In the foregoing book the real state of affairs in the Peninsula has been described; but it appeared with a somewhat different aspect to the English general, because false informations, egregious boasts, and hollow promises, such as had been employed to mislead sir John Moore, were renewed at this period; and the allied nations were influenced by a riotous rather than a reasonable confidence of victory. The English newspapers teemed with letters, describing the enemy’s misery and fears: nor was the camp free from these inflated feelings. Marshal Beresford was so credulous of French weakness as publicly to announce to the junta of Badajos that Soult’s force, wandering and harassed by continual attacks, was reduced to eight or ten thousand distressed soldiers. Nay, sir Arthur Wellesley himself, swayed by the pertinacity of the tale-makers, the unhesitating assurances of the junta, perhaps, also, a little excited by a sense of his own great talents, was not free from the impression that the hour of complete triumph was come. The Spanish government and the Spanish generals were importunate for offensive movements, and lavish in their promises of support; and the English general was as eager, for he was at the head of gallant troops, his foot was on the path of victory, and he felt that, if the duke of Belluno was not quickly disabled, the British army, threatened on both flanks, would, as in the case of sir John Cradock, be obliged to remain in some defensive position, near Lisbon, until it became the scorn of the French, and an object of suspicion and hatred to the Spanish and Portuguese people. There were three lines of offensive operations open:-- 1º. _To cross the Tagus, join Cuesta’s army, and, making Elvas and Badajos the base of movements, attack Victor in front._ This line was circuitous. It permitted the enemy to cover his front by the Tagus; the operations of the allies would have been cramped by the Sierra de Guadalupe on one side, and the mountains lying between Albuquerque and Alcantara on the other; and strong detachments must have been left to cover the roads to Lisbon, on the right bank of the Tagus. Finally, the communication between the duke of Belluno and Soult being free, Beresford’s corps would have been endangered.