The Chief Consul writes to the King of England--Lord Grenville's
Answer--Napoleon passes the Great St. Bernard--The taking of St.
Bard--The Siege of Genoa--The Battle of Montebello--The Battle of
Marengo--Napoleon returns to Paris--The Infernal Machine--The
Battle of Hohenlinden--The Treaty of Luneville.
Much had been already done towards the internal tranquillisation of
France: but it was obvious that the result could not be perfect until
the war, which had so long raged on two frontiers of the country, should
have found a termination. The fortune of the last two years had been far
different from that of the glorious campaigns which ended in the
treaty--or armistice, as it might more truly be named--of Campo-Formio.
The Austrians had recovered the north of Italy, and already menaced the
Savoy frontier, designing to march into Provence, and there support a
new insurrection of the royalists. The force opposed to them in that
quarter was much inferior in numbers, and composed of the relics of
armies beaten over and over again by Suwarrow. The Austrians and French
were more nearly balanced on the Rhine frontier; but even there, there
was ample room for anxiety. On the whole, the grand attitude in which
Buonaparte had left the Republic when he embarked for Egypt, was
exchanged for one of a far humbler description; and, in fact, as has
been intimated, the general disheartening of the nation, by reason of
those reverses, had been of signal service to Napoleon's ambition. If a
strong hand was wanted at home, the necessity of having a general who
could bring back victory to the tricolor banners in the field had been
not less deeply felt. And hence the decisive revolution of Brumaire.
Of the allies of Austria, meanwhile, one had virtually abandoned her.
The Emperor Paul, of Russia, resenting the style in which his army under
Suwarrow had been supported, withdrew it altogether from the field of
its victories; and that hare-brained autocrat, happening to take up an
enthusiastic personal admiration for Buonaparte, was not likely for the
present to be brought back into the Antigallican league. England
appeared steadfast to the cause; but it remained to be proved whether
the failure of her expedition to Holland under the Duke of York, or the
signal success of her naval arms in the Mediterranean under Lord Nelson,
had had the greater influence on the feelings of the government of St.
James's. In the former case Napoleon might expect to find his advances
towards a negotiation, in his new character of Chief Consul, received
with better disposition than his predecessors of the Directory had
extended to the last overtures of the English cabinet tendered by Lord
Malmesbury. He resolved to have the credit of making the experiment at
least, ere the campaign with the Austrians should open; and, discarding,
as he had on a former occasion,[33] the usual etiquettes of diplomatic
intercourse, addressed a letter to King George III., in person, almost
immediately after the new consulate was established in the Tuileries, in
these terms (Dec. 25, 1799).
"_French Republic--Sovereignty of the People--
Liberty and Equality._
"_Buonaparte, First Consul of the Republic,
to his Majesty the King of Great
Britain and Ireland._
"Called by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the first
magistracy of the Republic, I have thought proper, in commencing
the discharge of its duties, to communicate the event directly to
your Majesty.
"Must the war, which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters
of the world, be eternal? Is there no room for accommodation? How
can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, stronger and more
powerful than is necessary for their safety and independence,
sacrifice commercial advantages, internal prosperity, and domestic
happiness, to vain ideas of grandeur? Whence comes it that they do
not feel peace to be the first of wants as well as of glories?
These sentiments cannot be new to the heart of your Majesty, who
rule over a free nation with no other view than to render it happy.
Your Majesty will see in this overture only my sincere desire to
contribute effectually, for the second time, to a general
pacification--by a prompt step taken in confidence, and freed from
those forms, which, however necessary to disguise the
apprehensions of feeble states, only serve to discover in the
powerful a mutual wish to deceive.
"France and England, abusing their strength, may long defer the
period of its utter exhaustion; but I will venture to say, that the
fate of all civilised nations is concerned in the termination of a
war, the flames of which are raging throughout the whole world. I
have the honour to be, &c. &c.
"BUONAPARTE."
It is manifest that the Chief Consul was wonderfully ignorant of the
English constitution, if he really believed that the King (whose public
acts must all be done by the hands of responsible ministers) could
answer his letter personally. The reply was an official note from Lord
Grenville, then secretary of state for the department of foreign
affairs, to Talleyrand. It stated "that the King of England had no
object in the war but the security of his own dominions, his allies, and
Europe in general; he would seize the first favourable opportunity to
make peace--at present he could see none. The same general assertions of
pacific intentions had proceeded, successively, from all the
revolutionary governments of France; and they had all persisted in
conduct directly and notoriously the opposite of their language.
Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Germany, Egypt,--what country had been safe
from French aggression? The war must continue until the causes which
gave it birth ceased to exist. The restoration of the exiled royal
family would be the easiest means of giving confidence to the other
powers of Europe. The King of England by no means pretended to dictate
anything as to the internal polity of France; but he was compelled to
say, that he saw nothing in the circumstances under which the new
government had been set up, or the principles it professed to act upon,
which could tend to make foreign powers regard it as either more stable
or more trustworthy than the transitory forms it had supplanted."
Such was the tenor of Lord Grenville's famous note. It gave rise to an
animated discussion in both Houses immediately on the meeting of the
British Parliament; and, in both, the conduct of the ministry was
approved by very great majorities. When, however, the financial
preparations were brought forward, and it turned out that Russia was no
longer to be subsidised--or, in other words, had abandoned the league
against France--the prospects of the war were generally considered as
much less favourable than they had been during this discussion. In the
meantime the French government put forth, by way of commentary on Lord
Grenville's state paper, a pretended letter from the unfortunate heir of
the House of Stuart to George III., demanding from him the throne of
England, which, now that the principle of legitimacy seemed to be
recognised at St. James's, there could (said the pasquinade) be no fair
pretext for refusing. Some other trifles of the same character might be
noticed; but the true answer to Mr. Pitt was the campaign of Marengo.
Buonaparte rejoiced cordially in the result of his informal negotiation.
It was his policy, even more clearly than it had been that of his
predecessors, to buy security at home by battle and victory abroad. The
national pride had been deeply wounded during his absence; and something
must be done in Europe, worthy of the days of Lodi, and Rivoli, and
Tagliamento, ere he could hope to be seated firmly on his _throne_. On
receiving the answer of the British minister, he said to Talleyrand
(rubbing his hands, as was his custom when much pleased), "it could not
have been more favourable." On the same day, the 7th of January (just
three days after the date of Lord Grenville's note), the First Consul
issued his edict for the formation of an army of reserve, consisting of
all the veterans who had ever served, and a new levy of 30,000
conscripts.
