Chapter III: Part 3

Lannes instantly marched to Binasco, stormed the place, burnt it and put many of the insurgents to the sword. Napoleon appeared before Pavia, blew the gates open, took possession and later caused the leaders to be executed. At Lugo, where another insurrection took place, the leaders were tried by court martial and condemned.

These examples quelled the insurrectionists, and the French advanced on the Mincio. Bonaparte made such disposition of his troops that Beaulieu believed he meant to cross that river, if he could, at Peschiera. Meanwhile the French had been preparing to cross at another point, and on the 30th of May actually forced the passage of the Mincio, not at Peschiera, but further down at Borghetto. The Austrian garrison at this point in vain destroyed one arch of the bridge. Bonaparte quickly supplied the breach with planks, and his men, flushed with so many victories, charged with a fury not to be resisted. While the French were laboring to repair the bridge, under the fire of the enemy's batteries, impatient of delay, fifty grenadiers threw themselves into the river, holding their muskets over their heads with the water up to their chins, General Gardanne, a grenadier in courage as well as in stature, being at their head. The Austrians who were nearest, recollecting the terrible column at Lodi, fled. When the bridge was repaired the French entered Vallegio, where Beaulieu's headquarters had been stationed a short time previous. The latter was obliged to abandon the Mincio as he had the Adda and the Po, and to take up the new line of the Adige.

The left line of the Austrian force, learning from the cannonade that the French were at Borghetto, hastened to ascend the Mincio with a view of assisting in the defense of the division engaged with the enemy. They arrived too late, however, to be of assistance, as the commander at Borghetto had retreated before they arrived. They came, however, unexpectedly, and at a moment when Bonaparte and a few friends, believing the work of the day to be over and the village safe from the enemy, were about to sit down to dinner, as they thought, in security. Sebetendorff, who commanded the division, came up rapidly into the village, but with no idea what a prize was within his grasp. Bonaparte's attendants had barely time to shut the gates of the inn, and alarm their chief by the cry, "To arms!" They defended the house with obstinate courage while Bonaparte threw himself on horseback and galloping out by a back passage, effected the narrowest of escapes, proceeding at full speed to join Massena's forces.

It was shortly after this that Bonaparte met with an experience that gave him the idea of the "Imperial Guard of Napoleon" and which throughout his military career he ever afterwards maintained as a personal guard. It was the duty of this body, consisting of veterans who should number at least ten years of active service, to remain always near the person of the commander-in-chief, and who were only brought into action when important movements or desperate emergencies required their utmost energies. They were placed under the command of Bessieres at this time, and were known as "Le Corps de Guides."

During the same campaign Bonaparte again narrowly escaped being taken a prisoner. Wurmser, who had been compelled to throw himself into Mantua, having suddenly debouched on an open plain, learned from an old woman that not many minutes before the French general, with only a few followers, had stopped at her door and fled at the sight of the Austrians. Wurmser immediately dispatched parties of cavalry in all directions to whom he gave orders that if they came up with Napoleon he should not be killed or harmed; fortunately, however, for the French commander, destiny and the swiftness of his horse saved him.

In their different engagements, the grenadiers had learned to laugh and sport at death; they despised the Austrian cavalry and nothing could equal their intrepidity but the gaiety with which they performed their forced marches, singing alternately songs in praise of their country and of love. Instead of sleeping they amused themselves during most of the night, each telling a tale, or forming his own plans of operation for the following day.

Sebetendorff was soon assaulted by a French column and retreated, after Beaulieu's example, on the line of the Adige. The Austrian commander had, in effect, abandoned for a time the open country of Italy. He now lay on the frontier, between the vast tract of rich province, which Napoleon had conquered, and the Tyrol. Mantua, which possessed immense natural advantages, and into which the retreating general had flung a garrison of full fourteen thousand men, was, in truth, the last and only Italian possession of the imperial crown, which, as it seemed, there might be a possibility of saving.

Beaulieu anxiously awaited the approach of new troops from Germany, to attempt the relief of this great city; and Bonaparte, eager to anticipate the efforts of the imperial government, sat down immediately before it.

Mantua lies on an island, being cut off on all sides from the main land by the branches of the Mincio, and approachable only by five narrow causeways of which three were now defended by strong and regular fortresses or intrenched camps; the other two by gates, drawbridge and batteries. The garrison was prepared to maintain the position, was well-nigh impregnable and the occupants awaited the hour to discover whether Napoleon possessed any new system of attack capable of shortening the usual operations of a siege as effectually as he had already done by the march and the battle.

It was a matter of high importance that Napoleon should reduce this place quickly, for a large army under Field-Marshal Wurmser, one of the most able and experienced of the Austrian generals, was about to enter Italy. His commencement gave cause for much alarm to those within the fortress. Of the five causeways, by sudden and overwhelming assaults, he obtained four; the garrison was cut off from the main land except at the fifth causeway, the strongest of them all, named from a palace near it, "La Favorita." It seemed necessary, however, in order that this blockade might be complete, that the Venetian territory, lying immediately behind Mantua, should be occupied by the French, and the claim of neutrality was not allowed to interfere with Napoleon's plans.

"You are too weak," said Bonaparte, when a Venetian envoy reached his headquarters, "to enforce neutrality on hostile nations such as France and Austria. Beaulieu did not respect your territory when his interest bade him violate it; nor shall I hesitate to occupy whatever falls within the line of the Adige."

