Note 143 — SECTION XXXIV: CHAPTER V
Reading edition
They had really not the 50,000 on which Wellington speculated (’45,000 men I should consider rather below the number’ (Dispatches, ix. p. 544) ) but 60,000 or very nearly that number. But, on the day when Wellington was writing, their rear had not even started from Madrid, and Soult’s 40,000 men were strung out all along the road.