Head-quarters were at Lesaca, and the line of correspondence with the left wing was over the Peña de Haya, that with the right wing by San Estevan, Elizondo and the Alduides. The line of correspondence between sir Thomas Graham and Pampeluna was by Goizueta and the high road of Irurzun.
As the French were almost in contact with the allies’ positions at Roncesvalles, which was also the point of defence nearest to Pampeluna, it followed that on the rapidity or slowness with which Soult overcame resistance in that quarter depended his success; and a comparative estimate of numbers and distances will give the measure of his chances.
Clauzel’s three divisions furnished about sixteen thousand bayonets, besides the cavalry, the artillery, and the national guards menacing the valley of Orbaiceta. Byng and Morillo were therefore with five thousand infantry, to sustain the assault of sixteen thousand until Cole could reinforce them; but Cole being twelve miles distant could not come up in fighting order under four or five hours. And as Reille’s divisions, of equal strength with Clauzel’s, could before that time seize the Lindouz and turn the left, it was clear the allied troops, although increased to eleven thousand by the junction of the fourth division, must finally abandon their ground to seek a new field of battle where the third division could join them from the valley of Lanz, and Campbell’s brigade from the Alduides. Thus raised to seventeen or eighteen thousand bayonets with some guns, they might on strong ground oppose Clauzel and Reille’s thirty thousand; but as Picton’s position at Olague was more than a day’s march from Byng’s position at Altobiscar, their junction could only be made in the valley of the Zubiri and not very distant from Pampeluna. And when seven thousand Spaniards from the blockade, and two or three thousand cavalry from the side of the Ebro are added, we have the full measure of the allies’ strength in this quarter.
General Hill, menaced by D’Erlon with a very superior force, and having the pass of Maya, half a day’s march further from Pampeluna than the passes of Roncesvalles, to defend, could not give ready help. If he retreated rapidly D’Erlon could follow as rapidly, and though Picton and Cole would thus be reinforced with ten thousand men Soult would gain eighteen thousand. Hill could not however move until he knew that Byng and Cole were driven from the Roncesvalles passes; in fine he could not avoid a dilemma. For if he maintained the passes at Maya and affairs went wrong near Pampeluna, his own situation would be imminently dangerous; if he maintained Irrueta, his next position, the same danger was to be dreaded; and the passes of Maya once abandoned, D’Erlon, moving by his own left towards the Alduides, could join Soult in the valley of Zubiri before Hill could join Cole and Picton by the valley of Lanz. But if Hill did not maintain the position of Irrueta D’Erlon could follow and cut the sixth and seventh divisions off from the valley of Lanz. The extent and power of Soult’s combinations are thus evinced. Hill forced to await orders and hampered by the operations of D’Erlon, required, it might be three days to get into line near Pampeluna; but D’Erlon after gaining Maya could in one day and a half, by the passes of Berderez and Urtiaga, join Soult in the Val de Zubiri. Meanwhile Byng, Morillo, Cole, Campbell, and Picton would be exposed to the operations of double their own numbers; and however firm and able individually those generals might be, they could not when suddenly brought together be expected to seize the whole system of operations and act with that decision and nicety of judgment which the occasion demanded. It was clear therefore that Hill’s force must be in some measure paralyzed at first, and finally thrown with the sixth, seventh, and light divisions, upon an external line of operations while the French moved upon internal lines.
On the other hand it is also clear that the corps of Byng, Morillo, Campbell, Cole, Picton, and Hill were only pieces of resistance on lord Wellington’s board, and that the sixth, seventh, and light divisions were those with which he meant to win his game. There was however a great difference in their value. The light division and the seventh, especially the former, being at the greatest distance from Pampeluna, having enemies close in front and certain points to guard, were, the seventh division a day, the light division two days, behind the sixth division, which was quite free to move at an instant’s notice and was, the drag of D’Erlon’s corps considered, a day nearer to Pampeluna than Hill. Wherefore upon the rapid handling of this well-placed body the fate of the allies depended. If it arrived in time, nearly thirty thousand infantry with sufficient cavalry and artillery would be established, under the immediate command of the general-in-chief, on a position of strength to check the enemy until the rest of the army arrived. Where that position was and how the troops were there gathered and fought shall now be shown.
CHAPTER V.
BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES.
Combat of Roncesvalles.—On the 23d Soult issued1813. July. an order of the day remarkable for its force and frankness. Tracing with a rapid pen the leadingPlan 3. events of the past campaign, he shewed that the disasters sprung from the incapacity of the king, not from the weakness of the soldiers whose military virtue he justly extolled, and whose haughty courage he inflamed by allusions to former glories. He has been, by writers who disgrace English literature with unfounded aspersions of a courageous enemy, accused of unseemly boasting as to his ultimate operations at this time, but the calumny is refuted by the following passage from his dispatch to the minister at war.
“I shall move directly upon Pampeluna, and if I succeed in relieving it I will operate towards my right to embarrass the enemy’s troops in Guipuscoa, Biscay, and Alava, and to enable the reserve to join me, which will relieve St. Sebastian and Santona. If this should happen I will then consider what is to be done, either to push my own attack or to help the army of Aragon, but to look so far ahead would now be temerity.”