5. Other theories than the one we have adopted as to the cause of the wanderings of d’Erlon’s Corps have been broached. Thiers thinks that Napoleon sent d’Erlon a direct order; Charras[437] has combated this view in a careful examination of the evidence, and we agree with him. There is, however, considerable conflict of testimony. Lieutenant-Colonel de Baudus, who was on the staff of Marshal Soult in this campaign, in his “Études sur Napoléon,”[438] tells this story:— “At the moment when the affair [the battle of Ligny] was at its height, Napoleon called me and said to me: ‘I have sent an order to the Comte d’Erlon to direct his whole corps in the rear of the right of the Prussian army; go and carry to Marshal Ney a duplicate of this order, which ought to be communicated to him. You will tell him that, whatever may be the situation in which he finds himself, it is absolutely necessary that this disposition should be executed; that I do not attach any great importance to what is passing to-day on his wing; that the important affair is here, where I am, because I want to finish with the Prussian army. As for him, he must, if he cannot do better, confine himself to keeping the English army in check.’[439] When the Emperor had finished giving me his instructions, the major-general [Soult] recommended me in the most energetic terms to insist most forcibly on the Duke of Elchingen that, on his part, nothing should hinder the execution of the movement prescribed to the Comte d’Erlon.” Notwithstanding this circumstantial narrative, we do not believe that Napoleon sent d’Erlon a direct order. Napoleon had in all his communications with Ney placed d’Erlon under him; the letter written to Ney that morning by the Emperor said:—“The major-general has given the most precise instructions, so that there shall be no difficulty about obedience to your orders when you are detached from the main army; when I am present, the corps-commanders will take their orders from me.” Now Napoleon must have supposed that d’Erlon would be with Ney at 5 P.M.