[278] This letter, written to Castlereagh from Zambujal (_Well. Disp._, iv. 127-32), is one of the most conclusive proofs of Wellesley’s military genius. He valued the Spanish armies at their true force. He foresaw that Bonaparte would make ‘the driving of the leopard into the sea’ a point of honour, and would send corps on corps into Spain in order to secure it. He even noted that the affairs of Central Europe, ‘of which I have no knowledge whatever,’ would be the only possible reason that might prevent the Emperor from inundating the Peninsula with his legions. He saw that the presence of the British in Leon would be the one thing that would keep the French from subduing Central Spain: a disaster in the Douro valley was the nightmare of the Emperor, as half a dozen of his dispatches show. The first news that Moore was near Valladolid drew Napoleon from Madrid in wild haste, and deferred for six months the conquest of the valley of the Guadiana. This letter was different in its general character from the other reports which Castlereagh was receiving: most of the correspondents of the Secretary for War could write of nothing but the enthusiastic patriotism of the Spaniards and their enormous resources: they spoke of the French as a dispirited remnant, ready to fly, at the first attack, behind the line of the Pyrenees. It is therefore greatly to the credit of Castlereagh that he did not hesitate to pin his faith upon Wellesley’s intelligence, and to order the execution of the very plan that he recommended. It was practically carried out in the great campaign of Sir John Moore, after the collapse of the Spanish armies had justified every word that Sir Arthur had written about them. Wellesley sailed from Lisbon on September 20, and reached Plymouth on October 4. On his arrival in England he was met with news of a very mixed character. On the one hand he was rejoiced to hear that both Dalrymple and Burrard had been recalled, and that Sir John Moore had been placed in command of the British forces in the Peninsula. He wrote at once to the latter, to say that there could be no greater satisfaction than to serve under his orders, and that he would return at once to Spain to join him: ‘he would forward with zeal every wish’ of his new commander[279]. It was also most gratifying to Wellesley to know that the dispatch of September 25, by which Moore was given the command of the army of Portugal, directed him to move into Northern Spain and base himself upon the Asturias and Galicia, the very plan which formed the main thesis of the document that we have been discussing. There can be no doubt that Castlereagh had recognized the strategical and political verities that were embodied in Wellesley’s letter, and had resolved to adopt the line therein recommended. [279] Wellesley to Moore, Oct. 8 (_Well. Suppl. Disp._, vi. 150, 151). SECTION IV: CHAPTER VI THE COURT OF INQUIRY