"When the storm abated and the packet-boat sailed, they took ship together." (January 23, 1814)

Although headquarters were in Saint Jean de Luz, Wellington's army received their mail from England by packet-boat to Pasajes, or Passages, as Judge Advocate Francis Seymour Larpent spells it. On 16 December 1813 he wrote: "Though you will have heard from me by the detained mail, which went yesterday, you will expect something by the next, so I begin my work in time, concluding that it will go Sunday as usual again." Apparently there was a regular service – within limits: "I have just heard that the packet which went from hence the 22nd, with our letters to the 21st of November, was found deserted at sea, and letters &c., supposed to be taken, or most likely sunk. I sent you two long letters by that packet!" (The Private Journal of Judge-Advocate Larpent, Spellmount: Spellmount Library of Military History, 2000. With an introduction by Ian C. Robertson, p. 329.)

Carlos de Haes, Breakers (Guéthary), ca.1881
© Museo Nacional del Prado, www.museodelprado.es

(Click here for a selection of views of the coast around Saint Jean de Luz I've put together for you at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.)

Larpent almost invariably heads his Sunday entries with "Post-day" in addition to the weekday and date (pp. 331 [December 17], 336 [December 26], 341, 349 [January 9],  369 [January 23]). I expect Justin and Pepe sailed back to England with the packet that had arrived in Pasajes on January 23.

 The National Galleries of Scotland hold a fine watercolour depicting the harbour at Pasajes, painted by Arthur Melville in 1892.