Although the French halted on the Huebra, the English general kept his troops together behind the Agueda, because Soult retired with the troops under his immediate command to Los Santos on the Upper Tormes, thus pointing towards the pass of Baños, and it was rumoured he designed to march that way, with a view to invade Portugal by the valley of the Tagus. Wellington disbelieved this rumour, but he could not disregard it, because nearly all his channels of intelligence had been suddenly dried up by a tyrannical and foolish decree of the Cortez, which obliged every man to justify himself for having remained in a district occupied by the enemy, and hence to avoid persecution, those who used to transmit information, fled from their homes. Hill’s division was therefore moved to the right as far as Robledo, to cover the pass of Perales, the rest of the troops were ready to follow, and Penne Villemur, leading the fifth Spanish army over the Gata mountains occupied Coria. [Sidenote: December.] Joseph, after hesitating whether he should leave the army of the south, or the army of Portugal in Castile, finally ordered the head-quarters of the latter to be fixed at Valladolid, and of the former at Toledo; the one to maintain the country between the Tormes and the Esla, the other to occupy La Mancha with its left, the valley of the Tagus, as far as the Tietar, with its centre, and Avila with its right. The army of the centre went to Segovia, where the king joined it with his guards, and when these movements, which took place in December, were known, Wellington placed his army also in winter-quarters. The fifth Spanish army crossing the Tagus at Alcantara entered Estremadura. Hill’s division occupied Coria, and Placentia, and held the town of Bejar by a detachment. Two divisions were quartered on a second line behind Hill about Castelo Branco, and in the Upper Beira. The light division remained on the Agueda, and the rest of the infantry were distributed along the Duero from Lamego downwards. The Portuguese cavalry were placed in Moncorvo, and the British cavalry, with the exception of Victor Alten’s brigade which was attached to the light division, occupied the valley of the Mondego. Carlos D’España’s troops garrisoned Ciudad Rodrigo, and the Gallicians marched through the Tras os Montes to their own country. In these quarters the Anglo-Portuguese were easily fed, because the improved navigation of the Tagus, the Douro, and the Mondego, furnished water carriage close to all their cantonments; moreover the army could be quickly collected on either frontier, for the front line of communication from Estremadura passed by the bridge of Alcantara to Coria, and from thence through the pass of Perales to the Agueda. The second line run by Penamacor and Guinaldo, and both were direct; but the post of Bejar, although necessary to secure Hill’s quarters from a surprise, was itself exposed.