But if the Riflemen suffered, the loss they inflicted on their assailants was enormous. The bridge next morning was strewn with their bodies; and the river full of them; while many wounded had been removed. General Vandermaesen, who commanded the force, was killed.
In the course of the following day the Regiment returned to their former encampment, and took up the line of picquets they had previously furnished. Here they remained in quiet until October 6, on which evening Barnard arrived from head-quarters with the welcome intelligence that they were to force the pass of Vera on the ensuing morning. Early in the night a thunderstorm set in; but it rolled away in the course of the night, and the morning was fine when the Regiment fell in. Leaving the tents standing to deceive the enemy as to the object of the movement, the three Battalions, with the other regiments of the Division, formed at the foot of the heights behind the town of Vera. A little to the right was an isolated hill, standing out in front of the great Pyrenean chain on the north of the valley of the Bidassoa, to which the soldiers had given the name of ‘the Boar’s back.’ This was to be occupied as a preliminary measure. And Colonel Ross, extending the 3rd Battalion, began to ascend it. Without firing a shot, though exposed to the fire of the enemy who crowned the crest, the Riflemen climbed to a pine-wood more than half-way up the mountain side; whence, after they had rested for a few minutes, they issued again. At this time the French crowded behind the crest; and it was thought by their brother Riflemen in the plain below, who could see the ground beyond, that the enemy would charge down the slope. But it was not so; for pursuing their way with all the steadiness of a field-day, Ross and his gallant Battalion gained the ridge. Then its defenders turned and fled; and then the Riflemen plied their rifles, which they had not before discharged, and poured a fire into them as they hurriedly descended the reverse slope. This exploit and the manner in which it was executed excited the admiration not only of their own comrades still standing in the plain below, but of the whole 4th Division, which had been moved up as a support to the Light Division.
This being accomplished, the other two Battalions moved forward. The 1st, with General Kempt’s brigade, advanced into the pass, and though at first sight their task seemed a difficult one, yet the steadiness and gallantry of the men carried all before them; and with little loss they stood on the top of the pass. Some descended the other side. For George Simmons and Cox with about sixty Riflemen, following the retreating enemy down the pass, took some prisoners, among whom were a commissary and two bandsmen. These the soldiers ordered to play some French tunes; but from the alarm and the pace at which they had retreated, their music was neither very coherent nor melodious.
But the 2nd Battalion had a more difficult task to perform. The second brigade was on that day under the command of Colonel Colborne[130] of the 52nd (Skerrett being absent from the field on account of ill-health), and to them was allotted the duty of carrying a high hill on the left called La Bayonette, which bristled with the enemy’s entrenchments. The Riflemen ascended the lower slopes of the hill, and coming out of a wood which there girded it, advanced with a quick fire to a redoubt. The French who filled it, waiting until the Battalion was within a few yards, then opened a murderous fire, which checked the Riflemen and obliged them for a moment to retire. But the 52nd at that moment coming up in support, they again advanced, and together they cleared the redoubt of its defenders and drove them before them to a second line of works. Here they did not experience any serious resistance. But at the crest the enemy had constructed a formidable work, from which they not only poured forth a blaze of fire, but rolled great pieces of rock on the climbing soldiers. While these were endeavouring to storm the work, the 1st Battalion, with the first brigade, gained the top of the pass on their right; and the enemy’s left flank being thus turned, and his retreat threatened, he abandoned the entrenchment and retired down the reverse slope of the mountain.
As the French were retiring a curious circumstance took place. Colonel Colborne, accompanied by a small escort of Riflemen of the 2nd Battalion, came suddenly on a battery of mountain guns and some three hundred men, who were retreating from the right flank of the French position. He called to them peremptorily to lay down their arms, which they did, thinking he had a large force at hand.
The loss of the 2nd Battalion was very severe, amounting to nearly one-third of its strength. They fell principally at the Star redoubt, which they first attacked. Captain Gibbons, Lieutenants Alexander Campbell and John Hill, 4 sergeants, and 23 rank and file were killed; Captain Hart, Lieutenants Budgen, Ridgeway, Fry and Madden, 6 sergeants, and 128 rank and file were wounded; and 1 Rifleman was returned ‘missing.’ The 1st Battalion had 10 Riflemen wounded; and the 3rd Battalion 4 killed and Lieutenant Vickers and 17 wounded.
The Regiment, now encamped on the ridge, looked over the steppes of the Pyrenees and the vast plain at their feet. St. Jean-de-Luz seemed also beneath them, and Bayonne could be seen in the distance; while the Bay of Biscay bounded their view to the left, and a richly-tilled and well-wooded country stretched away far to their right.
Towards evening the 3rd Battalion went down into the plain below on outpost duty, relieving Longa’s Spanish troops.
The whole range of mountains was now in our occupation, except one: the extreme projection on the right called La Montagne d’Arrhune. This the French retained till the 8th; the Spaniards not having succeeded in dislodging them. On that day the second brigade of the Light Division having been sent to assist in carrying it, the enemy evacuated it, and it was thenceforth occupied by a picquet of three companies of the Light Division.