Blake meanwhile, finding, on September 23rd, that the enemy was not about to advance against his lines, and learning soon after that the French army had settled down before Saguntum, had to revise his plans, since it was clear that he was not to be attacked in his entrenchments as he had supposed. Three courses were now open to him: either he might collect every man for a decisive battle in the open, and try to raise the siege; or he might attempt to open up attacks on Suchet’s line of communications and on his base in Aragon, so as to force him to retire by indirect operations; or he might remain passive behind the lines of the Guadalaviar. The last was an almost unthinkable alternative--it would have ruined his reputation for ever to sit quiet and do nothing, as Wellington had done during the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1810. Only a general with an established reputation for courage and ability could have dared to take such a course; and Blake’s record was a long series of disasters, while he was detested by the Valencians one and all--by the army, to whom he rightly preferred his own excellent troops, no less than by the Captain-General Palacios, and the Junta, whom he had sent out of the city to sit at Alcira, when they showed a tendency to hamper his operations. Practically he was forced by his situation to take some definite offensive move against Suchet. He chose that of indirect operations, having a well-rooted distrust of the fighting powers of a great part of the troops that were at his disposition. The record of the Valencian army he knew: the state of the Murcian army, on which he could draw for reinforcements, was represented to him in the most gloomy colours by Mahy, who had recently replaced Freire in command. On September 12th Mahy had written to him, to warn him that the spirit of his troops was detestable: ‘the Army of Murcia was little better than a phantom: there were only four or five officers for whom the rank and file had any respect or esteem, the rest were regarded as timid or incapable: the men had no confidence in themselves or their chiefs. The best thing to do would be to break up the whole army, and incorporate it into the “Expeditionary Divisions,” whose commanders were known as good soldiers, and whose battalions were trustworthy[16].’ [16] See Mahy’s letter to Blake on pp. 109-12 of vol. xi of Arteche. The General is writing very carefully so as not to speak too ill of his army: but his views are clear.