[199] Masséna to Berthier, from Maceira, March 19: ‘D’après les rapports, le général Hill [he means Beresford, who had been in charge of Hill’s former command since December] se portait avec sa division et un gros détachement de Portugais à travers les montagnes du haut Zézère, se dirigeant sur la rive gauche du Mondégo. Dès ce moment j’ai abandonné l’espoir de garder cette rive sans risquer une bataille.’ ... ‘Dans l’état actuel des choses et d’après les mouvements que l’ennemi peut faire sur mes flancs, par le Mondégo ou par les montagnes de Guarda, où s’est dirigé le corps de Hill, il est nécessaire de rapprocher l’armée de notre base d’opérations’ [i. e. to retreat into Spain]. By sending off Cole and De Grey to join the future Army of Estremadura, on the 16th March, Wellington reduced the force about him by 7,000 men, and had no more than 38,000 left on the Ceira. The newly formed 7th Division, which was marching up from Lisbon, and would ultimately replace Cole with the main army, was at this moment only reaching Santarem; it did not come up to the front till March was at its end. For the rest of his operations against Masséna, therefore, Wellington was more than ever in a state of numerical inferiority, and forced to be cautious. But he was in a confident mood, foreseeing that the enemy could not now stop in Portugal, and must be starved into a prompt retreat over the frontier. His conviction that the crisis was over is shown by another dispatch of the 20th March, in which he directs that the whole of the Lisbon Militia and Ordenança be dismissed to their homes, the former on furlough, the latter for good. The Militia of the lower Beira (the Castello Branco country) and of northern Estremadura were also to return to their native districts, to be sent on leave or kept under arms according as further events might determine[200]. Thus the Lines of Torres Vedras were left ungarrisoned, there being no further danger to be feared in the direction of Lisbon. [200] Wellington to Beresford. (_Dispatches_, vii. 375-6.)