At this time France had four armies on her frontiers: that of the North,
under Brune, watched the partisans of the House of Orange in Holland,
and guarded those coasts against any new invasion from England; the
defeat of the Duke of York had enabled the government to reduce its
strength considerably. The second was the army of the Danube, under
Jourdan, which, after the defeat at Stockach, had been obliged to repass
the Rhine. The third, under Massena, styled the army of Helvetia, had
been compelled in the preceding campaign to evacuate great part of
Switzerland; but, gaining the battle of Zurich against the Russians, now
re-occupied the whole of that republic. The fourth was that broken
remnant which still called itself the "army of Italy." After the
disastrous conflict of Genola it had rallied in disorder on the Apennine
and the heights of Genoa, where the spirit of the troops was already so
much injured, that whole battalions deserted _en masse_, and retired
behind the Var. Their distress, in truth, was extreme; for they had lost
all means of communication with the valley of the Po, and the English
fleet effectually blockaded the whole coasts both of Provence and
Liguria; so that, pent up among barren rocks, they suffered the
hardships and privations of a beleaguered garrison.
The Chief Consul sent Massena to assume the command of the "army of
Italy"; and issued, on that occasion, a general order, which had a
magical effect on the minds of the soldiery, Massena was highly esteemed
among them; and after his arrival at Genoa, the deserters flocked back
rapidly to their standards. At the same time Buonaparte ordered Moreau
to assume the command of the two corps of the Danube and Helvetia, and
consolidate them into one great "army of the Rhine." Lastly, the
rendezvous of the "army of reserve" was appointed for Dijon: a central
position from which either Messena or Moreau might, as circumstances
demanded, be supported and reinforced; but which Napoleon really
designed to serve for a cloak to his main purpose. For he had already,
in concert with Carnot, sketched the plan of that which is generally
considered as at once the most daring and the most masterly of all the
campaigns of the war; and which, in so far as the execution depended on
himself, turned out also the most dazzlingly successful.
In placing Moreau at the head of the army of the Rhine, full 150,000
strong, and out of all comparison the best disciplined as well as
largest force of the Republic, Buonaparte exhibited a noble superiority
to all feelings of personal jealousy. That general's reputation
approached the most nearly to his own, but his talents justified this
reputation, and the Chief Consul thought of nothing but the best means
of accomplishing the purposes of the joint campaign. Moreau, in the
sequel, was severely censured by his master for the manner in which he
executed the charge entrusted to him. His orders were to march at once
upon Ulm, at the risk of placing the great Austrian army under Kray
between him and France; but he was also commanded to detach 15,000 of
his troops for the separate service of passing into Italy by the defiles
of St. Gothard; and given to understand that it must be his business to
prevent Kray, at all hazards, from opening a communication with Italy by
way of the Tyrol. Under such circumstances, it is not wonderful that a
general, who had a master, should have proceeded more cautiously than
suited the gigantic aspirations of the unfettered Napoleon. Moreau,
however, it must be admitted, had always the reputation of a prudent
rather than a daring commander. The details of his campaign against Kray
must be sought elsewhere. A variety of engagements took place with a
variety of fortune. Moreau, his enemies allow, commenced his operations
by crossing the Rhine in the end of April; and, on the 15th of July, had
his headquarters at Augsburg, and was in condition either to reinforce
the French in Italy, or to march into the heart of the Austrian states,
when the success of Buonaparte's own expedition rendered either movement
unnecessary.
The Chief Consul had resolved upon conducting, in person, one of the
most adventurous enterprises recorded in the history of war. The
formation of the army of reserve at Dijon was a mere deceit. A numerous
staff, indeed, assembled in that town; and the preparation of the
munitions of war proceeded there as elsewhere with the utmost energy:
but the troops collected at Dijon were few; and--it being universally
circulated and believed, that they were the force meant to re-establish
the once glorious army of Italy, by marching to the headquarters of
Massena at Genoa,--the Austrians received the accounts of their numbers
and appearance, not only with indifference but with derision.
Buonaparte, meanwhile, had spent three months in recruiting his armies
throughout the interior of France; and the troops, by means of which it
was his purpose to change the face of affairs beyond the Alps, were
already marching by different routes, each detachment in total ignorance
of the other's destination, upon the territory of Switzerland. To that
quarter Buonaparte had already sent forward Berthier, the most
confidential of his military friends, and other officers of the highest
skill, with orders to reconnoitre the various passes in the great Alpine
chain, and make every other preparation for the movement, of which they
alone were, as yet, in the secret.
The statesmen who ventured, even after Brumaire, to oppose the
investiture of Buonaparte with the whole power of the state, had, at
first (as we have seen) attempted to confine him to the military
department; or so arrange it that his orders, as to civil affairs,
should, at least, not be absolute. Failing in this, they then proposed
that the Chief Consul should be incapable of heading an army in the
field, without abdicating previously his magistracy; and to their
surprise, Napoleon at once acceded to a proposition which, it had been
expected, would rouse his indignation. It now turned out how much the
saving clause in question was worth. The Chief Consul could not, indeed,
be general-in-chief of an army; but he could appoint whom he pleased to
that post; and there was no law against his being present, in his own
person, as a spectator of the campaign. It signified little that a
Berthier should write himself commander, when a Napoleon was known to be
in the camp.
It was now time that the great project should be realised. The situation
of the "army of Italy" was become most critical. After a variety of
petty engagements, its general saw his left wing (under Suchet) wholly
cut off from his main body; and, while Suchet was forced to retire
behind the Var, where his troops had the utmost difficulty in presenting
any serious opposition to the Austrians, Massena had been compelled to
throw himself with the remainder into Genoa. In that city he was
speedily blockaded by the Austrian general Ott; while the imperial
commander-in-chief, Melas, advanced with 30,000 upon Nice--of which
place he took possession on the 11th of May. The Austrians, having shut
up Massena, and well knowing the feebleness of Suchet's division, were
in a delirium of joy. The gates of France appeared, at length, to be
open before them; and it was not such an army of reserve as had excited
the merriment of their spies at Dijon that could hope to withstand them
in their long-meditated march on Provence--where Pichegru, as they
supposed, was prepared to assume the command of a numerous body of
royalist insurgents, as soon as he should receive intelligence of their
entrance into France. But they were soon to hear news of another
complexion from whence they least expected it--from behind them.
