Chapter XVII

Battle of Vittoria. The Light Division and some cavalry pursue the
French rear-guard on the road to Pampeluna. Engaged with them
several days. Two French ladies restored to their husbands. Baron
Alten directs the movements of the advanced guard with great
judgment and effect. We take the last piece of artillery but one in
possession of the French rear-guard. The country between Salvaterra
and Pampeluna favourable for a retreating army. Reflections on
approaching the Pyrenees. Lord Wellington marches with the 3d, 4th,
and Light Divisions against General Clausel. A Spanish priest
apprises that general of our movements, and mars our plans. Our
benedictions on the said padre. We return to Pampeluna, and assist
in the blockade. March into the Pyrenees. Splendid scenery. Sir
Rowland Hill’s corps engaged in the passes. Vale of San Estevan. A
week spent there. Dress, language, &c. of the Spanish Basques.
Trout-fishing on the Bidassoa. The Light Division advances to Vera.
Drives the French out of it into the pass. The first view of the
ocean for four years. Cheers of the soldiers on seeing it. Rough
sketch of the position of our army in the Pyrenees. Quadrilles
danced by our French neighbours in their encampment opposite to us.
Sir Thomas Graham besieges St. Sebastian. The French entrench
themselves in our front. An attempt to storm St. Sebastian fails.
Marshal Soult attacks our right wing. It falls back towards
Pampeluna. Defeats the French, and drives them again into France,
with great slaughter. The 7th and Light Divisions fall back from
Vera and Echelar. Soult’s proclamation to his army before he
attacked the allies in the Pyrenees. The Light Division makes forced
marches to reach the bridge of Yanci. The Riflemen inflict a severe
loss on the retreating columns of the French. General Kempt’s
brigade drives the enemy from a high mountain into France. Gallant
attack made by General Barnes’ brigade. The hostile armies occupy
their former positions.

BATTLE OF VITTORIA.

On the 21st Lord Wellington made a grand attack on the French position near Vittoria, and gained a splendid victory, which those who took a part in are vain enough to suppose will be remembered long after old Charon has crossed the Styx with them, unassisted by a pontoon bridge. A minute detail of the great struggle between two such large armies, on which the fate of Spain depended, I do not presume to give; but a rough sketch I shall attempt. The French right and centre were covered by the Zadora, and their left extended towards, and rested on, a mountainous ridge overlooking the less rugged ground on which the centre was posted.

The scene of action has been termed “the plains of Vittoria;” but although compared with the left of their position it was level, there was no lack of hill and dale, and, in some parts, of enclosures. Sir Rowland Hill’s corps commenced the action by attacking the left of the French position, on which a perceptible impression was soon made, notwithstanding that the enemy offered a stout resistance, and occasioned our troops a heavy loss.

This success of the right wing was soon followed by a general attack with the 3d, 4th, 7th, and Light Divisions, directed by Lord Wellington in person. Those troops crossed the Zadora by different bridges opposite the French centre, against which they immediately advanced, under a tremendous cannonade, and in such beautiful and imposing style, as no one who was an eye-witness is likely to forget. Long before the centre of our army passed the Zadora, the 1st and 3d battalions of our corps were pushed forward to its banks, and warmly engaged with the French light troops posted on the opposite side amongst the rocks. The passage of the Zadora was effected, and some companies of our battalion had crowned the heights not many hundred yards from it, when a murderous fire of musketry was opened on us, from several battalions of infantry at its foot placed behind stone walls. This sudden blaze of fire checked the skirmishers, and prevented our descending the hill until the supporting columns arrived; which, with a part of the 3d Division, who opened a flanking fire, dislodged the French from the walls. We then followed them through a village near at hand, where our battalion took three pieces of artillery and some prisoners.

The French now opened a terrible fire of artillery on the village and the troops about it, under cover of which they re-entered it, and endeavoured to retake the guns. But our men had cut the traces; and as many of the gunners and artillery-drivers, with their horses, had been shot, the guns remained in our possession. Except in after-days, at Waterloo, I do not remember to have experienced a more furious cannonade than at this point. Whilst this was going forward, Sir Rowland Hill was driving the French left before him, and the British centre was fast closing with theirs. They soon, therefore, commenced a general retreat towards Vittoria, taking advantage of every favourable piece of ground to check us with their numerous artillery, and covered also by a swarm of light troops.

