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Austria, often defeated, had still struggled boldly; and army after army had been lost in the attempt to plunge into the land of forests and mountains beyond the Rhine. The talents of the ablest generals, and the gallantry of the most enthusiastic troops of the republic, had been wasted against the solid fortresses, or the still more unconquerable morasses, defiles, and torrents, of that vast region of wild nature and fierce soldiership. But Italy lay before the French armies an open campaign. The German was there stripped of the native defences that check the march of an invader more than the sword. He was, like the Frenchman, a stranger in a land of strangers; and, if more known, was known but as the foreign master of a people feeling their chains enough to rejoice at the coming of a foreign deliverer, though without the honest energy to break them for themselves. The plan of crossing the Alps, and marching into Italy, suited in every respect the ambitious and self-confident character of the general to whom it was now entrusted. It gave him a separate and independent authority, and the power of acting on his own judgment and responsibility. His departure from Paris, to commence this celebrated campaign, took place on the 1st of March, 1796. He was the only person who was not astonished at his good fortune. When a friend, who was congratulating him upon his appointment, testified some surprise at his youth, he replied, I shall return old.' His mind was made up to the alternative of conquest or ruin, as many judged from his words to another friend at taking leave of him, In three months,' he said, I will be either at Milan or Paris;' intimating at once his desperate resolution to succeed, and his sense that the disappointment of all his prospects must be the consequence of a failure.

Buonaparte found his army lying exposed on the mountains without tents, in rags, without pay, and full of murmurs at themselves and their government. But they amounted to more than 50,000 men; active, and accustomed to the mountain hardships and warfare, eager for plunder and battle, and contemptuous of the enemy. Delay would have produced mutiny; if his nature had not been the total reverse of tardiness. He led them instantly to the passage of the Alps by the lower range, where the mountains stoop to the Mediterranean. In accomplishing this he anticipated the difficulties which he skilfully obviated, and astonished the enemy, in whose presence it was done, by the fertility of his genius and the celerity of his movements. This enemy was the Austro-Sardinian army, cantoned on the hills under which he was marching towards Genoa, and who were united for the defence at once of Turin and the Milanese, under the command of Beaulieu. The ages of the opposing generals were as strongly contrasted as their fortunes. Buonaparte was twenty-six, Beaulieu seventy-five. The Austrians poured down in separate columns on the army moving below: the French resisted bravely, but on the whole were beaten until nightfall; but their general was now in the field made for the display of his subtle activity. While the Austrians, intending

to complete the victory, next morning halted on the ground, Buonaparte put his troops in motion, manoeuvred round the Austrian centre during the night, and by day-break rushed to an attack, which broke the enemy with the loss of colors, guns, and some thousand prisoners. This first great victory of Buonaparte, in his memorable Italian campaign, was fought on the 10th of April, 1796. On the 11th the Austrian general was obliged to extricate himself by a disastrous retreat. This battle, which has obtained the name of the battle of Monte Notte, exhibited all the peculiarities of the military tactics of the conqueror, as well as exposed the miserable system then adopted by the continenta armies opposed to France. What these peculiarities were, one of the great captain's biographers has finely described. As war becomes a profession, and a subject of deep study, it is gradually discovered that the principles of tactics depend upon mathematical and arithmetica. science; and that the commander will be victorious who can assemble the greatest number of forces upon the same point at the same moment, notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to the enemy when the general force is computed on both sides. No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Buonaparte the power of calculation, and combination necessary for directing such decisive manœuvres. It constituted, indeed, his secret, as it was for some time called, and that secret consisted in an imagination fertile in expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that each division should arrive on the destined position at the exact time when their service was necessary; and, above all, in the knowledge which enabled such a master spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate implements to attach them to his person, and, by explaining to them so much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the exertion of their utmost ability in carrying it into effect. Thus not only were his manœuvres, however daring, executed with a precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time, but they were also performed with a celerity which gave them almost always the effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his enemies; and, when repeated experience had taught them to expect this portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to wait in a dubious and hesitating posture, for attacks, which, with less apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more prudent to frustrate and to anticipate.' The battle of Monte Notte developed all these striking characteristics of the youthful general. In the moment of the greatest peril, he eminently displayed that truth and mathematical certainty of combination which enabled him suddenly to concentrate his forces, and defeat his enemy by overpowering him on the very point where he thought himself strongest. He accumulated a superior force on the Austrian centre, which he destroyed; while Colli on the right, and Beaulieu himself on the left, each at the head of

numerous forces, did not even hear of the action till it was fought and won.