The Chief Consul remained in Paris until he received Berthier's decisive
despatch from Geneva--it was in these words: "I wish to see you here.
There are orders to be given by which three armies may act in concert,
and you alone can give them in the lines. Measures decided on in Paris
are too late." He instantly quitted the capital; and, on the 7th of May
appeared at Dijon, where he reviewed, in great form, some 7000 or 8000
raw and half-clad troops, and committed them to the care of Brune. The
spies of Austria reaped new satisfaction from this consular review:
meanwhile Napoleon had halted but two hours at Dijon; and, travelling
all night, arrived the next day, at Geneva. Here he was met by Marescot,
who had been employed in exploring the wild passes of the Great St.
Bernard, and received from him an appalling picture of the difficulties
of marching an army by that route into Italy. "Is it possible to pass?"
said Napoleon, cutting the engineer's narrative short. "The thing is
barely possible," answered Marescot. "Very well," said the Chief Consul,
"_en avant_--let us proceed."
While the Austrians were thinking only of the frontier where Suchet
commanded an enfeebled and dispirited division,--destined, as they
doubted not, to be reinforced by the army, such as it was, of
Dijon,--the Chief Consul had resolved to penetrate into Italy, as
Hannibal had done of old, through all the dangers and difficulties of
the great Alps themselves. The march on the Var and Genoa might have
been executed with comparative ease, and might, in all likelihood, have
led to victory; but mere victory would not suffice. It was urgently
necessary that the name of Buonaparte should be surrounded with some
blaze of almost supernatural renown; and his plan for purchasing this
splendour was to rush down from the Alps, at whatever hazard, upon the
rear of Melas, cut off all his communications with Austria, and then
force him to a conflict, in which, Massena and Suchet being on the other
side of him, reverse must needs be ruin.
For the treble purpose of more easily collecting a sufficient stock of
provisions for the march, of making its accomplishment more rapid, and
of perplexing the enemy on its termination, Napoleon determined that his
army should pass in four divisions, by as many separate routes. The left
wing, under Moncey, consisting of 15,000 detached from the army of
Moreau, was ordered to debouch by the way of St. Gothard. The corps of
Thureau, 5000 strong, took the direction of Mount Cenis: that of
Chabran, of similar strength, moved by the Little St. Bernard. Of the
main body, consisting of 35,000, the Chief Consul himself took care;
and he reserved for them the gigantic task of surmounting, with the
artillery, the huge barriers of the Great St. Bernard. Thus along the
Alpine Chain--from the sources of the Rhine and the Rhone to Isere and
Durance--about 60,000 men, in all, prepared for the adventure. It must
be added, if we would form a fair conception of the enterprise, that
Napoleon well knew not one-third of these men had ever seen a shot fired
in earnest.
The difficulties encountered by Moncey, Thureau, and Chabran will be
sufficiently understood from the narrative of Buonaparte's own march.
From the 15th to the 18th of May all his columns were put in motion;
Lannes, with the advanced guard, clearing the way before them; the
general, Berthier, and the Chief Consul himself superintending the rear
guard, which, as having with it the artillery, was the object of highest
importance. At St. Pierre all semblance of a road disappeared.
Thenceforth an army, horse and foot, laden with all the munitions of a
campaign, a park of forty field-pieces included, were to be urged up and
along airy ridges of rock and eternal snow, where the goatherd, the
hunter of the chamois, and the outlaw-smuggler are alone accustomed to
venture; amidst precipices where to slip a foot is death; beneath
glaciers from which the percussion of a musket-shot is often sufficient
to hurl an avalanche; across bottomless chasms caked over with frost or
snow-drift; and breathing
"The difficult air of the iced mountain top,
Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing
Flit o'er the herbless granite."[34]
The transport of the artillery and ammunition was the most difficult
point; and to this, accordingly, the Chief Consul gave his personal
superintendence. The guns were dismounted, grooved into the trunks of
trees hollowed out so as to suit each calibre, and then dragged on by
sheer strength of muscle--not less than an hundred soldiers being
sometimes harnessed to a single cannon. The carriages and wheels, being
taken to pieces, were slung on poles, and borne on men's shoulders. The
powder and shot, packed into boxes of fir-wood, formed the lading of all
the mules that could be collected over a wide range of the Alpine
country. These preparations had been made during the week that elapsed
between Buonaparte's arrival at Geneva and the commencement of Lannes's
march. He himself travelled sometimes on a mule, but mostly on foot,
cheering on the soldiers who had the burden of the great guns. The
fatigue undergone is not to be described. The men in front durst not
halt to breathe, because the least stoppage there might have thrown the
column behind into confusion, on the brink of deadly precipices; and
those in the rear had to flounder knee deep, through snow and ice
trampled into sludge by the feet and hoofs of the preceding divisions.
Happily the march of Napoleon was not harassed, like that of Hannibal,
by the assaults of living enemies. The mountaineers, on the contrary,
flocked in to reap the liberal rewards which he offered to all who were
willing to lighten the drudgery of his troops.
On the 16th of May Napoleon slept at the convent of St. Maurice; and, in
the course of the four following days, the whole army passed the Great
St. Bernard. It was on the 20th that Buonaparte himself halted an hour
at the convent of the Hospitallers, which stands on the summit of this
mighty mountain. The good fathers of the monastery had been warned
beforehand of the march, and they had furnished every soldier as he
passed with a luncheon of bread and cheese and a glass of wine; for
which seasonable kindness, they now received the warm acknowledgments of
the chief.[35] It was here that he took his leave of a peasant youth,
who had walked by him, as his guide, all the way from the convent of St.
Maurice. Napoleon conversed freely with the young man, and was much
interested with his simplicity. At parting, he asked the guide some
particulars about his personal situation; and, having heard his reply,
gave him money and a billet to the head of the monastery of St. Maurice.
The peasant delivered it accordingly, and was surprised to find that,
in consequence of a scrap of writing which he could not read, his
worldly comforts were to be permanently increased. The object of his
generosity remembered, nevertheless, but little of his conversation with
the Consul. He described Napoleon as being "a very dark man" (this was
the effect of the Syrian sun), and having an eye that, notwithstanding
his affability, he could not encounter without a sense of fear. The only
saying of the hero which he treasured in his memory was, "I have spoiled
a hat among your mountains: well, I shall find a new one on the other
side."--Thus spoke Napoleon, wringing the rain from his covering as he
approached the hospice of St. Bernard.--The guide described, however,
very strikingly, the effects of Buonaparte's appearance and voice, when
any obstacle checked the advance of his soldiery along that fearful
wilderness which is called emphatically, "The Valley of Desolation." A
single look or word was commonly sufficient to set all in motion again.
