It was at this time that sir John Moore’s letter arrived; but Castaños, no longer master of his own operations, could ill concert a plan of campaign with the general of another army. He could not even tell what troops were to be at his nominal disposal; for the Estremaduran force, originally destined for his command, was now directed by the junta upon Burgos, and the remainder of his own first and third division was detained in Madrid. His enemies, especially Montijo, were active in spreading reports to his disadvantage; the deserters scattered over the country declared that all the generals were traitors, and the people of the towns and villages, deceived by the central junta, and excited by false rumours, respected neither justice nor government, and committed the most scandalous excesses. Blake’s situation was not more prosperous. The road from Bayonne to Vittoria was encumbered with the advancing columns of the great French army. An imperial decree, issued early in September, commanded that the troops already in Spain should be incorporated with the grand army then marching from Germany. The united forces were to compose eight divisions, called “Corps d’Armée,” an institution analogous to the Roman legion, because each “Corps d’Armée,” although adapted to act with facility as a component part of a large army, was also provided with light cavalry, a parc, and train of artillery, engineers, sappers, and miners, and a complete civil administration, to enable it to take the field as an independent force. The imperial guards and the heavy cavalry of the army were not included in this arrangement; the first had a constitution of their own, and at this time all the heavy cavalry, and all the artillery, not attached to the “Corps d’Armée,” were formed into a large reserve. As the columns arrived in Spain, they were united to the troops already there, and the whole was disposed conformably to the new organization. Marshal Victor, duke of Belluno, commanded the first corps. Marshal Bessieres, duke of Istria second corps. Marshal Moncey, duke of Cornegliano third corps. Marshal Lefebre, duke of Dantzic fourth corps. Marshal Mortier, duke of Treviso fifth corps. Marshal Ney, duke of Elchingen sixth corps. General St. Cyr seventh corps. General Junot, duke of Abrantes eighth corps. [Sidenote: S. Journal of the king’s operations, MS.]