Masséna then came to the point: having argued down the schemes of Reynier and Ney, he developed his own determination, which was to hold on for the few days more that seemed possible. The marauding operations that fed the army were rapidly growing less productive, and the moment was approaching when the daily plunder would no longer meet the daily consumption, and then, in case the long-expected Soult did not appear, the army must retire on to the line of the Mondego[114]. There, in a country comparatively undamaged, Masséna hoped to hold out some fifty or sixty days at the least: the whole 9th Corps would be available for opening and maintaining the communications with Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, and reinforcements and stores would easily be brought forward[115]. But no further offensive movements could be contemplated; the army was exhausted and needed a long rest; in the end it would probably have to retire within the borders of Spain--perhaps to Alcantara on the Tagus, perhaps into Leon. [114] Foy, present at the council, where he was asked to comment on the Emperor’s last orders, which he had brought himself, renders Masséna’s decision in his diary as: ‘Que faut-il donc faire? Tenir ici le plus longtemps que nous pourrons: voir d’ici là ce qui se passera dans l’Alemtejo: puis, si rien n’est changé, nous transporter sur le Mondego, en laissant un corps d’armée à la rive gauche de cette rivière.’ [_Vie Militaire_, p. 131.] [115] This comes from Masséna’s dispatch to Berthier of March 6th. Ney and Reynier seem to have retired from the conference rather talked down than convinced, and the latter sent in to his Commander-in-Chief a sort of protest, taking the form of a précis of the meeting, in which the arguments used and the result arrived at were so misrepresented that Masséna caused a formal document to be drawn up and signed by five other generals present at the council, in which it was declared that the précis was wholly incorrect. Apparently Reynier had intended to get his protest to the Emperor’s hands, in order to free himself from any responsibility in approving a retreat which he thought that his master would condemn[116]. [116] For details as to this see Foy’s narrative quoted above.