But if the way presented some new and apparently insuperable difficulty,
the Consul bade the drums beat and the trumpets sound, as if for the
charge; and this never failed. Of such gallant temper were the spirits
which Napoleon had at command, and with such admirable skill did he
wield them!
On the 16th the vanguard, under Lannes, reached the beautiful vale of
Aosta, and the other divisions descended rapidly on their footsteps.
This part of the progress was not less difficult than the ascent before.
The horses, mules, and guns, were to be led down one slippery steep
after another--and we may judge with what anxious care, since Napoleon
himself was once contented to slide nearly a hundred yards together,
_seated_.
On the 17th Lannes arrived at Chatillon, where he attacked and defeated
a corps of 5000 Austrians--who received the onset of a French division
in that quarter, with about as much surprise as if an enemy had dropped
on them from the clouds. Every difficulty now seemed to be surmounted,
and corps after corps came down into the plentiful and verdant valley,
full of joy. But suddenly the march of the vanguard was arrested by an
obstacle unforeseen, or, at least, grievously under-estimated. Midway
between Aosta and Ivrea the Dora flows through a defile, not more than
fifty yards in width: the heights on either hand rise precipitous; and
in the midst an abrupt conical rock, crowned with the fortress of St.
Bard, entirely commands the river, and a small walled town, through the
heart of which lies the only passage. Lannes having vainly attempted to
force the place by a _coup de main_, a panic arose, and this spreading
to the rear, orders were given for stopping the descent of the
artillery. The Consul had come as far as the town of Aosta when this
intelligence reached him. He immediately hastened to St. Bard, where he
found the troops in much confusion.
On occasions like this Napoleon rarely failed to vindicate the
_prestige_ of his reputation. After hastily surveying the localities, he
climbed the height of the Albaredo, which rises on the one side above
the fort, and satisfied himself that, though the path had hitherto been
trodden only by solitary huntsmen, the army who had crossed the St.
Bernard might, by similar efforts, find or make their way here also. A
single cannon being, with the last difficulty, hoisted to the summit, he
planted it so as to play full on the chief bastion of St. Bard. The
moment this was arranged the troops began their painful march; and they
accomplished it without considerable loss; for the Consul's gun was so
excellently placed that the main battery of the subjacent castle, was,
ere long, silenced. The men crept along the brow of the Albaredo in
single file, each pausing (says an eye-witness) to gaze for a moment on
Napoleon, who, overcome with his exertions, had lain down and fallen
fast asleep upon the summit of the rock. Thus passed the main body,
slowly, but surely. Meantime Colonel Dufour had been ordered to scale
the wall of the town at nightfall; and his regiment (the 58th) performed
this service so impetuously, that the Austrian troops took refuge in the
castle, and the French made good their lodgment in the houses below. For
some hours the garrison poured down grape-shot at half-musket distance
upon the French, but at last out of compassion for the inhabitants, the
fire slackened, and ere day broke Buonaparte had effected his main
purpose. The streets of the town having been strewn with litter to
deafen sound, the guns, covered with straw and branches of trees, were
dragged through it under the very guns of St. Bard, and without exciting
the least suspicion in its garrison. Next morning the Austrian sent on
a messenger to Melas, with tidings that a large division of the French
had indeed passed by the goat-tracks of Albaredo, but that most
certainly not one great gun was with them. Buonaparte, meantime, was
hurrying forwards with horse, foot, and artillery too, upon Ivrea.
The march of the Consul received no new check until he reached the town
of Ivrea, where, after two days' hard fighting, Lannes at length forced
an entrance, and the garrison, with severe loss, withdrew. Buonaparte
then took the road to Turin, and the vanguard had another severe piece
of service at the bridge of Chiusilla, where 10,000 Austrians had been
very strongly posted. Lannes broke them, and pursuing as far as Orca,
cut them off from their magazines at Chevagno, and seized a vast
quantity of stores which had been embarked on the Po. The advance was
now within one march of Turin, while Murat occupied Vercelli, and the
other divisions (those of Moncey, Chabran, and Thureau), having
accomplished their several Alpine journeys, were pouring down upon the
low country, and gradually converging towards the appointed rendezvous
on the Ticino. Buonaparte had thus overcome the great difficulties of
his preparation, and was ready with his whole army to open the campaign
in good earnest against Melas.
The blockade of Genoa had been kept up all this time; while Suchet
resolutely maintained the last line of defence on the old frontier of
France. On the 22nd of May Melas made a desperate effort to force the
passage of the Var, but failed; and immediately afterwards received his
first intelligence of the movements of Buonaparte, and the defeat of his
own detachment at the bridge of Chiusilla. He perceived that it was high
time to leave Suchet to inferior hands, and set off to oppose in person
"the army of reserve." Suchet, on his part, was not slow to profit by
the departure of the Austrian Commander-in-chief: he, being informed of
Buonaparte's descent, forthwith resumed the offensive, re-crossed the
Var, and carried Vintimiglia at the point of the bayonet. Pursuing his
advantage, Suchet obtained the mastery, first of the defile of Braus,
and then of that of Tende, and at length re-occupied his old position at
Melagno, whence his advanced guard pushed on as far as Savona.
The garrison of Genoa, meantime, had been holding out gallantly.
Massena for some time kept possession of the semicircular chain of
heights on the land side, and was thus enabled to obtain provisions,
despite the 40,000 Austrians under General Ott who lay watching him, and
the English fleet under Lord Keith which completely blockaded the shore.
A great effort made to dislodge him from the heights on the 3rd of April
had failed. But by degrees the superiority of numbers proved too much
for him, and being shut at last within the walls--where, to increase all
his difficulties, a great part of the population was violently hostile
to the French cause--his sufferings from want of provisions, and the
necessity of constant watchfulness and daily skirmishes, began to be
severe. In his sorties, Massena had for the most part the advantage; and
never in the whole war was the heroism of the French soldiery more
brilliantly displayed than during this siege.[36] The news of the
expedition of Napoleon at length penetrated to the beleaguered garrison,
and the expectation of relief gave them from day to day new courage to
hold out. But day passed after day without any deliverer making his
appearance, and the scarcity of food rendered it almost impossible to
keep the inhabitants from rising _en masse_ to throw open the gates. The
English, meanwhile, anchored closer to the city, and having cut out the
vessels which guarded the entrance of the harbour, were bombarding the
French quarters at their pleasure. Everything eatable, not excepting the
shoes and knapsacks of the soldiers, had been devoured, ere Massena at
length listened to the proposal of a conference with General Ott and
Lord Keith. If the French general's necessities were urgent, the English
admiral's desire to get possession of Genoa, ere Buonaparte could make
further progress, was not less vehement. Lord Keith frankly told
Massena, that his gallantry had been such that no terms could be too
good for him. The word _capitulation_ Was omitted: the French marched
out of the town with arms and baggage, and were allowed to proceed to
Suchet's headquarters; and, on the 5th of June, Ott occupied Genoa.
