Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF PHILORTH, LORDS SALTOUN. 245
points he recrossed the Nive during the night, and on the 1 3th made three
desperate attacks on Sir R. Hill, and was defeated and driven into Bayonne
with great loss."
On the 10th January 1814 he again wrote from St. Jean de Luz : —
" Since I wrote last nothing has taken place with us in the fighting line,
but for all that we have not been perfectly quiet. It pleased Soult to cross
the Adour in force on the 3d, above the right of our army, and, accordingly,
on the 4th we were all put in motion, and both armies continued manoeuvring
until the 8th, when Soult retired across the river, and resumed his old position,
and to-day we have followed his example and taken up our old cantonments.
At one time on the 7th he had very nearly put his foot in it, and Lord
Wellington would have attacked him on the 8th, but he found it out in time,
and was off during the night. We have fortunately not had a great deal of
rain, but it is very cold lying out at this time of year."
Lord Saltoun had obtained his promotion to the rank of captain and
lieutenant-colonel upon the 25th of December 1813, but he does not seem to
have been aware of his having been gazetted for some weeks, as on the 6th
of February he wrote as follows to Miss Thurlow : —
" You, of course, before this time know of my promotion, and perhaps are
among the number that expect me home ; but if so you will be disappointed,
at least for the present, for I have accepted the command of the light com-
panies, in which I have always served, and mean to remain with this army
till the thing is decided, which must be the case, one way or the other, in a
very few months. . . . This is not any sudden idea of mine, for I had settled
in my own mind, when I left England, if I got my promotion not to go
home. I never mentioned it to my mother or you, because although I knew
it to be perfectly right in me to do so, I should have had some difficulty in
persuading you of that. Now, however, that it is past altering, I think I could
persuade you that it is correct for me not only to serve with a good grace
when ordered, but, at the present time especially, to show that I am willing
and ready to serve without being compelled to do so ; and I have accordingly
made an offer of my services to the commanding officer of the brigade, who
has been pleased to accept of the same, not but what I would give a good
deal for one fortnight in London, though the fog were ever so thick."