harispe, to extend his own cantonments, and to restrict those of the allies, now resolved to drive the latter’s detachments altogetherClauzel’s Official Reports and Orders MSS. from the side of St. Jean Pied de Port, and fix Clauzel’s left at Hellette, the culminant point of the great road to that fortress. To effect this, on the 3d of January, he caused Clauzel to establish twoPlan 9. divisions of infantry at the heights of La Costa, near the Bastide de Clerence and beyond the Joyeuse river. Buchan’s Portuguese brigade, placed in observation there, was thus forced to retreat upon Briscons, and at the same time Paris advancing to Bonloc connected his right with Clauzel’s left at Ayherre, while the light cavalry menaced all the allies’ line of outposts. Informed of this movement by telegraph, Wellington, thinking Soult was seeking a general battle on the side of Hasparen, made the fifth division and lord Aylmer’s brigade relieve the light division which marched to Arauntz; the fourth division then passed the Nive at Ustaritz, and the sixth division made ready to march from Villefranque, by the high road of St. Jean Pied de Port, towards Hasparen, as a reserve to the third fourth and seventh divisions. The latter were concentrated beyond Urcuray on the 4th, their left in communication with Hill’s right at Briscons, and their right, supported by Morillo, who advanced from Itzassu for this purpose.
The English general’s intent was to fall upon the enemy at once, but the swelling of the small rivers prevented him. However on the 5th having ascertained the true object and dispositions of the French general, and having twenty-four thousand infantry in hand with a division of cavalry and four or five brigades of artillery, he resolved to attack Clauzel’s divisions on the heights of La Costa. In this view Le Cor’s Portuguese marched against the French right, the fourth division marched against their centre, the third division supported by cavalry against their left; the remainder of the cavalry and the seventh division, the whole under Stapleton Cotton, were posted at Hasparen to watch Paris on the side of Bonloc. Soult was in person at the Bastide de Clerence and a general battle seemed inevitable, but the intention of the English general was merely to drive back the enemy from the Joyeuse, and the French general, thinking the whole allied army was in movement resolved to act on the defensive, and directed the troops at La Costa to retire fighting upon the Bidouze: the affair terminated therefore with a slight skirmish on the evening of the 6th. The allies then resumed their old positions on the right of the Nive, the Andalusians were ordered back to the Bastan, and Carlos D’España’s Gallicians were brought up to Ascain in their place.
When Clauzel saw that nothing serious was designed he sent his horsemen to drive away general Hill’s detachments, which had taken advantage of the great movements to forage on the lower parts of the Joyeuse and Aran rivers. Meanwhile Soult observing how sensitive his adversary was to any demonstration beyond the Bidouze resolved to maintain the line of those two rivers. In this view he reduced his defence of the Adour to a line drawn from the confluence of the Aran to Bayonne, which enabled him to reinforce Clauzel with Foy’s division and all the light cavalry. Meantime general Harispe having the division of Paris and the brigade of general Dauture placed under his orders to support his mountaineers, fixed his quarters at Hellette and commenced an active partizan warfare. On the 8th he fell upon Mina in the Val des Osses and drove him with loss into Baygorry. On the 10th returning to Hellette he surprised Morillo’s foragers with some English dragoons on the side of Maccaye, and took a few prisoners. On the 12th he again attacked Mina and drove him up into the Alduides. During these affairs at the outposts lord Wellington might have stormed the entrenched camp in front of Bayonne, but he could not hold it except under the fire of the fortress, and not being prepared for a siege avoided that operation. Nor would the weather, which was again become terrible, permit him to make a general movement to drive Harispe from his position in the upper country; wherefore he preferred leaving that general in quiet possession to irritating the mountaineers by a counter-warfare. He endeavoured however to launch some armed boats on the Adour above Bayonne, where Soult had increased the flotilla to twenty gun-boats for the protection of his convoys, which were notwithstanding forced to run past Urt under the fire of a battery constructed by general Hill.
