English Passage of the Bidassoa and Second Combat of Vera--The Passage of the Lower Bidassoa--Second Combat of Vera--Battle of the Nivelle; Characters of Colonel Lloyd and Lieutenant Freer 352 BOOK XIV. Passage of the Nive--Battles in front of Bayonne--Combat of Arcangues--First Battle of Barrouilhet--Second Battle of Barrouilhet--Third Combat of Barrouilhet--Battle of St. Pierre--Operations beyond the Nive 385 BOOK XV. Passages of the Gaves and the Adour--Passage of the Gaves-- Combat of Garris--Passage of the Adour--Passage of the Gaves continued--Battle of Orthes--Combat of Aire 412 BOOK XVI. Garonne--Adour Combat of Vic Bigorre--Death and Character of Colonel Sturgeon; Surprising Feat of Captain Light--Combat of Tarbes--Operations on the Garonne--Major Hughes; Battle of Toulouse--Sally from Bayonne 440 BATTLES AND SIEGES OF THE PENINSULA. BOOK I. Combat of Roriça--Battle of Vimiero--Coruña--Battle of Coruña. In the year 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley marched from the Mondego river with twelve thousand three hundred men, and eighteen guns, to attack General Junot who was in military possession of Portugal. The French troops were scattered, but General Laborde had been detached with a division to cover their concentration, and watch the English movements. This led to the first fight between the French and English in the Peninsula. COMBAT OF RORIÇA. (Aug. 1808.) Fourteen hundred Portuguese, under Colonel Trant, a military agent, joined the British on the march, and the French were felt the 15th of August at Brilos, in front of Obidos, where some men fell in a skirmish. Sir A. Wellesley then entered the Valley of Obidos, in the middle of which Laborde occupied isolated ground of moderate elevation, near the village of Roriça; he had only five thousand men and six guns, little more than one-third of the English numbers, but he had five hundred cavalry, had chosen his position well, and could handle troops with dexterity. On his right was a lofty mountain ridge, on his left lower but very rough ground, and the valley behind him was closed, not only by the commingling of the hills in a mountainous knot, but by a rocky projection called the Zambugeira or Columbeira heights, which, at less than a mile, stood like a citadel in his rear, and was so covered with copses, wild evergreens and forest trees, and so rugged that only by paths leading up deep clefts and hollows could it be ascended.