Along with this dispatch arrived another from Dorsenne[232], clamouring for the division which was to be given him--he had already got the notice that he was to receive it, as he lay nearer to France than Marmont. He promised that the three provisional regiments should be sent off, as the Emperor directed, the moment that the ceded division should reach him. The Duke of Ragusa could not refuse to obey such peremptory orders from his master, and ordered Bonnet’s division, from Benavente and Leon, to march on Burgos. His letter acknowledging the receipt of the Emperor’s dispatch was plaintive. ‘I am informed that, according to the new arrangement, the Army of the North will be in a position to help me with two divisions if I am attacked. I doubt whether His Majesty’s intentions on this point will be carried out, and in no wise expect it. I believe that I am justified in fearing that any troops sent me will have to be long waited for, and will be an insignificant force when they do appear. Not to speak of the slowness inevitable in all joint operations, it takes so long in Spain to get dispatches through, and to collect troops, that I doubt whether I shall obtain any help at the critical moment. ... The net result of all is that I am left much weaker in numbers.’ [232] Dorsenne to Marmont, from Uñas, Feb. 5. Marmont might have added that the three provisional regiments, which he was to receive in return for Bonnet’s division and the 130th Line, were no real reinforcement, but his own drafts, long due to arrive at the front, but detained by Dorsenne in Biscay and Old Castile to garrison small posts and keep open communications. And he was not destined to receive them as had been promised: Dorsenne wrote on February 24 apologizing for not forwarding them at once: they were guarding the roads between Irun and Vittoria, and could not be spared till other troops had been moved into their scattered garrisons to relieve them.