General Ott, notwithstanding this success, had been very ill-employed in
lingering before Genoa while Napoleon was so rapidly advancing; and
Melas, utterly perplexed between Suchet on the one side and the Consul
on the other, had in fact lain still, and done nothing. Buonaparte,
between the 1st and 4th of June, crossed the Ticino with his whole army.
Murat carried Turbigo on the 5th, the very day that Genoa fell; and on
the 2nd, the Chief Consul himself once more entered Milan, where he was
received with enthusiasm. Lannes, after various conflicts, occupied
Pavia. Chapon and Thureau threatened Turin by two different routes; and
Melas, at last roused to a sense of his imminent danger, abandoned the
open country of Piedmont, took up his headquarters at Alessandria, and
began to draw together his widely separated columns, and concentrate
them for the inevitable battle which must decide the fate of Italy.
Buonaparte, meanwhile, was ignorant of the fall of Genoa. He supposed,
therefore, that the army of Ott was still at a wide distance from that
of the Austrian commander-in-chief, and meditated to pass the Po
suddenly, and either attack Ott and relieve Genoa, ere Melas knew that
he was in that neighbourhood, or, if he should find this more
practicable, force Melas himself to accept battle unsupported by Ott.
Lannes and the van, accordingly, pushed on as far as Montebello, where,
to their surprise, they found the Austrians in strength. Early in the
morning of the 9th of June, Lannes was attacked by a force which he had
much difficulty in resisting. The Austrians were greatly superior in
cavalry, and the ground was favourable for that arm. But at length
Victor's division came up, and, after a severe struggle, turned the
tide. The battle was a most obstinate one. The fields being covered with
very tall crops of rye, the hostile battalions were often almost within
bayonet's length ere they were aware of each other's presence; and the
same circumstances prevented the generals, on either side, from
displaying much science in their manoeuvres. It was a conflict of man
against man, and determined at a dear cost of blood. The field was
strewn with dead, and the retiring Austrians left 5000 prisoners in the
hands of Lannes--who, in memory of this day of slaughter, was created
afterwards Duke of Montebello. It was from the prisoners taken here that
the Consul learned the fate of Genoa. He immediately concluded that
Melas had concentrated his army; and, having sent messengers to Suchet,
urging him to cross the mountains by the Col di Cadibona, and march on
the Scrivia (which would place him in the rear of the enemy), halted his
whole line upon the strong position of Stradella.
It was on the evening after Montebello, that General Dessaix, whom
Napoleon considered as second only to himself in military genius,
arrived at headquarters. Buonaparte had, as we have seen, on leaving
Egypt, ordered Kleber to send Dessaix to France in the course of
November. He had accordingly landed at Frejus shortly after the
establishment of the new government, where he found letters from the
Chief Consul, urging him to join him without delay. In these letters
there were some melancholy phrases, and Dessaix, who really loved
Napoleon, was heard to say, "He has gained all, and yet he is not
satisfied." A hundred obstacles rose up to keep Dessaix from joining his
friend so speedily as both wished. He was yet in France when the news of
St. Bernard came thither, and exclaiming, "He will leave us nothing to
do," travelled night and day until he was able to throw himself into his
arms. Napoleon immediately gave him the command of a division; and they
spent the night together in conversing about the affairs of Egypt.
The First Consul was anxious to tempt Melas to attack him at Stradella,
where the ground was unfavourable to cavalry movements; but, after lying
there unmolested for three days, he began to fear that the Austrian had
resolved, either on moving to the left flank, crossing the Ticino,
occupying Milan, and so re-opening his communications with Vienna;--or,
on falling back to Genoa, overwhelming Suchet, and taking up a position
where the British fleet could supply him with provisions--or even, in
case of necessity, embark his army, carry it round to the other side of
Italy, and by that means place him once more between his enemy and the
German states. Buonaparte, being perplexed with these apprehensions, at
last descended into the great plain of Marengo, on which he had, not
without reason, feared to abide the onset of Melas and the Austrian
horse. He was at Volghera on the 11th, and the next day at St. Juliano,
in the very centre of the plain; but still no enemy appeared. On the
13th, he advanced to the village of Marengo itself, and finding nothing
even there but a scanty outpost, which retreated before him, concluded
certainly that Melas had given him the slip, and marched either to the
left on the Ticino, or to the right on Genoa. In great anxiety he
detached one division under Dessaix to watch the road to Genoa, and
another under Murat towards the Scrivia. Dessaix was already
half-a-day's journey from headquarters, when Napoleon received
intelligence which made him hastily recall all his detachments. The
Austrian general, after a long hesitation, had at length resolved to let
a fair field decide once more the fate of Italy. On the evening of the
13th, his whole army mustered in front of Alessandria having only the
river Bormida between them and the plain of Marengo; and early in the
following morning, they passed the stream at three several points, and
advanced towards the French position in as many columns.
The Austrians were full 40,000 strong; while, in the absence of Dessaix
and the reserve, Napoleon could, at most, oppose to them 20,000, of whom
only 2500 were cavalry. He had, however, no hesitation about accepting
the battle. His advance, under Gardanne, occupied the small hamlet of
Padre Bona, a little in front of Marengo. At that village, which
overlooks a narrow ravine, the channel of a rivulet, Napoleon stationed
Victor with the main body of his first line--the extreme right of it
resting on Castel Ceriolo, another hamlet almost parallel with Marengo;
Kellerman, with a brigade of cavalry, was posted immediately behind
Victor for the protection of his flanks. A thousand yards in the rear of
Victor was the second line, under Lannes, protected in like fashion by
the cavalry of Champeaux. At about an equal distance, again, behind
Lannes, was the third line, consisting of the division of St. Cyr, and
the consular guard, under Napoleon in person. The Austrian heavy
infantry, on reaching the open field, formed into two lines, the first,
under General Haddick, considerably in advance before the other, which
Melas himself commanded, with General Zach for his second. These moved
steadily towards Marengo; while the light infantry and cavalry, under
General Elsnitz, made a detour round Castel Ceriolo with the purpose of
outflanking the French right.