Garrisons were placed forthwith in Verona and all the strong places of that domain. Napoleon now returned to Milan to transact important business, leaving Serrurier and Vaubois to blockade Mantua.

The king of Naples, utterly confounded by the success of the French, was now anxious to secure peace on whatever terms proposed, and Bonaparte, knowing that it would result in a withdrawal of some valuable divisions from the army of Beaulieu, arranged an armistice which was soon followed by a formal peace, and the Neapolitan troops, abandoning the Austrian general, began their march to the south of Italy. This was followed by peace arrangements with the Pope of whom Napoleon demanded, and obtained, as a price of the brief respite from invasion, a million sterling, one hundred of the finest pictures and statues in the papal gallery, a large supply of military stores and the cession of Ancona, Ferrara and Bologna, with their respective domains. The siege of the citadel of Milan, rigorously pressed, was at length successful. The garrison capitulated on the 29th of June, and by the 18th of July, one hundred and forty pieces of cannon were before Mantua.

The French general had stripped Austria of all her Italian possessions except Mantua, and the tri-color was waving from the Tyrol to the Mediterranean. Napoleon was now, in effect, master of Italy. Future success seemed to him to be assured, although the French Directory was with difficulty persuaded to let him follow the course he had adopted for himself.

The cabinet of Vienna at last resolved upon sending stronger reinforcements to the Italian frontier, and Bonaparte was now recalled from Milan to the seat of war to defend himself against them. What the Austrian court now feared was that Napoleon, who had already annihilated her Italian army, and had wrested from her the Italian domains, would soon march into the heart of her Empire and dictate a peace under the walls of her capital. All Italy was now subdued or in alliance with the French Republic except Mantua.

Beaulieu, who had been so thoroughly routed by Napoleon, was to be no longer trusted. Finding himself incompetent to withstand a general "whose mistress was glory and whose companion was Plutarch" while traversing the Tyrol with the wrecks of his army, forwarded a letter to Vienna which fully displayed the irritated feelings of the veteran commander at this time. He said: "I hereby make known to you that I have only 20,000 men remaining, while the enemy's forces exceed 60,000. I further apprise you, that it is my intention to retreat to-morrow,--the next day--the day following--nay, every day,--even to Siberia, should they pursue me so far. My age accords me liberty to be thus explicit. Hasten to ratify peace, be the conditions what they may!" Wurmser, whose reputation was of the best, and who was older than Beaulieu but not less obstinate, was sent to replace him, and 30,000 men were drafted from the armies on the Rhine charged with restoring the fortunes of Austria beyond the Alps. Wurmser's orders, too, were to strengthen himself, on his march, by whatever recruits he could raise among the warlike and loyal population of the Tyrol.

When he fixed his headquarters at Trent, Wurmser mustered in all 80,000 men, while Napoleon had but 30,000--not 60,000 as Beaulieu had stated--to hold a wide country in which abhorrence of the French cause was now prevalent, to keep the blockade of Mantua, and to oppose this fearful odds of numbers in the field. The French commander was now, moreover, to act on the defensive, while his adversary assumed the more inspiriting character of the invader.

Wurmser was unwise enough to divide his magnificent army into three separate columns, which, united, Napoleon never could have met; but each of which was soon successively broken and captured. Melas with the left wing was to march down the Adige and expel the French from Verona; Quasdonowich with the right wing followed the valley of the Chiese towards Brescia, to cut off Napoleon's retreat on Milan; Wurmser himself led the centre down the left shore of Lake Guarda towards the besieged castle of Mantua.

The eye of Napoleon, who had hitherto been watching with the intensity of an eagle's gaze all the movements of his antagonist, now saw the division of Quasdonowich separated from the centre and left wing, and he flew to the encounter, although he was obliged to draw off his army from the siege of Mantua, something which very few generals would have done. On the night of July 31st, he buried his cannon in the trenches and intentionally marked his retreat with every sign of precipitation and alarm. Before morning the whole French army had disappeared from Mantua and by a forced march regained possession of Brescia. Napoleon was hurrying forward to attack the right wing of the Austrian army before it could effect a junction with the central body of Wurmser.

A courier could hardly have borne to Quasdonowich the news of his raising the siege of Mantua before Napoleon had attacked and overwhelmed him, and he was glad to save his shattered forces by falling back on the Tyrol.

This ill-omened beginning aroused the ire, and quickened the evolutions of Wurmser, and falling on the rear-guard of Massena under Pigeon, and Augereau under Vallette, the one abandoned Castiglione and the other retired on Lonato. These inconsiderable Austrian successes were obtained by good generalship, and Wurmser now attempted to open a communication with his defeated lieutenant. His columns were weakened by extending the line, and Massena at once hurled two strong columns on Lonato, retaking it, and throwing the Austrian forces into utter confusion.

The battle of Lonato occurred on the 3d of August (1796). At daybreak the whole of the French army was in motion, Augereau moving with the right wing towards Castiglione. General Pigeon, who commanded the French advance guard, was taken prisoner with three pieces of cannon; when, at the moment the Austrians were extending their line, Napoleon sent forward in close columns the 18th and 32d demi-brigades, which being supported by a strong reserve, broke the enemy's line of battle. The artillery and prisoners made under General Pigeon, were thus retaken, and the French entered Lonato.

