there had not been a French soldier
on the first of these roads since the Seven Years' War.

These hypotheses having been made as above stated, if any one should ask
what course Napoleon ought to pursue, it was easy to reply "that the
mass of the French army being already assembled in Bavaria, it should be
thrown upon the left of the Prussians by way of Grera and Hof, for the
gordian knot of the campaign was in that direction, no matter what plan
they should adopt."

If they advanced to Erfurt, he could move to Gera, cut their line of
retreat, and press them back along the Lower Elbe to the North Sea. If
they rested upon the Saale, he could attack their left by way of Hof and
Gera, defeat them partially, and reach Berlin before them by way of
Leipsic. If they stood fast behind the Elbe, he must still attack them
by way of Gera and Hof.

Since Napoleon's direction of operations was so clearly fixed, what
mattered it to him to know the details of their movements? Being certain
of the correctness of these principles, I did not hesitate to announce,
_a month before the war_, that Napoleon would attempt just what he did,
and that if the Prussians passed the Saale battles would take place at
Jena and Naumburg!

I relate this circumstance not from a feeling of vanity, for if that
were my motive I might mention many more of a similar character. I have
only been anxious to show that in war a plan of operations may be often
arranged, simply based upon the general principles of the art, without
much attention being of necessity given to the details of the enemy's
movements.

Returning to our subject, I must state that the use of spies has been
neglected to a remarkable degree in many modern armies. In 1813 the
staff of Prince Schwarzenberg had not a single sou for expenditure for
such services, and the Emperor Alexander was obliged to furnish the
staff officers with funds from his own private purse to enable them to
send agents into Lusatia for the purpose of finding out Napoleon's
whereabouts. General Mack at Ulm, and the Duke of Brunswick in 1806,
were no better informed; and the French generals in Spain often suffered
severely, because it was impossible to obtain spies and to get
information as to what was going on around them.

The Russian army is better provided than any other for gathering
information, by the use of roving bodies of Cossacks; and history
confirms my assertion.

The expedition of Prince Koudacheff, w