Note 61 — VII. FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO THE FINAL FALL OF NAPOLEON.
Reading edition
His orders were to go to Brest; but having been frightened by some purely mythical news of a British fleet of twenty-five sail (sent him via a neutral ship), he went to Cadiz. As, had he got to Brest, he would have found Cornwallis with thirty-five ships of the line, this piece of precaution (which incidentally led to Trafalgar) saved him for a while.