While San Sebastian was being stormed Soult1813. August. fought a battle with the covering force, not willingly nor with much hope of success, but he was averse to let San Sebastian fall without another effort, and thought a bold demeanour would best hide his real weakness. Guided however by the progress of the siege, which he knew perfectly through his sea communication, he awaited the last moment of action, striving meanwhile to improve his resources and to revive the confidence of the army and of the people. Of his dispersed soldiers eight thousand had rejoined their regiments by the 12th of August, and he was promised a reinforcement of thirty thousand conscripts; these last were however yet to be enrolled, and neither the progress of the siege, nor the general panic along the frontier which recurred with increased violence after the late battles, would suffer him to remain inactive.
He was in no manner deceived as to his enemy’s superior strength of position number and military confidence; but his former efforts on the side of Pampeluna had interrupted the attack of San Sebastian, and another offensive movement would necessarily produce a like effect; wherefore he hoped by repeating the disturbance, as long as a free intercourse by sea enabled him to reinforce and supply the garrison, to render the siege a wasting operation for the allies. To renew the movement against Pampeluna was most advantageous, but it required fifty thousand infantry for the attack, and twenty thousand as a corps of observation on the Lower Bidassoa, and he had not such numbers to dispose of. The subsistence of his troops also was uncertain, because the loss of all the military carriages at Vittoria was still felt, and the resources of the country were reluctantly yielded by the people. To act on the side of St. Jean Pied de Port was therefore impracticable. And to attack the allies’ centre, at Vera, Echallar, and the Bastan, was unpromising, seeing that two mountain-chains were to be forced before the movement could seriously affect lord Wellington: moreover, the ways being impracticable for artillery, success if such should befall, would lead to no decisive result. It only remained to attack the left of the allies by the great road of Irun.
Against that quarter Soult could bring more than forty thousand infantry, but the positions were of perilous strength. The Upper Bidassoa was in Wellington’s power, because the light division, occupying Vera and the heights of Santa Barbara on the right bank, covered all the bridges; but the Lower Bidassoa flowing from Vera with a bend to the left separated the hostile armies, and against this front about nine miles wide Soult’s operations were necessarily directed. On his right, that is to say, from the broken bridge of Behobia in front of Irun to the sea, the river, broad and tidal, offered no apparent facility for a passage; and between the fords of Biriatu and those of Vera, a distance of three miles, there was only the one passage of Andarlassa about two miles below Vera; along this space also the banks of the river, steep craggy mountain ridges without roads, forbade any great operations. Thus the points of attack were restricted to Vera and the fords between Biriatu and the broken bridge of Behobia.
To raise the siege it was only necessary to forcePlan 5. a way to Oyarzun, a small town about seven or eight miles beyond the Bidassoa, from thence the assailants could march at once upon Passages and upon the Urumea. To gain Oyarzun was therefore the object of the French marshal’s combinations. The royal road led directly to it by the broad valley which separates the Peña de Haya from the Jaizquibel mountain. The latter was on the sea-coast, but the Peña de Haya, commonly called the four-crowned mountain, filled with its dependent ridges all the space between Vera, Lesaca, Irun and Oyarzun. Its staring head bound with a rocky diadem was impassable, but from the bridges of Vera and Lesaca, several roads, one of them not absolutely impracticable for guns, passed over its enormous flanks to Irun at one side and to Oyarzun on the other, falling into the royal road at both places. Soult’s first design was to unite Clauzel’s and D’Erlon’s troops, drive the light division from the heights of Santa Barbara, and then using the bridges of Lesaca and Vera force a passage over the Peña de Haya on the left of its summit, and push the heads of columns towards Oyarzun and the Upper Urumea; meanwhile Reille and Villatte, passing the Bidassoa at Biriatu, were to fight their way also to Oyarzun by the royal road. He foresaw thatSoult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. Wellington might during this time collect his right wing and seek to envelope the French army, or march upon Bayonne; but he thought the general state of his affairs required bold measures, and the progress of the besiegers at San Sebastian soon drove him into action.
On the 29th Foy, marching by the road of Lohoussoa, crossed the Nive at Cambo and reached Espelette, leaving behind him six hundred men, and the national guards who were very numerous, with orders to watch the roads and valleys leading upon St. Jean Pied de Port. If pressed by superior forces, this corps of observation was to fall back upon that fortress, and it was supported with a brigade of light cavalry stationed at St. Palais.
In the night two of D’Erlon’s divisions were secretly drawn from Ainhoa, Foy continued his march through Espelette, by the bridges of Amotz and Serres to San Jean de Luz, from whence the reserve moved forward, and thus in the morning of the 30th two strong French columns of attack were assembled on the Lower Bidassoa.
The first, under Clauzel, consisted of four divisions, furnishing twenty thousand men with twenty pieces of artillery. It was concentrated in the woods behind the Commissary and Bayonette mountains, above Vera.
The second, commanded by general Reille, was composed of two divisions and Villatte’s reserve in all eighteen thousand men; but Foy’s division and some light cavalry were in rear ready to augment this column to about twenty-five thousand, and there were thirty-six pieces of artillery and two bridge equipages collected behind the camp of Urogne on the royal road.
Reille’s troops were secreted, partly behind the Croix des Bouquets mountain, partly behind that of Louis XIV. and the lower ridges of the Mandale near Biriatu. Meanwhile D’Erlon, having Conroux’s and Abbé’s divisions and twenty pieces of artillery under his command, held the camps in advance of Sarre and Ainhoa. If the allies in his front marched to reinforce their own left on the crowned mountain, he was to vex and retard their movements, always however avoiding a serious engagement, and feeling to his right to secure his connection with Clauzel’s column; that is to say, he was with Abbé’s division, moving from Ainhoa, to menace the allies towards Zagaramurdi and the Puerto de Echallar; and with Conroux’s division, then in front of Sarre, to menace the light division, to seize the rock of Ivantelly if it was abandoned, and be ready to join Clauzel if occasion offered. On the other hand, should the allies assemble a large force and operate offensively by the Nive and Nivelle rivers, D’Erlon, without losing his connection with the main army, was to concentrate on the slopes descending from the Rhune mountains towards San Pé. Finally, if the attack on the Lower Bidassoa succeeded, he was to join Clauzel, either by Vera, or by the heights of Echallar and the bridge of Lesaca. Soult also desired to support D’Erlon with the two divisions of heavy cavalry, but forage could only be obtained for the artillery horses, two regiments of light horsemen, six chosen troops of dragoons and two or three hundred gensd’armes, which were all assembled on the royal road behind Reille’s column.
It was the French marshal’s intention to attack at daybreak on the 30th, but his preparations being incomplete he deferred it until the 31st, and took rigorous precautions to prevent intelligence passing over to the allies’ camps. Nevertheless Wellington’s emissaries advised him of the movements in the night of the 29th, the augmentation of troops in front of Irun was observed in the morning of the 30th, and in the evening the bridge equipage and the artillery were descried on the royal road beyond the Bidassoa. Thus warned he prepared for battle with little anxiety. For the brigade of English foot-guards, left at Oporto when the campaign commenced, was now come up; most of the marauders and men wounded at Vittoria had rejoined; and three regiments just arrived from England formed a new brigade under lord Aylmer, making the total augmentation of British troops in this quarter little less than five thousand men.