At Castiglione a firm stand was again taken by the fleeing Austrians, but Augereau forced the position against a defense double in numbers and for which he was afterward created Duke of Castiglione in memory of his exploit.

On that day the Austrians lost twenty pieces of cannon, from three to four thousand men killed and wounded, and four thousand prisoners, among whom were three generals. Before this engagement Napoleon suddenly found himself placed between two armies each of which was more numerous than his own. In this situation of affairs, no one of his generals entertained the least hope; but what was the astonishment of the soldiers, when they first assembled in presence of their chief, to observe no alteration in his countenance. "Fear nothing," said the commander to them, "show that you remain unchanged; preserve your valor, your just pride, and the remembrance of your triumphs; in three days we shall retake all that we have lost. Rely on me! You know whether or not I am in the habit of keeping my word."

BONAPARTE AND THE SLEEPING SENTINEL]

In this memorable battle Napoleon raised himself to an equality with the greatest generals. Although the position in which he was placed was critical to an eminent degree, he contrived to turn all the success gained by Wurmser to the advantage of the French army, and that by the mere strength of his genius alone. Junot distinguished himself by extraordinary efforts of courage in these actions. He was thus mentioned in the dispatch sent by Napoleon to the Directory after the victory: "I ordered my aide-de-camp, General-of-Brigade Junot, to put himself at the head of my company of Guides to pursue the enemy and overtake him by great speed at Dezenzano. He encountered Colonel Bender with a party of his regiment of hussars, whom he charged; but Junot, not wishing to waste his time by charging the rear, made a detour on the right, took the regiment in front,--wounded the colonel whom he attempted to take prisoner when he was himself surrounded,--and after having killed six of the enemy with his own hand, was cut down and thrown into a ditch."

The Austrians, still able to collect 25,000 men and a numerous cavalry, now fled again in all directions upon the Mincio where Wurmser himself, meanwhile, had been employed in revictualling Mantua. When Wurmser reached this point he was utterly astounded to find the trenches abandoned and no enemy to oppose. One of the defeated Austrian divisions wandering about without method in anxiety to find their commander or any part of his army that was still in the field, came suddenly on Lonato, the scene of the recent battle, and at a moment when Napoleon was there with only his staff and Guard about him. He was not aware that any considerable body of the enemy remained in the neighborhood, and but for his great presence of mind must have been taken prisoner. As it was, he turned his critical position into an advantage. The officer who had been sent to demand the surrender of the town was brought blindfolded, according to custom on such occasions, to his headquarters. Bonaparte, by a secret sign, caused his whole staff to draw up around him, and when the bandage was removed from the messenger's eyes, exclaimed to him: "What means this insolence? Do you beard the French general in the very centre of his army? Go and tell your general that I give him eight minutes to lay down his arms; he is in the midst of the French army, and if a single gun is fired, I will cause every man to be shot." The officer, appalled at discovering in whose presence he stood, returned to his comrades with Napoleon's message.

The general of the enemy's column now made his appearance, stating his willingness to surrender and capitulate. "No" replied Bonaparte with energy, "you are all prisoners of war." Seeing the Austrian officers consulting together Napoleon instantly gave orders that the artillery should advance and commence the attack. On observing this the general of the enemy's forces exclaimed, "We all surrender at discretion!" The shortness of time allowed prevented the truth from being discovered, and they gave in to a force about one-fourth of their own. They believed that Lonato was occupied by the French in numbers that made resistance impossible. When the four thousand men had laid down their arms they discovered that if they had used them nothing could have prevented Napoleon from being taken as their prize!

Wurmser, whose fine army was thus being destroyed in detail, now collected together the whole of his remaining force, and advanced to meet the Conqueror. He had determined on an assault and was hastening to the encounter. They met between Lonato and Castiglione, and Wurmser was totally defeated, besides narrowly escaping being himself taken a prisoner. He was pursued into Trent and Roveredo, the positions from which he had so lately issued confident of victory. In this disastrous campaign he had now lost forty thousand soldiers--half his army--and all his artillery and stores, while Bonaparte placed his own loss at seven thousand. The French soldiers have called this succession of victories "the campaign of five days." The rapid marches and incessant fighting had exhausted the troops, and they now absolutely required rest.

During the exciting days while the campaign with Wurmser lasted, Napoleon never took off his clothes, nor did he take the time to sleep except at brief intervals of less than an hour. His exertions, which were followed by such signal triumphs, were such as to demand some repose, yet he did not pause until he saw Mantua once more completely invested. The reinforcement and revictualling of the garrison were all that Wurmser could show in requital of his lost artillery, stores and forty thousand men.

While Napoleon was giving some respite to his wearied army and rendering the subjugation of Italy complete, Austria was hurrying a new army to the relief of its aged but not disheartened marshal. The reinforcements of twenty thousand fresh troops at last arrived, and Wurmser was again in the field with fifty thousand men--an army vastly larger than Napoleon's. But once more he divided his forces and again each division was to be cut to pieces. He marched thirty thousand men to the relief of Mantua, and left Davidowich at Roveredo with twenty thousand men to protect the passes of the Tyrol. The two Austrian divisions were now separated and their fate was sealed.

On September 4, by the most rapid marches Europe had ever seen, Napoleon, having penetrated the designs of the Austrian general, reached Roveredo where Davidowich was intrenched in a strong position before the city, covered by the guns of the Calliano castle overhanging the town.

