The Regiment, now encamped on the ridge, looked over the steppes of the Pyrenees and the vast plain at their feet. St. Jean-de-Luz seemed also beneath them, and Bayonne could be seen in the distance; while the Bay of Biscay bounded their view to the left, and a richly-tilled and well-wooded country stretched away far to their right. Towards evening the 3rd Battalion went down into the plain below on outpost duty, relieving Longa’s Spanish troops. The whole range of mountains was now in our occupation, except one: the extreme projection on the right called La Montagne d’Arrhune. This the French retained till the 8th; the Spaniards not having succeeded in dislodging them. On that day the second brigade of the Light Division having been sent to assist in carrying it, the enemy evacuated it, and it was thenceforth occupied by a picquet of three companies of the Light Division. Beyond it was an outlier separated by a valley, and called ‘La Petite Arrhune,’ though itself a mountain of very considerable elevation. This the French occupied; and their advanced sentries were posted at the foot of the slope, and ours on the opposite slope of the valley, not more than 200 yards apart. FOOTNOTES: [117] ‘Adventures,’ 143. [118] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ Appendix xiv. 108-9. [119] See it in ‘Wellington Despatches,’ ix. 582, Nov. 28, 1812. Leach and Kincaid both mention this regret and dissatisfaction. [120] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ xi. 153. [121] Surtees, 203, 4. Costello, 153. [122] See his private letter to Sir Thomas Picton, ‘Despatches,’ x. 529. He says, ‘The Riflemen of the Light Division were the first to ascend the hill, and I went up immediately after them.’ He mentions that these were the 95th. [123] Letter from Field-Marshal Sir Hew D. Ross, G.C.B. [124] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ x. 456. [125] Letter from Sir Hew D. Ross. [126] ‘London Gazette.’ Either, however, this list is incomplete, or the Record of the 2nd Battalion erroneous: for that Record gives the names of Sergeant-Major Adams, Corporal Port and 14 privates who volunteered on the forlorn hope. Of these Corporal Port and 5 Riflemen were killed and 6 wounded: 12 disabled out of 16. Nevertheless, even this list is not perfect. For Mr. Kenneth Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth is in possession of a medal with clasp granted to Sergeant John Himbury of the 2nd Battalion for gallant conduct on the forlorn hope at St. Sebastian. This medal was presented to him by the General commanding his brigade. It bears on the _obverse_ ‘ST. SEBASTIAN, 31 DE AGOSTO DE 1813;’ on the _reverse_, a bugle, the cords attached to a crown, ‘95’ in the centre, ‘RIFLE CORPS’ on a ribbon above.[127] And the clasp is inscribed ‘FORLORN HOPE’ J. H. SERGEANT. [127] This was the old badge of the Regiment before the Maltese cross was adopted. [128] The particulars of this affair of the bridge of Vera have been related to me by Colonel Thomas Smith.