About this period of the day,—(as a regimentalist, and tied to my battalion, I do not pretend to accuracy as to moments or minutes,)—the troops under Sir Thomas Graham, consisting of the 1st and 5th Divisions, with some cavalry and Spaniards, attacked, in the most resolute and spirited style, the French right, and, after a succession of sanguinary contests, drove the enemy from their ground on the higher part of the Zadora; and thus completed one of the most brilliant victories ever gained. That the French lost all their artillery, baggage, stores, military chest, and the whole material of their army, is universally known. The greater part of the French army was obliged to retreat, without delay, by the Pampeluna road, into the “sacred territory of France.”

It was a fine sight, shortly before dark, to behold the French cavalry formed in one dense mass, to cover the retreat of their discomfited army. I conclude, that if daylight had lasted a short time longer, we should have seen the cavalry of the two armies measure their strength. Such, however, was not the case. From the moment of crossing the Zadora, early in the day, until night put an end to the contest and pursuit, we had been constantly engaged.

We bivouacked about a league from the city of Vittoria, amidst waggon-loads of captured baggage of all kinds, consisting of boxes of gold and silver belonging to the military chest, clothes, trinkets, horses, mules, ammunition-waggons, guns, commissariat stores, and waggons belonging to French general officers, where we found fresh bread, Swiss cheese, wine, brandy, &c. &c., of which we made good use, having tasted nothing since daybreak. Two officers of my company were severely wounded in this battle, and were a great loss to our little mess in the bell tent. This signal victory was gained by seven divisions; one (the 6th) having been left near the Ebro, and consequently taking no share in the battle. Joseph Bonaparte narrowly escaped being made prisoner; and many fair ones, both French and Spanish, who could not contrive to escape with their husbands or lovers, were left in Vittoria, or amongst the baggage on the field. Men and officers were so occupied with discussing the events of the day over the camp fires, smoking cigars, and making free with the wines and other good things found amongst the spoils, that daylight arrived, and summoned us again to move, almost before we could take any repose.

On the 22d, the Light Division and the 4th, with some cavalry, followed by the remainder of the army, marched in pursuit of the enemy by the road to Pampeluna; and Sir James Graham’s corps advanced in the direction of Tolosa. We did not reach the French rear-guard; and encamped at night near Salvaterra, a town with a wall round it.

Next morning, at daybreak, the Light Division, with the 1st German Hussars and 14th Light Dragoons, went in pursuit, and came up with their rear-guard early in the day, just after they had set fire to a wooden bridge over a small river. We found a ford, by which our battalion, forming the advance of the Light Division, passed, and immediately commenced an attack, supported by the cavalry and horse artillery. We continued a running fight until the afternoon, driving them through Lacanza, and taking many prisoners. It rained tremendously the whole day.

The French set fire to several villages in a wanton and cruel manner; and when we reached them, they were half consumed. With great difficulty we were able to get through the streets, as the burning rafters were falling into them every instant. For a moment it was a matter of doubt whether the horse artillery, with their ammunition, should venture to pass; but the ardour of pursuit overcame all other feelings, and they rattled through at a brisk pace, fortunately without any mischief occurring.

Late in the afternoon a carriage was seen coming up from the rear with two ladies. These proved to be the Countess Gazan, wife of the chief of the French staff, and the wife of some other French officer, who had fallen into our hands in the late battle. Lord Wellington lost no time in restoring them to their husbands, and they were handed over to their countrymen at the advanced posts.

On the 24th, the Light Division, with the German Hussars and the 14th Light Dragoons, started again at daybreak, and came up with a rear-guard of several thousand infantry, occupying a formidable position behind a mountain river called the Araquil. The banks being extremely rocky and difficult of approach, and the fords impracticable from the heavy rains, which still descended, they could not be attacked but by a narrow bridge. The only infantry advanced thus far were the 1st and 3d battalions of the 95th Riflemen, with which, however, General Alten immediately set to work, before the remainder of the division arrived. Our 3d battalion climbed a mountain on the left, which enabled them to throw a fire on the enemy’s right, whilst the 1st battalion blazed at them in front across the river. This, with the appearance of the remainder of the Light Division approaching, caused the French gradually to melt away and to continue their retreat.

