The
jealousy among the generals, and the disinclination of the central Junta
to appoint any one person to a post that might enable him to interfere
with their intrigues, had combined to prevent the appointment of a
commander-in-chief, and there was no one therefore with whom Sir John
could open negotiations and learn what plans, if any, had been decided
upon for general operations against the advancing enemy.
On the day that Moore arrived at Almeida, Blake was in full flight,
pursued by a French army 50,000 strong, and Napoleon was at Vittoria with
170,000 troops.
Of these facts he was ignorant, but the letters that he received from Lord
William Bentinck and Colonel Graham, exposing the folly of the Spanish
generals, reached him. On the 11th he crossed the frontier of Spain,
marching to Ciudad-Rodrigo. On that day Blake was finally defeated, and
one of the other armies completely crushed and dispersed. These events
left a large French army free to act against the British. Sir John Moore,
however, did not hear of this until a week later. He knew, however, that
the situation was serious; and after all the reports of Spanish
enthusiasm, he was astonished to find that complete apathy prevailed, that
no effort was made to enroll the population, or even to distribute the
vast quantity of British muskets stored up in the magazines of the cities.
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