Lord Wellington now dreading the bad effect which the excesses committed by Mina’s and Morillo’s men were likely to produce, for the Basques were already beginning to speak of vengeance, put forth his authority in repression. Rebuking Morillo for his unauthorized and disastrous advance upon Mendionde, and for the excesses of his troops, he ordered him to keep the latter constantly under arms. This was resented generally by the Spanish officers, and especially by Morillo whose savage untractable and bloody disposition, since so horribly displayed in South America, prompted him to encourage violence. He asserted falsely that his troops were starving, declared that a settled design to ill-use the Spaniards existed, and that the British soldiers were suffered to commit every crime with impunity. The English general in reply explained himself both to Morillo, and to Freyre, who had alluded to the libels about San Sebastian, with a clearness and resolution that showed how hopeless it would be to strive against him.
“He had not,” he said, “lost thousands of men to pillage and ill-treat the French peasantry, he preferred a small army obedient to a large one disobedient and undisciplined. If his measures to enforce good order deprived him of the Spanish troops the fault would rest with those who suffered their soldiers to commit disorders. Professions without corresponding actions would not do, he was determined to enforce obedience one way or another and would not command insubordinate troops. The question between them was whether they should or should not pillage the French peasants. His measures were taken to prevent it and the conduct which called them forth was more dishonouring to the Spaniards than the measures themselves. For libels he cared not, he was used to them and he did not believe the union of the two nations depended upon such things; but if it did he desired no union founded upon such an infamous interest as pillage. He had not lost twenty thousand men in the campaign to enable Morillo to plunder and he would not permit it. If the Spaniards were resolved to do so let them march their great armies into France under their own generals, he would meanwhile cover Spain itself and they would find they could not remain in France for fifteen days. They had neither money nor magazines, nothing to maintain an army in the field, the country behind was incapable of supporting them and were he scoundrel enough to permit pillage France rich as it was could not sustain the burthen. Even with a view to living on the enemy by contributions it would be essential to prevent plunder; and yet in defiance of all these reasons he was called an enemy by the Spanish generals because he opposed such conduct, and his measures to prevent it were considered dishonouring!
“Something also he could say against it in a political point of view, but it was unnecessary because careless whether he commanded a large or a small army he was resolved that it should obey him and should not pillage.
“General Morillo expressed doubts of his right to interfere with the Spaniards. It was his right and his duty, and never before did he hear that to put soldiers under arms was a disgrace. It was a measure to prevent evil and misfortunes. Mina could tell by recent experience what a warfare the French peasants could carry on, and Morillo was openly menaced with a like trial. It was in vain for that general to palliate or deny the plundering of his division, after having acknowledged to general Hill that it was impossible to prevent it because the officers and soldiers received by every post letters from their friends, congratulating them upon their good luck in entering France and urging them to seize the opportunity of making fortunes. General Morillo asserted that the British troops were allowed to commit crimes with impunity. Neither he nor any other man could produce an instance of injury done where proof being adduced the perpetrators had escaped punishment. Let him enquire how many soldiers had been hanged, how many stricken with minor chastisements and made to pay for damages done. But had the English troops no cause of complaint against the Spaniards? Officers and soldiers were frequently shot and robbed on the high roads and a soldier had been lately murdered between Oyarzun and Lesaca; the English stores and convoys were plundered by the Spanish soldiers, a British officer had been put to death at Vittoria and others were ill-treated at Santander.”
A sullen obedience followed this correspondence for the moment, but the plundering system was soon renewed, and this with the mischief already done was sufficient to rouse the inhabitants of Bidarray as well as those of the Val de Baygorry into action. They commenced and continued a partizan warfare until lord Wellington, incensed by their activity, issued a proclamation calling upon them to take arms openly and join Soult or stay peaceably at home, declaring that he would otherwise burn their villages and hang all the inhabitants. Thus it appeared that notwithstanding all the outcries made against the French for resorting to this system of repressing the warfare of peasants in Spain, it was considered by the English general both justifiable and necessary. However the threat was sufficient for this occasion. The Basques set the pecuniary advantages to be derived from the friendship of the British and Portuguese troops and the misery of an avenging warfare against the evils of Spanish plunder, and generally disregarded Harispe’s appeals to their patriotism.