“Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton congratulates Major-General the Honourable Sir C. Colville, Major-General Brisbane, and Major-General Power, upon the conspicuous services rendered by the brigades under their several commands towards the brilliant success of the 21st of June instant. He requests to assure the commanding officers, officers, non-commissioned officers and men of their corps and regiments, that their conduct did not fail to excite his warm admiration, and to increase the confidence he has always felt in the command of the third division,” &c. On the 28th of July, two companies of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH had an opportunity of earning distinction for themselves and their corps under the immediate eye of the whole third division, as well as of a strong and select body of the French. The attempt of Marshal Soult to raise the siege of Pampeluna, which had been invested by the Duke of Wellington’s army shortly after the battle of Vittoria, and the series of actions which took place between the covering army and that of Soult in the passes of the Pyrenees between the 25th and 30th of July, which ended in the complete repulse of the French, gave rise to the display of British valour with a splendour never exceeded in the annals of war. The allied army was posted immediately in front of Pampeluna, the right in front of the village of Huarte, the third division being to the right, and those of Lieutenant-General Cole, and Major-General the Honourable E. Pakenham, together with the Spaniards, to the left. The main efforts of Soult during the day were directed against the allied left, but about five in the afternoon, some of his tirailleurs were pushed forward as if to feel the countenance of the third division, and ascertain whether its position would be seriously defended or not. The light company of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, commanded by Captain Robert Nickle (late Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-Sixth Foot) was ordered to drive them back, which it speedily accomplished: a select body of French, headed by an officer of the staff, who had volunteered for that service, now advanced to support the repulsed tirailleurs, and two battalion companies of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH hurried to the assistance of their comrades. The skirmish, fought in sight of the two armies, took almost the type of a national trial of skill and courage; the French rushed forward with their characteristic impetuosity, shouting “Vive l’Empereur;” the CONNAUGHT RANGERS, accompanied by the cheers of their division, met them with the bayonet, and overthrew them at the first onset. The French commanding officer was left on the field mortally wounded; Captain Nickle, as soon as the conflict was decided, went up to render any assistance in his power to his fallen antagonist, and, finding him already dead, tied his handkerchief on the point of his sabre, and waving it towards the retreating French, beckoned to them to return for the body of their officer, which they