[147] ‘J’ai reçu votre lettre de Baylen. D’après le mouvement de l’ennemi, le général Dufour a très-bien fait de regagner de vitesse sur La Caroline et sur Ste-Hélène, pour occuper la tête des gorges. Je vois avec plaisir que vous vous hâtez de vous réunir à lui, afin de combattre avec avantage.... Si vous trouvez l’ennemi à La Caroline ou sur tout autre point, tâchez de le battre, pour venir me rejoindre et repousser ce qui est devant Andujar’ (Dupont to Vedel, night of July 17). [148] Vedel had now with him the following troops:-- (1) His own whole division [he had rallied the two detached battalions of Liger-Belair] 6,800 (2) Nine battalions of Gobert’s division (four from Baylen, three which had fought at Mengibar under Dufour, two from Liñares and La Carolina) 4,350 (3) Cavalry { 6th Provisional Dragoons 620 { Half 2nd Provisional Cuirassiers 340 Artillery, &c. (18 guns) 500 ------ 12,610 Deduct 2,500 for losses in action at Mengibar and sick, and about 10,000 remain. Meanwhile, on the morning of the eighteenth, Reding’s 9,500 men, of whom 750 were cavalry, had been joined by Coupigny and the second Andalusian division, which amounted to 7,300 foot and 500 horse. Advancing from Mengibar to attack Baylen, they found to their surprise that the place was unoccupied: Vedel’s rearguard had left it on the previous afternoon. Reding intended to march on Andujar from the rear on the next day, being under the full belief that Vedel was still with Dupont, and that the troops which had retired on La Carolina were only the fragments of Gobert’s force. For Castaños and his colleagues had drawn up their plan of operations on the hypothesis that the enemy were still concentrated at Andujar. Reding therefore, with some 17,000 men, encamped in and about Baylen, intending to start at daybreak on July 19, and to fall on Dupont from behind, while his chief assailed him in front. But already before the sun was up, musket-shots from his pickets to the west announced that the French were approaching from that direction. It was with the head and not with the rear of Dupont’s column that Castaños’ first and second divisions were to be engaged, for the enemy had evacuated Andujar, and was in full march for Baylen.