The duke of Dalmatia considering that Sebastiani had his hands full, and that the blockade of Cadiz, the protection of Seville on the side of Neibla and of Araceña, would not permit the drawing off more than twenty thousand men, represented to the emperor that with such a force, he durst not penetrate the Alemtejo, leaving Olivenza and Badajos, and Ballasteros, (who would certainly join Mendizabel) on his rear; while Romana alone, without reckoning British troops, could bring ten thousand men against his front; hence he demanded leave to besiege those places, and Napoleon consented. Meanwhile, order was taken to secure Andalusia during the operations. Dessolles’ division had been recalled to form the army of the centre, and general Godinot took his place at Cordoba; a column of observation was posted under general Digeon at Ecija; Seville entrenched on the side of Neibla, was given over to general Daricau, and a detachment under Remond was posted at Gibraleon. The expeditionary army, consisting of sixteen thousand infantry, artillery, sappers and miners, and about four thousand cavalry and fifty-four guns, was assembled on the 2d January. An equipage of siege, a light pontoon train, and seventeen hundred carts, for stores and provisions were also prepared, and Soult’s administration was now so efficient, that he ordered a levy of five thousand young Spaniards, called “_escopeteros_” (fuzileers) to maintain the police of the province. SOULT’S FIRST EXPEDITION TO ESTREMADURA. [Sidenote: 1811.] [Sidenote: Appendix, No. II. Sect. 5, 6.] Mortier moving from Guadalcanal, entered Zafra on the 5th January, Mendizabel retired to Merida, and Ballasteros, in consequence of orders from the Regency, passed over the mountains to Frejenal. Winter tempests raged, and the French convoy which moved on Araceña, being overwhelmed by storms, was detained at the foot of the mountains, and to cover it, Gazan marching from Zafra, drove Ballasteros out of Frejenal. Meanwhile, the Spanish leaders, as well those in Estremadura, as in Cadiz, were quite ignorant of Soult’s intentions, some asserting that he was going to pass the Tagus at Almaraz, others, that his object was only to crush Ballasteros. Lord Wellington alone divined the truth, and it was he who first gave Mendizabel notice, that the French were not assembling at Seville at all, so destitute of intelligence and of military knowledge were the Spaniards. Now when the French were breaking into Estremadura, terror and confusion spread far and wide; Badajos was ill provisioned, Albuquerque in ruins, Olivenza nearly dismantled; and, in the midst of this disorder, Ballasteros was drawn off towards the Condada de Neibla by the Regency, who thus deprived Estremadura of half its defenders at the moment of invasion.