The Passage of the Bidasoa, with the military movements which immediately ensued, completing that operation and establishing the left wing of our army on the soil of France, occupies the entire of this Canto. The events with which it deals will be found very fully and satisfactorily recorded in Napier’s _History_, book xxii. chap. 4. The thunder-storm which rolled over the district on the eventful morning chosen by Wellington for this remarkable strategical evolution is by no means exaggerated in the text. It is in the Pyrenees that thunder is witnessed to perfection. The exploits which in this Canto I attribute to Nial have all their foundation in the genuine history of the campaign. General Alten had the command of the Light Division, and the Rifle corps, to which I suppose Nial to have belonged, was under the immediate guidance of the gallant Colborne. Captain Batty’s description of the Passage of the Bidasoa, with which operation, the first in which he shared, he commences his _Campaign of the Western Pyrenees_, is very animated, and illustrated by spirited etchings of the event of the Passage and of Pyrenean scenery. His view of Fuenterrabia and of the mountain of Jaizquibel is particularly deserving of praise. It is impossible to describe the effect upon my feelings of going over this heroic mountain ground from Andaye to the Louis Quatorze, from Bildox and Mandale to the Bayonnette and Commissari, and from thence to the greater Rhune. The allusion in the commencement of this Canto to the Vale of Baigorri refers to the rescue of an enormous amount of forage by Mina’s Guerrilla from the French, including 2,000 sheep.