The first project, wanting those offensive combinations discussed by Napoleon, was open to all his objections, as being timid and incomplete. The second was crude and ill-considered, for, according to the king’s estimate of the Spanish force, thirty thousand men on each wing might oppose the heads of his columns, sixty thousand could still have been united at Logroña, pass the Ebro, excite an insurrection in Navarre, Guipuscoa, and Biscay, seize Tolosa and Miranda, and fall upon the rear of the French army, which thus cut in two, and its communications intercepted, would have been extremely embarrassed. The third was not better judged. Burgos as an offensive post, protecting the line of defence, was very valuable, and to unite a large force there was so far prudent; but if the Spaniards retired, and refused battle with their left, while the centre and right operated by Logroña and Sanguessa, what would have been the result? the French right must without any definite object either have continued to advance, or remained stationary without communication, or returned to fight a battle for those very positions which they had just quitted. The fourth depended entirely upon accident, and is not worth argument. The fifth was an undisguised retreat. The sixth was not applicable to the actual situation of affairs. The king’s force was no longer an independent body, it was become the advanced guard of the great army, marching under Napoleon. It was absurd, therefore, to contemplate a decisive movement, without having first matured a plan suitable to the whole mass that was to be engaged in the execution. In short, to permit an advanced guard to determine the operations of the main body, was to reverse the order of military affairs, and to trust to accident instead of design. It is curious, that while Joseph was proposing this irruption into Spain, the Spaniards and the military agents of Great Britain were trembling lest he should escape their power by a precipitate flight. “_War is not a conjectural art!_” CHAPTER V. The emperor overruled the offensive projects of the king, and the latter was forced to distribute the centre and right wing in a manner more consonant to the spirit of Napoleon’s instructions; but he still neglected to occupy Tudela, and covered his left wing by the Aragon river. [Sidenote: Journal of the king’s operations, MS.] [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 28.] The 18th of September the French army was posted in the following manner: Right wing. Marshal } Three divisions of infantry in front of Bessieres. 15,595 } Pancorbo, at Briviesca, Santa Maria, under arms. } and Cuba; light cavalry behind Burgos. Centre. Marshal Ney. } 13,756 under arms. } Logroña, Nalda, and Najera. Left wing. Marshal } Milagro, Lodosa, Caparosa, and Alfaro. Moncey. 16,636 } The garrison of Pampeluna was also under arms. } under Moncey’s command.