3º. Once united to Blake, Cuesta’s real base of operations was Gallicia, and he should have kept all his stores within the mountains, and not have heaped them up in the open towns of the flat country, exposed to the marauding parties of the enemy, or covered, as in the case of Benevente, by strong detachments which weakened his troops in the field and confined him to a particular line of operations in the plain. 4º. The activity and good sense of marshal Bessieres overbalanced the errors of Savary; and the victory of Rio Seco was of infinite importance, because as we have seen a defeat in that quarter would have shaken the French military system to its centre and have obliged the king, then on his journey to Madrid, to halt at Vittoria, until the distant divisions of the army were recalled to the capital, and a powerful effort made to crush the victorious enemy. Napoleon’s observations are full of strong expressions of discontent at the imprudence of his lieutenant. “_A check given to Dupont_,” he says, “_would have a slight effect, but a wound received by Bessieres would give a locked jaw to the whole army. Not an inhabitant of Madrid, not a peasant of the valleys that does not feel that the affairs of Spain are involved in the affair of Bessieres; how unfortunate, then, that in such a great event you have wilfully given the enemy twenty chances against yourself._” When he heard of the victory he exclaimed that it was the battle of Almanza, and that Bessieres had saved Spain. [Sidenote: Napoleon’s Notes, Appendix, No. 3.] The prospect was indeed very promising; the king had arrived in Madrid, bringing with him the veteran brigade of general Rey and some of the guards, and all fears upon the side of Leon being allayed, the affairs of Andalusia alone were of doubtful issue; for Zaragoza, hard pushed by Verdier, was upon the point of destruction in despite of the noble courage of the besieged; nor did the subjugation of Andalusia appear in reason a hard task, seeing that Moncey was then at San Clemente, and from that point threatened Valencia without losing the power of succouring Dupont, and Frere’s and Caulincourt’s troops were disposable for any operation. The French army possessed the centre, and the Spaniards were dispersed upon a variety of points on the circumference without any connexion with each other, and in force only upon the side of Andalusia.