[88] He sent this estimate to Wellington, see the latter to Beresford, Badajoz, Nov. 16.
[89] The Junta afterwards contemplated bringing him down to join Albuquerque, via Plasencia, which was free of French troops, since Soult had moved to Oropesa. But this does not seem to have been thought of so early as Nov. 5.
[90] See Soult to Clarke, from Madrid, Nov. 6, for these movements.
[91] Soult to Clarke, from Madrid, Nov. 6. The deserters were a body of twenty-one men of the Walloon Guards, who had enlisted from Dupont’s prisoners in order to get a chance of escaping: they reached Oropesa on Oct. 25.
[92] Roche to Wellington, from Santa Cruz de la Mudela, Wellington Supplementary Dispatches, vi. 394. Cf. also the same to the same, vi. 414.
[93] Historia de la Guerra de la Independencia, vii. 283.
[94] Soult to Clarke, Madrid, Nov. 6.
[95] Soult to Clarke, Madrid, Nov. 10.
[96] Sebastiani to Soult, night of the twelfth-thirteenth, from Aranjuez.
[97] It had still no divisional general, and was officially known by the name of ‘Sebastiani’s division’—regiments 28th, 32nd, 58th, 75th.