This display of valour on the part of the ROYAL FUSILIERS was rewarded with the honour of bearing the word "PYRENEES" on their colours as a mark of royal favour and approbation; and their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Blakeney, was also rewarded with an honorary distinction. The ROYAL FUSILIERS took part in the movements by which the enemy was driven through the Pyrenean mountains back to France; they were also engaged, on the 7th of October, in the operations connected with the passage of the _Bidassoa_, when the French were forced from several strong mountain positions defended with field-works. The light and fourth divisions advanced against the posts of Vera and Liran, and the attack was successful. After the passage of the Bidassoa the SEVENTH were encamped about a month near the bridge of Lezaca and heights of Liran; and drafts amounting to about two hundred serjeants and rank and file were received from the second battalion, then quartered in the isle of Jersey. On the 10th of November the allied army drove the enemy from his positions on the river _Nivelle_; the British now stood triumphant and firmly established in France, and the admirers of unprincipled aggression beheld the day of retribution overtake a country which had been vainly styled "sacred;" the deep wrongs of insulted nations were, however, not avenged on the French peasantry, who received less harsh treatment from the allies than from their own countrymen in arms; but the tyrant who had hurled the thunders of war against the unoffending nations of the Peninsula saw them recoil with accumulated fury upon his own head. Major-General the HONOURABLE EDWARD MICHAEL PAKENHAM, Lieutenant-Colonel of the ROYAL FUSILIERS (an officer of such distinguished valour and ability that the regiment was truly proud of its lieutenant-colonel), was promoted on the 21st May, 1813, to the colonelcy of the sixth West India regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel EDWARD BLAKENEY, who had so often and so nobly headed the regiment in the field of battle, obtained permission to return to England, and the command devolved on Major JOHN BEATTY.[23] [Sidenote: 1814]