The beaten army still strong, and still resisting, was again attacked by the indefatigable soldier. Incessant battle at length routed the Austrians; they trembled for the Milanese. The Sardinians withdrew to the defence of their territory: the latter were pursued. Turin was the nearer prize. The king of Sardinia saw his fugitive army driven within two leagues of his capital. He had no alternative but unconditional submission; and the terms exacted from him were such as conquerors usually dictate to the vanquished. It is curious to contrast the address of the conqueror to his army when they set out on this expedition, and when, at the close of the first month, they had prostrated all opposition, and opened the clear passage of the Alps to the future invasion which France might meditate:'Soldiers, you are naked, ill-fed-much is due to us; there is nothing to pay us with. The patience and courage you have shown in the midst of these rocks are admirable; but they win you no glory. I come to lead you into the most fertile plains in the world; rich provinces, great cities, will be in your power. There you will have wealth, honor, and glory. Soldiers of Italy! can your courage fail?' These words were addressed to his troops on the 29th of March. On the 8th of April he was within a day's march of Turin, and, having subdued the Sardinian government, could thus address his troops: You have, in fifteen days, gained six victories, taken twenty-one stand of colors, fiftyfive pieces of cannon, and conquered the richest part of Piedmont. Your services are equal to those of the army of Holland and of the Rhine. You were in want of every thing, but you have provided every thing. You have gained battles without cannon; passed rivers without bridges; made forced marches without shoes; bivouacked without brandy, and often without bread. None but republican phalanxes could have done so. For this you have the thanks of your country.'

At Ceva, and from the heights of Montezemoto, Napoleon enjoyed the splendid view of the fertile fields of Piedmont, stretching in boundless perspective beneath his feet, watered by the Po, the Tanaro, and a thousand other streams which descend from the Alps. Before the delighted eyes of the army of victors lay the rich expanse like a promised land; behind them was the wilderness they had passed: not indeed a desert of barren sand similar to that in which the Israelites wandered, but a huge tract of rocks and inaccessible mountains, crested with ice and snow, seeming by nature designed as the barrier and rampart of the blessed regions which stretched eastward beneath them. We can sympathise with the self-congratulation of the general who had surmounted such tremendous obstacles in a way so unusual. He said to the officers around him, as they gazed upon this magnificent scene, Hannibal took the Alps by storm we have succeeded as well by turning their flank.' To commemorate these brilliant successes, a medal of Buonaparte was struck in the character of the conqueror of the battle of Monte Notte. The face is extremely thin, with

dark hair, a striking contrast to the fleshy square countenance exhibited on his later coins: on the reverse Victory bearing a palm branch, a wreath of laurel, and a naked sword is seen flying over the Alps. This medal was the first of the splendid series which records the victories and honors of Napoleon, and which was designed by Denon as a tribute to the genius of his patron.

The ardent disposition of Buonaparte did not long permit him to rest after the advantages which he had secured. He determined to give the republic of Venice, the grand duchy of Tuscany, and other states in Italy, no time to muster forces, and take a decided part, as they were likely to do, to oppose a French invasion. A speedy resolution was the more necessary, as Austria, alarmed for her Italian possessions, was about to make every effort for their defence. Orders had already been sent by the Aulic council of war to detach an army of 30,000 men, under Wurmser, from the army of the Rhine, to the frontiers of Italy. These were to be strengthened by other reinforcements from the interior, and by such forces as could be raised in the mountainous district of the Tyrol, which furnishes perhaps the most experienced and most formidable sharp shooters in the world. The whole was to be united to the fragments of Beaulieu's defeated troops. To prevent this junction, and to beat the different forces in succession, required all the promptitude of Buonaparte, and the enthusiastic order of his troops. These were not wanting. But the general and army, much as they had achieved, considered nothing as won so long as the Austrians held Milan. The military genius of Buonaparte never appeared to greater advantage than in the skill with which he manœuvred to out-general his veteran foe. But not only was skill necessary; hard fighting was indispensable; and the French performed prodigies of valor. By a succession of desperate battles they drew the Austrians over the Po, the Mincio, and the Adda. The daring attack of the bridge of Lodi laid Milan open on the 10th of May 1796. Of this memorable day Sir Walter Scott and Buonaparte have given a most interesting account :

