On the 24th at daylight they marched, the 3rd Battalion leading; and after proceeding eight or ten miles found the French rear-guard in a strong position on the side of a mountain behind the river Araquil. The banks were rocky and rugged, and the stream swollen by recent rains. A narrow bridge, therefore, afforded the sole passage. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Regiment were the only infantry up at the time. The two Battalions were halted; and the men were ordered to put their knapsacks behind the troopers of the German Legion (who accompanied them) in order that they might move more rapidly. Then the 3rd Battalion were ordered by General Alten to mount a hill to the left of the road in order to fire down upon the right of the French, while the 1st Battalion lined the banks of the river and opened a smart fire. Under this attack the enemy gave way; and our people crossing the bridge, pursued them in a kind of desultory skirmish for about two miles. But they retired slowly, and fighting hard, to enable the troops behind them to make good their retreat. The road by which they were moving soon struck the great road, the ‘Camino real,’ leading from Madrid to Pamplona. The enemy detached one battalion to the right, which moved down a valley and was soon out of sight. It was ascertained afterwards that they fancied that this valley had an outlet to the road further on, where they might take up a position to receive our people. At the end of about two miles, where there was a narrow pass between two overhanging rocks, the enemy halted, and soon advanced upon our two Battalions. A sharp attack now again took place; and the battalion which had left the road emerged from a wood among our skirmishers. It was roughly handled, and suffered severely before it regained the road. It seems that, finding no way out of the valley they had entered, they returned to help their companions. At this moment two of Ross’ guns came up, and opened on them; and a general fight of all three arms (the Riflemen, the German hussars, and Ross’ guns) took place, which drove the French from their position, through the pass and on to the open country beyond. Here the road is carried on an embankment with very steep sides. And when they had proceeded about two miles, the fire of Ross’ guns killed two and wounded one of the horses of the French gun, an 8-pounder.[123] They were so hard pressed that they had no time to disentangle the horses, and they flung the gun, with the horses, over the embankment, here about fifteen feet deep. Thus the Riflemen, who had taken the first gun at Vittoria, took the last and only gun which the French carried off from that field. ‘The French entered Pamplona, therefore, with one howitzer only.’[124] The Riflemen (some of them mounted behind the troopers of the Royal Dragoons)[125] continued to pursue them till they were under the walls of that fortress; and they occupied that night the villages of Aldava, Santa Barafra, and Berrioplano.