Such was the posture of the two armies when this great battle began.
Gardanne was unable to withstand the shock, and abandoning Padre Bona,
fell back to strengthen Victor. A furious cannonade along the whole
front of that position ensued; the tirailleurs of either army posted
themselves along the margins of the ravine, and fired incessantly at
each other, their pieces almost touching. Cannon and musketry spread
devastation everywhere--for the armies were but a few toises apart. For
more than two hours Victor withstood singly the vigorous assaults of a
far superior force; Marengo had been taken and retaken several times,
ere Lannes received orders to reinforce him. The second line at length
advanced, but they found the first in retreat, and the two corps took up
a second line of defence considerably to the rear of Marengo. Here they
were, again, charged furiously--and again, after obstinate resistance,
gave way. General Elsnitz, meantime, having effected his purpose, and
fairly marched round Castel Ceriolo, appeared on the right flank, with
his splendid cavalry, and began to pour his squadrons upon the
retreating columns of Lannes. That gallant chief formed his troops _en
echelon_; and retired in admirable order--but the retreat was now
general; and, had Melas pursued the advantage with all his reserve, the
battle was won. But that aged general (he was eighty-four years old)
doubted not that he had won it already; and at this critical moment,
being quite worn out with fatigue, withdrew to the rear, leaving Zach to
continue what he considered as now a mere pursuit.
At the moment when the Austrian horse were about to rush on Lannes's
retreating corps, the reserve under Dessaix appeared on the outskirts of
the field. Dessaix himself, riding up to the First Consul, said, "I
think this is a battle lost." "I think it is a battle won," answered
Napoleon. "Do you push on, and I will speedily rally the line behind
you."--And in effect the timely arrival of this reserve turned the
fortune of the day.
Napoleon in person drew up the whole of his army on a third line of
battle, and rode along the front, saying, "Soldiers, we have retired far
enough. Let us now advance. You know it is my custom to sleep on the
field of battle." The enthusiasm of the troops appeared to be revived,
and Dessaix prepared to act on the offensive; he led a fresh column of
5000 grenadiers to meet and check the advance of Zach. The brave Dessaix
fell dead at the first fire, shot through the head. "Alas! it is not
permitted to me to weep," said Napoleon; and the fall of that beloved
chief redoubled the fury of his followers. The first line of the
Austrian infantry charged, however, with equal resolution. At that
moment Kellerman's horse came on them in flank; and being, by that
unexpected assault, broken, they were, after a vain struggle, compelled
to surrender:--General Zach himself was here made prisoner. The Austrian
columns behind, being flushed with victory, were advancing too
carelessly, and proved unable to resist the general assault of the whole
French line, which now pressed onwards under the immediate command of
Napoleon. Post after post was carried. The noble cavalry of Elsnitz,
perceiving the infantry broken and retiring, lost heart; and, instead of
forming to protect their retreat, turned their horses' heads and
galloped over the plain, trampling down every thing in their way. When
the routed army reached at length the Bormida, the confusion was
indescribable. Hundreds were drowned--the river rolled red amidst the
corpses of horse and men. Whole corps, being unable to effect the
passage, surrendered: and at ten at night the Austrian commander with
difficulty rallied the remnant of that magnificent array on the very
ground which they had left the same morning in all the confidence of
victory.
It is not to be denied that Napoleon was saved on this occasion by the
arrival of the reserve under Dessaix, and the timely charge of
Kellerman. On the other hand it is impossible not to condemn the
rashness with which the Austrian generals advanced after their first
successes.
The discomfiture of the imperialists was so great, that rather than
stand the consequences of another battle, while Suchet was coming on
their rear, they next day entered into a negotiation. Melas offered to
abandon Genoa and all the strong places in Piedmont, Lombardy, and the
Legations--provided Buonaparte would allow him to march the remains of
his army unmolested to the rear of Mantua. Napoleon accepted this offer.
By one battle he had regained nearly all that the French had lost in the
unhappy Italian campaign of 1799: at all events he had done enough to
crown his own name with unrivalled splendour, and to show that the
French troops were once more what they had used to be--when he was in
the field to command them. He had another motive for closing with the
propositions of General Melas. It was of urgent importance to regain
Genoa, ere an English army, which he knew was on its voyage to that
port, could reach its destination.
On the 17th of June Napoleon returned in triumph to Milan, where he
formally re-established the Cisalpine Republic, and was present at a
festival of high state and magnificence. He then gave the command of the
army of Italy to Massena; and appointed Jourdan French minister in
Piedmont--in other words, governor of that dominion; and set out on his
journey to Paris. He halted at Lyons to lay the first stone of the new
_Place de Bellecour_, erected on the ruins of a great square destroyed
by the Jacobins during the revolutionary madness; and reached the
Tuileries on the 2nd of July. He had set out for Switzerland on the 6th
of May. Two months had not elapsed, and in that brief space what wonders
had been accomplished! The enthusiasm of the Parisians exceeded all that
has been recorded of any triumphal entry. Night after night every house
was illuminated; and day following day the people stood in crowds around
the palace, contented if they could but catch one glimpse of the
preserver of France.
The effusion of joy was the greater--because the tale of victory came on
a people prepared for other tidings. About noontide on the 14th of June,
when the French had been driven out of Marengo, and were apparently in
full and disastrous retreat, a commercial traveller left the field, and
arriving, after a rapid journey, in Paris, announced that Buonaparte had
been utterly defeated by Melas. It is said that the ill-wishers of the
First Consul immediately set on foot an intrigue for removing him from
the government, and investing Carnot with the chief authority. It is
not doubtful that many schemes of hostility had been agitated during
Napoleon's absence; or that, amidst all the clamour and splendour of his
triumphant reception in Paris, he wore a gloomy brow; nor has any one
disputed that, from this time, he regarded the person of Carnot with
jealousy and aversion.
