Note 688 — SECTION XVI: CHAPTER VIII

On July 14 Wellesley writes to Beresford that he does not believe that Ney has quitted Galicia [Wellington Dispatches, iv. 510], because of the tenour of the captured dispatches of Soult to King Joseph. These, of course, had been written under the idea that the 6th Corps was still holding on to Corunna and Lugo: it was not till some days later that Soult learned of his colleagues’ unexpected move. But Wellesley knew of Ney’s move before the battle of Talavera, as is shown by Wellington Dispatches, iv. 545.