This being accomplished, the other two Battalions moved forward. The 1st, with General Kempt’s brigade, advanced into the pass, and though at first sight their task seemed a difficult one, yet the steadiness and gallantry of the men carried all before them; and with little loss they stood on the top of the pass. Some descended the other side. For George Simmons and Cox with about sixty Riflemen, following the retreating enemy down the pass, took some prisoners, among whom were a commissary and two bandsmen. These the soldiers ordered to play some French tunes; but from the alarm and the pace at which they had retreated, their music was neither very coherent nor melodious. But the 2nd Battalion had a more difficult task to perform. The second brigade was on that day under the command of Colonel Colborne[130] of the 52nd (Skerrett being absent from the field on account of ill-health), and to them was allotted the duty of carrying a high hill on the left called La Bayonette, which bristled with the enemy’s entrenchments. The Riflemen ascended the lower slopes of the hill, and coming out of a wood which there girded it, advanced with a quick fire to a redoubt. The French who filled it, waiting until the Battalion was within a few yards, then opened a murderous fire, which checked the Riflemen and obliged them for a moment to retire. But the 52nd at that moment coming up in support, they again advanced, and together they cleared the redoubt of its defenders and drove them before them to a second line of works. Here they did not experience any serious resistance. But at the crest the enemy had constructed a formidable work, from which they not only poured forth a blaze of fire, but rolled great pieces of rock on the climbing soldiers. While these were endeavouring to storm the work, the 1st Battalion, with the first brigade, gained the top of the pass on their right; and the enemy’s left flank being thus turned, and his retreat threatened, he abandoned the entrenchment and retired down the reverse slope of the mountain. As the French were retiring a curious circumstance took place. Colonel Colborne, accompanied by a small escort of Riflemen of the 2nd Battalion, came suddenly on a battery of mountain guns and some three hundred men, who were retreating from the right flank of the French position. He called to them peremptorily to lay down their arms, which they did, thinking he had a large force at hand. The loss of the 2nd Battalion was very severe, amounting to nearly one-third of its strength. They fell principally at the Star redoubt, which they first attacked. Captain Gibbons, Lieutenants Alexander Campbell and John Hill, 4 sergeants, and 23 rank and file were killed; Captain Hart, Lieutenants Budgen, Ridgeway, Fry and Madden, 6 sergeants, and 128 rank and file were wounded; and 1 Rifleman was returned ‘missing.’ The 1st Battalion had 10 Riflemen wounded; and the 3rd Battalion 4 killed and Lieutenant Vickers and 17 wounded.