In consequence of these orders the seventh division abandoned Echallar in the night of the 26th, the sixth division quitted San Estevan at daylight on the 27th, and general Hill concentrating his own troops and Barnes’s brigade on the heights of Irueta, halted until the evening of the 27th but marched during the night through the pass of Vellate upon the town of Lanz. Meanwhile the light division quitting Vera also on the 27th retired by Lesaca to the summit of the Santa Cruz mountain, overlooking the valley of Lerins, and there halted, apparently to cover the pass of Zubieta until Longa’s Spaniards should take post to block the roads leading over the Pena de Haya and protect the embarkation of the guns on that flank. That object being effected it was to thread the passes and descend upon Lecumberri on the great road of Irurzun, thus securing sir Thomas Graham’s communication with the army round Pampeluna. These various movements spread fear and confusion far and wide. All the narrow valleys and roads were crowded with baggage, commissariat stores, artillery and fugitive families; reports of the most alarming nature were as usual rife; each division, ignorant of what had really happened to the other, dreaded that some of the numerous misfortunes related might be true; none knew what to expect or where they were to meet the enemy, and one universal hubbub filled the wild regions through which the French army was now working its fiery path towards Pampeluna.
D’Erlon’s inactivity gave great uneasiness to Soult, who repeated the order to push forward by his left whatever might be the force opposed, and thus stimulated he advanced to Elizondo on the 27th, but thinking the sixth division was still at San Estevan, again halted, and it was not until the morning of the 28th, when general Hill’s retreat had opened the way, that he followed through the pass of Vellate. His further progress belongs to other combinations arising from Soult’s direct operations which are now to be continued.
General Picton, having assumed the command of all the troops in the valley of Zubiri on the evening of the 26th, recommenced the retreat before dawn on the 27th, and without the hope or intention of covering Pampeluna. Soult followed in the morning, having first sent scouts towards the ridges where Campbell’s troops had appeared the evening before. Reille marched by the left bank of the Guy river, Clauzel by the right bank, the cavalry and artillery closed the rear and as the whole moved in compact order the narrow valley was overgorged with troops, a hasty bicker of musketry alone marking the separation of the hostile forces. Meanwhile the garrison of Pampeluna made a sally and O’Donnel in great alarm spiked some of his guns, destroyed his magazines, and would have suffered a disaster, if Carlos D’España had not fortunately arrived with his division and checked the garrison. Nevertheless the danger was imminent, for general Cole, first emerging from the valley of Zubiri, had passed Villalba, only three miles from Pampeluna, in retreat; Picton, following close, was at Huarte, and O’Donnel’s Spaniards were in confusion; in fine Soult was all but successful when Picton, feeling the importance of the crisis, suddenly turned on some steep ridges, which, stretching under the names of San Miguel Mont Escava and San Cristoval quite across the mouths of the Zubiri and Lanz valleys, screen Pampeluna.
Posting the third division on the right of Huarte he prolonged his line to the left with Morillo’s Spaniards, called upon O’Donnel to support him, and directed Cole to occupy some heights between Oricain and Arletta. But that general having with a surer eye observed a salient hill near Zabaldica, one mile in advance and commanding the road to Huarte, demanded and obtained permission to occupy it instead of the heights first appointed. Two Spanish regiments belonging to the blockading troops were still posted there, and towards them Cole directed his course. Soult had also marked this hill, a French detachment issuing from the mouth of the Val de Zubiri was in full career to seize it, and the hostile masses were rapidly approaching the summit on either side when the Spaniards, seeing the British so close, vindicated their own post by a sudden charge. This was for Soult the stroke of fate. His double columns just then emerging, exultant, from the narrow valley, were arrested at the sight of ten thousand men which under Cole crowned the summit of the mountain in opposition; and two miles further back stood Picton with a greater number, for O’Donnel had now taken post on Morillo’s left. To advance by the Huarte road was impossible, and to stand still was dangerous, because the French army contracted to a span in front was cleft in its whole length by the river Guy, and compressed on each side by the mountains which in that part narrowed the valley to a quarter of a mile. Soult however, like a great and ready commander, at once shot the head of Clauzel’s columns to his right across the mountain which separated the Val de Zubiri from the Val de Lanz, and at the same time threw one of Reille’s divisions of infantry and a body of cavalrySoult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. across the mountains on his left, beyond the Guy river, as far as the village of Elcano, to menace the front and right flank of Picton’s position at Huarte. The other two divisions of infantry he established at the village of Zabaldica in the Val de Zubiri, close under Cole’s right, and meanwhile Clauzel seized the village of Sauroren close under that general’s left.
