It was known that the French had evacuated those heights, but General von Kameke thought it prudent to seize them at once, in order to secure the Debouche of the columns following him.
"The Franco-German War of 1870-71"
Count Helmuth, von Moltke
After staying a few days at a posada, I removed to a lodging which I engaged at No. 3, in the Calle de la Zarza, a dark dirty street, which, however, was close to the Puerta del Sol, the most central point of Madrid, into which four or five of the principal streets Debouche, and which is, at all times of the year, the great place of assemblage for the idlers of the capital, poor or rich.
"The Bible in Spain"
George Borrow
Meantime the Emperor himself had resolved to attack the most alert of his enemies, the Prussians and the English, beyond the Sambre-while the Austrians were thus held in check on the Upper Rhine, and ere the armies of the North could Debouche upon Manheim, to co-operate by their right with Wellington and Blucher, and by their left with Schwartzenberg.
"The History of Napoleon Buonaparte"
John Gibson Lockhart