When Massena passed the frontier, his communications with France became so uncertain, that the emperor’s principal source of information was through the English newspapers. Foy brought the first exact intelligence of the posture of affairs. It was then that the army of the north was directed to support the army of Portugal; that the ninth corps was made a component part of the latter; that the prince of Esling was enjoined to hold fast between Santarem and the Zezere; to besiege Abrantes; and to expect the duke of Dalmatia, who had been already several times commanded to move through the Alemtejo, to his assistance. The emperor seems even to have contemplated the evacuation of Andalusia and the concentration of the whole army of the south on the Tagus, a project that would have strengthened rather than weakened the French in the Peninsula, because it was more important to crush the regular warfare in Portugal, than to hold any particular province. Massena’s instructions reached him in due time, Soult’s were intercepted by the Guerillas, and the duplicates did not arrive before the end of December; a delay affording proof that thirty thousand men would scarcely have compensated for the uncertainty of the French communications. Postponing his design against Cadiz, the duke of Dalmatia repaired to Seville, carrying with him Latour Maubourg’s cavalry and five thousand infantry from the first corps. His instructions neither prescribed a line of movement nor enjoined any specific operation; the prince of Esling was to communicate his plan to which Soult’s was to be subordinate. But no certain intelligence even of Massena’s early proceedings had reached Seville, and such were the precautions of lord Wellington, such the activity of the Partidas, that from the time Soult quitted Cadiz, until his operation terminated, no communication could be effected between the two marshals, and each acted in perfect ignorance of the plans and situation of the other. [Sidenote: Marshal Soult’s Correspondence. MSS.] [Sidenote: King Joseph’s Correspondence. MSS.]