Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . eril was already not far off, whichmight have proved simply fatal to the allies. Na-poleon, from the banks of the Danube, had perceivedthe risk Wellesley and Cuesta ran, in marching upthe valley of the Tagus towards Madrid, whenlargely superior forces could be thrown on their flankand rear ; with characteristic insight and resourcethis greatest of strategists saw the favourable chance;he directed Soult, whom he placed in supreme com-mand, to assemble a great force composed of hisown corps, which had been quic
Wellington, soldier and statesman, and the revival of the military power of England . eril was already not far off, whichmight have proved simply fatal to the allies. Na-poleon, from the banks of the Danube, had perceivedthe risk Wellesley and Cuesta ran, in marching upthe valley of the Tagus towards Madrid, whenlargely superior forces could be thrown on their flankand rear ; with characteristic insight and resourcethis greatest of strategists saw the favourable chance;he directed Soult, whom he placed in supreme com-mand, to assemble a great force composed of hisown corps, which had been quickly reorganised andrestored, of the corps of Ney, and of the corps ofMortier; and with these combined armies, to passthrough the Sierras from the north, to join handswith all the armies under the command of Joseph,and then to fall in irresistible strength on theenemy, who, should he continue his march, couldhardly be saved from complete destruction. Napier has misdescribed Napoleons project, as his correspond-ence was not then published. It will be found in Corr., xix., p. 263, in. The Douro—Talavera 93 Partly, however, owing to the distances betweenthe French marshals, but largely to dissensions be-tween them,—the curse of the French in the Penin-sular War, —and to orders wrongly given by Josephto Mortier, the march of Soult was considerablydelayed ; the grand conception of Napoleon was notrealised. Nevertheless, Soult, with the three corpsof which he had been made the chief, was aroundSalamanca in the latter days of July; that is, he wasnow only four or five marches distant from the gapin the Sierras which would lead him into the Tagusvalley, and would place him on the flank and rearof the enemy, with a veteran army fully 50,000strong. The Marshal wrote to King Joseph by aconfidential officer, the General Foy of another day,entreating the King not to attempt to fight a gen-eral action until all his forces were near Placencia,that is, had emerged from the passes in the S
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