Marshal Soult, having been appointed to the command of the troops on the Pyrenees frontier of France, assembled a numerous force to break through the mountains, and relieve Pampeluna and St. Sebastian. Captain Moyle Sherer, of the THIRTY-FOURTH Foot, commanded the piquet on the Arestesque rock, on the morning of the 25th of July, and a glimpse of cavalry and infantry advancing having been obtained at dawn, the light companies were ordered to support the piquet. These companies had just formed, with their left at the rock, when three French divisions ascended the rock and attacked the piquet, which defended its ground with great gallantry, against overwhelming numbers, until Captain Sherer was taken prisoner, and many men had fallen, when the survivors fell back on the light companies; and these troops sustained the assault of the enemy with difficulty. The din of war echoed through the valley, and the brigade, consisting of the Twenty-eighth, THIRTY-FOURTH, and Thirty-ninth, hurried to the scene of conflict. The THIRTY-FOURTH ascended the rock first, by companies, at a running pace, and arrived breathless from the length and ruggedness of the ascent. The grenadier company was in front, under Captain John Wyatt, who urged his men to make a desperate effort, and fell pierced with many bullets the instant he gained the summit; nearly every man of the leading section experienced the same fate. The other companies of the battalion rushed forward in the face of a storm of musketry, and a determined, but unavailing, effort was made. The commanding officer, the adjutant, and many other brave officers and soldiers, were struck by the tempest of balls. After fighting with great desperation some time, the THIRTY-FOURTH, the light companies, and the piquet were forced back by superior numbers, and the enemy established his columns on the ridge of the position. The British, however, retained possession of a rock, which was the key of the pass, and the progress of the enemy was arrested. The THIRTY-FOURTH had five hundred and thirty officers and soldiers engaged on this occasion, and their loss was Captain John Wyatt, Ensign T. W. Phillips, one serjeant, and thirty-six rank and file killed; Adjutant John Day mortally wounded and prisoner; Lieutenant-Colonel Fenwick, Lieutenants P. S. Barron and M. Simmons, Ensign S. Pickett, four serjeants, and fifty-one rank and file wounded; Captain Moyle Sherer, Lieutenant F. Hovenden, Ensigns F. Russell and John Norman, one serjeant, one drummer, and seventy-seven rank and file prisoners: many of the prisoners were wounded. Total loss, one hundred and eighty-two. Lieutenant-Colonel Fenwick had his right leg amputated above the knee; and the command of the battalion devolved on Major Henry Worsley.