Upon the 10th of May, attended by his best generals, and heading the choicest of his troops, Napoleon pressed forward towards Lodi. About a league from Casale he encountered the Austrian rear-guard, who had been left, it would appear, at too great a distance from their main body. The French had no difficulty in driving these troops before them in the town of Lodi, which was but slightly defended by the few soldiers whom Beaulieu had left on the western or right side of the Adda. He had also neglected to destroy the bridge, although he ought rather to have supported a defence on the right bank of the river (for which the town afforded many facilities) till the purpose of destruction was completed, than have allowed it to exist. If his rear-guard had been actually stationed in Lodi, instead of being so far in the rear of the main body, they might, by a protracted resistance from the old walls and houses, have given time for this necessary act of demolition.

But, though the bridge was left standing, it

was swept by twenty or thirty Austrian pieces
of artillery, whose thunders menaced death to
any one who should attempt that pass of peril.
The French, with great alertness, got as many
guns in position on the left bank, and answered
this tremendous fire with equal spirit. During
this cannonade Buonaparte threw himself per-
sonally amongst the fire in order to station two
guns, loaded with grape shot, in such a position
as rendered it impossible for any one to approach
for the purpose of undermining or destroying
the bridge; and then calmly proceeded to make
arrangements for a desperate attempt. His
cavalry was directed to cross, if possible, at a
place where the Adda was said to be fordable;
a task which they accomplished with difficulty.
Meantime Napoleon observed that the Austrian
line of infantry was thrown considerably behind
the batteries of artillery which they supported,
in order that they might have the advantage of
a bending slope of ground, which afforded them
shelter from the French fire. He therefore drew
up a close column of 3000 grenadiers, protected
from the artillery of the Austrians by the walls
and houses of the town, and yet considerably
nearer the enemy's line of guns on the opposite
side of the Adda than were their own infantry,
which ought to have protected them. The
column of grenadiers, thus secured, waited in
comparative safety until the appearance of the
French cavalry, who had crossed the ford, began
to disquiet the flank of Austrians. This was the
critical moment which Buonaparte expected.
A single word of command wheeled the head
of the column of grenadiers to the left, and
placed it on the perilous bridge. The word was
given to advance, and they rushed on with
loud shouts of Vive la Republique! But their
appearance upon the bridge was a signal for a
redoubled shower of grape shot, while, from the
windows of the houses on the left side of the
river, the soldiers who occupied them poured
volley after volley of musketry on the thick
column as it endeavoured to force its way over
the long bridge. At one time the French grena-
diers, unable to sustain this dreadful storm, ap-
peared for an instant to hesitate. But Berthier,
the chief of Buonaparte's staff, with Masséna,
D'Allemagne, and Cervéni, hurried to the head
of the column, and, by their presence and gal-
lantry, renewed the resolution of the soldiers,
who now poured across the bridge. The Aus-
trians had but one resource left, to rush on the
French with the bayonet, and kill or drive back
into the Adda those who had forced their pas-
sage, before they could deploy into line, or re-
ceive support from their comrades, who were
still filing along the bridge. But the opportu-
nity was neglected, either because the troops,
who should have executed the manoeuvre, had
been, as we have already noticed, withdrawn too
far from the river; or because the soldiery, as
happens when they repose too much confidence
in a strong position, became panic struck when
they saw it unexpectedly carried; or it may be
that general Beaulieu, so old and so unfortunate,
had somewhat lost that energy and presence of
mind which the critical moment demanded.
Whatever was the cause, the French rushed on

the artillerymen, from whose fire they had lately suffered so tremendously, and, unsupported as they were, had little difficulty in bayoneting them. The Austrian army now completely gave way, and lost in their retreat, annoyed as it was by the French cavalry, upwards of twenty guns, 1000 prisoners, and perhaps 2000 more wounded and slain. Such was the famous passage of the bridge of Lodi; achieved with such skill and gallantry as gave the victor the same character for fearless intrepidity and practical talent in actual battle, which the former part of the campaign had gained him as a most able tactician.

