Having removed his sick and wounded from Braga to Porto, for they were safe nowhere but under the immediate protection of the army, the Marshal sent Generals Graindorges and Heudelet to relieve Tuy and subdue the intermediate country, where the Portugueze General Botelho had put the Corregidor of Barcellos to death for having welcomed the French on their former reconnoissance from Braga. They entered ♦APRIL 8.♦ Ponte de Lima after some resistance; the weak and dilapidated fortress of Valença was surrendered to them, and Barrios, who upon ♦APRIL 10.♦ tidings of their movements had made an unsuccessful attack upon Tuy, retired during the night to S. Comba. The French boasted that Lapella and Monçam, Villa Nova and Caminha had opened their gates to them, and that the fort of Insoa, at the mouth of the Minho, had capitulated: the names carried as lofty a sound as if the places were of any strength, or possessed any importance, or could have been defended against them, or held by them. But in fact the only advantage expected or derived from the expedition was that of removing with all speed the garrison and all the moveable effects first from Tuy to Valença, that they might be on the safer side of the Minho, and then with the least possible delay to Porto. In that city Marshal Soult remained, unable to prosecute his plans of conquest, and not more in hope of co-operation from Lapisse and Victor, than in apprehension that a British force might anticipate their tardy movements. CHAPTER XX. OPERATIONS IN LA MANCHA AND EXTREMADURA. BATTLES OF CIUDAD REAL AND MEDELLIN. ♦1809. MARCH.♦ Marshal Soult imputed the failure of his expedition to a deviation from the plan which Buonaparte had prescribed, in not taking possession of Ciudad Rodrigo. Lapisse had been prevented from doing this when it might have been done without difficulty, by the unexpected appearance of Sir Robert Wilson in that quarter; and Victor, who might have taken the place in spite of any resistance which could then have been opposed, was employed in operations more likely to gratify the pride of the French, but of much less importance to the iniquitous cause in which they were engaged. ♦PLANS OF THE INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT.♦