off to his point of attack. The French
must have been, no doubt, astonished to see such an armed force spring
out of the ground almost under their noses; but they were,
nevertheless, prepared behind their entrenchments, and caused us some
loss in passing the short space between us; but the whole place was
carried within the time required to walk over it; and, in less than
half-an-hour from the commencement of the attack, it was in our
possession, with all their tents left standing.

Petite La Rhune was more of an outpost than a part of their position,
the latter being a chain of stupendous mountains in its rear; so that
while our battalion followed their skirmishers into the valley
between, the remainder of our division were forming for the attack on
the main position, and waiting for the co-operation of the other
divisions, the thunder of whose artillery, echoing along the valleys,
proclaimed that they were engaged, far and wide, on both sides of us.
About midday our division advanced to the grand attack on the most
formidable looking part of the whole of the enemy's position, and,
much to our surprise, we carried it with more ease and less loss than
the outpost in the morning, a circumstance which we could only account
for by supposing that it had been defended by the same troops, and
that they did not choose to sustain two _hard_ beatings on the same
day. The attack succeeded at every point; and, in the evening, we had
the satisfaction of seeing the left wing of the army marching into St.
Jean de Luz.

Towards the end of the action, Colonel Barnard was struck with a
musket-ball, which carried him clean off his horse. The enemy, seeing
that they had shot an officer of rank, very maliciously kept up a
heavy firing on the spot, while we were carrying him under the brow of
the hill. The ball having passed through the lungs, he was spitting
blood, and, at the moment, had every appearance of being in a dying
state; but, to our joy and surprise, he, that day month, rode up to the
battalion, when it was in action, near Bayonne; and, I need not add,
that he was received with three hearty cheers.

A curious fact occurred in our regiment at this period. Prior to the
action of the Nivelle, an owl had perched itself on the tent of one of
our officers (Lieut. Doyle). This officer was killed in the battle,
and the owl was afterwards seen on Capt. Duncan's tent. His
brother-officers quizzed him on the subject, by telling him tha