SECTION III: CHAPTER IV DUPONT IN ANDALUSIA: THE CAPITULATION OF BAYLEN We left General Dupont at Andujar, on the upper course of the Guadalquivir, whither he had retired on June 19 after evacuating Cordova. Deeply troubled by the interruption of his communications with Madrid, and by the growing strength displayed by the Spanish army in his front, he had resolved that it was necessary to draw back to the foot of the Sierra Morena, and to recover at all costs his touch with the main French army in the capital. He kept sending to Murat (or rather to Savary, who had now superseded the Grand-Duke) persistent demands for new orders and for large reinforcements. Most of his messengers were cut off on the way by the insurgents, but his situation had become known at head quarters, and was engrossing much of Savary’s attention--more of it indeed than Napoleon approved. The Emperor wrote on July 13 that the decisive point was for the moment in Castile, and not in Andalusia, and that the best way to strengthen Dupont was to reinforce Bessières[141]. [141] See Foy (iv. 45), and _Nap. Corresp._, 14,192, where the Emperor goes so far as to say: ‘Si le Général Dupont éprouvait un échec, cela ait de peu de conséquence. Il n’aurait d’autre résultat que de lui faire repasser les montagnes’ (i.e. the Sierra Morena). Such had not been Savary’s opinion: frightened at the isolation in which Dupont now lay, he sent to his assistance the second division of his corps, 6,000 men under General Vedel, all recruits of the ‘legions of reserve,’ save one single battalion of Swiss troops. The division was accompanied by Boussard’s cavalry, the 6th Provisional Dragoons, some 600 strong. Vedel made his way through La Mancha without difficulty, but on entering the Despeña Perros defiles found his passage disputed by a body of insurgents--2,000 peasants with four antique cannon--who had stockaded themselves in the midst of the pass. A resolute attack scattered them in a few minutes, and on reaching La Carolina on the southern slope of the mountains Vedel got in touch with Dupont, who had hitherto no notice of his approach [June 27].