and roads at length enabled the British commander to collect the materials and make preparations for forming the necessary bridges. The troops moved out of their cantonments on the 8th of December, and Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill, with the right of the army, crossed on the 9th. at and in the neighbourhood of Cambo, Marshal Sir William Beresford supporting the operation by passing the sixth division, under Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton, at Ustaritz; both operations succeeded completely. The enemy were

immediately driven from the right bank of the river, and retired towards Bayonne, by the great road of St. Jean Pied de Port. Those posted opposite Cambo were nearly intercepted by the sixth division, and one regiment, being driven from the road, was compelled to march across the country.

On the morning of the 10th. of December the enemy moved out of the entrenched camp with their whole army, with the exception only of that portion which occupied the works opposite to Sir Rowland Hill's position, and drove in the pickets of the light division, when an action ensued, the brunt of which fell upon the first Portuguese brigade under Major-General Arch. Campbell, and upon Major-General Robinson's brigade of the fifth division, which moved up in support.

When night closed the French were still in great force in front of the British posts, on the ground from which they had driven the pickets. During the night they retired from Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope's front, leaving small posts, which were immediately driven in. About three in the afternoon they again drove in that officer's pickets, and attacked his posts, but were once more repulsed with considerable loss.

On the morning of the 12th. the attack was re-commenced by the enemy with the same want of success, the first division under Major-General Howard, having relieved the fifth division; the enemy discontinued it in the afternoon, and

order to convince them of the reverses of Napoleon in Germany, rolled a stone up in the Star newspaper, and endeavoured to throw it across the stream. The stone, unfortunately, went through it, which made it fall into the water. The French officer thereupon remarked, in pretty fair English, "Your good news is very soon damped."

retired entirely within the entrenched camp on that night. After the 10th. the attack was never renewed on the posts of the light division.

It was not until the 12th. of December that the first division, under Major-General Howard, was engaged, when the Guards conducted themselves with their usual spirit.

Having thus failed in all the attacks with their whole force upon the British left, the enemy withdrew into their entrenchments on the night of the 12th., and passed a large force through Bayonne; with which, on the morning of the 13th. of December, a most desperate attack was made upon the troops under Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill. In expectation of this the Marquis of Wellington had requested Marshal Sir William Beresford to reinforce the LieutenantGeneral with the sixth division, which crossed the Nive at daylight on that morning; and a further reinforcement of the fourth division, with two brigades of the third, received orders to join Sir Rowland Hill. The troops under his immediate command had defeated the enemy with immense loss, before these succours arrived. Two guns and some prisoners were taken from the French, who, being beaten at all points, and having sustained considerable loss, were compelled to withdraw upon their entrenchment.

In a very interesting life of the late Viscount Hill, by the Rev. Edwin Sidney, A.M., is the following account of the action at St. Pierre, near Bayonne :-"This great service was thus performed by Sir Rowland Hill. The enemy, who had failed in all their attempts with their whole force upon Lord Wellington's left, withdrew to their entrenchments on the night of December 12th., and passed a large body of troops through the town of Bayonne. With these, on the morning of the 13th., they made a desperate attack on Sir Rowland Hill. This, as has appeared, was not unexpected; and Lord Wellington had placed at his disposal not only the sixth division, but the fourth division, and two brigades of the third. Soult's objects were to gain the bridge of St. Pierre, to make himself master of the road to St. Jean Pied de Port, and to break through the position of the allies. For these purposes he put forth his whole strength, and was

completely vanquished. Even before the sixth division arrived, Sir Rowland Hill had repulsed him with prodigious loss; and although he skilfully availed himself of a high ground in retreating, he could not stand against the famous charge of General Byng, and was entirely defeated. It was a battle fought and won by the corps of Sir Rowland Hill alone and unaided. At the instant of victory Lord Wellington came up, and in the ecstacy of the moment of triumph, caught him by the hand, and said, 'Hill, the day is your own.'"

The late Field-Marshal the Earl of Strafford, and Colonel of the Coldstream Guards, (then Major-General Byng,) highly distinguished himself in this action, wherein he led his troops, under a most galling fire, to the assault of a strong height occupied in great force by the enemy, and having himself ascended the hill first with the colour of the 31st. regiment of foot in his hand, he planted it upon the summit, and drove the enemy (far superior in numbers) down the ridge to the suburbs of St. Pierre, for which act he received the royal authority on the 4th. of July, 1815, to bear the following honourable augmentation, namely, "Over the arms of the family of Byng, in bend sinister, a representation of the colour of the 31st. regiment, and the following crest, namely, "Out of a mural crown an arm embowed, grasping the colour of the aforesaid 31st. regiment, and, pendent from the wrist by a riband, the Gold Cross presented to him by His Majesty's command, as a mark of his royal approbation of his distinguished services," and in an escrol above the word "Mouguerre," being the name of a height near the hamlet of St. Pierre.

