Sadly due to, of late, ill health, our honorary editor has not been able to contribute anything to the magazine. However we received a letter from him recently which we felt should be reprinted here in lieu of any articles and we hope this goes some way to make up for his absence. We hope he's on the mend and will be able to once again sally forth to the forefront of Napoleonic academia.

Dear Richard,

Two excellent articles on 'Busaco', another challenge for an apologia pro vita mea by Peter Hofschroer on 'Ligny' (yawn?) and an 'ancient' writer from ES May (presumably RMC, S), and not to forget Stuart Reid about 'Officers and Gentlemen' (- see 'No 30'). Yes, Richard, Dave and the rest: "You're doing very well" (viz. 'Young Mr. Grace' at 'Are you being served?'. I am beginning to look like him, (although rather rounded), but no matter..

May I make three - and hopefully useful - queries or comments?

Jane Craufurd Hoyle is not, from my point of view anyway, to describe Marshal Massena as 'whingeing' to Berthier (see p 13). A 'Black Mark', I wonder (- if only for a small one?) Massena's comments were certainly entitled. Yes, he '...is no longer the Massena of the flashing eyes, mobile face and alert figure whom I knew in 1799. He is only 52, but looks more than 60' (General Foy - see Napoleon's Marshals, p284) but Massena was arguably the best of the Emporer's marshals. As for de Marbot, he was rather disloyal as a senior ADC. Professor Don Horward (USA) has effectively dealt with this in his useful book Napoleon and Iberia (1980, reissued by Greenhill Books recently). I also think that ADC JJ Felet (whom Jane does list here) is far more reliable than the more famous de Marbot - whom Napoleon (for propaganda reasons) lists him in his will on St Helena see No 31):

'To Colonel de Marbot, 100,000 francs; I charge him to persist with his writing, guarding the glory of the armies of France and confounding their slanders and apostates.' (See Napoleon's Last Will and Testament', commented by Jean- Pierre Babelon etc., (NY 1969, p40). Certainly de Marbot kept his promise. But I am wandering - bad habit for an old(-er?) military historian....

However - for Jane's query: 'Why did Massena choose such an extraordinary bad road for his troops?' (p13 again).

There is an answer: Professor Horward has well described the reason: simply, the ONLY available map, it seems, was the 1778 document (see part of this map shows Horward's hachuring from Almeida to Viseu etc). This was Horward's first serious book - not always available today, but it should be in any good military libraries - was 'The Battle of Bussaco: Massena vs Wellington' (FSU, 1965).

More recently - but sadly died this year - we should inspect it by CA Raeuber (the noted Swiss historian) is 'Du temps de Napoleon... 1810', (Lisbon 1993). This is an excellent study of French military intelligence operations, and describes the maps in detail.

Thank you, by the way, for your kind wishes during hospital last year. 'Onwards and Upwards!'