While the French general thus formed his line of battle, lord Wellington who had quitted sir Rowland Hill’s quarters in the Bastan very early on the 27th, crossed the main ridge and descended the valley of Lanz without having been able toNotes by Lord Wellington, MSS. learn any thing of Picton’s movements or position, and in this state of uncertainty reached Ostiz, a few miles from Sauroren, where he found general Long with the brigade of light cavalry which had furnished the posts of correspondence in the mountains. Here learning that Picton having abandoned the heights of Linzoain was moving on Huarte, he left his quarter-master-general with instructions to stop all the troops coming down the valley of Lanz until the state of affairs at Huarte should be ascertained. Then at racing speed he made for Sauroren. As he entered that village he saw Clauzel’s divisions moving from Zabaldica along the crest of the mountain, and it was clear that the allied troops in the valley of Lanz were intercepted, wherefore pulling up his horse he wrote on the parapet of the bridge of Sauroren fresh instructions to turn every thing from that valley to the right, by a road which led through Lizasso and Marcalain behind the hills to the village of Oricain, that is to say, in rear of the position now occupied by Cole. Lord Fitzroy Somerset, the only staff-officer who had kept up with him, galloped with these orders out of Sauroren by one road, the French light cavalry dashed in by another, and the English general rode alone up the mountain to reach his troops. One of Campbell’s Portuguese battalions first descried him and raised a cry of joy, and the shrill clamour caught up by the next regiments swelled as it run along the line into that stern and appalling shout which the British soldier is wont to give upon the edge of battle, and which no enemy ever heard unmoved. Lord Wellington suddenly stopped in a conspicuous place, he desired that both armies should know he was there, and a double spy who was present pointed out Soult, then so near that his features could be plainly distinguished. The English general, it is said, fixed his eyes attentively upon this formidable man, and speaking as if to himself, said, “Yonder is a great commander, but he is a cautious one and will delay his attack to ascertain the cause of these cheers; that will give time for the sixth division to arrive and I shall beat him.” And certain it is that the French general made no serious attack that day.
The position adopted by Cole was the summit of a mountain mass which filled all the space between the Guy and the Lanz rivers as far back as Huarte and Villalba. It was highest in the centre, and boldly defined towards the enemy, but the trace was irregular, the right being thrown back towards the village of Arletta so as to flank the high road to Huarte. This road was also swept by some guns placed on a lower range, or neck, connecting the right of Cole with Picton and Morillo.
Overlooking Zabaldica and the Guy river was the bulging hill vindicated by the Spaniards; it was a distinct point on the right of the fourth division, dependent upon the centre of the position but considerably lower. The left of the position also abating in height was yet extremely rugged and steep overlooking the Lanz river and the road to Villalba. General Ross’s brigade of the fourth division was posted on that side, having a Portuguese battalion, whose flank rested on a small chapel, in his front. General Campbell was on the right of Ross. General Anson was on the highest ground, partly behind, and partly on the right of Campbell. General Byng’s brigade was on a second mass of hills in reserve, and the Spanish hill was reinforced by a battalion of the fourth Portuguese regiment.
The front of battle being less than two miles was well filled, and the Lanz and Guy river washed the flanks. Those torrents continuing their course break by narrow passages through the steep ridges of San Miguel and Cristoval, and then flowing past Huarte and Villalba meet behind those places to form the Arga river. On the ridges thus cleft by the waters the second line was posted, that is to say, at the distance of two miles from, and nearly parallel to the first position, but on a more extended front. Picton’s left was at Huarte, his right strengthened with a battery stretched to the village of Goraitz, covering more than a mile of ground on that flank. Morillo prolonged Picton’s left along the crest of San Miguel to Villalba, and O’Donnel continued the line to San Cristoval; Carlos D’España’s division maintained the blockade behind these ridges, and the British cavalry under General Cotton, coming up from Tafalla and Olite, took post, the heavy brigades on some open ground behind Picton, the hussar brigade on his right. This second line being on a wider trace than the first and equally well filled with troops, entirely barred the openings of the two valleys leading down to Pampeluna.
Soult’s position was also a mountain filling the space between the two rivers. It was even more rugged than the allies’ mountain and they were only separated by a deep narrow valley. Clauzel’s three divisions leaned to the right on the village of Sauroren, which was quite down in the valley of Lanz and close under the chapel height where the left of the fourth division was posted. His left was prolonged by two of Reille’s divisions, which also occupied the village of Zabaldica quite down in the valley of Zubiri under the right of the allies. The remaining division of this wing and a division of cavalry, were, as I have before stated, thrown forward on the mountains at the other side of the Guy river, menacing Picton and seeking for an opportunity to communicate with the garrison of Pampeluna. Some guns were pushed in front of Zabaldica, but the elevation required to send the shot upward rendered their fire ineffectual and the greatest part of the artillery remained therefore in the narrow valley of Zubiri.
Combat of the 27th. Soult’s first effort was to gain the Spaniards’ hill and establish himself near the centre of the allies’ line of battle. The attack was vigorous but the French were valiantly repulsed about the time lord Wellington arrived, and he immediately reinforced that post with the fortieth British regiment. There was then a general skirmish along the front, under cover of which Soult carefully examined the whole position, and the firing continued on the mountain side until evening, when a terrible storm, the usual precursor of English battles in the Peninsula, brought on premature darkness and terminated the dispute. This was the state of affairs at day-break on the 28th, but a signal alteration had place before the great battle of that day commenced, and the movements of the wandering divisions by which this change was effected must now be traced.