We lost many men in this desultory fight. Coming up with them again soon afterwards, in a more open country, the horse artillery cannonaded them with considerable effect, and the cavalry charged and sabred many men. At this moment there was a strange mixed fight of the three arms, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, all scuffling and pounding their adversaries simultaneously. Never did the commandant of an advanced guard bring into play more quickly, and with better judgment and effect, the different description of troops under his command than Baron Alten, and, moreover, without the least confusion or delay. He was always with the most advanced party, whether it happened to be cavalry or infantry; and in his quiet, cool manner, did the business to admiration. We stuck close to the heels of the enemy, and captured from them the last piece of artillery but one which remained out of the whole of their immense train before the battle of Vittoria. They took refuge under the guns of Pampeluna; and our advanced guard occupied for the night some farm-houses and villages within a few miles of it. The country from Salvaterra to Pampeluna is highly favourable for a retreating army, as it affords various positions amongst the defiles and woods, and behind the rivulets, to stop its pursuers, without the aid of artillery.

At an early hour on the 25th we advanced towards Pampeluna, and began to think it possible, nay, probable, that ere long we should not only behold from the Pyrenees “the great, the grand, the beautiful France,” but tread its soil. Contrasting the present situation and position of our army with what it had been three years before, when shut up in the lines of Torres Vedras, it appeared like a dream. Then Marshal Massena threatened to kick us into our ships; whereas now, the “Leopard,” having cleared the Peninsula of its invaders, was advancing with rapid strides to threaten in his turn. We threw out strong pickets towards the fortress, and occupied Villa Alba, and other small villages near it.

The appearance of Pampeluna, standing in a large plain not far from the base of the Pyrenees, and watered by the Arga, is very imposing. It is a place of considerable strength; but to the engineer department, or those better versed in fortification than myself, I leave the task of describing its weakest and strongest points.

Lord Wellington, taking with him, on the 26th June, the 3d, 4th, and Light Divisions, and some cavalry, marched in pursuit of General Clausel, who, with three French divisions, was endeavouring to reach France by some of the Pyrenean passes, in a more easterly direction. The brave, patriotic, and indefatigable Spanish General, Mina, had, by destroying bridges, breaking up roads, and in various other manners, obstructed General Clausel’s movements, and obliged him to make considerable _détours_ to reach different points.

We encamped near Muro on the 26th, and on the 27th marched through a good town called Tafala, where the people greeted us with joy and enthusiasm. After a long march through a fertile and beautiful country, we encamped near Olite, an old town with a wall round it. The whole of the 28th was spent in following the route by which it was expected we should come up with General Clausel; and worse or more rugged roads no one need wish to travel over. At midnight we bivouacked in some ploughed land on the banks of the Arragon, without baggage or provisions, and in tremendous rain.

We were ordered to halt on the 29th in our bivouac, it having been ascertained that a Spanish priest had given General Clausel information of the march of the three British divisions. This, by causing him to change his direction, prevented our taking him by surprise, and, in all probability, giving a good account of him. Clausel effected his retreat into France; and we returned on the 30th towards Pampeluna, bestowing sundry benedictions on the padre for having marred our plans, and given us three long marches to no purpose.

On the 3d of July we found ourselves within a few miles of Pampeluna again, where we remained until the 5th, assisting in the blockade. We then commenced penetrating into the Pyrenees, and on the 6th reached Lanz, amidst the most lovely scenery imaginable. The valleys, watered by the clearest streams, are well cultivated with Indian corn, and the mountains clothed to their summits with the most luxuriant woods.

A sharply contested affair between the advance of Sir Rowland Hill’s corps and the enemy took place this day at or near the pass of Maya, in which the French were driven from the mountains into their own country. At daybreak, on the 7th, we quitted our beautiful encampment; but it was only to exchange it for one equally so. No country in the known world can afford scenery more interesting or more truly splendid. Here is all the wild magnificence of the Alps, without the eternal monotonous fir and larch. Oak, beech, birch, box, and various trees, flourish on the sides and summits of the mountains, in a manner which I have never seen in other regions of the kind, except on the Ebro.

