that the frontier fortresses on the Spanish border should be armed and supplied with provisions:—
- "All this is to be done with the utmost possible secrecy, especially the armament of the places on the Spanish frontier on the side of the eastern Pyrenees. Give secret instructions, and let the corps march in such a manner that the first ostensible operations be not seen in that country before November 25."
At the same time a new army of some twenty thousand men was hurried across France to take the place, at Bayonne, of Dupont's army, which was to enter Spain. November 13, the Emperor ordered Dupont to move his first division across the frontier to Vittori; and on the same day he despatched M. de Tournon, his chamberlain, with a letter to King Charles at Madrid, and with secret instructions[1] that revealed the reasons for these movements so carefully concealed from Spanish eyes:—
- "You will also inform yourself, without seeming to do so, of the situation of the places of Pampeluna and of Fontarabia; and if you perceive armaments making anywhere, you will inform me by courier. You will be on the watch at Madrid to see well the spirit which animates that city."
Napoleon's orders were in all respects exactly carried out. Dec. 1, 1807, Junot was in possession of Portugal; Dupont was at Vittoria; twenty-five thousand French troops would, by December 20, hold
- ↑ Napoleon to M. de Tournon, Nov. 13, 1807; Correspondance, xvi. 159.
