arrest the steps of the invader. Coni, | banks and swollen streams of the MinTurin, Alessandria, Tortona, Voghera, cio, the Piave, the Tagliamento, the Genoa, Gavi, and Ivrea, formed so many Brenta, formed so many strong positions bulwarks, the possession of which was to which the defending army could reessential to a firm footing on the Italian tire; while the broad channel of the plains, and which it was yet difficult to Po secured one flank from being turned, besiege, from the obstacles to regular and the vast natural fortress of the Tyoperations, arising from the British hav- rol, on the other, presented a sure reing the undisputed command at sea, fuge in case of disaster. It already and the extreme difficulty of transport- might have been anticipated, what exing heavy battering-trains over the rug-perience in the sequel amply demonged and inhospitable summits of the Alps. But if these fortresses were ever reduced, or won by treaty, they would form the best possible base for offensive operations, which would render it probably impossible to stop the invader's progress till he reached the banks of the Adige.

45. There, however, most serious obstacles awaited an invading army. The great defence against the passage of a hostile force over the plain of Lombardy is to be found in the number, depth, and rapidity of the Alpine rivers, which, descending from the glaciers of Switzerland, fall generally at right angles into the Po, near the centre of the level expanse. Not only are these rivers at all times deep and rapid, but they have this peculiarity, arising from the melting of the snows during the warm season in the higher Alps, that they flow with the most impetuous torrents in the height of summer, the season in other respects most favourable for military operations. The art of man has improved upon these great natural barriers, and strong fortified towns protect the principal and often the only bridges over their otherwise impassable floods. The Adige, in particular, presented an uncommonly strong line of defence in these respects; its deep and ample stream, from the foot of the Alpine cliffs behind Verona, to its junction with the Po, was strongly fortified at every point where a passage could be attempted; and the line of fortresses which guarded its bridges, Verona, Legnago, and Peschiera, could only be reduced by operations in form, and by the aid of heavy artillery. Mantua, protected by its strong bastions and surrounding lakes, would itself require an army for its reduction: the rugged

strated, that it was amidst the intricacies of these rivers, fortresses, and mountains, that the great contest for the empire of Italy would take place.

46. When Napoleon assumed the command of the Republican army in the end of March, he found everything in the most miserable state. The efficient force under arms, and ready for offensive operations, amounted only to forty-two thousand men; but it was continually reinforced by troops from the depots in the interior, after his successes commenced; so that, notwithstanding the losses of the campaign, it was maintained throughout nearly at that amount. The guns did not exceed sixty pieces, and the cavalry was almost dismounted; but the garrisons in the rear, amounting to eight thousand men, could furnish supplies, when the war was removed from the frontier, and the arsenals of Nice and Antibes were well provided with artillery. For a very long period the soldiers of all ranks had suffered the extremity of want. Perched on the inhospitable summits of the Apennines during the whole of the dreadful winter of 1795-6, they had enjoyed neither tents nor shelter; magazines they had none; their shoes were worn out, their clothing was in rags. The troops had, during nearly the whole winter, been placed on half a ration aday, and even this scanty supply was for the most part procured by marauding expeditions of the soldiers into the neighbouring valleys. The officers, from the effect of the depreciation of paper, had for a long time in reality received only eight francs a-month of pay; and the staff was entirely on foot. On one occasion the Directory had awarded a gratuity of three louis-d'or to each general of division; and the fu

ture marshals and princes of the Em- | of a monument to the soldiers killed pire subsisted for long on the humble during the democratic revolt of Nancy. present. But, considered with refer- On the 17th February 1791, he beence to their skill and warlike qualities, haved with equal coolness and conduct, the army presented a very different as- on occasion of the furious mob which pect, and was, beyond all question, the attempted to break into and pillage the most efficient one which the Republic château of Bellevue, the residence of possessed. Composed, for the most part, the princesses, aunts of Louis XVI. of young soldiers, whom the great levies His good conduct on this occasion gave of 1793 had brought into the field, they great umbrage to the Jacobin party, had been inured to hardship and pri- and he was glad to secure his safety by vations during the subsequent cam- accepting the situation of adjutant-genpaigns in the Pyrenees and Maritime eral of the army of old Marshal LuckAlps-a species of warfare which, by ner. Dumourier, however, who had a leading detached parties continually command in it, early perceived what his into difficult and perilous situations, is subsequent history too clearly evinced, singularly calculated to strengthen the that his capacity was not equal to the frame and augment the intelligence of general direction of affairs, and he wrote the soldier. Its spirit had been greatly to the Directory that he was ruining elevated by the successful result of the the old marshal. He was in consebattle of Loano; and its chiefs, Mas- quence removed early in 1792 to La sena, Augereau, Serrurier, and Berthier, Vendée, where he acted in a subordihad already become distinguished, and, nate situation with distinction; and at like stars in the firmament on the ap- the battle of Saumur, in 1793, he had proach of twilight, began to give token three horses shot under him. He was of their future light. afterwards chief of the staff to Custine, and it was with no small difficulty, and only by consummate prudence, that he avoided the fate of his unfortunate general. Immediately after the 9th Thermidor, he was sent by the government as chief of the staff to Kellermann, in the army of the Alps; and it was in that capacity he was found by Napoleon when he took the command of that army, in April 1796.

