In co-operation with this force was a corps of Portuguese Militia 10,000 The corps under the Marquis Romana 12,000 —————— Making a total of 76,000 The French force under Massena was Men. The Infantry of the 2d, 6th and 8th corps 62,000 The Cavalry 6,000 The Artillery, &c. 4,000 —————— Total 72,000 To this were afterwards joined two Divisions of The 9th corps under Count Erlon 10,000 The remaining division of this corps under General Claparede 8,000 The corps of Marshal Mortier which cooperated to the south of the Tagus, 13,000 ——— Making a total of 103,000 These numbers are the very lowest at which the French army can be calculated. Buonaparte always called the force under Massena alone 100,000 men; and the French officers, before the invasion of Portugal, gave the same account of the numbers with which they were to overwhelm us. In comparing the amount of the two armies, the description of force of which they were composed should be taken into consideration. The Portuguese had as yet been perfectly untried; and their militia was so defective in organization as to be evidently unfit for the operations of a campaign. Yet Lord Wellington was not alarmed at the disparity of numbers, or the superior organization of the troops of the enemy; he relied upon his own genius to baffle their efforts, and combined his plans with reference to the troops he had to command. In the latter part of the year 1809, while Lord Wellington was still at Badajos, he had contemplated the possibility of his being attacked in Portugal by a superior force; he had considered the nature of the country he should have to defend, as well as the system of warfare which would most tend to support the contest in the Peninsula: he looked upon the preservation of his own army as the guarantee of the future triumph of the cause he was to maintain: the extension of the enemy, in the occupation of distant provinces, must be a source of weakness to him; the lengthening his communications must add considerably to his embarrassments. Lord Wellington, therefore, fixed upon the heights of Sobral and Torres Vedras, as the best positions in which he could collect his army, and offer battle to the superior forces of his enemy.