The camp was yielded on the same day before the terrific charge of General Dubois and his hussars. The latter, though mortally wounded, cheered his men on with his dying words, and as he fell pressing the hand of the general-in-chief, said: "Let me hear the shout of victory for the Republic before I die." These words fired his troops with deep ardor, and they drove the Austrians through the town and carried the frowning heights of the castle at the point of the bayonet, as they had carried the batteries of Lodi. The French pursued the fleeing Austrians throughout the night and Wurmser was cut off from the Tyrol.

Scarcely had the Austrian commander recovered from his surprise at hearing of the overthrow of his lieutenant at Roveredo before Napoleon, by a march of sixty miles in two days, descended in front of his vanguard at Primolano and cut it to pieces, taking four thousand prisoners. The same night Napoleon's army advanced on Bassano where on Sept. 8 Wurmser made his last stand with the main body of his army.

While Augereau penetrated the town on his left, Massena entered it on his right, seizing the cannon that defended the bridge on the Bretna and overthrowing the old grenadiers who attempted to cover the retreat of their general. Five thousand prisoners, five standards, thirty-five pieces of cannon with their caissons fell into the hands of the French, and Wurmser himself narrowly escaped being taken. Lannes seized one of the standards with his own hands; and, in consequence, Bonaparte demanded for him the rank of general of brigade. "He was," he said, "the first who put the enemy to rout at Dego, who passed the Po at Plaisance, the Adda at Lodi, and the first to enter Bassano."

The number of the dead near the latter place was considerable. Curious to ascertain the loss of the enemy, Bonaparte in the evening rode over the field with his staff, when his notice was attracted by the howlings of a dog that seemed to increase as they approached the spot whence the yells proceeded. "Amidst the deep silence of a beautiful moon-light night," said Napoleon some years later, "a dog, leaping suddenly from beneath the clothes of his dead master, rushed upon us, and then immediately returned to his hiding-place, howling piteously. He alternately licked his master's hand, and ran toward us, as if at once soliciting aid and seeking revenge. Whether, owing to my own particular turn of mind at the moment, the time, the place, or the action itself, I know not, but, certainly, no incident, on any field of battle, ever produced so deep an impression on me. I involuntarily stopped to contemplate the scene. This man, thought I, has friends in the camp, or in his company, and here he lies forsaken by all except his dog. What a lesson Nature presents here, through the medium of an animal. What a strange being is man! And how mysterious are his impressions! I had, without emotion, ordered battles which were to decide the fate of the army; I beheld, with tearless eyes, the execution of those operations by which numbers of my countrymen were sacrificed; and here my feelings were roused by the howlings of a dog! Certainly, at that moment, I should have been easily moved by a suppliant enemy. I could very well imagine Achilles surrendering up the body of Hector at the sight of Priam's tears."

In these terrible marches Napoleon endured the same privations as his men;--baggage and staff appointments were unable to keep up with such rapid movements. He shared his bread with one of his privates who lived to remind him of this night when the Republican general had become the Emperor of France. It was during Napoleon's progress through Belgium in 1804, while reviewing a division of the army that he was visited in one of the towns by a soldier of the fourth regiment of infantry who stepped forward and thus addressed him: "General, in the year Five of the French Revolution, being in the valley of Bassano, I shared with you my ration of bread when you were very hungry. You cannot have forgotten the circumstance. I request, in return, that you provide bread for my father who is worn with age and infirmity. I have received five wounds in the service and was made corporal and sergeant on the field of battle. I hope to be made a lieutenant on the first vacancy." Napoleon recollected the soldier and immediately acknowledged the reasonableness of both his demands, which were speedily complied with.

After the most heroic resistance Wurmser again fled. Six thousand Austrians laid down their arms, and the commander with his fleeing forces took refuge about the middle of September in Mantua, whither they were pursued by Napoleon's cavalry.

Wurmser was now strictly blockaded within the citadel of Mantua with sixteen thousand men. These, with ten thousand dispersed in the Tyrol, were all that remained of his army of 60,000 men with which he was to reconquer Italy. He had also lost seventy-five pieces of cannon, thirty generals and twenty-two stands of colors. Marmont, one of Napoleon's aids-de-camp, was sent with these latter trophies to the Directory at Paris. Perceiving that Wurmser now intended to avoid a general action Napoleon returned to Milan, leaving General Kilmaine to conduct the blockade.

While at Milan, Napoleon had just mounted his horse one morning, when a dragoon, bearing important dispatches, presented himself.

The commander gave a verbal answer, and ordered the courier to take it back with all speed.

"I have no horse," the man answered; "I rode mine so hard that it fell dead at your palace gates."

Napoleon alighted. "Take mine," he said.

The man hesitated.

"You think him too magnificently caparisoned and too fine an animal;" said Napoleon. "Nothing is too good for a French soldier!"

Again a call was made on Vienna to send a new army and a greater general to restore the Hapsburg dominion in Italy. In reply another powerful armament was dispatched to the Italian frontier and this, the fourth campaign against Napoleon, was intrusted to the supreme command of Alvinzi, an officer of high reputation.

Field-Marshal Alvinzi was placed at the head of an army of forty-five thousand men to which he joined eighteen thousand under Davidowich in the Tyrol. His object was to raise the blockade of Mantua, release Wurmser and, with a force which would by the accession of the garrison of the latter amount to an army of eighty thousand men with which to oppose only thirty thousand. With these he expected to reconquer Lombardy.