47. Berthier was chief of the staff a situation which he continued to hold in all the campaigns of Napoleon, down to the battle of Waterloo. His father had,, among other appointments, been chief engineer of the armies under Louis XV., and colonel of the corps of geographical engineers; so that he had enjoyed the advantages of respectable birth and a military education. He was born at Versailles on the 28th Nov- 48. Active, indefatigable alike on ember 1753, and was at this period horseback and in the cabinet, he was forty-three years of age. He had en- admirably qualified to discharge the tered the army at the age of seventeen, duties of that important situation, withand in 1778 had served with such dis-out being possessed of the originality tinction under Rochambeau in Ame- and decision requisite for a commanderrica, that, before the end of that war, in-chief. Perfectly master of the geohe had risen to the rank of colonel-graphy of every country which the army a very unusual thing in those days for an officer who did not possess the advantages of patrician birth. In 1789 he was appointed major-general of the national guard at Versailles, in which character he rendered the Royal family some service during the stormy days of the 5th and 6th October. His disposition, however, decidedly marked him as for the popular side; and, in 1790, he presented a petition to the National Assembly, praying for the erection

was to enter, understanding thoroughly the use of maps, he was able to calculate with admirable precision the time requisite for the different corps to arrive at the ground assigned to them, as well as to direct, in a lucid manner, the course they were to pursue. He was precision itself in his habits; and, above all, possessed of such an extraordinary faculty of enduring fatigue, that he was never, on any occasion, whatever labour he had previously undergone, unable

to resume the duties either of the field | brigade in August 1793, and general of or the cabinet. Faithful and trust- division in December of the same year; worthy, he obeyed his instructions with and it was mainly owing to his able docility, readiness, and perfect silence. movements that the great victory was A secret divulged to Berthier was as gained in the defile of Saorgio in Ausafe as if its possessor was in his grave; gust 1794, and on the Col de San Giacoand these qualities made him an in- mo, in September 1795. In fact, he had valuable assistant to Napoleon. But acquired, by the force of his talents, he had no genius in his character; he the chief direction of the army of Italy was incapable alike of great conceptions during these two campaigns; and it and generous feelings; an admirable was by the effect chiefly of his counsecond in command, he was wholly un- cils that their brilliant successes had fit to be general-in-chief. been obtained.

regiment of Burgundy. He was soon, however, dismissed the corps for a serious offence, and returned to Paris penniless and in disgrace. Here his lofty stature and military air again attracted the attention of the recruiting sergeants, and he was enrolled in the regiment of carabineers, commanded by the Marquis Poyanna. There, however, his mischievous disposition a second time broke out, and he was expelled from his new corps for carrying off his captain's horses to sell them in Switzerland. Again thrown loose on the world, he became a fencing-master in the little town of Lodi; and, having soon tired of his monotonous life, he made his way to Naples, where he entered the Royal Guard, and, by his skill in the use of arms, was soon made a sergeant. After serving there for some years, he resumed his profession of fencing-master, which he followed for a considerable time in that capital with success. The breaking out of the Revolution in France, however, soon attracted him to the great centre of plunder and advancement; he returned in December 1792 to Paris, and immediately enlisted in a regiment of volunteers which was then raising, and which soon afterwards marched to La Vendée. There his activity, skill, and courage speedily became so conspicuous, that he was chosen by the men as their colonel. The distinction thus acquired procured for him the situation of adjutant-general of the army of the Pyrenees, where he signalised himself in several actions under Dugommier, particularly on occasion of the recapture of Bellegarde in 1794, and the actions on the Fluvia in the spring following. After the termination of the Spanish war, he was transferred, with a division of twelve thousand strong, to the Army of Italy; and, at the outset of his career there, bore a prominent part in the decisive battle of Loano, which opened to Napoleon-who soon after assumed the command-the gates of Italy.

52. With little education, hardly any knowledge, no grasp of mind, he was yet beloved by the soldiers, from the order and discipline which he always enforced. Sprung from the ranks, he knew how to excite and rule the men

with whom he had formerly served. He was severe and unrelenting in discipline, stern in enforcing obedience to his commands, but willing to allow his soldiers, if they proved obedient to them, every species of license at the expense of the inhabitants of the conquered territory. His attacks were conducted with courage and regularity, and he led his columns with invincible resolution during the fire; but he had not the moral firmness requisite for lasting success, and was frequently thrown into unreasonable dejection shortly after his greatest triumphs. He had nothing chivalrous or elevated in his character; his manners were coarse, his ideas often savage, and he had no other idea of gov erning men but the brute force against which, in youth, he had so much revolted, and to which in age he was so much inclined. His political opinions led him to sympathise with the extreme republicans; but no man was less fitted by nature either to understand, or shine in, the civil contests in which he was always so desirous to engage; and, like many others of that party, he showed himself at last equally ungrateful to his benefactor, and despicable by his conduct in adversity.

