After we had received our clothes and provisions, we did not lie long at St. Jean de Luz, but again started on our marches, cruising about in the Pyrenees. For some time nothing of any particular note occurred until we again fell in with the enemy, who were stationed in huts which they had erected in the various valleys. We attacked them, and some sharp work ensued, for they did not seem to like the idea of abandoning their houses, which were much more comfortable than the open winter air, but we at last drove them off and took possession of their habitations, which a part of our army occupied. As for our regiment itself, we marched up the side of a mountain and encamped there.
We again found ourselves very short of provisions there, and besides that the rain was falling in torrents all night. We had nothing over our heads at first to cover them, so we set to and gathered a quantity of grass, sticks, stubble, and like things, and made a kind of wall to keep off a little of the wind and beating rain; and then we tried to make up our fires with anything we could get together, but owing to the wetness of the substances, they were not very lively, and it was a long time before we could get them to burn at all.
Our captain asked me if I could boil him a piece of beef, so I told him I would try and see what I could do to make the best of the bad circumstances, and accordingly I and a corporal of my company at once set to work, first placing our hanger over the fire and then swinging the kettle on it with the beef. The beef nearly filled the kettle, and though it was pouring with rain, it was a very awkward place to get water, as there were no springs near and no tanks to catch the rain in; consequently we had only about a quart of water in the pot, which had all boiled away before the beef was done. However, the captain was impatient for his supper, so it was taken up to him as it was, the pot-cover serving as a dish and a wooden canteen as a plate. I put it before him with salt on the edge of the canteen, and I likewise got him a piece of bread, which by the time he had it was nicely soaked by the rain—indeed we had not a dry thread on us by this time. The next bother was for a fork: I had a knife myself, but had lost the fork, so I got a stick and sharpened it at one end and gave him that as a substitute, and was rewarded by his praising me for my good contrivance.
Colonel Thornton coming up meanwhile, he was invited by the captain to partake of some of the beef, and he gladly accepted, as he said he was very hungry; so another plate, knife, and fork were wanted. I borrowed my comrade the corporal's canteen and knife, and manufactured another fork like the former to serve for the colonel, and they both said the beef was very good, but not very well done, which it certainly was not, for though it went down sweet like most things in those times, the inside was certainly hardly warm.
The colonel sent me to the quartermaster for a canteen of rum, which was equivalent to three pints, for which purpose another canteen had to be borrowed, but when I returned to him with it he said, "That's right; now go and drink it." I took it off to my comrade, and we both sat down under our artificial wall close by our fire to try and enjoy ourselves as best the inclemency of the weather would allow us, keeping, however, near our officers' green-carpeted nature's dining-room, so that if we were wanted we could hear them call. But when they did so, which was in a short time, it was for us to clear away, with orders at the same time to keep the remainder of the beef for ourselves; so we removed our dinner traps, passing a good many remarks in a jocular spirit on our green pasture, wet cloth, and our scientific dishes, plates, knives, and forks, much to the amusement of the colonel and captain who were looking on, and then sat down to our own supper, which we very much needed. I remember remarking to my comrade that we had not done so badly over our cooking after all, but perhaps it was only the hunger that made us think so. After finishing our supper and drinking the greater part of our rum, which no doubt got to a certain extent into our heads and served to keep out the cold and wet and make us generally comfortable, we curled ourselves into our blankets and lay down on the wet ground to rest.
The rain descended in torrents all night and completely soaked us, but the morning broke out clear, and after we had disposed of the rest of our beef and rum, we joined all hands at work in wringing and shaking the water out of our blankets before putting them up into our knapsacks. We were obliged to do this while they were damp for fear of an attack from the enemy, it being a general rule to keep all in readiness; and, indeed, on this occasion it was not more than an hour after these preparations that the French assailed us. Not being willing to show fight, we retreated on that occasion, having nothing to attend to but ourselves and our kit, for we were without baggage and cannon. After a ten miles' journey or so we again halted expecting to be attacked again very soon, for which emergency we hastily prepared, needlessly, as it proved, however, for we eventually stopped here quietly for a month.
During this time that I have been speaking of the siege of San Sebastian had been going on, the town having up to this time been already attacked twice, but without success. Lord Wellington now ordered twenty men out of each regiment of our division to act in conjunction with the besiegers, and soon after they arrived, the order being given to attack, after about two hours' fighting they succeeded in capturing the town and driving the garrison into the castle, which was likewise obliged to surrender in about a week. Though there were many deaths occasioned in this siege, strange to say the whole twenty men of our regiment returned unhurt.
I remember during our stay here, our captain was fearfully troubled with the toothache. At last one night, after trying in vain to endure the pain, he came to me and said, "O sergeant, I am still troubled with the pain! What can you advise me for it?" I recommended him just to take a pipe of my tobacco, for I knew that would be a good thing for him, but he never could bear tobacco, so that it wanted a good deal of persuasion to at last make him consent to prefer the remedy to the pain. As he had no pipe of his own, I supplied him with the implement and some tobacco, and he began to smoke. But he had not been at it long before he said, "Why, sergeant, this will never do! The place seems whirling round. Here, take the pipe, for I feel precious queer; but my tooth is much better, and after all you are not such a bad doctor." He gave me half a pint of rum, and for a long time I heard nothing more of his toothache.
We stayed here, as I said before, about a month, and then again moved on after our enemy, our cavalry, pontoon bridges, and artillery coming on by the most convenient passes of the mountains. While on the march we often had slight skirmishes with the enemy, but no regular pitched battle until we came to the Nivelle, where Soult had taken up a strong position. There our army halted in line, determined to attack and proceed if possible into France, as nothing more remained to be done in the Peninsula, Pampeluna having been obliged, owing to shortness of provisions, to surrender on the last day of October.
The Third, Fourth, and Seventh divisions, under Marshal Beresford and their respective generals, occupied the right centres of the line. We commenced the attack early on the 10th of November on a village which was defended by two redoubts. One of these our division took under General Cole, driving the enemy to some heights in the rear, where we again attacked them and drove them over the Nivelle.