During the campaign of 1793, in the Maritime Alps, the French army,
under the orders of General Brunet, did all in its power to get
possession of the camps at Raus and at Fourches, by an attack in front.
But these useless efforts served only to increase the courage of the
Piedmontese, and to destroy the _élite_ of the grenadiers of the
republican army. The manœuvres by which Napoleon, without fighting,
compelled the enemy to evacuate these positions in 1796, suffice to
establish the truth of these principles, and to prove how much success
in war depends upon the genius of the general as well as on the courage
of the soldier.