Towards the end of December the floods carried away the bridges which had been thrown over the Nive, but they were soon replaced. A detachment was sent towards Hasparren to clear the country in the rear of the right wing of the enemy’s cavalry under Paris; and on new year’s day a small island in the Adour, near Monguerre, was taken from the French without opposition. At this time Clausel was assembling a considerable force on the Gave de Oleron; on the third he drove in the cavalry piquets between the Joyeuse and the Bidouze, and attacked the posts of Major-General Buchan’s Portugueze brigade on the former river, near La Bastide, and those of the third division in Bouloc. The enemy turned the right of the Portugueze brigade on the heights of La Costa, and established two divisions there and on La Bastide, on the Joyeuse, with the remainder of their force on the Bidouze and the Gave. The centre and right of the allies were immediately concentrated and prepared to move; Lord Wellington reconnoitred the enemy the next day, and would have attacked them on the ensuing, if the weather and the swelling of the rivulets had not occasioned a day’s delay. But on the 6th the attack was made by the 3rd and 4th divisions, supported by Buchan’s Portugueze brigade of General Le Cor’s division, and the cavalry under Major-General Fane; the enemy were dislodged without loss on our side, and the troops resumed their former positions. Mina was at this time with three battalions at Bidarray and St. Etienne de Baygorey, observing the movements of the enemy from St. Jean de Pied-de-Port. The people of the vale of Baygorey had distinguished themselves in the war of 1793 by their brave opposition to the Spanish troops; that spirit had been transmitted to the present generation, and it was called into action by their countryman Harispe, one of the most active of the French generals. They were the only peasantry who manifested any disposition to act against the allies; by their aid, with that of Paris’s division, and such troops as could be spared from the garrison of St. Jean, Harispe ♦JAN. 12.♦ moved against Mina, and compelled him to retire into the valley of Aldudes. ♦FALSE REPORTS CIRCULATED BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.♦