On alighting from our horses we entered the house, and having ascended the staircase, we found _el Padre, la Madre, y las dos hijas_ seated in a spacious apartment, with the casements open, and a French sentinel, who was posted on a projecting grey rock, so thoroughly overlooking the house, that we could almost fancy he could overhear the lamentations of the anxious parents, who, devoutly crossing themselves, prayed that the siege of St. Sebastian might be speedily brought to a conclusion, to enable them to return to their house at that place, and secure the valuable plate and property, which they had been forced to abandon in great haste, to escape being confined in that town during the siege. Having passed some hours with them in a very agreeable manner, we took our departure, with a promise of shortly renewing our visit. The left and main body of the French army, being now concentrated, formed a line at the foot of the Pyrenees, in the vicinity of Forage and St. Jean Pied de Port, in France, with its right wing occupying the mountains from the Rock of la Rhune to Bera, thence by the right of the Bidassoa to Andaye, and flanked by the Bay of Biscay. This ridge immediately covers the country in front of St. Jean de Luz and Bayonne. Preparatorily to offensive movements, the French marshal issued a flaming proclamation to his troops, in which he reminded them that the standards of Britain waved aloft, and that her army, from the summits of the Pyrenees, proudly looked down on the fertile fields of France,—an evil which he attributed to the want of decision in the late French commanders. "Let us then," said the Marshal, "wipe off the stain from our faded laurels, by chasing the English beyond Vittoria, and there celebrate another triumph, to add to the many victories which have so often decorated your brows, in all parts of Spain, _and on many a hard-fought day_." [Footnote 51: Lieut.-Colonel Ross of the Horse Artillery, as usual, commanded this troop.] [Footnote 52: There he gained information of our movements, which forced him to follow the right bank of the Ebro, until he reached Saragossa, where, crossing the river, and leaving a small garrison behind, he moved towards the pass of Jaca, and entering France on the 1st of July, he at last succeeded, after a round-about march, with the loss of the greater part of his _matériel_, in forming a junction with the French army.] [Footnote 53: There was a great scarcity of wood in the neighbourhood of this place, and as the third division followed ours, Sir Thomas Picton cast his eye on a pile ready cut, and, as soon as he had dismissed his division, sent a regular party, with a _val_, to secure it, when, lo! it had all vanished!]