Note 480 — SECTION XXVI: CHAPTER V

In his dispatch to Berthier, written before leaving Seville, he spoke confidently of cutting in ahead of Blake, and surmised that the latter would find himself in a very compromising position, when he arrived in southern Estremadura, on learning that Beresford had already been driven across the Guadiana. On the 15th spies brought him the statement that Blake was timed to join Beresford only on the 17th. His battle-dispatch distinctly says that his first news of the junction having already taken place was got from prisoners during the course of the action.