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"Don't do that, Arcanieva," I shouted, with the same feeling of revolt that the clammy touch of a reptile would have roused within me. "There is no question of gratitude or service rendered through personal good-will. You have been a serious trouble to me of late,-I dare say you know why, and I am frankly glad of the excuse of assisting you out of the country. I wish to know nothing about your past or your future; your present has been enough. We will drive to the bank. Let me request that you will sit well back and keep your collar about your neck; and above all, don't talk."

In silence we drove to the bank, where I provided myself with money, then to Harcourt Street, just in time to catch a train to Wicklow. We were fortunate enough to procure a carriage to ourselves, and we sat opposite one another not once exchanging a word. I could feel that poor Arcanieva's eyes were wistfully upon me, but I kept mine averted. It was a pain to me to see him, to hear him, to be in his society. I restricted myself to the latter pain, thinking the while of Bridget and of her flushed and happy face that morning, the overflowing agitation of thrilled senses making itself felt around her; and then I painted to my aching vision the blank look, the grieved arch of the delicate eyebrows, the wet lashes and shaking lips that to-night would replace the rosy bliss of the morning. How long would it be before I could ask her to listen to Lumley And how honest his big brown head and his full frank glance seemed after the deception of such beauty as that which faced me!

"Tell Bridget that I adore her

and that my heart is broken," said Arcanieva as we parted at Wicklow; and upon my conscience there were real tears in the fellow's voice as well as tears upon his long lashes.

"I will not deliver any such message, Arcanieva," I said harshly; and then repenting me of my cruelty, I put out my hand and said, more gently: "I'm very sorry for you, Arcanieva. I cannot see why a man so brilliantly endowed as you are should not have been able to walk straight. You were clever enough to have seen the pitfall you were making for yourself, and I am most profoundly shocked to think of qualities like yours being now to you no more useful as far as regards honourable achievement than weeds

to a gardener. You have enough money to take you from Havre to America, and that is what I advise you to do. If in the future I can be of any service to you, do not hesitate to write to me; you know why, but we will not speak of it. Write to the office; good-bye and good luck."

I stood and watched him jump into the carriage; and still stood and watched him as he leaned out of the window and waved his hat to me. The craven terrified air had left him, and he had regained his old polished assurance and romantic tranquillity of aspect. A beam of sunshine slanted right across his eyes, and I took it for a good omen as his farewell glance flashed out of it, luminous and deep and softly smiling, as I had first seen it at the Athenæum.

Sorrowfully then did I retrace my steps to the Dublin Station, and went back to unaccustomed trouble,—to Bridget and the terror of Bridget's

sorrow.

THE BATTLES OF THE NIVE.

WHICH were the battles of the Nive? This is a question often asked, but not always answered offhand even by soldiers. Tough fights and stubborn engagements, giving opportunities for many a gallant deed, and scope for much tactical skill on the part of two great captains, we know they were; but when we read the words Nive and Nivelle on the monument of some old Peninsular hero, long since passed away, memory is apt to bring back but slowly the exact site and circumstance of these masterful and glorious tugs of war.

A knowledge of the ground, annually renewed, may perhaps enable the writer to recall some of the more interesting incidents of these obstinate conflicts. In the south-west corner of France, where it abuts upon Spain, two rivers rising in the Pyrenees empty themselves into the Bay of Biscay within fourteen miles of one another. The intervening coast-line is prettily dotted at intervals with the villages of Biarritz, Bidart, Guethary, and St. Jean-de-Luz, in the order named, the last-mentioned ranking as a town and being nearest the Spanish frontier, marked by the Bidassoa, which is six and a half miles distant. These two rivers are the Nive and the Nivelle, the former mingling its green mountainwaters with the muddy and sluggish Adour in the picturesque old fortress of Bayonne, four miles above the spot where it rolls itself over a dangerous bar into the sea; while the latter debouches at the picturesque but lowlying town of St. Jean-de-Luz, the scene of many historical events, and

a hundred years ago, when the whale disported himself in the great bay, the seat of a thriving fishing industry.

In the year 1813 Biarritz was an insignificant fishing-village situated in a hollow between two green cliffs on the sea-shore; but even then it was in vogue as in vogue as a bathing-place among the wealthy dames of Bayonne and its neighbourhood, who had to choose between horse, mule, or donkey-back, either in saddle or cacolets, to compass the five miles of sand and swamp which divide Bayonne from Biarritz, for in those days roads were not in existence. The last-named was the favourite mode of travel, as the panniers, slung one on each side a mule, afforded a comfortable opportunity for dame and damozel to chat over the gossip of the day, while leisurely ambling towards the shore and a Gascon sunset, than which there is none more beautiful.

