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effects. The affair of Toulon opened his career: thence he joined the army of Italy; where, employed as an engineer, he had full opportunity of studying a field of warfare destined soon to be that of his reputation. Suspended and put into arrest after Thermidor, he was released on an energetic remonstrance, but left without employment. He betook himhself to Paris, where, after some time, he was ordered to La Vendée. But it was not merely active service that could satisfy him, but an ample field; he refused to serve against the Vendeans, but remained in the capital, making his way in society, and meditating an ambitious marriage, since a campaign such as he sought was denied. The rebellion of the sections in Vendemiaire occurred; Bonaparte, through Barras, took the command against them, and was successful: in recompense he was appointed general of the army of the interior, of that, in other words, destined to act as guards to the directory. From this command he was appointed, in March 1796, to that of the army of Italy. His marriage with the widow of general Beauharnois happening simultaneously with the appointment, gives some foundation to the rumor that the interests of her friends, combined with his own, procured for him the command of an army of activity. Josephine, much older than Napoleon, was a creole, of engaging person, and seems to have inspired him with sincere passion.

In the commencement of the war the Netherlands had principally attracted the attention of the forces of the French. Here conquerors, and being secure from hostilities on the Lower Rhine by peace with Prussia, and on the side of the Pyrenees by that with Spain, they bent their efforts first to the invasion of Germany by the Upper Rhine. The campaign of 1795 had in this quarter not been attended with success; whilst on the Mediterranean a partial victory, in which the counsels of Bonaparte had no small share, had shown Austria to be far more vulnerable in that quarter. Whilst Moreau, a cautious rather than an active general, was sent to replace Pichegru on the Rhine, Bonaparte was dispatched to the Alps, to realize and execute the projects of conquest which he had first suggested.

Political were joined with strategic motives. In Italy, the French were opposed by an alliance betwixt Austria and Piedmont, which it might be possible to break. True it was, the king of the latter country had cause of inveterate enmity against France, which had robbed him of Savoy, a large and important part of his dominions. But could we defeat the Austrians, argued the statesmen of the directory, we might recompense the king of Sardinia by giving him the Manese

in lieu of Savoy. According to this plan, Bonaparte was recommended to penetrate into the Milanese, if possible separate the allies, and exert his utmost efforts against the Austrians. These political views harmonized completely with his military plans, which were, not to brave and carry the obvious passes of the Italian Alps, blocked by fortresses and defended by well-known positions, but, in the language of war, to turn them.

Bonaparte, therefore, instead of advancing with extended front to force the line of the mountains, formed his whole army, of about 40,000 men, in a long column, at the head of which he defiled along the strip of shore which extends from Nice eastward, betwixt the Alps and the Mediterranean. In this movement the Austrian general Beaulieu did not perceive the commencement of a larger plan of operations; he merely considered that Genoa was threatened; and accordingly occupied the shore near Voltri with a large force, to oppose the advance of the French. This force formed Beaulieu's left; his centre was at the other side of the chain of Alps, and the Sardinians under Colli composed the right. To fall down with concentrated force from one of the gorges of the Alps upon the midst of the French, cut them in two, drive one half into the sea, and then master the other half, was the proposal of Colli, and the wisest possible. But Beaulieu, on the contrary, divided his force, attacked the column in front to check its progress, and compress it, whilst he assailed it from the gorge of the Alps to take it in flank and cut it. Betwixt the Austrian divisions of the left and centre, destined to execute both these projects, there was none but a circuitous communication; the mountains lay between them: and the French general was thus enabled, by amusing and keeping the show of fighting one, to unite sufficient numbers to crush the other. He instantly aimed at the centre, and abandoned all idea of marching farther to Genoa.

The Alps, at that early season still covered with snow, offered few gorges where it was possible to pass them: on thi Bonaparte had calculated in his adventurous march. That of Montenotte was one of these passes; but as yet uncertain of the dispositions of Beaulieu, and whether it might not behove him to continue his march towards Genoa and the pass of the Bochetta, the French general had occupied it by a detachment of nearly 1200 men. D'Argenteau, according to the orders of Beaulieu, led the Austrian centre, about 18,000 strong, to Montenotte on the 11th of April. A small body first arrived, before which Rampon retreated to a redoubt, and against which he defended it with desperate bravery. Aware

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by a quick instinct, that the safety of the whole army depended on his preventing the Austrians from pursuing down the Alps simultaneously with Beaulieu's front attack, and before the French were prepared, Rampon made his men swear to perish rather than yield the redoubt. They succeeded in keeping possession of it till the night, when Bonaparte made dispositions for transporting his whole army from the shore to the summit of the Alps, leaving Beaulieu with merely the shadow of an antagonist, whilst he totally crushed D'Argenteau and the centre. The night of the 11th and morning of the 12th was rainy; mists covered the hills; and D'Argenteau was not a little surprised to see a strong division issue from them to attack him. The combat was sharp: the Austrians imagined that Rampon with some reinforcement was their only antagonist; but as the mist cleared, the whole French army appeared around: Massena advancing almos in their rear, and Bonaparte himself on a lofty summit directing the motions of his troops. There was no hope but in flight, which the attack soon rendered disorderly and murderous: the Austrian centre, broken and routed, abandoned its cannon and a number of prisoners, and fled to Dego.

