‘The Emperor regrets that when you had the division of Souham and three others united [i. e. on January 23] you did not move on Salamanca, to make out what was going on. That would have given the English much to think about, and might have been useful to Ciudad Rodrigo. The way to help the army under the present circumstances is to place its head-quarters at Salamanca, and concentrate your force there, detaching one division to the Tagus valley and also reoccupying the Asturias. [This concentration] will oblige the enemy to remain about Almeida and in the North, for fear of an invasion of Portugal. You might even march on Rodrigo, and, if you have the necessary siege artillery, capture the place--your honour is bound up with it. If want of the artillery or of food renders it necessary to put off such an operation, you could at least make an incursion into Portugal, and advance towards the Douro and Almeida. This menace would keep the enemy “contained”.... Your posture should be offensive, with Salamanca as base and Almeida as objective: as long as the English know that you are in strength at Salamanca they will not budge: but if you retire to Valladolid yourself, and scatter divisions to the rear, and above all if you have not got your cavalry effective by the time that the rainy season ends, you will expose all the north of Spain to misfortunes. ‘It is indispensable to reoccupy the Asturias, because more troops are needed to hold the edge of the plain as far as Biscay than to keep down that province. Since the English are divided into two corps, one in the South and the other opposite you, they cannot be in heavy strength: you ought to outnumber them greatly.... I suppose that you consider the English mad, for you believe them capable of marching against Badajoz when you are at Salamanca, i. e. of allowing you to march to Lisbon before they can get back. They will only go southward if you, by your ill-devised schemes, keep two or three divisions detached on the Tagus: that reassures them, and tells them that you have no offensive projects against them. ‘To recapitulate, the Emperor’s intentions are that you should stop at Salamanca, that you should reoccupy the Asturias, that your army should base itself on Salamanca, and that from thence you should threaten the English.’