Since those days Biarritz has spread from the little hollow over the surrounding heights, and covered the neighbouring country with pretty villas and well-built houses in their own grounds, which a genial climate keeps ever fresh and gay with flowers and shrubs. The dark pine-woods, planted by the French Emperor a generation ago, form an agreeable contrast to the glittering sandy beach, and afford a welcome shade for the evening drive, or walk, towards the mouth of the Adour. Two railways communicate with Bayonne : our countrymen will find an English Club and good golf-links; and there are also half a dozen large hotels, including the favourite villa (now called the

Palace Hotel) of the Empress Eugenie, who gave the first impulse to the little Basque hamlet so near her own native land. What a contrast is all this to the Subaltern's description of the place when he fought, with the gallant Eighty-Fifth, in the battles of the Nive hard by !

The little village then lay between, and on the flank of, the English and French armies when Soult, in front of Bayonne, faced Wellington on the ridge of Bidart, and although outside the line of actual fighting was visited by the mounted patrols of both armies. Small and dangerous as it was, however, the Subaltern and his friends seem to have got no little amusement out of it, mixed with a spice of exhilarating adventure. "It was distinguished," he tells us, "as the residence of two or three handsome women. These ladies had about them all the gaiety and liveliness of Frenchwomen with a good deal of the sentimentality of our own fair countrywomen; to us they were particularly pleasant, professing, I know not how truly, to prefer our society to that of any persons besides; and we of course were far too gallant to deny them that gratification. Two or three

times in each week the favoured few mounted their horses and took the road to Biarritz, from which on more than one occasion they with difficulty returned." Speaking of one of these visits he says: "We were for the most part prudent enough to cast lots in order to decide on whom the odious task should devolve of watching outside to prevent surprise by the enemy's cavalry. So many visits had, however, been paid without any alarm being given, that one morning we rashly determined to run all risks rather than that one of the three should spend an hour cheerlessly by himself. The only precaution which we took was to piquet our horses ready saddled and

bridled at the garden-gate instead of putting them up. We had sat about half an hour with our fair friends, and had just ceased to joke on the probability of our suffering the fate of Samson and being caught by the Philistines, when our ears were saluted with the sound of horses' hoofs upon the paved streets.

We sprang to the window and beheld eight or ten French hussars riding slowly from the lower end of the town; whilst we were hesitating how to proceed we observed a rascal run up to the leader of the patrol and, entering into conversation with him, point to the abode of our new acquaintances. This was hint enough; without pausing to say farewell to our fair friends, who screamed as if they, and not we, had been in danger, we ran to our horses, and springing into the saddle applied the spur with very little mercy. We were none of us particularly well mounted, but either our pursuers had alighted to search the house, or they took at first a wrong direction, for we got so much the start of them before the chase fairly began that possibly we might have escaped as far as the piquets. Of this, however, I am by no means certain, for they were unquestionably gaining upon us when by great good fortune a patrol of our own cavalry made its appearance. Then indeed the tables were turned; the enemy pulled up, paused for an instant, and took to their heels, whilst our troopers, who had trotted forward as soon as they saw what was the matter, put their horses to the speed and followed. soon found that we were distanced by both parties."

There was plenty of game, too, in the neighbourhood, and his dogs and guns, as well as his fair friends, found ample occupation for the British Subaltern during the intervals of fighting. Nor does there seem to have

commands

been any difficulty about leave, in the mountain of Larrhun 1
consequence, no doubt, of the good
understanding between the outposts
of both armies, which were of a
friendly and even familiar character
when no movement was on foot. An
English field-officer of the night, for
instance, going his rounds missed an
entire piquet, but hearing sounds from
a cottage in front, he cautiously
peeped in and saw his own men having
a friendly carouse with their French
enemies, to whom, under the officer's
peremptory orders, they wished a
cheery au revoir, and returned to
their post in the English line. The
Subaltern himself, who was a future
Chaplain-General, received

on one

occasion a present of brandy sent
by some French officers across the
short space of neutral ground separ-
ating the outposts, with a request
for some tea in return, which
was duly handed to their messenger
and acknowledged by many salutes
across the ravine. The soldiers, too,
had their own signs by holding up
their muskets in different positions;
and a skirmish was often avoided,
says a French writer, by this means,
when some small knoll
small knoll or rising
ground in front was wanted and
would be taken if not given up.
Then a signal would be made from
the advancing skirmishers, and the
ground would, if not considered of
sufficient importance to fight for, be
vacated by the enemy and promptly
taken possession of by the opposing
force; so well did men inured to daily
fighting understand the worthlessness
of unnecessary combats.

