In the battle of _Orthes_, 28th of February 1814, the third division was directed to attack the heights on which the enemy’s centre and left stood, and the EIGHTY-EIGHTH had once more an opportunity of distinguishing itself, when its loss was more severe than on any other occasion, except the siege of Badajoz. The Fifty-Second led the attack; the EIGHTY-EIGHTH advanced on the right; the heights were carried, and the regiment advancing in pursuit, its left flank was charged by a body of French cavalry, which it entirely overthrew, killing, wounding, or taking prisoners the whole detachment, which was hemmed in in a narrow road, and precluded from all retreat. In this battle, Captain Oates’s conduct was particularly noticed, and procured for him the Brevet rank of Major in the army. The loss of the battalion was three officers, Captain M‘Dermott, Lieutenant Moriarty, and Ensign Reynolds, five Serjeants and thirty-six Rank and File killed; and eleven Officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, Captains Oates and Bunworth, Lieutenants Fitzpatrick, Davern, Faris, Creswell, Holland, and Stewart, Ensign M‘Intosh, Ensign and Adjutant Mitchell, thirteen Serjeants, and two hundred and one Rank and File wounded. Total, two hundred and seventy-seven. After this severe action the regiment was placed in cantonments until the 13th of March, when it again took the field, and was present on the 4th of April, at the battle of _Toulouse_. Although only three companies of the regiment were engaged on this occasion, they had the good fortune to perform a critical and important service, in supporting the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth when engaged with very unequal numbers of the enemy. The Light Infantry Company, in particular, suffered, and its Captain, R. Nickle, was severely wounded: the loss of the three companies in killed, was equal to that of the whole battalion at Vittoria, amounting to one Serjeant and twenty-nine Men; the wounded were Captain Nickle and Lieutenant Poole, one Serjeant, and fifty-three Rank and File. The Serjeant who fell at Toulouse, was much regretted by the whole corps; his name was Thorpe, and he was Serjeant-Major of the battalion. He had been originally Drum-Major, in which capacity he was present at the battle of Busaco: on that occasion, when ordered with the band and drummers, to the rear, he entreated his commanding officer to allow him to join his company, and having obtained permission he fell into the ranks, behaving with the utmost gallantry throughout that memorable day. This, and other instances of his courage, induced Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace to consider him qualified for a higher situation, and to remove him from the band into the line. He had for some time been recommended for a commission, to which the Gazette which arrived from England a few days after his death, contained his appointment.