Such a partial victory was important far less in itself than in its consequences, and these were to be snatched by an active hand. The Austrian centre, rallied at Dego, was to be annihilated, and its position occupied, ere Beaulieu could arrive to its aid; whilst the Sardinians under Colli, already advanced to Millesimo, were at the same time to be repulsed, and thus a complete disjunction effected betwixt the allied enemies. The very day of the victory of Montenotte, Bonaparte pushed on to the pursuit. Dividing his army into two, the greater portion, under Augereau, attacked the Sardinians at Millesimo on the 13th; whilst Massena approached Dego, and prepared to carry it on the morrow. At Millesimo the Sardinians were driven in at the first onset; but Provera, commanding a body of Austrians destined to be the link betwixt Colli and Argenteau, made a stubborn resistance, and at length took possession of an old castle called Cosseria, on the top of a hill, whence it was found impossible to force him. The assault was attempted, but in vain; Provera killed almost as many French in defending Cosseria as the latter had killed of Austrians at Montenotte: but his valor could not repair the original error of Beaulieu. The Sardinians, making every effort on the 14th, could not disengage Provera, who was without provisions, and surrendered at length on observing Colli obliged to retreat. On the same day the posi tion of Argenteau at Dego, defended by the beaten troops of

Montenotte, was forced, and the town taken possession of by the French. Beaulieu had not yet time to appear, when a stray body of Austrians, 6000 strong, returning from vain attempts at impracticable and now useless movements, stumbled upon Dego, forced the French posts, and drove them out. This was disheartening to an army which had fought inces santly for three days, and was now reposing after a second victory: the greatest part, indeed, were slumbering, over powered with fatigue and wine. Massena and Laharpe, however, succeeded in rallying a certain number to resist this new enemy; but it was not without effort and loss equal to those made in the first attacks, that the re-conquest was achieved.

These victories of a week had effected the separation of the Austrian and Sardinian armies, had cost them 10,000 men and 40 pieces of cannon, and had opened all Italy to the French, by giving them the possession of the Alps and Apennines. Bonaparte now marched to crush the Sardinian army altogether, and menace Turin, in order, according to the plans of the directory, to force that court to abandon the alliance of Austria. Turning to the left then, and leaving Beaulieu benind, the French pursued Colli to his intrenched camp at Ceva, which the latter, not thinking tenable, abandoned, and retired to Mondovi. That stubborn courage which survives defeat can never be expected from the soldiers of a petty country, deprived of all national feeling, and unsupported by the consciousness of great resources, physical and moral. There are no better troops in Europe than the Piedmontese when incorporated with those of stronger nations; but alone, that confidence which forms the mettle of the soldier was wanting. Nevertheless, the first attack of the French upon Mondovi was repulsed: Colli still held firm, in expectation that Beau lieu would exert himself, hurry to his aid, and make some attempt to repair their mutual disasters. But the Austrian already trembled for Milan; and, abandoning his ally, was meditating to provide for the safety of the latter town, not of Turin. Colli was, in fact, left to shift for himself in Piedmont, as the duke of York had been in Flanders. Nevertheless, the Sardinian general did all that a brave man and a skilful general might: vanquished at Mondovi he made a gallant retreat; nor did the enemy even make an imprudent advance upon him with impunity. On one of these occasions general Stengel was killed, and his detachment routed or taken.

Nevertheless it behoved the king of Sardinia to make peace with the conqueror, whom he was unable longer to resist. Colli therefore made overtures, and Bonaparte, after soine

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feigned hesitation, consented to treat. The French general no longer thought of offering Milan, or any recompense, for Savoy; his victories dispensed with that. Bonaparte required the surrender of all the important fortresses of the kingdom; Turin, and one or two others, alone excepted. Thus the passes of the Alps were opened to the French. Free passage was at the same time to be allowed their troops across Piedmont. In short, the monarch and his little realm, merely allowed to exist, were completely at the mercy of the conquerors. Ere the end of April all this had been effected.

Soldiers," said Bonaparte, in a simple proclamation, where facts spoke sufficiently the language of triumph, "in fifteen days you have won six victories, taken one and twenty stand of colors, fifty-five pieces of cannon, the greater part of the fortresses and territory of Piedmont. You have made 15,000 prisoners, slain or wounded upwards of 10,000 men, and have raised yourselves to an equality with the armies of either Holland or the Rhine." After continuing in the same strain, he thus terminates:-"There are yet some of you, it is said, whose ardor flags, and who propose returning to the summits of the Apennines and Alps. No, I cannot believe this. The conquerors of Montenotte, of Millesimo, of Dego and Mondovi, burn to carry yet farther the glory of the French people!"

This last rebuke was directed to the troublesome advisers by whom the general was surrounded. Soldiers as well as officers were thorough politicians, and Jacobin ideas prevailed amongst them. We have fought enough, said these men; let us reap the fruits in plunder and oppression. Let us revolutionize Piedmont, call forth its turbulent spirits, excite terrorists, and, making them the masters, reign through such faithful allies over the country. But Bonaparte, placed as Dumouriez had been in Belgium, did not like to see his conquest mangled and destroyed. He chose, however, a wiser plan to silence the brawlers than Dumouriez had done. Instead of squabbling with them, or wasting time and temper in recrimination, he led them against a fresh enemy; thus directing their ardor into, at least, an honorable channel. If they flagged, he treated them as cowards; if they committed excess of rapine, he like Clovis punished their political refrac toriness under the plea that they infringed the laws of military discipline.

The views of Bonaparte, instead of turning back to the Alps, which he had passed, had already far outshot even Milan. The day on which the armistice was signed, he wrote