We had scarcely taken up our ground for the night, near Gostello, when an order was sent for our battalion to move to San Estevan, a town about one league in front of the bivouac of the division, whence we were to push pickets on the roads leading to Vera and Echelar. If we were struck with astonishment and delight at suddenly looking down on the Ebro on the 15th of June, we were equally so, when, on crowning a mountain, we all at once beheld the vale of San Estevan beneath, with the Bidassoa flowing through it. But a truce with descriptions of scenery. Simply let me observe, that I consider this valley unequalled in romantic and picturesque beauty.

Our arrival excited great curiosity, as we were the first British troops that had ever visited this secluded spot. The inhabitants received us hospitably and kindly, although they at first doubted our being English, as we were not clothed in scarlet. The French had fortified San Estevan against any sudden attempt from the guerillas of Mina and Longa, who eternally hovered about the mountains, and threatened the garrison. The complexions of the women in this part of Spain are very unlike those of the southern provinces, where the heat is so much more intense. Here you see the bloom of the northern Europeans; and their features also are dissimilar to those of the south. The women wear their fine long hair plaited, which hangs down the back to a great length, and is tied at the bottom with ribands of the most gaudy colours. The peasantry are a remarkably handsome race. Of the Basque language I know nothing, further than that it is, in print, unlike any other I have seen. Half a dozen consonants without a vowel, is nothing uncommon; but it does not strike one as being inharmonious or harsh. The Spanish is as little understood by the peasantry as German or English; and even the better classes do murder the Castilian most cruelly.

We remained a week in San Estevan; and as it was the first halt of any consequence which we had made since the 21st of May, we enjoyed beyond measure our short sojourn there. We had dances every night, and received the greatest attention from the people of all classes. The tune of one of their provincial dances we converted into a quick march for the band; and I have never since heard it, without being instantly reminded of the few happy days which I passed in that delightful spot. Whilst there, I caught some uncommonly fine trout in the Bidassoa, which abounds with them.

On the 14th July, the Light Division marched towards Vera; and on the 15th approached that town, which the French occupied, as well as some walls and enclosures in its front. A part of the 43d regiment attacked the village, whilst our battalion was ordered to ascend the heights of Santa Barbara, and to drive off their pickets. From its summit we had a distant view of the ocean, which for several years we had not seen. A spontaneous and universal shout was raised by the soldiers, which must have astonished our French neighbours, who were separated from us only by a valley.

The French held the pass of Vera with a strong force, and had thrown up field-works of different kinds for its defence. The 1st and 5th Divisions were near St. Sebastian; on the left bank of the Bidassoa was the Light Division, fronting the pass of Vera, the 7th Division at the pass of Echelar, and the other four divisions further to the right, occupying Maya, Roncesvalles, and other passes. The greater part of the cavalry were cantoned towards Vittoria and the Ebro, it being impossible either to feed or to employ them in the mountains where the army was now posted, and whence we looked down on, and cast a longing eye at, France.

A few days after we had encamped near Vera, we saw a gay assemblage of French officers and well-dressed females dancing to the music of a band in front of their tents, on the other side of the valley. The distance across was so trifling, that we distinctly made out the tunes to which they capered away, and, with our telescopes, could see their faces. Here were two large armies so near to each other, that an order for either party to advance would have brought on an engagement in a few minutes. Still, so much were they at their ease, that one party looked on at the other quadrilling!

Sir Thomas Graham had commenced the siege of St. Sebastian with the 5th Division. The French army was entrenching itself in an extended position, with its right on the sea near the mouth of the Bidassoa, and the left stretching along the lower Pyrenees in front of the western passes. On the 25th, a breach in the walls of St. Sebastian was stormed by a party of the 5th Division, but unfortunately the attack did not succeed, and the assailants lost many men in their gallant attempt. On the same day, Marshal Soult, who had recently joined the French army from the north of Europe, and superseded Marshal Jourdan, attacked, with a heavy force, Sir Rowland Hill’s corps at the pass of Maya; which, after a desperate resistance, and having suffered severely from numbers very superior, was obliged to fall back in the direction of Pampeluna. The other divisions also, which formed the right of the army, retired through the mountains, from position to position, after a variety of skirmishes, during several days in succession, and ultimately defeated Marshal Soult with great loss, in a desperate conflict in front of Pampeluna.

