Note 285 — Chapter I

Sometimes on absolutely false information, due to the Emperor’s vast distance from the theatre of war leading him to make hypotheses which had been falsified, because of the mistaken premises on which he grounded them. For example, on March 30, 1811, he told Berthier that Masséna’s head quarters were at Coimbra, and that a detachment of his army occupied Oporto, and these ‘news’ were to be sent on to Soult (Correspondance, 17,531). On that day Masséna was already behind the Coa on his retreat to Ciudad Rodrigo.