[338] _Correspondance_, xxi. 146: ‘Vous voyez que ce que j’avais prévu est arrivé, qu’on a eu la simplicité de laisser du monde dans Olivenza, et de faire prendre là 300 hommes,’ &c. This was alluding to an earlier order to Soult not to make small detachments, and to blow up Olivenza. [339] Ninety-eight sick attended by sixteen surgeons were comprised in the surrender on April 15th. [340] This is Lapéne’s view, who says that the 400 gallant men were knowingly sacrificed in this hope: ‘L’intérêt de l’armée a demandé le sacrifice’ (p. 146). Beresford’s train and guns having joined him beyond the river on March 8th, he moved to Olivenza on the 9th, in an order of march ready to deploy into an order of battle in case Latour-Maubourg should turn up with his small field force. The town was summoned on the same afternoon, and when the governor refused to surrender, the 4th Division, still almost unable to move for want of the shoes which were daily expected from Lisbon, was left to besiege it, with the aid of heavy guns to be brought from Elvas, only fifteen miles away. The extreme weakness of the garrison was not known, or the Marshal would not have wasted time by ordering regular approaches to be made. The rest of the army bivouacked on the Badajoz road a few miles beyond Olivenza, and on the following day occupied Valverde, and pushed its cavalry to Albuera, cutting the _chaussée_ between Badajoz and Seville. No enemy could be found, and it was ascertained that Latour-Maubourg’s rearguard was at Santa Marta, ten miles to the south, and the rest of his troops far beyond it. On the 11th the infantry, minus the 4th Division, were at Albuera, while the bulk of the cavalry marched to find out how far southward the enemy was ready to withdraw. Central Estremadura, at any rate, was now in Beresford’s hands, and he was in a position to carry out Wellington’s orders to drive the 5th Corps over the Sierra Morena and invest Badajoz. In accordance with his instructions he had seen Castaños on March 30th, and settled with him that the wrecks of the old Army of Estremadura--now about 1,000 horse and 3,000 foot--should join in the campaign. Castaños, who showed himself both eager and obliging, had promised that his infantry should seize the bridge of Merida, and that, when it was occupied, his cavalry, under Penne Villemur, should join in the movement to sweep Latour-Maubourg over the mountains, operating on the eastern road (Merida-Ribera-Usagre-Llerena), while the allied cavalry took the western one (Albuera-Los Santos-Fuente Cantos-Monasterio). These promises were carried out: Morillo’s infantry division occupied Merida on the 10th, and next day Penne Villemur’s cavalry had reached Almendralejo.