Note 136 — SECTION XVIII: CHAPTER III

There was a considerable controversy among French military writers as to whether the omission to march on Cadiz was the fault of Soult or of the King. The authors of Victoires et Conquêtes, having put all the blame on the latter (vol. xx. page 7), his friends hastened to reply. His aide-de-camp Bigarré, who was present with him at the time, explicitly says in his autobiography (pp. 265-6) that the King raised the point, but was talked down by Soult and Dessolles. Miot de Melito (ii. 385) bears witness to the same effect, saying that he heard Soult clinch his argument by crying ‘Qu’on me réponde de Séville, moi je réponds de Cadix.’ Both say that the final decision was made at Carmona. See also Ducasse’s Correspondance du roi Joseph, vii. 142-3, and x. pp. 395-6, where the same story is given by the King himself.