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Of all the actions in which the troops under my command have been engaged,' said Buonaparte, in his despatches to the Directory, 'none has equalled the tremendous passage of the bridge of Lodi. If we have lost,' continued he, but few soldiers, it has been owing merely to the promptitude of our attacks, and the sudden effect produced on the enemy by the formidable fire of our invincible army. Were I to name all the officers who distinguished themselves in this battle I should be obliged to enumerate every carabinier of the advanced guard, and almost every officer belonging to the staff. I must not, however, omit the intrepid Berthier, who acted on this eventful day as a bombardier, a cavalry officer, and a grenadier.'

The French cavalry pursued the retreating Austrians as far as Cremona, of which they took possession. Pizzighitone was obliged to capitulate, the garrison being cut off from all possibility of succour. About 500 prisoners surrendered in that fortress.

It was at this time that Buonaparte had some corversation with an old Hungarian officer, made prisoner in one of the actions, whom he met with at a bivouac by chance, and who did not know him. The veteran's language was a curious commentary on the whole campaign; nay, upon Buonaparte's general system of warfare, which appeared so extraordinary to those who had long practised the art on more formal principles. Things are going on as ill and irregularly as possible,' said the old martinet; the French have got a young general who knows nothing of the regular rules of war; he is sometimes in one point, sometimes on the flank, sometimes on the rear; there is no supporting such a gross violation of rules. The court at Milan was thrown into consternation by the successes of the French at the bridge of Lodi. The archduke Ferdinand, by whom Austrian Lombardy was governed, with his duchess, immediately quitted their capital, followed by a small retinue, and leaving only a moderate force in the citadel, which was not in a very defensible condition. The Milanese citizens, released from the restraint imposed on them by the presence of their sovereign, and willing to propitiate their approaching conquerors, began, with real or affected zeal for republicanism, to prepare themselves for the reception of the French. The three-colored cockade was at first timidly assumed; but, the example being shown, it seemed as if these emblems had fallen like snow into the laps and hats of the multitude. The imperial arms were removed from the public buildings,

and a placard was put on the palace of the government with an inscription, This house to be let; apply for the keys to the French commissioner Salicetti.' On the 14th of May Buonaparte made his public entry into Milan under a triumphal arch prepared for the occasion, which he traversed surrounded by his guards, and took up his residence in the archiepiscopal palace. The same evening a splendid entertainment was given, and the tree of liberty (of which the aristocrats observed, that it was a bare pole, without either leaves or fruit, roots or branches) was erected with great form in the principal square. All this affectation of popular joy did not disarm the purpose of the French general, to make Milan contribute to the relief of his army. He imposed upon the place a requisition of 20,000,000 of livres. Italy was now in the view of the conqueror; and though no state in all the extent of that fair and rich domain could be exactly said to be at open war with the new republic, Buonaparte was determined that this should make no difference in his mode of treating them. The duchies of Parma and Modena were obliged to purchase an armistice by heavy sacrifices; and now began that species of spoliation, on the part of the French, which drew down upon the republican, consular, arid monarchical government, the deep execration of the civilised world. The duke of Modena, who was duke of Parma, was compelled to surrender twenty of his choicest pictures, to be selected at the choice of the French general and the persons of taste with whom he might advise. It was in vain that the first of these personages remonstrated against what he deemed a sacrilege upon religion and taste, that he offered to redeem one picture alone (the celebrated St. Jerome by Correggio), for 2,000,000 of livres. The money was refused, and the painting forwarded to Paris. Buonaparte announced its approach by the following sarcasm at the expense of the fallen shrines of piety in that corrupt and atheistical city :-'I will send you as soon as possible the finest pictures of Correggio, amongst others a St. Jerome. I must own that the saint takes an unlucky time to visit Paris, but I hope you will grant him the honors of the museum.' The same system was followed at Milan, where several of the most valuable articles were taken from the Ambrosian collection.