Three large armies, advancing with similar prospects, had already been destroyed by Napoleon; a fourth now prepared to pour down upon him, under still more terrible circumstances. The battle of St. George and the strict blockade of Wurmser in Mantua took place in the middle of September. Alvinzi's army commenced its march in the beginning of October.

Napoleon instantly ordered Vaubois and Massena to advance to the attack of Davidowich, whose forces were collected in the Tyrol, before he could form a junction with Alvinzi. Both failed. Vaubois, after two days' fighting was conquered; lost Trent and Calliano, and was forced to retreat. Massena in consequence had to effect a retreat without attempting an engagement, and Alvinzi approaching fast gained possession of all the country between the Brenta and the Adige and the command of the Tyrol. The two Austrian generals might now have effected a junction, but they neglected their opportunity. Napoleon hastened to Verona, Alvinzi having taken the same route.

It seemed likely that Austria, in this new campaign, was destined to recover her immense losses. Napoleon was now contending against an enemy vastly superior in numbers and most completely appointed. But twelve battalions had been sent to him from France to recruit his exhausted regiments, and nothing but the employment of the highest military skill could now save him from destruction.

"The army" said he, in writing to the Directory, "so inferior in numbers, has been more weakened by the late engagements, while the promised reinforcements have not arrived. The heroes of Millessimo, Lodi, Castiglione, and Bassano, are dead or in the hospitals. Joubert, Lanusse, Victor, Lannes, Charlot, Murat, Dupuis, Rampon, Menard, Chabrand, and Pigeon are wounded; we are abandoned at the extremity of Italy. Had I received the 103d, three thousand five hundred strong, I would have answered for everything. Whereas, in a few days, 40,000 men, perhaps, will not be sufficient to enable us to make head against the enemy."

His men too, were becoming dispirited at the failure of the government to send reinforcements, and no longer fought with their accustomed vigor and enthusiasm. The retreating forces came before him with dejected looks. But the genius of Napoleon was not yet exhausted; with him discouragement was not despair. He ordered Vaubois' division--which had abandoned Calliano--drawn up on the plain of Rivoli, and thus addressed them: "Soldiers, I am not satisfied with you: you have shown neither bravery, discipline, nor perseverance. No position could rally you: you abandoned yourselves to a panic terror; you suffered yourselves to be driven from situations where a handful of brave men might have stopped an army. Soldiers of the 29th and 85th, you are not French soldiers. Quartermaster-general, let it be inscribed on their colors: 'They no longer belong to the Army of Italy!'"

The effect of these words was electric. The veteran grenadiers who had braved the terrific charges at Lodi sobbed like children and broke their ranks to cluster round their commander to plead for one more trial. Several of the veteran grenadiers, who had deserved and obtained badges of distinction, called out from the ranks: "General! we have been misrepresented; place us in the van of the army and you shall then judge whether we do not belong to the Army of Italy."

They were at last forgiven by their indignant commander, and when they were again arrayed against the enemy they quickly redeemed their lost reputation and gained new laurels. But a spirit of discontent pervaded the French army. "We cannot work miracles," said the soldiers. "We destroyed Beaulieu's great army, and then came Wurmser with a greater. We conquered and broke him to pieces, and then came Alvinzi more powerful than ever. When we have conquered him Austria will pour down on us a hundred thousand fresh soldiers and we shall leave our bones in Italy."

Although much dispirited, Napoleon was by no means disposed to abandon his campaign; to his soldiers he said by way of encouragement: "We have but one more effort to make and Italy is ours. The enemy is no doubt superior to us in numbers, but not in valor. When he is beaten Mantua must fall, and we shall be masters of all; our labors will be at an end, for not only Italy but a general peace is in Mantua. You talk of returning to the Alps, but you are no longer capable of doing so. From the dry and frozen bivouacs of those sterile rocks you could very well conquer the delicious plains of Lombardy; but from the smiling flowery bivouacs of Italy you cannot return to Alpine snows. Only beat Alvinzi and I will answer for your future welfare."

Ere long the French forces were once more ready for battle. Alvinzi had occupied the heights of Caldiero and by the middle of November threatened Verona. Massena attacked the heights but found them impregnable. The French were repulsed with considerable loss. Napoleon found it necessary to attempt taking the heights by other means in order to prevent the junction of Davidowich and Alvinzi. Pretending, therefore, to retreat on Mantua after his discomfiture, he returned in the night and placed himself in the rear of Alvinzi's army. When his columns advanced on Arcola the enemy thought at first it was only a skirmish and that the main army of the French was in Verona. The position of Arcola rendered any attack upon it so extremely hazardous that scarcely anyone would have conceived the idea of making the attempt. The village is surrounded by marshes intersected by small streams, by ditches and by three causeways or bridges, across which alone the marshes are passable. Arcola and the bridge leading to it were defended by two battalions of Alvinzi's army, and two pieces of cannon which commanded the bridge. The other two causeways were unprotected.

Napoleon ordered a division to charge the bridge of Arcola at daybreak. The attempt seemed even to the intrepid Augereau to be courting death, but he was a true soldier and obeyed orders.