The tidings of the great battle, meanwhile, kindled the emulation of the
Rhenish army; and they burned with the earnest desire to do something
worthy of being recorded in the same page with Marengo. But the Chief
Consul, when he granted the armistice to Melas, had extended it to the
armies on the German frontier likewise; and Moreau, consequently, could
not at once avail himself of the eagerness of his troops. The
negotiations which ensued, however, were unsuccessful. The emperor,
subsidised as he had been, must have found it very difficult to resist
the remonstrances of England against the ratification of any peace in
which she should not be included; and it is natural to suppose, that the
proud spirit of the Austrian cabinet revolted from setting the seal to
an act of humiliation, not yet, as the English government insisted,
absolutely necessary. News, meantime, were received, of the surrender of
Malta to an English expedition under Lord Keith and Sir Ralph
Abercrombie;[37] and this timely piece of good fortune breathed fresh
spirit into the Antigallican league. In fine, insincerity and suspicion
protracted, from day to day, a negotiation not destined to be concluded
until more blood had been shed.
During this armistice, which lasted from the 15th of June to the 10th of
November, the exiled princes of the House of Bourbon made some more
ineffectual endeavours to induce the Chief Consul to be the Monk of
France. The Abbe de Montesquiou, secret agent for the Count de Lille
(afterwards Louis XVIII.), prevailed on the Third Consul, Le Brun, to
lay before Buonaparte a letter addressed to him by that prince--in these
terms: "You are very tardy about restoring my throne to me: it is to be
feared that you may let the favourable moment slip. You cannot establish
the happiness of France without me; and I, on the other hand, can do
nothing for France without you. Make haste, then, and point out,
yourself, the posts and dignities which will satisfy you and your
friends." The First Consul answered thus: "I have received your Royal
Highness's letter. I have always taken a lively interest in your
misfortunes and those of your family. You must not think of appearing in
France--you could not do so without marching over five hundred thousand
corpses. For the rest, I shall always be zealous to do whatever lies
within my power towards softening your Royal Highness's destinies, and
making you forget, if possible, your misfortunes." The Comte D'Artois
(Charles X. of France) took a more delicate method of negotiating. He
sent a very beautiful and charming lady, the Duchesse de Guiche, to
Paris; she without difficulty gained access to Josephine, and shone, for
a time, the most brilliant ornament of the consular court. But the
moment Napoleon discovered the fair lady's errand, she was ordered to
quit the capital within a few hours. These intrigues, however, could not
fail to transpire; and there is no doubt that, at this epoch, the hopes
of the royalists were in a high state of excitement.
Meantime, among the meaner orders of both the great parties, who
regarded with aversion the sovereign authority of the Chief Consul,
there wanted not hearts wicked enough, nor hands sufficiently desperate,
for attempts far different from these. The lawfulness, nay, the merit
and the glory of tyrranicide, were ideas familiar to the Jacobins of
every degree; and, during the years of miserable convulsion which
followed the imprisonment and murder of Louis XVI., the royalist bands
had often been joined, and sometimes guided, by persons in whom a
naturally fanatical spirit, goaded by the sense of intolerable wrongs,
dared to think of revenge--no matter how accomplished--as the last and
noblest of duties: nor is it wonderful that amidst a long protracted
civil war, when scenes of battle and slaughter were relieved only by the
hardships of skulking in woods and the fears of famine, the character of
others, originally both pure and gentle, had come to be degraded into a
callous indifference of dark sullenness of temper, fit preparatives for
deeds, the thought of which, in earlier and better days, would have been
horror and loathing.
It was among the Jacobins, who had formerly worshipped Buonaparte as the
"child and champion" of their creed, that the first schemes of
assassination were agitated. An Italian sculptor, by name Ceracchi, who
had modelled the bust of Napoleon while he held his court at
Montebello, arrived in Paris, and, under pretence of retouching his
work, solicited admission to the presence of the new Caesar, whose Brutus
he had resolved to be. The occupations of the Consul did not permit of
this, and the Italian, having opened his purpose to Topineau, Lebrun, a
painter, the adjutant-general Arena, Damerville, and others of kindred
sentiments, arranged a plan by which Buonaparte was to have been
surrounded and stabbed in the lobby of the opera house. But one of the
accomplices betrayed the conspiracy; and Ceracchi and his associates
were arrested in the theatre, at the moment when they were expecting
their victim.
This occurred towards the middle of August; and it has been said that
the Jacobin conspirators, being thrown into the same prison with some
desperadoes of the Chouan faction, gave to these last the outline of
another scheme of assassination, which had more nearly proved
successful. This was the plot of _the infernal machine_. A cart was
prepared to contain a barrel of gunpowder, strongly fastened in the
midst of a quantity of grape-shot, which, being set on fire by a slow
match, was to explode at the moment when Buonaparte was passing through
some narrow street, and scatter destruction in every direction around
it. The night selected was that of the 10th of October, when the Chief
Consul was expected to visit the opera, and the machine was planted in
the Rue St. Nicaise, through which he must pass in his way thither from
the Tuileries. Napoleon told his friends at St. Helena, that having
laboured hard all day, he felt himself overpowered with sleep after
dinner, and that Josephine, who was anxious to be at the opera, had much
difficulty in at last rousing and persuading him to go. "I fell fast
asleep again" (he said), "after I was in my carriage; and at the moment
when the explosion took place, I was dreaming of the danger I had
undergone some years before in crossing the Tagliamento at midnight, by
the light of torches, during a flood." He awoke, and exclaimed to Lannes
and Bessieres, who were with him in the coach, "We are blown up." The
attendants would have stopped the carriage, but, with great presence of
mind, he bade them drive as fast as they could to the theatre, which he
alone of all the party entered with an unruffled countenance. He had
escaped most narrowly. The coachman, happening to be intoxicated, drove
more rapidly than was his custom.[38] The engine exploded half a minute
after the carriage had passed it--killing twenty persons, wounding
fifty-three (among whom was St. Regent, the assassin who fired the
train), and shattering the windows of several houses on both sides of
the street.
The audience in the opera-house, when the news was divulged, testified
their feelings with enthusiasm. The atrocity of the conspiracy roused
universal horror and indignation, and invested the person of the Chief
Consul with a new species of interest. The assassins were tried fairly,
and executed, glorying in their crime: and, in the momentary exaltation
of all men's minds, an edict of the senate, condemning to perpetual
exile 130 of the most notorious leaders of the _Terrorists_, was
received with applause. But Napoleon himself despised utterly the relics
of that odious party; and the arbitrary decree in question was never put
into execution.
