y amongst them who could do it in
perfection; she was the wife of a French Colonel, and had been left in
the care of her friends, (and his enemies): she certainly could pound
the ground both harder and faster than any one there, eliciting the
greatest applause after every performance; and yet I do not think that
she could have caught a _French_ husband by her superiority in that
particular step.

After our few days halt, we advanced along the banks of the Bidassoa,
through a succession of beautiful little fertile valleys, thickly
studded with clean respectable looking farm-houses and little
villages, and bounded by stupendous, picturesque, and well wooded
mountains, until we came to the hill next to the village of Bera,
which we found occupied by a small force of the enemy, who, after
receiving a few shots from our people, retired through the village
into their position behind it. Our line of demarcation was then
clearly seen. The mountain which the French army occupied was the last
ridge of the Pyrenees; and their sentries stood on the face of it,
within pistol shot of the village of Bera, which now became the
advanced post of our division. The Bidassoa takes a sudden turn to the
left at Bera, and formed a natural boundary between the two armies
from thence to the sea; but all to our right was open, and merely
marked a continuation of the valley of Bera, which was a sort of
neutral ground, in which the French foragers and our own frequently
met and helped themselves, in the greatest good humour, while any
forage remained, without exchanging either words or blows. The left
wing of the army, under Sir Thomas Graham, now commenced the siege of
St. Sebastian; and as Lord Wellington had, at the same time, to cover
both that and the blockade of Pampeluna, our army occupied an extended
position of many miles.

Marshal Soult having succeeded to the command of the French army, and
finding, towards the end of July, that St. Sebastian was about to be
stormed, and that the garrison of Pampeluna were beginning to get on
short allowance, he determined on making a bold push for the relief
of both places; and, assembling the whole of his army, he forced the
pass of Maya, and advanced rapidly upon Pampeluna. Lord Wellington was
never to be caught napping. His army occupied too extended a position
to offer effectual resistance at any of their advanced posts; but, by
the time that Marshal Soult had worked his way up to the last ridge o