On November 15 a column advanced on each of the three causeways. Augereau's division occupied the bridge of Arcola which was swept by the enemy's cannon and assailed in flank by their battalions. Even the chosen grenadiers, led by Augereau with a standard in his hand, faltered and fell back under the destructive fire, fleeing over the corpses of nearly half their comrades. It was a most critical situation, and one in which a false step or the loss of a few moments meant ruin. Napoleon, who knew that the moment was decisive, dashed at the head of the column, snatched a standard, and hurrying onwards planted the colors with his own hands on the bridge amidst a hail of balls from the enemy's artillery and musketry. As he did so he cried out: "Soldiers! are you no longer the brave warriors of Lodi? Follow your general!"

His soldiers rallied and rushed with him till they grappled with the Austrian division, but the sudden arrival of a fresh column of the enemy made it an impossibility to maintain their ground. The French fell back, and Napoleon, being in the very midst of the fight, was himself seized by his faithful grenadiers who bore him away in their arms through smoke, the dead and dying, as they were driven backwards inch by inch with dreadful carnage. Mounting a horse the commander once more prepared to make a charge at the head of his heroic troops, when his steed became unmanageable and plunged headlong throwing its rider into a morass up to his waist.

The Austrians were now between Napoleon and his baffled column. As the smoke rolled away the army at once perceived the critical position of their general. During this crisis Lannes pressed forward through the marsh and reached his commander as also did the gallant Muiron, the friend and aide-de-camp of Napoleon. Almost at the same moment a shot was fired at Napoleon. It was received by Muiron, who had interposed himself, and he died covering Napoleon's body with his own. But still the person of the commander remained in the utmost peril.

The grenadiers now formed in an instant, and with the cry, "Forward, soldiers, to save your general!" threw themselves upon the enemy, rescued their "Little Corporal" from his critical position and overthrew the Austrian columns that defended the bridge. Napoleon was quickly at their head again, rallied the column, struck terror through the ranks of the enemy, and Arcola was soon taken. Two other engagements followed at this point, in each of which the French were victorious, Massena pursuing the enemy until darkness compelled him to desist. The Austrians lost twelve thousand men killed, six thousand prisoners, eighteen pieces of cannon and four stands of colors. The loss of the French was less considerable in numbers than in the importance of the prominent individuals who fell during those three days, when the generals acted as soldiers, continually fighting at the heads of their columns. The great art of Napoleon, on that occasion, he having but 13,000 to oppose 40,000 men, was to maintain the combat in the midst of a morass where the enemy could not deploy. Upon such a field of battle, only the heads of the columns could engage; whereas, on a plain, the French army would in all probability have been surrounded.

Napoleon said at St. Helena that he considered himself in the greatest danger at Arcola.

When too late Davidowich made an advance upon Verona, but retreated quickly on hearing of Alvinzi's defeat at Arcola. Wurmser, too, made a desperate sally and was repulsed. He still held out, however. The horses of the garrison had long since been killed and salted for use; the men were reduced to half rations, and their numbers were being rapidly reduced by disease.

This fourth attempt of Austria to conquer Napoleon ended, therefore, as did the previous ones, in failure. It was one of the most memorable campaigns in history, in the course of which all the resources of skilled warriors were exhibited, not in a contest of a few hours but a succession of memorable battles. As yet, however, the young commander was but a temporary victor; the weakness of the Army of Italy did not permit him to draw all the advantages he had promised himself from Arcola. Alvinzi was now thoroughly beaten, his losses were very great, and like his predecessors he sent to Vienna for reinforcements to continue his contest against Bonaparte, who had repaired to Verona which he fixed upon as the central point of operations.

Once more the Austrian general's preparations were completed for a fresh campaign, and on January 7, 1797, at the head of sixty thousand soldiers, consisting of volunteers from the best families in Vienna and battalions from the Army of the Rhine, Croats, Hungarians, Tyroleans, etc., Alvinzi descended from the northern barriers of Italy to release the brave Wurmser from his prison at Mantua, and again attempt to "overwhelm the French invaders." A messenger dispatched to Wurmser from the imperial court was captured by the French, and dispatches concealed in wax balls recovered. From these Napoleon learned the present designs, signed by the emperor's own hand, of the Austrian government:--Alvinzi was once more placed at the head of sixty thousand men, and was again to march into Lombardy and to raise the siege of Mantua: Wurmser was directed to hold out to the last extremity: If the army of Alvinzi could be reunited with the garrison, the destruction of the French seemed undoubted; if not, and if, in the course of hostilities, he found it best to abandon Mantua, he was directed to cut his way into Romagna and to take command of the papal troops, the pope having broken the treaty of Bologna, and raised an army of seven thousand men to act in concert with Wurmser, when he should be released from Mantua.

Again the Austrian army,--the fifth--was divided, one column under Alvinzi for the line of the Adige; the other for the Bretna under General Provera, who was to join the marshal under the walls of Mantua.

When Napoleon learned this at his headquarters at Verona he posted Joubert at Rivoli to dispute Alvinzi's passage, and Augereau to watch the movements of Provera, knowing that within a few hours he could concentrate his own forces on either column.