From the 9th. to the 13th. of December, the total loss of the allies, British and Portuguese, amounted to thirty-two officers and six hundred and eighteen men killed, and two hundred and thirty-three officers and three thousand six hundred and seventy-four men wounded.*

F. S. Larpent, Esq., the Judge Advocate-General of the British forces in the Peninsula, records in his Journal this characteristic anecdote, in reference to these casualties:-"Lord Wellington at dinner, on Sunday, directed some jokes at Major D, who makes out the returns, because he wanted to make a grand total of wounded, etc., after the late five days' fighting He laughed and said, all might go wrong from this innovation, but he was determined he would have no more grand totals, until he got another Vittoria without more loss; that the loss was always great enough, in all conscience, without displaying it in this ostentatious

NIVE is borne on the colours of the following regiments: -16th. Light Dragoons, 1st., 3rd., 4th., 9th., 11th., 28th., 31st., 32nd., 34th., 36th., 38th., 39th., 42nd., 43rd., 50th., 52nd., 57th., 59th., 60th., 61st., 62nd., 66th., 71st., 76th., 79th., 84th., 85th., 91st., and 92nd. Foot, and Rifle Brigade.

BATTLE OF ORTHES.

27TH. FEBRUARY, 1814.

LITTLE rest was accorded to the Peninsular troops. The weather having improved, and the roads become passable, in the second week of February the Marquis of Wellington continued his victorious career. The sixth and light divisions were ordered to break up from the blockade of Bayonne, and General Don Manuel Freyre was directed to close up the cantonments of his corps towards Irun, and to be prepared to move when the left of the army should cross the Adour. Immediately after the passage of the Gave d'Oléron, by Sir Rowland Hill, at Villenave, on the 24th. of February, that general and Sir Henry Clinton moved towards Orthes, near which place the French army was assembled on the 25th., having destroyed all the bridges on the Gave de Pau.

At this period the third division of the British army was at the broken bridge of Berenx, five miles lower down the river, having the sixth and seventh divisions (then arrived under Marshal Beresford) on its left, while the remainder of the force was assembled in front of Orthes. On the 26th. the third division forded the river lower down, and a pontoon bridge was afterwards laid at Berenx, by which the fourth and sixth divisions crossed on the morning of the 27th., at which time the third division was already posted with skirmishers thrown out close upon the left centre of the French position. The sixth division was placed on the right between the third division and the river, and the light division on its left in rear as a reserve. During the whole morning there had been occasional skirmishing by the third division, but the real attack manner, and that he would not have every drummer and every officer, etc., killed or wounded in the last five days, all added up in one grand total; but that, at least, the croakers should have the trouble themselves of adding up all the different losses, and making it out for themselves."

commenced at nine o'clock by the third and sixth divisions on the French left centre, and the fourth and seventh divisions on their right, which last was intended to be the principal point of attack; but it having been found, after three hours' hard fighting, that the enemy were there too strongly posted, the Marquis of Wellington ordered an advance of the third and sixth divisions, with the 52nd. regiment, from the centre upon the left centre of the French position, which they carried and secured the victory; meanwhile Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill, with the second division, had crossed the river above Orthes, and nearly cut off the only line of retreat open to the enemy, who then retired from the field, but without confusion, and constantly resisting the advance. The allies followed, keeping up an incessant fire and cannonade, but lost many men, particularly of the third division, which was the most strongly opposed; this continued until the French nearly reached the Luy de Bearn river, when their retreat became a flight, and they effected their escape by the fords and one bridge, which they destroyed, having lost four thousand men and six guns.

The allies, on the 27th. of February, had eighteen officers and two hundred and fifty-five men killed, one hundred and thirty-two officers and one thousand seven hundred and fiftynine men wounded. In this battle the Marquis of Wellington was wounded.†

* "This attack, led by the 52nd. regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Colborne, and supported on their right by Major-General Brisbane's and Colonel Keane's brigades of the third division, and by simultaneous attacks on the left by Major-General Anson's brigade of the fourth division, and on the right by Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, with the remainder of the third division, and the sixth division, under Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton, dislodged the enemy from the heights, and gave us the victory."- Wellington's despatch.

It is remarkable that the Duke of Wellington passed through so many battles unhurt: he had a narrow escape at Orthes. In the private Journal of F. S. Larpent, Esq., Judge Advocate-General of the British forces in the Peninsula, speaking of this battle, it is remarked that "it was curious that Lord Wellington and General Alava were close together when struck, and both on the hip, but on different sides, and neither seriously injured, as the surgeon told me who dressed them. Lord Wellington's was a bad bruise, and skin was broken. I fear his riding so much since has rather made it of more consequence, but hope the two days' halt here will put him in the right way again, as all our prospects here would vanish with

that man."

"I walked down to the bridge with Lord Wellington yesterday, (6th. March, 1814,) and found him limp a little, and he said he was in rather