‘The French had removed all distinguishing signs that marked the safe passage, but a new signal staff was improvised by using a pocket-handkerchief tied to a sergeant’s halbert, and then the vessels made gallant attempts to cross the bar. ‘Captain O’Reilly’s boat had been toppled over like a cork by a great breaker, and he himself, stunned and insensible, cast up on the beach, whilst several of the crew were drowned, and the remainder dragged out with difficulty, whereupon they relaunched their boat, which had followed them, and materially aided in ferrying the troops over the river. ‘Many boats were wrecked and their crews drowned, but eventually some succeeded in getting safely through. ‘Thus was achieved this perilous and glorious enterprise. In addition to the lost vessels, twelve _chasse-marées_ [coasting luggers], not caring to face the bar, had returned to St. Jean-de-Luz. Thirty-four which had entered the river still remained; these were more than sufficient to form the bridge. Headed by the gunboats, which placed themselves in advance of where the boom was to be fixed, above the bridge, as a guard, the sappers and sailors at once began to work with a will that in an incredibly short time arranged these native boats and the boom in order across the Adour.’ A model of the bridge is to be seen in the United Service Institution in Whitehall. The old portion of Bayonne has narrow streets and high buildings, and among them are the _Château Vieux_, a grim pile of the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, now used as barracks, and the very interesting cathedral. It was begun in 1213, the chief portions being completed while the town belonged to the English, and on the keystones of the vaulting one can see the arms of England. The west end is the latest part of the building, the graceful crocketed spires of the two towers having only been finished in 1884. The restored cloister, dating from 1240, is of particular interest, and should not be forgotten. It has often been stated that bayonets get their name from Bayonne, but this is denied by Colonel Hill James, who states that they were first used at Baïonnette, a few miles from St. Jean de Luz, in a sixteenth-century battle between the Basques and the Spaniards. Having come to the end of their ammunition, the Basques tied their knives to the muzzles of their guns, and the efficiency of the weapons thus produced soon caused them to be generally adopted. There is a good view of the fortifications of Bayonne as one goes on to Biarritz, a short run of seven kilometres to the south. BIARRITZ When Queen Victoria ascended the throne Biarritz was a very small fishing village, and in 1856 its population was only about 2,500. It has now risen to from 25,000 to 30,000, and every year the visitors reach the huge figure of over one and a half millions.