Wellington had at this time driven Soult before him through the fastnesses of the Pyrenees, forced the passage of the Bidassoa in the teeth of the French army lining the heights on the right bank, and on the 9th of October, 1813, looked down upon the fair fields of France from the top of

which

a view of the whole country up to the very walls of Bayonne, and far beyond them. It is the most prominent object in the landscape for many a mile, and its commanding height of close on three thousand feet, with a rocky hermitage, assumed to be impregnable, on the top, made it a position of paramount importance. After a failure to capture the crest of this great watchon the first day, the third morning saw the Union Jack floating from the hermitage, which, notwithstanding its altitude, was quickly garnished with a battery of English guns.

tower

The beautiful Nivelle, like a silver streak, threads its way at the foot of the mountain on the French side through the surrounding hills, till it reaches the sea at St. Jean-de-Luz some six miles lower down. The French were strongly entrenched on both sides of the river, every hill-top and crag being defended by redoubt, earthwork, entrenchment, or abbati, every valley and path obstructed. But here again Soult had to give way a month later, when from the pinnacle of Peña Plata 2 flashed forth the signal gun on that sunny morning of November, which launched ninety-five thousand men and ninety guns on the French line of the Nivelle.

A magnificent sight it must have been to see every slope, as far as the eye could reach, occupied by the glittering bayonets of the allied troops, as they descended the mountain sides and rugged paths, while the summits of Larrhun and its neighbours belched

1 A month elapsed between the capture of the Great Larrhun and the little mountain of that name standing near it, which was taken on the 10th of November following.

2 In Basque Aitzchubia, or white rock, called by the Spaniards Peña Plata, or silver rock; it is a conical peaked mountain, easily distinguishable from its neighbours.

forth shot and shell from guns two thousand feet above the combatants below, and awoke the reverberating echoes of the surrounding hills with a deafening roar. Nothing was wanting in the pomp and circumstance of war; and, as if to complete the pageant, the fleet, cruising off the mouth of the river, threw shells at intervals into Soult's works on the coast. Tough, weather-beaten veterans were they who descended to the fight, and little likely to brook refusal at any point. "Kill or be killed, and they little care which," is said to have been the verdict of Wellington on such of them as lived to fight and win the last great action at Toulouse three months later. They did not belie their appearance. The French were driven back at all points over a front of nine miles; fifty-one of their guns were captured, and the little river triumphantly crossed at every bridge and ford, the allied troops then pushing on to the heights on the French side. But the Nivelle was not passed without great loss. Five hundred brave men of the allies bit the dust that day, and two thousand four hundred men were wounded, including Generals Byng and Kemp; while Soult out of his seventy thousand men lost four thousand two hundred and sixty-five, including fourteen hundred prisoners.

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The French works were in three lines, immensely strong, and such, in the words of a distinguished officer on the spot, as men ought to have defended for ever. Day after day," says Napier, "for more than a month entrenchment had arisen over entrenchment, covering the vast slopes of mountains which were scarcely accessible from their natural steepness and asperity. This they [the allies] could see, yet cared neither for the growing strength of the works, the height of the mountains, nor the

breadth of the river with its heavy sands and its mighty rushing tide; all were despised."1 Southey naturally remarks that the French relied, in addition, upon the difficulty of the ground, not dreaming that artillery could be brought to act over rivers, rocks, and mountains. Guns, on swivel - carriages harnessed on the backs of mules, were conveyed to the ridges of the mountains and brought to bear on the French from positions which they had considered inaccessible for artillery; and the gunners dragged their cannon with ropes up steep precipices or lowered them down wherever they could be employed with most effect. This description, together with the fact that the French defended the hermitage on Larrhun by rolling down vast rocks and stones on the attackers, may well remind us of the heroic little Chitral campaign of to-day.

In the Lonsdale Manuscripts is a letter from the grandfather of the present Earl who was then serving in a cavalry regiment, in which he says, after going over the ground: "From the very strong positions the enemy held you would not have thought it possible for troops to have got possession of the heights, as strongly fortified as they were, in so short a time; their works are innumerable and immensely strong, and for many miles in rear of where the attack commenced, the ground afforded them the greatest resistance against our troops by a chain of hills which are scarcely more than seven hundred yards apart, and at the top of each hill were strong batteries." Soult himself,

1 The tide, however, makes as far as Ascain only, which does not embrace more than a third of the length of the fighting-line at the Nivelle, but is not fordable up to that point. On the high ground opposite Ascain on the right bank of the Nivelle was the fortified French camp of Serres, not to be confounded

with Sare.

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