e is no more surprising fight in British history. The mere
swiftness with which the adventure was carried out is marvellous. It
was past six P.M. when Hamilton disclosed his plan to his officers, the
_Hermione_ at that moment lying some eight miles distant; by two
o'clock the captured ship, with the British flag flying from her peak,
was clear of the harbour. Only half a hundred men actually got on
board the _Hermione_, but what a resolute, hard-smiting, strong-fisted
band they were may be judged by the results. Of the Spaniards, 119
were killed, and 97 wounded, most of them dangerously. Hamilton's 50
men, that is, in those few minutes of fierce fighting, cut down four
times their own number! Not one of the British, as it happened, was
killed, and only 12 wounded, Captain Hamilton himself receiving no less
than five serious wounds. The _Hermione_ was restored to her place in
the British Navy List, but under a new name--the _Retribution_--and the
story of that heroic night attack will be for all time one of the most
stirring incidents in the long record of brave deeds performed by
British seamen.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN THE PASSES

"Beating from the wasted vines
Back to France her banded swarms,
Back to France with countless blows,
Till o'er the hills her eagles flew
Beyond the Pyrenean pines;
Follow'd up in valley and glen
With blare of bugle, clamour of men,
Roll of cannon and clash of arms,
And England pouring on her foes.
Such a war had such a close."
--TENNYSON.

"In both the passes, and on the heights above them, there was desperate
fighting. They fought on the mountain-tops, which could scarcely have
witnessed any other combat than that of the Pyrenean eagles; they
fought among jagged rocks and over profound abysses; they fought amidst
clouds and mists, for those mountain-tops were 5000 feet above the
level of the plain of France, and the rains, which had fallen in
torrents, were evaporating in the morning and noon-day sun, were
steaming heavenward and clothing the loftiest peaks with fantastic
wreaths." These words describe, with picturesque force, the most
brilliant and desperate, and yet, perhaps, the least known chapter in
the great drama of the Peninsular war: the furious combats waged
between British and French in the gloomy valleys and on the
mist-shrouded summits of the Western Pyrenees. The great campaign,
which found its climax at Vittoria, laste