Having gained this great victory, the British now addressed themselves to the Herculean task of forcing a passage through the defiles of the “Pyrenees” into France. Notwithstanding the stupendous efforts of Marshal Soult to retrieve the losses of Vittoria and defend these natural barriers of his country, the British still pressed “forward.” On the 20th July, 1813, whilst the brigade was threading its way through the pass of Maya, it was vigorously attacked by a corps of 15,000 French, who, forcing back that “fierce and formidable old regiment, the Fiftieth,” upon the Seventy-first and Ninety-second Highlanders, very nearly drove them out of the pass. These, however, for _ten hours_ stood the shock of this formidable assault. “So dreadful was the slaughter, especially of the Ninety-second, that it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped by the heaped mass of dead and dying. Never did soldiers fight better—seldom so well. The stern valour of the Ninety-second would have graced Thermopylae.” Of 750 Gordon Highlanders who were engaged, only 400 survived it scatheless, but these returned in the truest sense “conquering heroes,” having, when every cartridge was expended, and in presence of succour, decided the victory as their own by a desperate charge. Throughout the many conflicts which it needed to clear a passage through the Pyrenees, and thereafter drive so terrible a foe successively across the “Nivelle” and the “Nive,” the Ninety-second always displayed the same desperate resolution and valour. At the sanguinary action of St Pierre, which raged with exceeding fury for three hours, cumbering a little space of one mile with more than 5000 dead and dying, the Ninety-second impetuously charged and destroyed two regiments of the enemy. Pressing onwards, the Highlanders were arrested by a fearful storm of artillery, and forced to retreat upon their comrades of the Seventy-first; who likewise yielding to the iron tempest, both found shelter and rallied behind their brethren in brigade of the Fiftieth. “Then its gallant colonel (Cameron) once more led it down the road, with colours flying and music playing, resolved to give the shock to whatever stood in the way. A small force was the Ninety-second compared with the heavy mass in its front, but that mass faced about and retired across the valley. How gloriously did that regiment come forth again to charge, with their colours flying and their national music playing as if going to a review! This was to understand war. The man who in that moment, and immediately after a repulse, thought of such military pomp, was by nature a soldier.” Excepting at the battle of Toulouse, the Ninety-second was daily engaged with the enemy, and always with equal credit.