But the triumph of the French arms was still to be purchased by a long and bloody warfare. Austria had hitherto defended Italy only with its old garrison. The strength of the empire had rolled to the German frontier; but now the stream was changed, and the military might of a population of 25,000,000 was to pour from the Tyrol upon the assailant who had dared to violate the ancient monarchy of the Caesars. But the talent and vivid daring of Buouaparte were born for the mastery over the slow and heavy courage of Austria. Three successive armies, under Wurmser, Alvinzi, and the archduke Charles, were pierced by the fiery charge of the French columns; and Buonaparte at last climbed the Tyrolese hills to see the remnant of the archduke's army flying before him, scattering dismay through the immense countries at his

feet. One obstacle alone had remained to delay his march to consummate triumph-Mantua. This great fortress had been the central point of the Austrian operations. It was singularly strong by art and by position; and while it contained a hostile garrison, no French army in Italy could feel itself secure. Advance was rendered difficult; but casual repulse might become ruin, while the troops in Mantua waited only to fall upon the flanks and rear of the retreating army. But the siege was singularly hazardous. The fortress and city stand on an island formed by the overflowing of the Mincio, and the only access to which was by five causeways, one of them strongly fortified. See our article MILAN. The French, impatient of delay, were called out to be led to the storm; but some partial events soon convinced them that the walls of Mantua were to cost time and blood. But its position was obviously favorable to blockade. The neglected state of the Austrian fortresses rendered it probable, that a garrison of 12,000 men might be speedily starved into surrender. Four of the causeways were attacked, the Austrian communications with the country were cut off, and Serrurier was left at the head of a force inferior to the besieged to wait the work of famine.

No conqueror ever felt more deeply the maxim, that an invader must never pause. Disengaging the chief strength of his army from the siege of Mantua, and relieved for the present from the pursuit of the enemy in the field, he threw his force into the shape of moveable columns, and ranged at will through the north-east and west of the peninsula. He forced the Venetians to a reluctant and disho norable submission; he seized the harbours of Tuscany; he invaded, plundered, and alienated the papal territories; he put down insurrection; he formed new governments; and ceased from this sleepless round of success only when the sound of the trumpets from the Alps told him that his work was not yet done, and that he was again to face and to overwhelm the gallant soldiership of the empire.

The battle of Rivoli, the bloodiest of his Italian successes, at length decided the fall of Mantua. Wurmser had resisted, with a firmness worthy of the importance of his trust, the assaults of the enemy, and the still more formidable pressures of disease and famine. The relief of the fortress was now beyond hope. The Austrian armies had been scattered like dust before the feet of the invaders; his garrison was reduced to extremity, and his aid-de-camp Klenau was sent to treat for a surrender. Buonaparte was present at the interview with the blockading general. But all things in France are theatrical, and Buonaparte stood wrapt from head to foot in a mantle; the mysterious spirit of the conference, which he finished by casting off his disguise, and pronouncing those oracular phrases, in which every Frenchman delights, in which Buonaparte delighted more than all, and which he and his people had equally learned from the stage. But his conduct was not yet destitute of that courtesy which belongs to brave men, gaining honor from each other by the long

display of skill and intrepidity. Writing down the conditions of surrender, he left it at Wurmser's disposal to accept them on the spot, or at almost any interval required by his military honor. The letter to the directory on this occasion contained a testimony to the valor of the defeated general; and the act of surrender itself was marked by the delicacy of his declining to be present when Wurmser gave up his sword at the head of his garrison. These traits of feeling were so soon obliterated from the character of Napoleon, that they deserve commemoration even for the sake of contrast.

