These general reasons for desiring to operate on the side of Catalonia were strengthened also by the consideration, that the country, immediately beyond the Bidassoa, being sterile, the difficulty of feeding the army in winter would be increased; and the twenty-five thousand half-starved Spaniards in his army, would certainly plunder for subsistence and incense the people of France. Moreover Soult’s actual position was strong, his troops still numerous, and his entrenched camp furnished a secure retreat. Bayonne and St. Jean Pied de Port were so placed that no serious invasion could be made until one or both were taken, or blockaded, which, during the tempestuous season and while the admiralty refused to furnish sufficient naval means, was scarcely possible; even to get at those fortresses would be a work of time difficult against Soult alone, impracticable if Suchet, as he well might, came to the other’s support. Towards Catalonia therefore lord Wellington desired to turn when the frontier of the western Pyrenees should be secured by the fall of Pampeluna. Yet he thought it not amiss meanwhile to yield something to the allied sovereigns, and give a spur to public feeling by occupying a menacing position within the French territory. A simple thing this seemed but the English general made no slight concession when he thus bent his military judgment to political considerations. The French position was the base of a triangle of which Bayonne was the apex, and the great roads leading from thence to Irun and St. Jean Pied de Port, were the sides. A rugged mass of mountains intervened between the left and centre, but nearly all the valleys and communications, coming from Spain beyond the Nive, centred at St. Jean Pied de Port and were embraced by an entrenched camp which Foy occupied in front of that fortress. That general could, without calling upon Paris who was at Oleron, bring fifteen thousand men including the national guards into action, and serious dispositions were necessary to dislodge him; but these could not be made secretly, and Soult calculated upon having time to aid him and deliver a general battle on chosen ground. Meanwhile Foy barred any movement along the right bank of the Nive, and he could, either by the great road leading to Bayonne or by shorter communications through Bidaray, reach the bridge of Cambo on the Nive and so gain Espelette behind the camps of Ainhoa. From thence, passing the Nivelle by the bridges at Amotz and Serres he could reach St. Jean de Luz, and it was by this route he moved to aid in the attack of San Marcial. However, the allies marching from the Alduides and the Bastan could also penetrate by St. Martin D’Arosa and the Gorospil mountain to Bidaray, that is to say, between Foy’s and D’Erlon’s positions. Yet the roads were very difficult, and as the French sent out frequent scouting detachments and the bridge of Cambo was secured by works, Foy could not be easily cut off from the rest of the army.