The want of transport and supplies obliged the British to march in small and successive divisions. It was, therefore, the 23d of November before the centre, consisting of twelve thousand infantry, and a battery of six guns, were concentrated at Salamanca. On that day Castaños and Palafox were defeated at Tudela, their armies scattered without a chance of rallying again in the field, and the third and sixth French corps became disposable. [Sidenote: Sir John Moore’s Papers.] The emperor, victorious on both flanks, and with a fresh base of operations fixed at Burgos, was free to move, with the guards and the reserve, either against Madrid or in the direction of Salamanca; and detachments of his army were already in possession of Valladolid; the very town which, a few days before, the Spanish government had indicated for the base of sir John Moore’s operations, and the formation of his magazines. The 26th the head of sir David Baird’s column was in Astorga, but the rear extended beyond Lugo. The head of general Hope’s division was at the Escurial, the rear at Talavera. The second French corps was on the Deba, threatening Leon and the Asturias; the cavalry covered the plains; the fourth corps was descending by Carrion and Valladolid, to seize the pass of the Guadarama; and the emperor himself was preparing to force the Somosierra. From this summary of contemporary events, it is evident, that notwithstanding sir John Moore had organised, equipped, supplied, and carried his troops four hundred miles in the space of six weeks, he was too late in the field. The campaign was decided against the Spaniards before the British had, strictly speaking, entered Spain as an army; it is also certain, that if, instead of being at Salamanca, Escurial, and Astorga, on the 23d, the troops had been united at Burgos on the 8th, such was the weakness of the Spanish forces, the strength of the enemy, and such the skill with which Napoleon directed his movements, that a difficult and precarious retreat was the utmost favour that could be expected from Fortune by the English general. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 13, sect. 1 and 4.]