The 1st and 5th Divisions, during those operations remained near St. Sebastian, and the 7th and Light were ordered, on the 26th of July, to fall back from the passes of Echelar and Vera. But as, in the various intricate mazes and sheep-paths of the Pyrenees, through which we marched day and night, and floundered in the dark amongst precipices, from the 26th to the afternoon of the 30th, a man had quite enough to do to be able to ascertain the route taken by his own division, I shall not venture, to detail the movements of the 7th Division.

Soon after we had arrived at Lecumbra, on the 30th, we received the glorious intelligence of Marshal Soult’s army having sustained a signal defeat in its repeated attacks on the right wing near Pampeluna, consisting of the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th Divisions, which four alone, and at a great distance from the others, had beaten Marshal Soult to his heart’s content, and driven the remnant of his army back into France. The brunt of the battle was understood to have fallen on the 4th Division, which supported the high character it had acquired on various former occasions.

Marshal Soult, who had in his proclamation to the French army, a few days before, promised them that the English should be driven back over the Ebro, and the birth-day of the Emperor celebrated in the city of Vittoria, was obliged, for the present, to renounce his intentions, and to beat a rapid retreat into his own country. His loss during those operations has been rated as high as 15,000 men. He was followed by the right wing from Pampeluna, over the same ground nearly by which he had advanced; whilst the Light Division was directed to retrace its steps to the Bidassoa by forced marches, and to reach the bridge of Yanci. This was effected late in the afternoon of the 1st of August, after some harassing marches over the worst possible roads, impracticable for artillery. Many hundreds of men were left on the road thoroughly exhausted.

On arriving at the top of the mountain, which looks down on the Bidassoa, we found a large body of infantry strongly posted behind walls and rocks, opposite the bridge of Yanci, so as to render the passage of it impracticable. We perceived also a large French column marching, without much order, in great haste, and evidently much jaded, for the passes of Echelar and Vera, by the road which runs close along the bank of the river. Some companies of our regiment were instantly sent down the side of the mountain, with orders to blaze across the river at them. Our fire threw them into great confusion, which was increased by their being aware that the advanced guard of the 4th Division was following their track. Many of the French threw away their arms and knapsacks, and scrambled up the face of the mountain on their right, to get out of the scrape in which they found themselves, and for which there was no other remedy. They lost many men killed and wounded, and a great lot of baggage; but their troops posted for the defence of the bridge still held their ground, and did not abandon it until long after dark, when they followed their discomfited comrades to Echelar and Vera.

The next morning at daybreak, the Light Division crossed by the bridge of Yanci, and advanced to Vera, where we found the French occupying precisely the same ground as they had done a week before. General Kempt’s brigade was ordered to drive from a high mountain above the heights of Santa Barbara several French battalions. The 1st and 3d battalions of the 95th Riflemen, supported by the 43d regiment, climbed the mountain, and were soon warmly engaged. A thick fog suddenly came on, which obscured every thing from view; but the enemy kept up a continual fire at random. As soon as the mist cleared away, we again advanced, and finally succeeded in clearing the mountain, and hunting them down the opposite side of it into their own country.

Whilst we were thus engaged, the 4th Division was driving before it another body of the enemy from a mountain on our right. A brigade of the 7th Division, under General Barnes, consisting of the 51st and 68th regiments, made a gallant attack this day on a French corps, very superior in numbers and strongly posted, and drove them from their position in admirable style. It was asserted that General Barnes had twenty musket-shots through his clothes, hat, and saddle, without one of them touching his body. If, after such extraordinary escapes, that general should be a fatalist, who could wonder at it?

Soult’s army was now fairly over the Pyrenees again, and re-occupied its former positions; and in this manner terminated his expedition to raise the blockade of Pampeluna and the siege of St. Sebastian, and to drive the English over the Ebro.