Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/341

Rh pelled to retreat. The termination and effect of the expedition are well known, and need not be here repeated. At the termination of the expedition Sir John Hope was appointed commander-in-chief of tho forces in Ireland, but he soon left this unpleasing sphere of duty, to return in 1813, to the scene of his former exertions in the Peninsula. At the battle of Nivelle he commanded the left wing, and driving in the enemy's out-posts in front of their entrenchments on the Lower Nivelle, carried the redoubt above Orogue, and established himself on the heights immediately opposite Sibour, in readiness to take advantage of any movement made by the enemy's right On the 10th of December, nearly the whole army of the enemy left their entrenchments, and having drawn in the piquets, advanced upon Sir John Hope's posts on the high road from Bayonne to St Jean de Luz. At the first onset, Sir John took 500 prisoners, and repulsed the enemy, while he received in the course of the action a severe contusion on the head. The same movement was repeated by the enemy, and they were in a similar manner repulsed. The conduct of Sir John on this occasion has received the approbation of military men, as being cool, judicious, and soldierly; and he received the praises of the duke of Wellington in his despatches.

In this campaign, which began on the frontiers of Portugal, the enemy's line of defence on the Douro had been turned, and after defeat at Vittoria, Soult had been repulsed in his efforts to relieve St Sebastian and Pamplona, and the army of France had retreated behind the Pyrenees. After the fall of the latter place, the army entered France, after many harassing operations, in which the progress of the allies was stoutly impeded by the indomitable Soult. In the middle of February, 1814, the passage of the Adour was accomplished. While the main body of the army under the duke of Wellington, prosecuted the campaign in other quarters, Sir John Hope was left with a division to invest the citadel and town of Bayonne on both banks of the river. Soon after these operations commenced, Sir John received information from two deserters, that the garrison was under arms, and prepared for a sortie before day-light next morning. By means of a feint attack at the moment they were so expected, and by the silent and stealthy movements of some of their men through the rough ground, many of the sentinels were killed, and several lines of piquets broken. The nature of the spot, with a hollow way, steep banks, and intercepting walls, deprived those so attacked of the power of retreating, and the whole vicinity was a series of scattered battles, fought hand to hand, with deadly bitterness. The chief defence of the besiegers lay in the fortified convent of St Bernard, and in some buildings in the village of St Etienne; to the latter post Sir John Hope proceeded with his staff, at the commencement of the attack. Through one of the inequalities of the ground already mentioned, which formed a sort of hollow way, Sir John expected to find the nearest path to the village. When almost too late, he discovered that the banks had concealed from him the situation of the enemy, whose line he was just approaching-, and gave orders to retreat; before, however, being extricated from the hollow way, the enemy approached within twelve yards' distance, and began firing: Sir John Hope's horse received three balls, and falling, entangled its rider. While the staff attempted to extricate him, the close firing of the enemy continued, and several British officers were wounded, among whom was Sir John himself, and the French soldiers pouring in, made them all prisoners. The French with difficulty extricated him from the fallen horse, and while they were conveying him to the citadel, he was severely wounded in the foot by a ball supposed to have come from the British piquets. From the effects of this encounter he suffered for a considerable period.

On the 3rd of May, Sir John was created a British peer by the title of baron