such tasks to officers
for whose speedy promotion they were anxious. It was a form of
recommendation which Napoleon never failed to recognise. Marshal Lannes
did me the honour of appointing me to carry the news of the victory of
Tudela, and I could indulge the hope of being major before long. But,
alas! I had yet much blood to lose before I reached that rank.

The high road from Bayonne to Madrid by Vittoria, Miranda del Ebro,
Burgos, and Aranda forks off at Miranda from that leading to Saragossa
by Logrono. A road from Tudela to Aranda across the mountains about
Soria forms the third side of a great triangle. While Lannes was
reaching Tudela the Emperor had advanced from Burgos to Aranda. It was,
therefore, much shorter for me to go from Tudela to Aranda than by way
of Miranda del Ebro. The latter road, however, had the advantage of
being covered by the French armies; while the other, no doubt, would be
full of Spanish fugitives who had taken refuge after Tudela in the
mountains. The Emperor, however, had informed Lannes that he was sending
Ney's corps direct from Aranda to Tudela; so thinking Ney to be at no
great distance, and that an advanced force which he had pushed on the
day after the battle to get touch of him at Taragona would secure me
from attack as far as Aranda, Lannes ordered me to take the shortest
road. I may frankly admit that if I had had my choice I should have
preferred to make the round by Miranda and Burgos; but the marshal's
orders were positive, and how could I express any fear for my own
person in the presence of a man who knew no more fear for others than he
did for himself?

The duties of marshal's aide-de-camp in Spain were terrible. During the
revolutionary wars the generals had couriers paid by the state to carry
their despatches; but the Emperor, finding that these men were not
capable of giving any intelligible account of what they had seen, did
away with them, and ordered that in future despatches should be carried
by aides-de-camp. This was all very well as long as we were at war among
the good Germans, to whom it never occurred to attack a French
messenger; but the Spaniards waged fierce war against them. This was of
great advantage to the insurgents, for the contents of our despatches
informed them of the movements of our armies. I do not think I am
exaggerating when I say that more than two hundred staff officers were
killed or captured during the Peninsular War. One may regret the