5 
hatched, Argenton laid bare to him the secret schemes, and announced the 
advance of the English. Lefebure felt it his duty to tell Soult of what had 
occurred, who at once placed the Captain in arrest, and ordered him to be tried, 
The case was heard on the 2nd of May. The statements made by the traitor, nct 
only opened the eyes of the Marshal as to the situation in which he was placed, 
but showed him clearly what the state of feeling was amongst his troops. He 
saw plainly that a rapid retreat could alone save him from being crushed by the 
superior forces of his opponent. 
Two roads were open to him for such a retreat. The one led by Braga to Vigo, 
the other by Braganza to Leon. The Marshal elected to take the latter, and on 
the 12th of May his army was echelonned along that road ready to move off, 
leaving a rear-guard still in possession of Oporto. But these four days had given 
Wellesley time first of all to send astrong detachment across the Douro at Lamego, 
and thus to block the road at Braganza, and then on the 12th of May to fall with 
his main body on the French rear-guard in Oporto, to force it out of the town, 
and to seize the road to Braga also. ‘The result of these operations was to place 
the French army in a very difficult position indeed. Both its lines of retreat were 
snatched from it, and it seemed that only a helpless surrender, or a struggle from 
which it had no hope of emerging with success, was open to it. But Soult’s in- 
ventive brain hit on another expedient, dangerous, and likely to be costly, for it 
involved nothing less than the abandonment of the high roads of the country, 
and an attempt to save his army by means of forced marches over the steep and 
almost impassable paths across the mountains. By means of unheard of efforts 
and dangers, he did indeed succeed in accomplishing such a mountain march in the 
five days, between the 12th and 17th, and eventually reached Orense on Spanish 
territory, but with an army exhausted, and dismembered, without artillery, with- 
out horses, and with only about 17,000 men in the ranks. 
Wellesley had not pursued his opponent after the capture of Oporto, but had 
turned back to Coimbra, where he arrived on the 26th, and from that time had 
busied himself with preparations for the advance on Madrid. 
After the two opponents had thus become once more separated, an armistice 
was kept up between them for four weeks, and, when operations were again set 
on foot at the end of that time, circumstances on the French side had considerably 
altered owing to changes in matters connected with the command. 
Napoleon was away in the Far East, on the banks of the Danube, when he 
heard of the renewed activity of the Englishmen. He immediately perceived that 
the English army must now form the principal objective of his armies in Spain. 
An order was therefore issued on the 12th of June that a corps was to be detached 
from the army of Soult, of Ney, and from that of the East, commanded by Marshal 
Mortier, and that another army was to be formed in this way which was to be placed 
under the leadership of Soult. ‘‘ These three corps,” in his exact words, “are 
only to manoeuvre in conjunction with one another, are to march upon the English- 
men, are to press them without intermission, are to overpower them, and throw 
them into the sea. The strength of these three corps must amount to 50,000 or 
60,000 men, if their junction is properly timed, the Englishmen must be destroyed, 
and affairs in Spain will be brought to a settlement. But we must act in com- 
bination, and not march in isolated detachments ; that is everywhere a matter of 
first consideration, but it is especially so in a country where it is impossible to 
have communications. I cannot exactly specify the spot where this union is to 
take place because I am not conversant with all the circumstances of the case.” 
We shall see presently how Soult regulated the march of this army. 
This order of Napoleon’s was issued in fourfold to King Joseph, Soult, Ney, 
‘and Mortier. According to one authority! that sent to Soult contained the 
1 Bignon, 
