Read further · read 92.0% · known key applied · partial

Jourdan to Soult, Madrid, 28 May 1812, and Marmont to Jourdan, 1 June 1812

Two intercepted letters of the French command in Spain, kept in Spanish copies at the Archivo Histórico Nacional with the cipher passages left as numbers (Diversos-Colecciones 134, N.34 and N.73). Brice Dudout deciphered them with the French table of the 1812 Grand Chiffre, the British “Great Paris Cipher”, whose cells he read on Jean-François Bouchaudy’s photographs and froze before Jourdan’s letter was decoded: 259 of its 267 numbers, and about 85% of Marmont’s, whose copy is faulty. After the fall of Almaraz, Jourdan orders Soult to reinforce d’Erlon against Hill or send him over the Tagus at the bridge of the Arzobispo to cover Madrid. Contributed by Brice Dudout.

Date
1812
Read now
92.0% of the cipher tokens give sense
Write-up
marmont1812.html
Files
targets/marmont1812
Open gaps
hard to read on the scanneeds the archive

Hand this page to your AI agent

Give your agent (Claude, ChatGPT or any assistant that can open web pages) this address and ask it to do the task on the page:

https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/marmont1812.html

Or copy the block below into the chat. It is the whole task: the reading, every open gap, what has been tried, the steps, and how to report back.

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Jourdan to Soult, Madrid, 28 May 1812, and Marmont to Jourdan, 1 June 1812
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/marmont1812.html

You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.

THE READING
  Write-up:   https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/marmont1812.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1812
  Outcome:    known key applied · partial
  Read now:   92.0% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/marmont1812 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [illegible: needs a new source] N.34: eight numbers restored from the sense (208, 598, 88, 62, 1085, 266, 981, 372) - blocker: illegible; copying errors in the Spanish copy or unreadable cells of the table photographs (88 may be 58 and 62 may be 64, to check on the image)
  2. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] N.73 (751): about 26 numbers unresolved - blocker: needs-physical-access; the Spanish copy is miscopied at these points; the original in the Scovell papers or the French minute would settle them

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: 133 N.29 (Jardet to Marmont, 6 March 1812) opened: a different cipher (48 numbers on a line of Tancrède), deciphered at the time; kept as context, not part of this target (one key, one entry)
  [x] known-keys: the 1812 Grand Chiffre table (SHD "B n° 30") is the key, applied unchanged
  [x] print: Oman (Peninsular War V, app. XV), Du Casse (Mémoires du roi Joseph IX), Marmont's and Jourdan's memoirs, Wellington's Dispatches and Supplementary Despatches searched (contributor)
  [x] retry: the 26 unresolved numbers of N.73 tried as digit confusions of the Spanish copy (contributor); the remedy is the French minute or Scovell's papers

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/marmont1812/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/marmont1812/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
   update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
   (hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
   If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
   are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
   needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
   or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
   For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
   re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
   and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
   letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
   give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
   (2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
   or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
   with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/marmont1812/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
  the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+marmont1812&page=marmont1812.html
  Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
  propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
  and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.

Open gaps

gold can be done now: the images and the key are online, it needs only work. grey needs a new source first: a key, a better scan, an edition or the archive.

Already tried

Needs the archive

These gaps can only be closed from the original or a book out of reach. If you can visit or order, take one: all archive requests.

Send a result

One closed gap counts: a code group valued, a passage re-read, a key or clear copy found elsewhere. It is credited to you on the write-up.

Open a further-reading issueOther kinds of reportHow credit works← All partial readings