Note 638 — SECTION VIII: CHAPTER IV
Reading edition
Napier (i. 304) says that there were 60,000 men present, but it is hard to see how such a number could have been collected on that day at Madrid; and the official account of the review in the Madrid Gazette for Dec. 23 says that 40,000 men appeared, ‘all in beautiful order, and testifying their enthusiasm by their shouts as His Majesty rode past the front of each regiment.’ The Emperor never understated his forces on such occasions: the tendency was the other way.