[67] See Toreno, iii. p. 28. [68] See his pages, iv. 33. SECTION XXX: CHAPTER IV SUCHET’S CONQUEST OF VALENCIA: SIDE-ISSUES AND CONSEQUENCES. JANUARY-MARCH 1812 When once Suchet’s long-deferred movements began, on December 26, 1812, his operations were so rapid and successful that the whole campaign was finished in fourteen days. The unexpected swiftness of his triumph had the result of rendering unnecessary the subsidiary operations which Napoleon had directed the Armies of Portugal, the Centre, and Andalusia, to carry out. D’Armagnac, with his 3,000 men of the Army of the Centre, still lay at Cuenca when Suchet’s advance began, hindered from further movement by the badness of the roads and the weather. Opposite him were lying Bassecourt’s small force at Requeña--not 2,000 men--and the larger detachment of the Murcian army under Freire, which Blake had originally intended to draw down to join his main body. This seems to have consisted of some 4,000 foot and 1,000 horse[69] about the time of the New Year. [69] On February 1st Freire’s infantry division, though it had suffered much from desertion in the meanwhile, still numbered 3,300 men present, and his cavalry 850 sabres. See tables in _Los Ejércitos españoles_, pp. 149-50. Far more important was the force under Montbrun, detached from the Army of Portugal, which had moved (all too tardily) from La Mancha and the banks of the Tagus, by Napoleon’s orders. Assembled, as we have already shown[70], only on December 29th, it had started from San Clemente on January 2 to march against Blake’s rear by the route of Almanza, the only one practicable for artillery at midwinter. Thus the expedition was only just getting under way when Suchet had already beaten Blake and thrust him into Valencia. It consisted of the infantry divisions of Foy and Sarrut, of the whole of the light cavalry of the Army of Portugal, and of five batteries of artillery, in all about 10,000 men. Of the succour which had been promised from d’Armagnac’s division, to raise the force to the figures of 12,000 men, few if any came to hand[71]. [70] See above, p. 56. [71] According to Joseph’s letter to Montbrun (_Correspondence of King Joseph_, viii. p. 294) a battalion or two may have joined Montbrun, as he tells that general that he is glad to know that the troops of his army have given satisfaction.