Wellington’s victorious army, composed of English, Spanish, and Portuguese, having crossed the Pyrenees, attacked Marshal Soult, who had taken up a strong position on the Nivelle. Soult was defeated, and withdrew to Bayonne, where he was again defeated by Sir Rowland Hill, who commanded the right wing of the British army. Soult left a strong garrison in Bayonne, and marched towards Orthez, followed by Wellington. Sir John Hope was left to besiege Bayonne, which capitulated after the abdication of Napoleon on April 5, 1814. Nine days after the declaration of peace, when the British forces investing the town were entirely off their guard, the governor of the citadel suddenly made a treacherous sortie, which was nevertheless unsuccessful, although they captured Sir John Hope, who was wounded. The French losses were 910 to the English 830, a fact which may have been due in part to the reckless firing of the French gunboats on the river. [Illustration: TOWN PLAN NO. 14.--BAYONNE.] In the little cemetery of the Coldstream Guards, about two kilometres north of the town, can be seen the tombs of the officers and men who fell in resisting this sortie. It has been visited by the late Queen and King Edward VII. Perhaps one of the greatest feats performed by the British army at this time was the building of a bridge of boats across the Adour below Bayonne, in order that the troops and artillery might cross the river and complete the investment of the town as rapidly as possible. Sir John Hope had managed to get a detachment of about 600 guards, under the command of Major-General Stopford, ferried across on pontoons before nightfall, and they successfully resisted an attack from the citadel of 1,300 French, who were terrified by the rockets, or Congreves,[E] which were used with startling success. The English army on the south bank of the river could only assist their comrades with artillery fire. On the next day, February 24, the flotilla of small vessels bringing material for a bridge arrived off the river-mouth, but, owing to the force of the wind, they were only able to cross the bar with the most heroic efforts. The description given by Colonel W. Hill James gives a vivid idea of the dangers that the British sailors faced: ‘The bar at the mouth of the Adour was, and is to this day, one of the most dangerous and difficult in the world. This storm-lashed coast receives all the violence of the Bay of Biscay, and on the day in question, a gale having arisen, the white line of boiling surf, extending as far as the eye could reach, seethed and raged upon the bar with appalling fury. Captain O’Reilly, R.N., was the first to try the entrance, and, with a pilot, to see if he could discover the shifting passage.