GENERAL HISTORY. 



[147 



ing northwards, and the garrison 

 of Segorbe had been withdrawn. 



The operations on the border 

 between Spain and France had 

 hitherto been upon a comparatively 

 small scale ; but towards the close 

 of July an effort was made by the 

 French which brought into action 

 the whole force on each side. 

 Marshal Soult having been ap- 

 pointed by an imperial decree 

 commander-in-chief of the French 

 army in Spain and the southern 

 provinces of France, joined the 

 army on July 13th, which had been 

 re-formed into nine divisions of in- 

 fantry and three of cavalry, with a 

 large proportion of artillery. The 

 allied army was posted in the dif- 

 ferent passes of the mountains, 

 with mutual communications, and 

 Pamplona was blockaded by a 

 Spanish forceunder theConde del 

 Abisbal. For the detail of the 

 subsequent operations we must, as 

 before, refer to the Gazette, ob- 

 serving, however, that they cannot 

 be rendered intelligible without a 

 particular map of the broken and 

 varied country bordering the Py- 

 renees. We shall attempt no more 

 than to give an idea of the princi- 

 pal incidents. On the S^th Soult 

 collected at St. Jean Pied de Port 

 the right and left wings of his 

 army, and a division of his centre, 

 with some cavalry, amounting in 

 all to 30 or 40,000 men, and on 

 the 25th attacked general Byng's 

 post at Roncesvalles. He was sup- 

 ported by a division of the allied 

 army under sir Lowry Cole, and 

 the position was maintained during 

 the day, but being turned in the 

 evening, it was necessary to aban« 

 don it in the night. On the same 

 day, two divisions of the enemy's 

 centre attacked sir R. Hill's posi- 



tion in the Puerto de Maya, the 

 defenders of which at first gave 

 way, but being reinforced, they re- 

 covered the most important part of 

 their post, which they could have 

 held, had not the retreat of sir L. 

 Cole rendered it expedient for 

 them also to retire. On the 27tli 

 sir L. Cole and sir T. Picton 

 thinking the post to which they 

 had retreated not tenable, drew 

 further back to a position to cover 

 the blockade of Pamplona. Their 

 forces consisted of the 2nd and 4th 

 divisions of the allied army, and as 

 they were taking their ground, 

 they were joined by lord Welling- 

 ton. Shortly after, the enemy 

 made an attack on a hill upon the 

 right of the fourth division, the 

 importance of which post rendered 

 it an object of vigorous assault and 

 defence during that and the fol- 

 lowing day, and the enemy was 

 finally repulsed. On the 28th the 

 sixth division joined, which, as 

 soon as it had taken its position, 

 was attacked by a large body of 

 the enemy, who were driven back 

 with vast loss. The battle then 

 became general along the front of 

 the heights occupied by the 4th 

 division, every regiment of which 

 charged with the bayonet, some of 

 them four different times, and the 

 result was, a repulse of the enemy, 

 with great slaughter. On the 29th 

 and 30th various operations were 

 carried on, too intricate to be sum- 

 marily described. On the latter 

 day, lord Wellington directed an 

 attack upon the enemy, the success 

 of which obliged him to abandon 

 a position said by his lordship to 

 be " one of the strongest and most 

 difficult of access that he had yet 

 seen occupied by troops." In 

 their retreat from it, the French 

 [L2] 



