. Not being
willing to show fight, we retreated on that occasion, having nothing
to attend to but ourselves and our kit, for we were without baggage
and cannon. After a ten miles' journey or so we again halted expecting
to be attacked again very soon, for which emergency we hastily
prepared, needlessly, as it proved, however, for we eventually stopped
here quietly for a month.

During this time that I have been speaking of the siege of San
Sebastian had been going on, the town having up to this time been
already attacked twice, but without success. Lord Wellington now
ordered twenty men out of each regiment of our division to act in
conjunction with the besiegers, and soon after they arrived, the order
being given to attack, after about two hours' fighting they succeeded
in capturing the town and driving the garrison into the castle, which
was likewise obliged to surrender in about a week. Though there were
many deaths occasioned in this siege, strange to say the whole twenty
men of our regiment returned unhurt.

I remember during our stay here, our captain was fearfully troubled
with the toothache. At last one night, after trying in vain to endure
the pain, he came to me and said, "O sergeant, I am still troubled
with the pain! What can you advise me for it?" I recommended him just
to take a pipe of my tobacco, for I knew that would be a good thing
for him, but he never could bear tobacco, so that it wanted a good
deal of persuasion to at last make him consent to prefer the remedy to
the pain. As he had no pipe of his own, I supplied him with the
implement and some tobacco, and he began to smoke. But he had not been
at it long before he said, "Why, sergeant, this will never do! The
place seems whirling round. Here, take the pipe, for I feel precious
queer; but my tooth is much better, and after all you are not such a
bad doctor." He gave me half a pint of rum, and for a long time I
heard nothing more of his toothache.

We stayed here, as I said before, about a month, and then again moved
on after our enemy, our cavalry, pontoon bridges, and artillery coming
on by the most convenient passes of the mountains. While on the march
we often had slight skirmishes with the enemy, but no regular pitched
battle until we came to the Nivelle, where Soult had taken up a strong
position. There our army halted in line, determined to attack and
proceed if possible into France, as nothing more remained to be done
in the Peninsula,