It was a souvenir of his youthful travels, and he described to me the lay of the ground, designating the positions he would have taken even before we were on the spot." March 17, 1800, puncturing a card with a pin, he shows Bourrienne the place where he intends to beat Melas, at San Juliano.

"Four months after this I found myself at San Juliano with his portfolio and dispatches, and, that very evening, at Torre-di-Gafolo, a league off, I wrote the bulletin of the battle under his dictation" (of Marengo) .-- De Segur, II., 30 (Narrative of M.Daru to M.De Segur Aug.
13, 1805, at the headquarters of La Manche, Napoleon dictates to M.Daru the complete plan of the campaign against Austria): "Order of marches, their duration, places of convergence or meeting of the columns, attacks in full force, the various movements and mistakes of the enemy, all, in this rapid dictation, was foreseen two months beforehand and at a distance of two hundred leagues....

The battle-field, the victories, and even the very days on which we were to enter Munich and Vienna were then announced and written down as it all turned out....

Daru saw these oracles fulfilled on the designated days up to our entry into Munich; if there were any differences of time and not of results between Munich and Vienna, they were all in our favor."-- M.

de La Vallette, "Memoires," II., p.35.