at Soria.
The three armies thus lay in a long and feeble crescent, of which the
horns were pushed towards the French frontier; while the enemy, resting
on three strong fortresses, remained on the defensive until the Emperor
should pour new forces through the passes of the Pyrenees. It was
expected that the English army in Portugal would forthwith advance, and
put themselves in communication either with Blake or with Castanos; and
had this junction occurred soon after the battle of Virniero, the result
might have been decisive: but Wellesley was recalled to London to bear
witness on the trial of Dalrymple; and Sir John Moore, who then assumed
the command, received neither such supplies as were necessary for any
great movement, nor any clear and authentic intelligence from the
authorities of Madrid, nor finally any distinct orders from his own
government--until the favourable moment had gone by. In effect,
Napoleon's gigantic reinforcements had begun to show themselves within
the Spanish frontier, a week before the English general was in a
condition to commence his march.

The Emperor, enraged at the first positive disgraces which had ever
befallen his arms, and foreseeing that unless the Spanish insurrection
were crushed ere the Patriots had time to form a regular government and
to organise their armies, the succours of England, and the growing
discontents of Germany, might invest the task with insurmountable
difficulties, determined to cross the Pyrenees in person, at the head of
a force capable of sweeping the whole Peninsula clear before him "at one
fell swoop." Hitherto no mention of the unfortunate occurrences in Spain
had been made in any public act of his government, or suffered to
transpire in any of the French journals. It was now necessary to break
this haughty silence. The Emperor announced accordingly that the
peasants of Spain had rebelled against their _King_; that treachery had
caused the ruin of one corps of his army; and that another had been
forced, by the English, to evacuate Portugal: demanding two new
conscriptions, each of 80,000 men--which were of course granted without
hesitation. Recruiting his camps on the German side, and in Italy, with
these new levies, he now ordered his veteran troops, to the amount of
200,000, including a vast and brilliant cavalry, and a large body of the
Imperial Guards, to be drafted from those frontiers, and marched through
France towards Spain. As these warlike column