There were, however, some grave objections to this infallible plan. General Cuesta was near Almaraz; sir John Cradock was at Lisbon, and sir Robert Wilson was at Ciudad Rodrigo. This circuitous line of correspondence being above four hundred miles long, it is not very clear how the combination was to be effected with that rapidity, which was said to be essential to the success. Neither is it very evident, that operations to be combined at such a distance, and executed by soldiers of different nations, would have been successful at all. On the one side, twenty thousand Portuguese and Spanish recruits were to act on double external lines of operation; on the other, twenty-five thousand French veterans waited in a central position, with their front and flanks covered by the Tagus and the Tietar. In such a contest it is possible to conceive a different result from that anticipated by colonel D’Urban. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 7.] Mr. Frere’s plans were not less extensive, and he was equally sanguine. When his project for assisting Catalonia had been frustrated, by the recall of general Mackenzie from Cadiz, he turned his attention to the north. Soult, he wrote to sir John Cradock, tired of the resistance he has met with, will probably desist from his “_unaccountable project of entering Portugal, and occupying Gallicia at the same time_.” Let the British army, therefore, make a push to drive the enemy out of Salamanca, and the neighbouring towns; while the Asturians, on their side, shall take possession of Leon and Astorga, and thus open the communication between the northern and southern provinces. Fearing, however, that if this proposal should not be adopted, the English general might be at a loss for some enterprise, Mr. Frere also recommended that the British army should march to Alcantara; and that the fortieth regiment, which hitherto he had retained at Seville, contrary to sir John Cradock’s wishes, should join it at that place; and then, the whole operating by the northern bank of the Tagus, might, in concert with Cuesta, “_beat the French out of Toledo, and consequently out of Madrid_.” [Sidenote: Muster Rolls of the French Army, MSS.] Now, with respect to the first of these plans, Soult never had the intention of holding Gallicia, which was Marshal Ney’s province; but he did propose to penetrate into Portugal, and he was not likely to abandon his purpose; because, the only army capable of opposing him was quitting that kingdom, and making a “_push_” of four hundred miles to drive Lapisse out of Salamanca; moreover, the Asturians were watched by general Bonnet’s division on one side, and by Kellerman on the other; and the fifth corps, not ten, but fifteen thousand strong, having quitted Zaragoza, were at this time in the Valladolid country, and therefore close to Leon and Astorga.