At sunset on the 13th of January Joubert's messenger brought the news that he had met Alvinzi and with difficulty held him in check through the day. Napoleon examined with the utmost attention the maps and descriptions of the places, the reports of the generals, and those of his spies and light troops and passed a part of the night in a state of uncertainty and indecision. At length on receiving fresh reports he exclaimed: "It is clear--it is clear: to Rivoli!" and, quickly giving his orders to his aides assigning the troops to their different routes, he left a garrison at Verona and with General Massena and all the disposable troops he repaired to General Joubert. By one of his lightning marches he reached the heights of Rivoli two hours after midnight. Below in the valley five separate encampments of the Austrian army were visible in the moonlight. Napoleon quickly decided to force Alvinzi to battle before he was ready. Joubert, confounded by the display of Alvinzi's gigantic force was in the very act of abandoning his position when the French commander checked his movement, and, bringing up more battalions, forced the enemy from a position they had seized on the first symptoms of the French retreat.

From the eminence on which he stood Napoleon's keen eye soon penetrated the secret of Alvinzi's weakness,--that his artillery had not yet arrived. To force him to accept battle, Napoleon took every possible means to conceal his own arrival and prolonged, by a series of petty manoeuvres, the enemy's belief that they had to do with a mere outpost of the French. Alvinzi was fully deceived, and instead of advancing on some great and well-arranged system, suffered his several columns to endeavor to force the heights by insulated movements which the real strength of Napoleon easily enabled him to baffle. Two field-pieces had been abandoned by their drivers and which were seized by the enemy, when an officer whose name is not recorded, advancing, cried out: "Fourteenth, will you let them take your artillery?" Berthier, who had purposely suffered the enemy to approach, then opened a terrible fire, which leveled men and horses round the guns, and upon which the Austrians immediately fell back.

BONAPARTE AT THE BATTLE OF ST. GEORGE]

A moment later the bravery of the enemy resulted in their nearly overthrowing the French on a point of pre-eminent importance, but Napoleon himself, galloping to the spot, roused by his voice and action the division of Massena who, having marched all night, had laid down to rest in the extreme of weariness. They started up at the commander's voice and the Austrian column was speedily repulsed.

The French artillery was soon in position, while that of the Austrians, as Napoleon had guessed, had not yet come up, and this circumstance decided the fortune of the day. The batteries of the French made havoc of the broken columns; the cavalry made repeated charges; four out of the five divisions were thus broken and utterly routed. The fifth now made its appearance in the rear of the French. It had been sent round to outflank Napoleon and take higher ground in his rear according to the orders of the Austrian general before the action. When Lusignan's division achieved its destined object it did so,--not to complete the misery of a routed, but to swell the prey of a victorious, enemy. Instead of cutting off the retreat of Joubert, Lusignan found himself insulated from Alvinzi and forced to lay down his arms to Bonaparte. Had this movement been made a little sooner it might have turned the fortune of the day: as it was, the French soldiers only exclaimed: "Here come further supplies to our market!" and very soon the Austrians, exposed to a heavy fire from the artillery, were forced to surrender.

"Here was a good plan," said Napoleon, "but these Austrians are not apt to calculate the value of minutes."

Had Lusignan gained the rear of the French an hour earlier, while the contest was still hot in front of the heights of Rivoli, he might have aided in the complete overthrow of Napoleon instead of being defeated on one of the brightest days in the young commander's career.

In the course of the day Bonaparte had remained in the hottest of the fight, which lasted during twelve hours, and had three horses shot under him, and although much fatigued, hardly waited to see Lusignan surrender ere he set off with reinforcements to the Lower Adige to prevent Wurmser from either housing Provera or joining him in the open field and so effect the escape of his own formidable garrison. The flying troops of Alvinzi were left to the care of Massena, Murat and Joubert.

Marching all day and the next night Napoleon reached the vicinity of Mantua late on the 15th. He found the enemy strongly posted and Serrurier's position highly critical. A regiment of Provera's hussars had but a few hours before established themselves in the suburb of St. George. This Austrian corps had been clothed in white cloaks resembling those of a well-known French regiment of hussars, and advancing towards the gate would certainly have been admitted as friends but for the sagacity of an old sergeant, who could not help fancying that the white cloaks had too much of the gloss of novelty about them to have stood the wear and tear of three Bonapartean campaigns. He instantly closed the barriers and warned a drummer who was near him of the danger. These two gave the alarm and the guns of the blockading force were instantly turned upon their pretended friends who were forced to retire.

Napoleon himself passed the night in walking the outposts, so great was his anxiety. At one of these he found a grenadier sentinel asleep from exhaustion and taking his gun, without waking him, performed a sentinel's duty in his place for about half an hour. When the man, starting from his slumbers, perceived with terror and despair the countenance and occupation of his general, he fell on his knees before him. "My friend," said Napoleon mildly, "here is your musket. You had fought hard and marched long and your exhaustion is excusable; but a moment's inattention might at present ruin the whole army. I happened to be awake and have held your post for you. You will be more careful another time!"

Such acts of magnanimity endeared Napoleon to his soldiers, and, while he rarely relaxed in his military discipline, he early acquired the devotion of his men who told and retold anecdotes of his doings in camp and on the battlefield, and as the stories spread from column to column his followers came to regard him with a veneration that few older commanders have been able to instill in their men. Another anecdote is related of Bonaparte, when upon the point of commencing one of his great battles in Italy. As he was disposing his troops in order of attack, a light dragoon stepping from the ranks, requested of the commander a few minutes private conversation to which Napoleon acquiesced, when the soldier thus addressed him: "General, if you will proceed to adopt such and such measures, the enemy must be defeated."

"Wretched man," exclaimed the commander, "hold your tongue; you will surely not betray my secret" at the same time placing his hand before the mouth of the dragoon.

