Such was the position of the different armies when the British general arrived at Plasencia. He had seen Soult’s letters, found upon general Franceschi, and thus ascertained that the second corps was at Zamora, and from Franceschi himself, who passed as a prisoner, at the same time, he learned the arrival of the fifth corps at Valladolid; but the march of Ney’s corps was not suspected, and the tenor of Soult’s letters led to the notion that Gallicia was to be retained. A letter of Victor’s to Joseph, dated the 23d of June, and written in the most desponding language, had been likewise intercepted; and, as Soult’s correspondence also gave a strong picture of _his_ difficulties, the general impression that the French armies were not only weak but utterly dismayed was rather augmented than lessened by this information. Sir Arthur Wellesley, however, could not but have some distrust, when he knew that _two corps_ were beyond the mountains, on his left; and, though far from suspecting the extent of his danger, he took additional precautions to protect that flank, and renewed his instructions to Beresford to watch the enemy’s movements, and to look carefully to the defence of the _Puerto Perales_. But the pass of Baños was still to be guarded, and for this purpose sir Arthur applied to Cuesta. The Spanish general was at first unwilling to detach any men to that quarter, but he finally agreed that two battalions from his army and two others from the town of Bejar, at the other side of the pass, should unite to defend Baños, and that the duke del Parque should also send a detachment to the pass of Perales. Although these measures appeared sufficient to obviate danger from Soult’s corps, weakened as it was supposed to be, they were evidently futile to check the real force under that marshal; and they were rendered absolutely ridiculous by Cuesta, who sent two weak battalions, of three hundred men each, and with only twenty rounds of ammunition per man: and yet this was only a part of a system which already weighed heavily on the English general. The 10th, sir Arthur Wellesley proceeded to Cuesta’s head-quarters, near the Col de Mirabete, to confer with him on their future operations. Ever since the affair of Valdez, in 1808, the junta had been sorely afraid of Cuesta, and, suspecting that he was meditating some signal vengeance, they endeavoured to raise up rivals to his power. In this view they had lavished honours and authority upon Blake; but the defeat at Belchite having crushed their hopes in that quarter, they turned their eyes upon Venegas, and increased his forces, taking care to give him the best troops. Still Cuesta’s force was formidable, and to reduce it was the object both of Mr. Frere and the junta: the motive of the first being to elevate the duke of Albuquerque; the intention of the others being merely to reduce the power of Cuesta. [Sidenote: Sir A. Wellesley’s Correspondence, Parl. Papers, 1810.]