December 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1813.
The centre and left wing of our army advanced on the morning of the
9th of December, and drove the enemy within their entrenchments,
threatening an attack on their lines. Lord Wellington had the double
object, in this movement, of reconnoitring their works, and effecting
the passage of the Nive with his right wing. The rivers Nive and Adour
unite in the town of Bayonne, so that while we were threatening to
storm the works on one side, Sir Rowland Hill passed the Nive, without
opposition, on the other, and took up his ground, with his right on
the Adour and his left on the Nive, on a contracted space, within a
very short distance of the walls of the town. On our side we were
engaged in a continued skirmish until dark, when we retired to our
quarters, under the supposition that we had got our usual week's
allowance, and that we should remain quiet again for a time.
We turned out at daylight on the 10th; but, as there was a thick
drizzling rain which prevented us from seeing any thing, we soon
turned in again. My servant soon after came to tell me that Sir Lowry
Cole, and some of his staff, had just ascended to the top of the
chateau, a piece of information which did not quite please me, for I
fancied that the general had just discovered our quarter to be better
than his own, and had come for the purpose of taking possession of it.
However, in less than five minutes, we received an order for our
battalion to move up instantly to the support of the piquets; and, on
my descending to the door, to mount my horse, I found Sir Lowry
standing there, who asked if we had received any orders; and, on my
telling him that we had been ordered up to support the piquets, he
immediately desired a staff-officer to order up one of his brigades to
the rear of the chateau. This was one of the numerous instances in
which we had occasion to admire the prudence and forethought of the
great Wellington! He had foreseen the attack that would take place,
and had his different divisions disposed to meet it. We no sooner
moved up, than we found ourselves a party engaged along with the
piquets; and, under a heavy skirmishing fire, retiring gradually from
hedge to hedge, according as the superior force of the enemy compelled
us to give ground, until we finally retired within our home, the
chateau, which was the first part of our position that was meant to be
defended in earnest. We had previously thrown up a mud rampart around
it, and loop-holed the different outhouses, so that we had nothing now
to do, but to line the walls and shew determined fight. The
forty-third occupied the church-yard to our left, which was also
partially fortified; and the third Cacadores and our third battalion,
occupied the space between, behind the hedge-rows, while the fourth
division was in readiness to support us from the rear. The enemy came
up to the opposite ridge, in formidable numbers, and began blazing at
our windows and loop-holes, and shewing some disposition to attempt it
by storm; but they thought better of it and withdrew their columns a
short distance to the rear, leaving the nearest hedge lined with their
skirmishers. An officer of ours, Mr. Hopewood, and one of our
serjeants, had been killed in the field opposite, within twenty yards
of where the enemy's skirmishers now were. We were very anxious to get
possession of their bodies, but had not force enough to effect it.
Several French soldiers came through the hedge, at different times,
with the intention, as we thought, of plundering, but our men shot
every one who attempted to go near them, until towards evening, when a
French officer approached, waving a white handkerchief and pointing to
some of his men who were following him with shovels. Seeing that his
intention was to bury them, we instantly ceased firing, nor did we
renew it again that night.
The forty-third, from their post at the church, kept up an incessant
shower of musketry the whole of the day, at what was conceived, at the
time, to be a very long range; but from the quantity of balls which
were afterwards found sticking in every tree, where the enemy stood,
it was evident that their birth must have been rather uncomfortable.
One of our officers, in the course of the day, had been passing
through a deep road-way, between two banks, with hedge-rows, when, to
his astonishment, a dragoon and his horse tumbled heels over head into
the road, as if they had been fired out of a cloud. Neither of them
were the least hurt; but it must have been no joke that tempted him to
take such a flight.
Soult expected, by bringing his whole force to bear on our centre and
left wing, that he would have succeeded in forcing it, or, at all
events, of obliging Lord Wellington to withdraw Sir Rowland Hill from
beyond the Nive; but he effected neither, and darkness left the two
armies on the ground which they had fought on.
General Alten and Sir James Kempt took up their quarters with us in
the chateau: our sentries and those of the enemy stood within
pistol-shot of each other in the ravine below.
Young Arcangues, I presume, must have been rather disappointed at the
result of the day; for, even giving him credit for every kindly
feeling towards us, his wishes must still have been in favour of his
countrymen; but when he found that his chateau was to be a bone of
contention, it then became his interest that we should keep possession
of it; and he held out every inducement for us to do so; which, by the
by, was quite unnecessary, seeing that our own comfort so much
depended on it. However, though his supplies of claret had failed some
days before, he now discovered some fresh cases in the cellar, which
he immediately placed at our disposal; and, that our dire resolve to
defend the fortress should not be melted by weak woman's wailings, he
fixed an arm-chair on a mule, mounted his grandmother on it, and sent
her off to the rear, while the balls were whizzing about the
neighbourhood in a manner to which even she, poor old lady, was not
altogether insensible, though she had become a mounted heroine at a
period when she had given up all idea of ever sitting on any thing
more lively than a coffin.
During the whole of the 11th each army retained the same ground, and
though there was an occasional exchange of shots at different points,
yet nothing material occurred.
The enemy began throwing up a six-gun battery opposite our chateau;
and we employed ourselves in strengthening the works, as a
precautionary measure, though we had not much to dread from it, as
they were so strictly within range of our rifles, that he must have
been a lucky artilleryman who stood there to fire a second shot.
In the course of the night a brigade of Belgians, who were with the
French army, having heard that their country had declared for their
legitimate king, passed over to our side, and surrendered.
On the 12th there was heavy firing and hard fighting, all day, to our
left, but we remained perfectly quiet. Towards the afternoon, Sir
James Kempt formed our brigade, for the purpose of expelling the enemy
from the hill next the chateau, to which he thought them rather too
near; but, just as we reached our different points for commencing the
attack, we were recalled, and nothing further occurred.
I went, about one o'clock in the morning, to visit our different
piquets; and seeing an unusual number of fires in the enemy's lines, I
concluded that they had lit them to mask some movement; and taking a
patrole with me, I stole cautiously forward, and found that they had
left the ground altogether. I immediately returned, and reported the
circumstance to General Alten, who sent off a despatch to apprize Lord
Wellington.
As soon as day began to dawn, on the morning of the 13th, a tremendous
fire of artillery and musketry was heard to our right. Soult had
withdrawn every thing from our front in the course of the night, and
had now attacked Sir Rowland Hill with his whole force. Lord
Wellington, in expectation of this attack, had, last night, reinforced
Sir Rowland Hill with the sixth division; which enabled him to occupy
his contracted position so strongly, that Soult, unable to bring more
than his own front to bear upon him, sustained a signal and sanguinary
defeat.
Lord Wellington galloped into the yard of our chateau, soon after the
attack had commenced, and demanded, with his usual quickness, what was
to be seen? Sir James Kempt, who was spying at the action from an
upper window, told him; and, after desiring Sir James to order Sir
Lowry Cole to follow him with the fourth division, he galloped off to
the scene of action. In the afternoon, when all was over, he called in
again, on his return to head-quarters, and told us, "that it was the
most glorious affair that he had ever seen; and that the enemy had
absolutely left upwards of five thousand men, killed and wounded, on
the ground."
This was the last action in which we were concerned, near Bayonne. The
enemy seemed quite satisfied with what they had got; and offered us no
further molestation, but withdrew within their works.