[Sidenote: S. Journal of Operations. MS.] [Sidenote: Ibid.] [Sidenote: S. Journal of Operations, MS.] On the French side, Soult’s corps was concentrating on the Carrion. After the rapid and brilliant success of this marshal at the opening of the campaign, his corps was ordered to remain on the defensive until the movements against Tudela and Madrid were completed; the despatches commanding him to recommence his offensive operations were, as we have seen, intercepted on the 12th, but on the 16th he became acquainted with the advance of the English army. At that period general Bonnet’s division occupied Barquera de San Vincente and Potes, on the Deba; and watched some thousand Asturians that Ballasteros had collected near Llanes. Merle’s and Mermet’s divisions were on the Carrion; Franceschi’s dragoons at Valladolid; and general Debelle’s at Sahagun. The whole formed a total of sixteen or seventeen thousand infantry, and twelve hundred cavalry, present under arms, of which only eleven thousand infantry and twelve hundred cavalry could, without uncovering the important post of St. Andero, be opposed to the advance of the British. Soult, alarmed at this disparity of force, required general Mathieu Dumas, commandant at Burgos, to direct all the divisions and detachments passing through that town, (whatever might be their original destination) upon the Carrion; and this decisive conduct was approved of by the emperor. The 21st, Bonnet’s division remaining on the Deba, Mermet’s occupied the town of Carrion; Merle’s was at Saldaña; and Franceschi’s cavalry retired from Valladolid to Riberos de la Cuesca. Debelle’s continued at Sahagun, and thirteen hundred dragoons, under general Lorge, arrived at Palencia from Burgos. Meanwhile, the fifteenth and tenth British hussars quitting Melgar Abaxo during the night, arrived close to Sahagun before daylight on the 21st; the tenth marched straight to the town, the fifteenth turned it by the right, and endeavoured to cut off the enemy, but meeting with a patrole, the alarm was given, and when lord Paget, with four hundred of the fifteenth, arrived at the rear of the village, he was opposed by a line of six hundred French dragoons. The tenth not being in sight, the fifteenth, after a few movements, charged, broke the enemy’s line, and pursued them for some distance. Fifteen to twenty killed, two lieutenant-colonels, and eleven other officers, with a hundred and fifty-four men prisoners, were the result of this affair, which lasted about twenty minutes. Debelle then retired to Santerbas.