Buonaparte was now free to seize upon the last honors of these extraordinary campaigns. He had cleared Italy of all native opposition, and levelled it into a magnificent parade for the troops of the republic. Mantua lay behind him; a bulwark for his rear, and ready to thunder on the first gathering of insurrection. The return of his columns, which had gone like whirlwinds through the Italian provinces, subduing and wasting, gave him an army in the highest preparation for war; numerous, opulent, elevated by continued victory, contemptuous of its enemy, passionate for conquest, and devoted to its general as to the living genius of battle; who well knew the power of the mighty instrument in his hands. With the conquest of Vienna in view, he thus addressed his army:

'Soldiers! the taking of Mantua has finished a campaign which has given you an everlasting claim upon the gratitude of your country. You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and in seventy combats; you have taken more than 100,000 prisoners; you have taken from the enemy 500 field-pieces, 2000 pieces of large calibre, and the equipage of four bridges. The contributions imposed upon the conquered countries have fed, clothed, and paid the army during the whole of the campaign; and, moreover, you have sent 30,000,000 to the public treasury. You have enriched the museum of Paris with more than 300 objects, chefs d'œuvre of ancient and modern Italy. You have conquered for the republic the finest countries in Europe. The Lombard and Cispadane republics are indebted to you for their liberty; their colors float for the first time upon the Adriatic. The kings of Sardinia and Naples, the pope, the duke of Parma, are detached from the coalition of our enemies, and have solicited our amity. You have driven the English from Leghorn, from Genoa, and from Corsica. But you have not yet achieved every thing-a grand destiny is still reserved for you; in you the country has placed its dearest hopes; continue to be worthy of them.

'Of the number of enemies that coalesced to stifle the republic in its birth, the emperor of Germany alone remains: he has degraded himself from the dignity of a great power, by accepting pay from the merchants of London. He has neither politics, nor will separate from those perfidious islanders, who, strangers to the calamities of war, contemplate its ravages upon the continent with pleasure.

"The executive directory has spared no pains co give peace to Europe. The moderation of its

propositions have borne no proportion with the strength of its armies. It has not consulted your courage, but, listening to the voice of humanity, has endeavored to effect your return to the bosoms of your families. Its voice has not been heard at Vienna. There is then no hope but in seeking peace in the heart of the hereditary states of the house of Austria. You will there find a brave people weighed down by the war they have had with the Turks, and by the present wat. The inhabitants of Vienna, and the states of Austria, groan under the blindness and arbitrary conduct of the government. There is not an individual who is not convinced that the gold of England has corrupted the ministers of the emperor. You will respect their religion and their manners, and protect their property. You carry liberty to the brave Hungarian nation.

The house of Austria, which, in every war for three ages past, has lost a part of its power, and who, discontented with its subjects, has despoiled them of their privileges, will find itself reduced at the end of this war to accept the peace we shall grant it, and to descend in reality to the rank of a secondary power, in which it has already placed itself, by taking wages from, and putting itself at the disposal of England.

'BUONAPARTE.'

The archduke Charles, the last hope of imperial generalship, at the head of the last army of the empire, was attacked on the Tagliamento, and was forced from river to river, and from entrenchment to entrenchment. His troops were drawn up on the verge of the last barrier of the empire, when, to his astonishment, he received a proposal for peace. It was the policy of Buonaparte-a policy which he retained in all his future wars, to seize on the moment of some signal success, for the proposition of a treaty, and in that proposition to demand terms less advantageous than the conqueror might be entitled to expect. By this moderation he often surprised the dispirited enemy into a glad acquiescence. But his game was not yet closed. The final treaty often grew in severity of conditions, which were yet complied with from the difficulty of resuming a hostile attitude, the reluctance of sovereigns to appal their people with the news that the period of bloodshed must suddenly return, and the actual sacrifices already made; the abandonment of territory, population, and fortresses, as pledges for the negociation. But, if the treaty remained a losing one, he still had the remedy which he never failed to use; he treasured up his wrath until he saw his antagonist disarmed. A pretext for attack was made, a French army was instantly flung upon the frontier, and in three months the French flag was seen flying from the turrets of the enemy's capital. Buonaparte's letter to the archduke is memorable, even as a record of his abrupt and ostentatious, yet subtle style :

It is the part of a brave soldier to make war, but to wish for peace. The present strife has lasted for six years. Have we not yet slain enough of men, and sufficiently outraged humanity? Peace is demanded on all sides. Europe at large has laid down the arms assumed against the French republic. Your nation remains alone

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