Since Badajoz was stormed on April 6th, only ten days after Marmont received on March 27 the Emperor’s dispatch of March 12, it is clear that he never could have arrived in time to help the fortress. In June 1811 he had accomplished a similar movement at a better season of the year, and when some time had been allowed for preparation, in fifteen days, but only by making forced marches of the most exhausting sort. It could not have been done in so short a time in March or April, when the crops were not ripe, the rivers were full, and the roads were far worse than at midsummer. Moreover (as we shall presently see) Wellington had placed a large containing force at Merida, half-way between Almaraz and Badajoz, which Marmont would have had to drive in--at much expense of time. The Marshal’s perplexity on receiving the dispatch that came in upon March 27 was extreme. ‘The instructions just received,’ he wrote to Berthier, ‘are wholly contradictory to those of February 18 and February 21, imperative orders which forced me, against my personal conviction, to abandon my own plan, and to make it impossible to do what I regarded as suitable to the interests of the Emperor. The letters of February 18 and February 21 told me that his Majesty thought me a meddler in matters which did not concern me: he told me that it was unnecessary for me to worry about Badajoz, “a very strong fortress supported by an army of 80,000 men.” ... He gave me formal orders to abandon any idea of marching to succour it, and added that if Lord Wellington went thither, he was to be left alone, because by advancing to the Agueda I could bring him back at once. The letters of the 18th and 21st made it quite clear that His Majesty freed me from all responsibility for Badajoz, provided I made a demonstration on the Agueda. ... To-day your Highness writes that I _am_ responsible for Badajoz, if Lord Wellington undertakes its siege with more than two divisions. The concluding paragraph of your letter seems to give me permission to succour the place, by bringing up troops to the Tagus. So, after imperative orders have wrecked my original arrangement, which had prepared and assured an effective help for Badajoz, and after all choice of methods has been forbidden to me, I am suddenly given an option when it is no longer possible to use it.... To-day, when my troops from the Tagus valley have repassed the mountains, and used up the magazines collected there at their departure, when it is impossible to get from Madrid the means to establish a new magazine at Almaraz, my army, if it started from this point [Salamanca], would consume every scrap of food that could be procured before it could possibly reach Badajoz.... The movement was practicable when I was in my original position: it is almost impracticable now, considering the season of the year, and the probable time-limit of the enemy’s operations.... After ripe reflection on the complicated situation, considering that my main