After a harassing march of about twenty miles, the troops bivouacked at Ze-ouke, and at daylight on the following morning (2nd December) they were again in motion, to attack the formidable position occupied by the enemy’s centre division on the _Napadee Hills_. Arriving in the vicinity of the position, the British artillery commenced a sharp cannonade; Brigadier-General Elrington’s troops drove the enemy from the jungle, six companies of the eighty-seventh regiment carried the posts at the bottom of the ridge, and the Burmese were driven from the valley to their principal works on the hills, which appeared very formidable; the heights could only be ascended by a narrow road, commanded by artillery, and defended by stockades crowded with men armed with muskets. As soon as the artillery had made an impression on the works, the THIRTEENTH and thirty-eighth regiments sprang forward with astonishing resolution and steadiness, rushed into the enemy’s works, overthrowing all opposition with the bayonet, and driving the Burmese from hill to hill, over precipices that could only be ascended by a narrow stair, until the whole of the position, nearly three miles in length, was captured. Lieut.-Colonel Sale and Major Thornhill, of the THIRTEENTH regiment, distinguished themselves. On the 5th of December, the enemy’s right wing was driven from its post; the immense army of Ava was thus forced from its positions by the fierce attacks of the British soldiers; and the Burmese legions sought safety in flight. After this success, the army continued to advance; the Burmese evacuated Meeday, and took post at _Melloon_, at the same time they renewed their offers for terminating the war; but this appears to have been done with the view of gaining time to re-organize their army for a more determined resistance. [Sidenote: 1826] The conditions of peace not being ratified by the stipulated time, hostilities were resumed on the 19th of January, 1826, on which day the THIRTEENTH and thirty-eighth regiments embarked in boats under Lieut.-Colonel Sale, to assault the main face of the enemy’s fortifications at Melloon; at the same time other corps embarked to storm the works at different points. The whole of the boats quitted the shore together; but the current and breeze carried the THIRTEENTH and thirty-eighth to their point of attack, before the other divisions could reach the opposite bank of the river, and Lieut.-Colonel Sale was wounded in his boat; but the two regiments landed, formed under the command of Major Frith of the thirty-eighth, and rushed forward with such intrepidity and resolution, that they overpowered all resistance, and were speedily masters of these formidable works.[18] Major Frith was wounded in the assault, and the command of the brigade devolved on Major THORNHILL, of the THIRTEENTH regiment, who distinguished himself. The loss of the regiment was one man killed; Major Sale and three men wounded.