246 ON THE FALSE ESTIMATE OF THE MILITARY CHARACTER. 



street. The word being given, we were speedily treading the 

 mountain pass the moon shining brightly above our heads, the 

 snow, which reflected her light like myriads of diamonds, crackling 

 crisply under our feet we were enlivened by jokes at the little 

 disasters the slipperiness of the ground occasioned, and cheered by 

 the reflection that the morrow would plant us on the soil of France, 

 where better quarters and fare were expected than had been pro- 

 cured in the country we were quitting it was hoped for ever. In 

 this way we marched all night, sometimes two abreast ; but more 

 frequently, from the narrowness of the path, in what military men 

 call Indian files. We were certain of fighting in the morning, but 

 being equally certain of victory, this consideration rather raised than 

 depressed our spirits; whilst the splendour of the scene, every snow- 

 clad pinnacle shining in the full effulgence of the moon on her 

 midnight march through a cloudless sky, contributed to render this 

 one of the most joyous of our campaigning nights. Just as the 

 moon's light was yielding to the gray dawn, we emerged from the 

 mountain gorge. As the morning's mist slowly rolled away, we 

 saw spread beneath our feet a country, champaign in comparison of 

 that which we were just quitting, but with a surface sufficiently 

 varied to be pleasing, well wooded, and intersected by a stream, the 

 Nivelle, whose course we could trace by the silver haze still hover- 

 ing over it, after the sun's beams had swept it from the adjacent 

 lands. Our view, from the eminence on which we were moving 

 across this plain, towards the north and north-west (our left), was 

 bounded by the horizon only, and looking in this direction we could 

 catch an occasional glimpse of the light reflected from British 

 bayonets moving in lines parallel to our own. To the east and 

 south-east our view was bounded by a ridge of hills, at some distance 

 in our front one of those intermediate steps by which mountainous 

 districts unite with the flat country beneath low in comparison of 

 the mighty mountain chain we had traversed, and projected from it 

 in a direction oblique to its general course, so that one extremity of 

 the plain I am describing lay in the angle formed between this off- 

 set and the parent range. Towards this hilly ridge all eyes and 

 sundry telescopes were speedily directed, for there, the rumour ran, 

 was the enemy under Marshal Soult expecting our approach. As 

 we neared it in our march across the plain, we could see by the aid 

 of our glasses that its summit was covered with huts, constructed of 

 branches of trees, &c., between which the enemy's bayonets were 

 here and there visible ; but by far the greater part of their force 

 was concealed. It was evident that they were on the alert and ex- 

 pecting us. 



We moved across the plain with as much rapidity as the nature of 

 the ground would permit, till we reached the Nivelle, which was found 

 to be a more considerable stream than had been expected. It was 

 brawling tumultuously in its course to the Adour, wherein it termi- 

 nates, between banks considerably precipitous, and was unfordable, 

 so that our only means of passing it was a small wooden bridge, little 

 more than a plank, without parapets. Over this the troops filed 

 without difficulty; but the mules, scared with the sound of their 



