[270] The King in all his dispatches seems to understate his own force. He sometimes calls it only 15,000 men. But a muster roll of the Army of the Centre, which I have copied from the Archives de la Guerre, for February 15, 1811, shows a total of 20,000, viz. Dessolles, 3,300, German Division, 5,200, Spaniards, 4,200, Lahoussaye, 2,500, Treillard’s Light Cavalry, 1,400, Artillery Train, Sappers, &c., 1,500, Royal Guards, 2,000 of all arms. In addition there were 5,000 drafts for Soult detained in New Castile, but about to start for Seville. [271] Which had only seven battalions, the rest being with Soult in Andalusia. [272] Composed of two cavalry regiments of Marisy’s brigade, three German battalions from La Mancha, and two French battalions. [273] Napoleon in a dispatch of 22 March (_Correspondance_, xxi. 496) blames Lahoussaye for not stopping in northern Estremadura, in touch with Soult. The Army of the Centre just sufficed to occupy the kingdom of New Castile, and was unable to do more. At least, however, it could maintain its position, and was in no danger. The King was even able to make state visits to places in the close neighbourhood of Madrid, such as Alcala and Guadalajara[274], and seems to have regarded the possibility of such a modest tour as a sign of the approaching pacification of this region. [274] See Miot de Melito’s _Mémoires_, iii. 153-6. But just at the moment when Joseph Bonaparte’s military situation was safe, if not satisfactory, he was passing through a diplomatic crisis which absorbed all his attention and reduced him to the verge of despair. We have already alluded, in an earlier chapter, to Napoleon’s insane resolve to annex all Spain beyond the Ebro to the French Empire[275], in return for which he was proposing to hand over Portugal, when it should be conquered, to his brother. The proclamation announcing this strange resolve, which was to make Frenchmen of Mina and all the guerrilleros of Navarre, no less than of the Catalan armies which were still striving so hard against Macdonald, was delayed in publication. For the Emperor wished to wait till Lisbon was in the hands of Masséna, before he made known his purpose. But Joseph was aware that the proclamation had been drawn up, and had been sent out to the governors of the northern provinces, who were only waiting for orders to issue it. The news that the English had evacuated Portugal might any day arrive, and would be the signal for the dismemberment of Spain. He had sent in succession to Paris his two most trusted Spanish adherents, the Duke of Santa-Fé and the Marquis of Almenara, to beg the Emperor to forgo his purpose; all was to no effect. Santa-Fé came back in December absolutely crushed by the reception that he had been given; the Emperor had delivered to him an angry diatribe, in which he complained that his brother forgot that he was a French prince, and