the expiration of six days reviewed his troops in the neighbourhood of Lausanne. Marching along the right bank of the Rhone, they arrived at the confluence of the Durance; but before they could enter the valley of Aosto, it became necessary to traverse twenty Italian miles of a mountainous region, nearly impervious to man, and over which a carriage had never passed. Yet it was determined on this occasion, not only to march an army of sixty thousand men across the Great St. Bernard, but also conduct ammunition, provisions, and even artillery, by this route, although the soldiers must be obliged to pass in single files, exposed to perpetual danger, in consequence of the narrowness of the path that conducted them along the brink of immense precipices.

General Marmont, in compliance with the commands of the first consul, caused an offer to be made, by sound of trumpet, in the town of St. Pierre, situated on the declivity of the mountain, that a reward of from six hundred to a thousand livres would be given for the conveyance of each piece of cannon over the mountain. Influenced by this offer, a crowd of peasants flocked from every side, bringing their respective beasts of burden. Multitudes of the soldiers united their efforts with those of the rustics, and contributed to achieve this most arduous enterprise. General Marmont, who commanded the artillery, ordered trees to be felled, and hollowed in such a manner as to present a bed for the eight-pounders and howitzers. To each of these vehicles one hundred men, harnessed with ropes,

attached themselves; while others, by means of levers, prevented them from falling over the craggy summits. The chief of brigade, Gassendi, also contrived sledges, which supported cannon of large dimensions. The gun-carriages were all taken to pieces and carried separately, except those belonging to four-pounders, each of which was borne on a kind of litter by ten men. Winding along the sides of mountains covered with pines, they began to leave the habitations of men, and beheld the clouds forming below them; while above they only perceived regions clothed with eternal snow, and heard only the ominous sounds of the avalanches which, being precipitated from the summits of the mountains to the abysses below, consign every object that comes in their course to inevitable destruction. The soldiers, fainting with fatigue, at length reached the summit of St. Bernard, where they found a banquet prepared by the hospitable monks, the business of whose life it is to rescue the traveller from danger, and to administer to his necessities. Tables, placed upon the snow, presented bread,' victuals, and wine; and the monks, presiding over this unexpected but grateful repast, pressed the willing soldiers to partake of what they called their frugal fare. The descent to Verney, the first village in Piedmont, was accomplished with less exertion, but with still greater danger-several horses fell over the precipices, and every division occupied three hours in the march. Some of the soldiers, economists of time, glided along the surface of the polished snow to the foot of the precipice,

in the space of a few minutes, and Bonaparte himself was the first to set the example of this new mode of descending into Italy.

Notwithstanding the difficulty and danger of the enterprise, the whole artillery passed the mountains after three days of unexampled exertion; and the advanced guard, commanded by General Lannes, took possession of Aosto on the day of their arrival, which was the 14th of May. The passage over the Alps was almost miraculous. Hannibal was fifteen days in performing the third part of what Bonaparte performed in five; and Hannibal had no heavy artillery to convey, though he had another difficulty to contend with, not less severe, which was the opposition of the inhabitants, who perpetually assailed his army. But Hannibal and Bonaparte were both men of superior genius, and there is no need to exalt the one by a comparison with the other.

The strong fortress of Bard, situated in the midst of rocks and precipices, yet remained to impede the progress of the army; but Bonaparte, to whom nothing seemed impossible, determined upon taking it; and after immense difficulty and fatigue on the part of the assailants, the fortress at length surrendered. Bonaparte himself was at one time so worn out, that he lay down upon the ground and slept for two hours, and the troops filed past him, making as little noise as possible, lest they should disturb his repose.

Within the space of a fortnight, descending from the summit of the Alps, he found himself in the midst

of territories which he had before conquered. General Melas commanded the Austrian troops in Italy, but he imagined the French army to be as fabulous as the soldiers of Cadmus; and when its existence was ascertained, so defective was his intelligence, that he deemed it to be composed, at most, of eighteen or twenty thousand men. Bonaparte's army had, however, now been increased by numerous succours,-for General Turreau had arrived from Briançon, by the way of Suze; while the recent victories of Moreau in Germany, enabled him to detach twenty-five thousand men, which had joined the first consul. Roused at length from his dreams of security, General Melas repaired, in the middle of June, to Piedmont, and assembled in haste the main body of his army, in order to defend the passage of the Po, and the approaches to Turin and Rivoli; but here he found, to his surprise, that the first consul, instead of proceeding immediately to the relief of Genoa, then besieged, had crossed the Tessino, and established himself in the Milanesse. On the receipt of this intelligence, the Austrians, under General Ott, fell back upon Montebello, near Voghera. The French, after concentrating their forces, took a strong position on the north banks of the Po; and on the 8th of June, the vanguard of the army, under General Lannes, passed that river opposite to San Giovanni, after a vigorous resistance. On the following day, urging their march to Montebello, they were furiously attacked by the flower of the Austrian army, consisting of fifteen thousand men

under the cominand of General Ott. For some time the conflict was doubtful; but at length the position of the imperialists on the right being turned by the force under General Victor, and their centre pierced by the bayonets of the ninety-sixth brigade, the fortune of the day was decided, with a loss, on the part of the Austrians, of four thousand men and twelve pieces of artillery.

This victory led to the decisive battle of Marengo. After a variety of skirmishes, which now occurred daily, the generals, Lannes, Victor, and Murat, who commanded the advanced guard, succeeded in driving the Austrians across the Bormida; but notwithstanding these partial successes, General Melas, having at length formed a junction with the scattered detachments of his army, and concentrated his forces at Alexandria, determined to attack and give battle to the enemy. The Austrian army being divided into three columns, the right ascended along the bank of Bormida, while the centre followed the great road leading to the village of Marengo, and the left advanced towards Castel Ceriola.

The evening before the battle, Bonaparte went alone and surveyed attentively the plain on which it was to be fought. He had been on horseback during the day, and at night returned to the camp completely drenched with wet; his legs were so benumbed with cold and rain, that when he dismounted he could hardly walk; they brought a few faggots, and he dried himself beside a miserable fire in a wretched hut.

H