Thiébault, the governor of Salamanca, had been warning both the commander of the Army of the North and the commander of the Army of Portugal for some weeks that Wellington might move at any moment[201]. But his reports to the effect that the British were making gabions and fascines, preparing a bridge over the Agueda, and bringing up siege-guns to Almeida, made little or no impression on his superiors, because they had come to the conclusion that it was unlikely that Wellington would undertake a siege at midwinter. His preparations, they thought, were probably intended to force his enemies to concentrate, at a time when roads were bad and food unprocurable: ‘ils n’ont d’autre but que de nous faire faire de faux mouvements,’ said one of Marmont’s aides-de-camp. It was only in the spring that the allied army would become really enterprising and dangerous. [201] See Thiébault’s _Mémoires_, iv. pp. 551-2. Extracts from two of his letters are printed in Marmont’s _Mémoires_, iv. pp. 280-1, and bear out all that he says in his own book. Astonishing as it may appear, though Wellington’s troops started on January 2nd, and though Rodrigo was invested and the Redout Renaud stormed on January 8th, the definitive news that the siege had actually begun only reached Salamanca on January 13th. No better proof could be given of the precarious nature of the French hold on the kingdom of Leon. The fact was that the guerrilleros of Julian Sanchez so obsessed all the roads from Salamanca to Rodrigo, that no messenger could pass without a very large escort. Barrié only got the news that he was attacked to Thiébault by entrusting it to a Spanish emissary, who carried his note in disguise, and by a long détour. Marmont and Dorsenne only received it on the 14th: King Joseph at Madrid only on the 25th. On the 13th Marmont was in such a state of blindness as to the actual situation that he was writing to Berthier that ‘si l’armée anglaise passait l’Agueda j’attendrais sur la Tormès la division du Tage et les troupes que le Général Dorsenne pourrait m’amener, _mais sans doute ce cas n’arrivera pas_. Ciudad Rodrigo sera approvisionné jusqu’à la récolte, et à moins d’un siège il ne doit pas être l’objet d’aucune sollicitude[202].’ Wellington, when this was written, had already passed troops over the Agueda some ten days back, and had been beleaguering Ciudad Rodrigo for five. Yet Marmont was dating from Valladolid, which was not much over 100 miles from the hard-pressed fortress. Truly, thanks to the guerrilleros, the ‘fog of war’ was lying heavily round the Marshal. [202] Marmont to Berthier, Valladolid, Jan. 13, 1812.