53. Serrurier, born in the department of the Aisne, was a major at the commencement of the Revolution, and incurred many dangers, in its early wars, from the suspicion under which he laboured of a secret leaning to the aristocracy. He was born at Laon in 1742, so that he was past fifty when the revolutionary war broke out. Rapidly raised to eminence, as all the officers of that period were, by the election of the soldiers, in the army of the Alps he distinguished himself, as general of division commanding the French right wing, in the capture of the Col de Fermo, in July 1795, and at the battle of Final, on the 11th December in the same year. No man was a better soldier, but he had not the qualities requisite for a general in separate command; and accordingly, after the first campaign of 1796, he was never intrusted by Napoleon with the direction of any considerable operations. He was brave in person, firm in conduct, and severe in disci

pline; but, though he gained the battle | which divides France from Italy, and of Mondovi, and took Mantua, he was separate the Austrian from the Piednot in general fortunate in his opera- montese army, by pressing with the tions, and became a marshal of France weight of his forces on the weak cordon with less military glory than any of his which united them. For this purpose other illustrious compeers. it was necessary that the bulk of the troops should assemble on the extreme

54. The Allies, on their side, had above fifty thousand men, and two hun-right-a delicate and perilous operation dred pieces of cannon; while the Sardinian army, of twenty-four thousand, guarded the avenues of Dauphiné and Savoy, and was opposed to the army of Kellermann, of nearly equal strength. Their forces were thus distributed : Beaulieu, a veteran of seventy-five, with thirty thousand combatants, entirely Austrians, and one hundred and forty pieces of cannon, was on the extreme right of the French, and in communication with the English fleet; while Colli, with twenty thousand men, and sixty pieces, was in a line with him to the north, and covered Ceva and Coni. Generally speaking, the French occupied the crest of the mountains, while the Allies were stationed in the valleys leading to the eastward, into the Italian plains.

55. Napoleon arrived at Nice on the 27th March, and soon gave indications of the great designs which he was meditating, by the following striking proclamation to his troops: "Soldiers you are almost naked, half-starved; the government owes you much, and can give you nothing. Your patience, your courage, in the midst of these rocks, have been admirable, but they reflect no splendour on your arms. I am about to conduct you into the most fertile plains of the earth. Rich provinces, opulent cities, will soon be in your power; there you will find abundant harvests, honour and glory. Soldiers of Italy, will you fail in courage?" “Famine, cold, and misery," said the young general, "these are the school of good soldiers."* His plan was to penetrate into Piedmont by the Col de Cadibone, the lowest part of the ridge

"La faim, le froid, et la misère, voilà l'école des bons soldats." Our young guardsmen and dragoon officers will scarcely admit this assertion, but the Lacedæmonians thought the same: "Labor in venatu, cursus ab Eurotâ, fames, frigor, sitis, his rebus Lacedæmoniorum epulæ condiuntur."

in presence of a superior enemy, but which was rendered comparatively safe by the snow which encumbered the lofty ridges that separated the two armies. Early in April, the whole French columns were in motion towards Genoa, while the French minister demanded from the senate of that city permission to pass the Bochetta, and the keys of Gavi-that being the chief route from the coasts to the interior of Piedmont. At the same time Beaulieu, in obedience to the directions of the Aulic Council, was, on his side, resuming the offensive, and directing his columns also towards his own left at Genoa, with a view to establish a connection with that important city and the British fleet. He left his right wing at Dego, pushed his centre, under Roccavina, to the ridge of MONTENOTTE, and himself advanced with his left, by Bochetta and Genoa, along the sea-coast, towards Voltri.

56. The two armies, respectively defiling through the higher Alps, came into contact at Montenotte, the Austrian general having advanced his centre to that place, in order to cut asunder the French force by falling on its left flank, and intercept, by occupying Savona, the road by the Cornice, which they were pursuing from Provence to Genoa. The Imperialists, ten thousand strong, encountered at Montenotte only Colonel Rampon, at the head of twelve hundred men, whom they forced to retire to the Monte Prato and the old redoubt of Monte Legino ; but this brave officer, feeling the vital importance of this post to the whole army, which, if it was lost, would have been cut in two, defended the fort with heroic Courage, repeatedly repulsed the impetuous attacks of the Austrians, and in the midst of the fire made his soldiers swear to conquer or to die. With great difficulty and severe loss he maintained his ground till nightfall;

but