The soldier in question was possessed of an inherent military capacity and appreciated every arrangement necessary to insure victory. The battle terminating in favor of Napoleon, he issued orders that the poor fellow should be conducted to his presence; but all search for him proved fruitless, he was nowhere to be found: a bullet had no doubt terminated his military career.

The next morning there ensued a hot skirmish, recorded as the battle of St. George. The tumult and slaughter were dreadful and Provera with his whole force were compelled to lay down their arms. Wurmser, who had hazarded a sortie from Mantua to join his countrymen, was glad to make his way back again, and retire within the old walls, in consequence of a desperate assault headed by Napoleon in person, who threw himself between Wurmser and Provera and beat them completely one after the other. Provera now found himself cut off hopelessly from Alvinzi and surrounded by the French; he was disheartened and defeated. He and his five thousand men laid down their arms on the 16th of January, and various bodies of the Austrian force scattered over the country followed their example. This latter engagement was called the battle of La Favorita from the name of a country house near which it was fought. The 75th at this battle refused cartridges: "With such enemies as we have before us," said they, "we must only use the bayonet."

The battles of Rivoli and La Favorita had disabled Alvinzi from continuing the campaign. Thus had the magnificent army of Austria ceased to exist in three days.

Such was the prevailing terror of the enemy at this time that in one instance René, a young officer keeping guard of a position with about one hundred and fifty men, suddenly encountered and took prisoners a small body of Austrians. On advancing to reconnoitre, he found himself in front of a body of eighteen hundred more, whom a turn in the road had concealed from his sight. "Lay down your arms!" said the Austrian commandant. René answered with boldness, "Do you lay down your arms! I have destroyed your advance guard;--ground your arms, or no quarter!" The French soldiers joined in the cry, and the whole body of the astonished Austrians absolutely laid down their arms to a party, which they found to their exasperation when too late, was in numbers one twelfth of their own.

Wurmser was now thoroughly disheartened in not receiving relief, and as his provisions were by this time exhausted, found himself at length in dire straits. Napoleon sent him word of the rout and dispersion of the Austrian army and summoned him to surrender. The old soldier proudly replied that "he had provisions for a year," but a few days later he sent his aide-de-camp, Klenau to the headquarters of Serrurier with an offer of capitulation. General Serrurier, as commander of the blockade, received the bearer of Wurmser's message in which he stated that he was "still in a condition to hold out considerably longer, unless honorable terms were granted."

Napoleon, who had been seated in a corner of his tent wrapped in his cloak, now came forward and addressed himself to the Austrian envoy, who had no suspicion in whose presence he had been speaking, and taking his pen, wrote down marginal answers to the conditions proposed by Wurmser. He granted terms more favorable than might have been exacted in the extremity to which the veteran was reduced. "These," said he, "are the conditions to which your general's bravery entitles him if he opens his gates tomorrow. He may have them to-day; a week, a month hence, he shall have no worse: he may hold out to his last morsel of bread. Meantime tell him that General Bonaparte is about to set out for Rome."

The envoy now recognized Napoleon, and on reading the paper perceived that the proposed terms were more liberal than he had dared to hope for; he then owned that only three days' provisions remained in Mantua.

The capitulation was forthwith signed and on the 2d of February, 1797, Wurmser and his garrison of 13,000 men marched out of Mantua: 7,000 were lying in the hospitals. When the aged chief was by the fortunes of war to surrender his sword, he found only Serrurier ready to receive it. Napoleon was unwilling to be a witness to the humiliation of the distinguished veteran, and had left the place before the surrender, thus sparing the conquered veteran the mortification of giving up his sword to so youthful a commander. This delicate generosity on the part of the French general was never forgotten by Wurmser.

The terms of surrender agreed to by Bonaparte were not readily accepted by the French Directory, who urged him to far different conduct. "I have granted the Austrian," he wrote in reply, "such terms as were, in my judgment, due to a brave and honorable foe, and to the dignity of the French nation." The loss of the Austrians at Mantua amounted altogether to not less than 30,000 men, besides innumerable military stores and upwards of 500 brass cannon.

The conquerer sent Augereau to Paris with the sixty captured standards of Austria, and his arrival at the capital was celebrated as a national festival. Thus it was that Napoleon, with a total force at the utmost, of 65,000 men, conquered, in their own country, and under the eye and succoring hand of their own government, five successive armies, amounting, in all, to _upwards of 300,000 well-appointed well-provisioned soldiers_, under old and experienced commanders of approved courage. Such was the conquest of Lombardy.

Some time later Wurmser sent Napoleon a letter by special messenger acknowledging the generosity and delicacy of conduct of the French commander at Mantua, and at the same time apprising him by his aide-de-camp of a conspiracy to poison him in the dominions of the pope, with whom he was about to wage war.

A few brief engagements with papal troops followed the capitulation of Wurmser, the pope fearing that the conqueror would enter the "Eternal City;" but Napoleon, by a rapid movement, threw his infantry across the river Senio, where the enemy was encamped, and met with but a brief resistance. Shortly afterwards the pope entered into negotiations with the French commander, and the treaty of Tolentino followed on the 13th of February, 1797, conceding to the French one hundred of the finest works of art, several castles and legations, and about two millions of dollars.

Napoleon was now master of all Northern Italy with the exception of the territories of Venice, which announced that it had no desire but to preserve a perfect neutrality.