The Chief Consul, nevertheless, was not slow to avail himself of the
state of the public mind, in a manner more consistent with his prudence
and farsightedness. It was at this moment that the erection of a new
tribunal, called _the Special Commission_, consisting of eight judges,
without jury, and without revision or appeal, was proposed to the
legislative bodies. To their honour the proposal was carried by very
narrow majorities; for after that judicature was established, the Chief
Consul had, in effect, the means of disposing of all who were suspected
of political offences, according to his own pleasure. Another law which
soon succeeded, and which authorised the chief magistrate to banish
disaffected persons, as "enemies of the state," from Paris or from
France, whenever such steps should seem proper, without the intervention
of any tribunal whatever, completed (if it was yet incomplete) the
despotic range of his power: and the police, managed as that fearful
engine was by Fouche, presented him with the most perfect means of
carrying his purposes into execution.
A singular anecdote belongs to this time--(December, 1800). During the
effervescence of public opinion consequent on the affair of the infernal
machine, there appeared a pamphlet, entitled, "Parallel between Caesar,
Cromwell, Monk, and Bonaparte"[39]--a production evidently designed to
favour the assumption of regal dignity by the Consul. Appearing at such
a moment, it could not fail to excite a vivid sensation; the
confidential friends of Napoleon assured him, in one voice, that the
publication was likely to injure him. He sent for Fouche, and reproached
him violently for suffering such a pamphlet to appear. The minister of
police heard him with perfect coolness, and replied that he had not
chosen to interfere, because he had traced the manuscript to the hotel
of his brother Lucien. "And why not denounce Lucien?" cried Napoleon;
"he ought to have been arrested instantly, and confined in the Temple."
The Consul having spoken thus, quitted the apartment, shutting the door
with violence. Fouche smiled, and whispered to De Bourienne--"Confine
the author in the Temple! Lucien showed me the manuscript; I found it
full of corrections in the handwriting of--the First Consul!" Lucien,
informed of his brother's wrath, came forthwith to the Tuileries, and
complained that "he had been made a puppet and abandoned." "The fault is
your own," answered Napoleon; "it was your business not to be detected.
Fouche has shown himself more dexterous--so much the worse for you."
Lucien resigned forthwith the office which he held in the ministry, and
proceeded as ambassador to Spain.
How far these disturbances in the French capital might have contributed
to the indecision of the Austrian cabinet during this autumn, we know
not. Five months had now elapsed since the armistice after Marengo; and
the First Consul, utterly disgusted with the delay, determined to resume
arms, and to be first in the field. Between the 17th and the 27th of
November his generals received orders to set all their troops once more
in motion. Everywhere the French arms had splendid success. Brune
defeated the Austrians on the Mincio, and advanced within a few miles of
Venice. Macdonald occupied the mountains of the Tyrol, and was prepared
to reinforce either the army of Italy or that of the Rhine, as might be
desired. Moreau, finally, advanced into the heart of Germany, and was
met by the Archduke John of Austria, who obtained considerable
advantages in an affair at Haag. The Archduke, elated by this success,
determined on a general engagement, and appeared in front of the French
on the evening of the 2nd December, at Hohenlinden, between the Inn and
the Iser.[40] At seven, on the morning of the 3rd, the conflict began.
The deep snow had obliterated the tracks of roads; several Austrian
columns were bewildered; and either came not at all into their
positions, or came too late. Yet the battle was obstinate and severe:
10,000 Imperialists were left dead on the field: and Moreau, improving
his success, marched on immediately, and occupied Salzburg.
The Austrian capital now lay exposed to the march of three victorious
armies; and the Emperor was at last compelled to release himself from
his English obligations, and negotiate in sincerity for a separate
peace. Mr. Pitt himself considered the prosecution of the continental
war as for the time hopeless. On reading the bulletin of Marengo, he
said, "Fold up that map" (the map of Europe); "it will not be wanted for
these twenty years."
A definitive treaty was signed at Luneville on the 9th February, 1801;
by which the Emperor, not only as the head of the Austrian monarchy, but
also in his quality of Chief of the German empire, guaranteed to France
the boundary to the Rhine; thereby sacrificing certain possessions of
Prussia and other subordinate princes of the empire, as well as his own.
Another article, extremely distasteful to Austria, yielded Tuscany;
which Napoleon resolved to transfer to a prince of the House of Parma,
in requital of the good offices of Spain during the war. The Emperor
recognised the union of the Batavian Republic with the French;--and
acknowledged the Cisalpine and Ligurian Commonwealths; both virtually
provinces of the great empire, over which the authority of the First
Consul seemed now to be permanently established.
[Footnote 33: When he wrote from Clagenfurt to the Archduke Charles.]
[Footnote 34: Byron's "Manfred."]
[Footnote 35: The worthy Hospitallers of St. Bernard have stationed
themselves on that wild eminence, for the purpose of alleviating the
misery of travellers lost or bewildered amidst the neighbouring defiles.
They entertain a pack of dogs, of extraordinary sagacity, who roam over
the hills night and day, and frequently drag to light and safety
pilgrims who have been buried in the snow.]
[Footnote 36: The following anecdote is given by _Dumas_:--"On one of
these occasions, when a desperate attack was led on by Soult, there
occurred a circumstance as honourable as it was characteristic of the
spirit which animated the French. The soldiers of two regiments or
demi-brigades, of the army of Italy, namely, the 25th Light, and the
24th of the Line, had sworn eternal enmity against one another, because
that, previous to the opening of the campaign, when desertion and all
the evils of insubordination prevailed in that army, disorganised by
suffering, the former, in which discipline had been maintained, was
employed to disarm the latter. The utmost care had been taken to keep
them separate; but it so happened that these two corps found themselves
one day made rivals as it were in valour, the one before the eyes of the
other. The same dangers, the same thirst of glory, the same eagerness to
maintain themselves, at once renewed in all hearts generous sentiments;
the soldiers became instantly intermingled; they embraced in the midst
of the fire, and one half of the one corps passing into the ranks of the
other, they renewed the combat, after the exchange, with double
ardour."]
[Footnote 37: Sept. 5, 1800.]
[Footnote 38: The man took the noise for that of a salute.]
[Footnote 39: "Napoleon dropped the _u_ in his surname _after_ his first
campaign in Italy."--_Bourienne_.]
[Footnote 40: The poet Campbell has vividly painted the opening of the
great battle which followed.
"On Linden, when the sun was low,
All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
And dark as winter was the flow
Of Iser rolling rapidly:
But Linden saw another sight
When the drums beat at dead of night,
Commanding fires of death to light
The darkness of her scenery," &c.
]