With starving and exhausted troops his chances are small, indeed, unless he can cross the Tagus.

He might beat one marshal or the other, but he can hardly beat the two of them.
"The first thing to do is to send two troopers off, with duplicate despatches, telling Sir Arthur of Soult's passage.

He might not otherwise hear of it for some time, and then it might be too late.
The peasantry and the village authorities will be too busy carrying off their effects, and driving their animals to the hills, to think for a moment of sending information.

That is evidently the first thing to be done.
"Until we see what is going to happen, I don't think we can do better than cross the Sierra, and encamp at some spot where we can make out the movements of the French on the plain.

At the same time we can keep an eye on the road to Plasencia, and be able to send information to Sir Arthur, if any further bodies of French troops come down into the valley.