This retreat surprised Cuesta as much as if his own procrastination had not deprived Spain of the victory which prompter measures would have secured. The British General had foreseen the consequence of so ill-timed a delay, and the disappointment was the more grievous because he could not pursue the French. From the hour in which he entered Spain he had never been able to procure means of transport: ... he required none for the baggage of individuals, ... only for provisions, ammunition, money, and military stores, things indispensable for an army: and these were not to be obtained. The country was in a state of total disorganization; and what was more extraordinary, the government seemed to be totally ignorant of this, and to suppose that nothing more was required of it than to issue edicts, which would be carried into effect as if things were in their ordinary course. This inconvenience had been so severely felt, that Sir Arthur, before he left Plasencia, informed Cuesta it would be impossible for him to undertake any farther operations after their arrangements against Victor should have been carried into effect, unless the necessary means of transport were supplied. Justice to his Majesty, and to the army with which he had been intrusted, required this determination, he said, and he was equally bound in justice to communicate it to General Cuesta without delay. The means which he required were such as every country in which an army was acting was bound to afford; and if the people of Spain were either unwilling or unable to supply what the British army required, they must do without its services. This declaration had been made as early as the 16th; a week had now elapsed, there had not been the slightest effort to remedy the evil, and from the same cause the troops were now in actual want of provisions. For the Spanish commissariat was in the most deplorable state; and that of the British army, which was far from being in a good one, could effect nothing in a country where they exerted no authority themselves, and the government would exert none for them. The evil was aggravated by the junction of two large armies, in a country which had scarcely ever been without troops to exhaust it during the preceding twelve months. When the two combined armies became competitors for food, the inhabitants naturally preferred their own countrymen: ... it was afterwards discovered also, that, with a stupid selfishness, which admits neither of justification or excuse, they concealed the greater part of their stores from both. ♦SIR ARTHUR HALTS.♦