I am well aware that it is not always possible to avoid a combat without running greater risks than would result from a check; but Macdonald might have fought Blücher to advantage if he had better understood Napoleon's instructions.

It will not be thought strange that I sometimes approve of concentric, and at other times divergent, maneuvers, when we reflect that among the finest operations of Napoleon there are some in which he employed these two systems alternately within twenty-four hours; for example, in the movements about Ratisbon in 1809.

The memorable campaign of 1829 is evidence of the value of such a system. If the Porte had possessed masonry forts in the defiles of the Balkan and a good fortress toward Faki, the Russians would not have reached Adrianople, and the affair would not have been so simple.

Still, Napoleon was right in taking the offensive in the Frioul, since the Austrians were expecting a reinforcement from the Rhine of twenty thousand men, and of course it was highly important to beat the Archduke Charles before this force joined him. In view of the circumstances of the case, Napoleon's conduct was in accordance with the principles of war.