his authority the moment his person was in a state of duresse. The vengeance of violated discipline and of the dishonoured pride of the army, fell therefore on the unfortunate captain. He was delivered over to a court martial, and, in conformity with its sentence, suffered death.

As in the emergency created by a revolt, which without proposing any real benefit to the country in the bosom of which it was concocted, at one and the same moment suspended the progress of Bonaparte's arms, and checked his conquest of opinion in Italy, a blind clemency would have been a culpable weakness, it was natural that its principal instigators should feel themselves, if not guilty of crime, liable to punishment. Some avoided it by flight; eight were apprehended before they could escape, and after being tried by a military commission, where shot. The inhabitants of Pavia, and of all the revolting villages, were disarmed; and as a measure of public security, two hundred individuals were selected from the most respectable families of the country as hostages, and sent under an escort into France. It was Bonaparte's hope that besides the immediate effect of their detention, these Italians, taken from the various cities of Lombardy, would imbibe, during a residence in France, sentiments favourable to a political connection with the Republic, and of consequence, to the success of his efforts to rescue their country from the Austrian yoke. His hope was not disappointed by the event; and this salutary measure closed the proceedings demanded by a revolt, which, as its sudden explosion had endangered his authority, by the energetic manner in which it was suppressed, confirmed his ascendancy throughout Lombardy. The army, meanwhile, under the conduct of Berthier, following the retreating steps of Beaulieu had penetrated the Venetian territory, and reached the banks of the Oglio. Kilmaine with the cavalry and light infantry was in front, at Brescia; Augereau formed the left at Fontanella; Massena was in the centre at Soncino; and Serrurier coming up from Cremona, took a position behind the Mello in communication with Massena's right. On the 26th of May these four divisions, officers of all ranks included, mustered present under arms, twenty-seven thousand, seven hundred men (7). The escort of Bonaparte with the light column which had been employed in suppressing the insurrection of Pavia, raised the active force with which the contest in the

field against Beaulieu was about to be renewed, to near thirty thousand.

As soon as Berthier felt the patroles of the enemy, he felt also the want of his general's presence. On the 25th of May this officer, who was more than forty years of age, had served under Rochambeau in America, Hoche in la Vendée, and Kellermann in the Alps, and who had the support and assistance of Massena and Augereau, pretenders two months before to the chief command, thus wrote to Bonaparte, who was not yet twenty-seven. "In my private opinion, it is very important that you return to the army; for we are approaching the enemy," On the 26th, when he had advanced from Crema to Soncino, twenty miles nearer to the main body of the Austrians; "Since the arrival of your aide de camp Lemarrais, I have received no accounts whatever from you, and it is now twenty-four hours since he left you. We are all extremely uneasy at this silence, the more so because it appears to me, that your presence here is indispensable, under every point of view, military as well as administrative.-I must repeat general that your presence here is extremely important.' From these letters it may be inferred that at the time they were written, Bonaparte had acquired the military confidence, and mental subjection, not only of his troops, but of the proudest and most experienced of his generals.

As his own wishes coincided with theirs, he delayed at Pavia, not a moment after quelling the revolt, but placing general Hacquin, by way of retribution and with a stronger garrison, in command of the place, hastened to rejoin the army. On the 27th, he overtook Berthier at Soncino, and the next day, at the head of his troops, entered Brescia, the capital of a province, and one of the chief towns of the Venetian terra firma. Here, with a view of preventing any interruption of the pacific relations, which, notwithstanding the suppressed hostility of the senate, still subsisted between the two republics, he issued a proclamation, referring to the friendship which had long united the two states; assuring the inhabitants, that their rights of person and property should be respected; that his troops should preserve exact discipline; that provisions should be paid for in silver; and inviting the clergy and magistrates to make known to the people, that in pursuing a hostile force through their territory, the French army, which aspired to the glory of rescuing Italy from Austria, was actuated

1.90

THE LIFE OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

[CHAP. IX.] by friendly intentions toward themselves. As the conduct of the Venetian government in a matter deeply affecting the pride, and even the independence of the French nation, had recently given umbrage to the directory, Bonaparte, by the terms of this proclamation, evidently endeavoured to conciliate the amity of Venice, by professing to confide in it (8). Moncenigo, the proveditore or intendant of Brescia, received him with sumptuous hospitality, and professed, on the part of his government, sincere friendship for the French republic. Balls were given, and the principal nobles of the place, vied in their attentions to the French generals. But in their instructions of the 7th of May the directory had said to Bonaparte "Venice will be treated as a neutral state, but not as a friendly one. She has done nothing to merit our regard;" making allusion to the reception the senate had given the pretender Louis the 18th, and his court, at Verona (9).

CHAPTER X.

From the 28th to the 31st of May 1796.

Spirit and perseverance of Beaulieu-Prepares to defend the passage of the Mincio-Bonaparte resolves to force it-Battle of Borghetto-Gallantry of Murat-Of Gardanne, and the grenadiers-Danger of Bonaparte-The corps of guides-Augereau enters Peschiera, and Massena Verona-The Austrians, with the exception of the garrisons of Mantua and Milan, driven out of Lombardy-The French reach the Adige-Satisfaction of Bonaparte -His account of the grenadiers-Chagrin of Beaulieu-His letter to the Aulic council-His recall-Fieldmarshal Wurmser appointed to succeed

him.

Beaulieu, after being driven with slaughter from the line of the Adda, and abandoning in alarm the Oglio and the Chiese, had fallen back behind the Mincio; where flanked on his right by the lake of Guarda, and on his left by the fortress of Mantua, he resolved once more to face his active and unconquerable adversary. In the short space of six weeks, he had been forced from the shore of the Mediterranean over the Alps and Appennines, had been a helpless spectator of the prostration of Piedmont; had retired precipitately from the banks of the Po and the Ticin; and been compelled to leave Parma and Modena, with the capital and insurgents of Lombardy, to their fate; and now, a veteran in misfortune as well as in arms, he stood on the last foothold of Austria in the valley of the Po. A reenforcement of thirteen thousand men from the Tyrolian provinces, which exceeded the losses he had sustained since the armistice of Cherasco, enabled him to bring into action, exclusive of the garrison of Mantua,

which he had strengthened, numbers more than equal to the French. But after all his reverses and defeats, that even on these terms, he should enter the lists again with Bonaparte, shows that he was far from being deficient in spirit and perseverance.

Sacrificing his respect for the neutral character and territorial rights of Venice, to the maintenance of his position, and the safety of his army, by a stratagem not very honourable, he took possession of Peschiera; a Venetian fort, situated at the foot of the lake of Guarda, where it gives birth to the classical Mincio. Here he rested his right under Liptay; his centre, directed by himself, was posted on the heights of Valeggio; and his left, composed of the divisions of Sebottendorf and Colli, occupied the ground between his centre and the lake of Mantua, their principal masses being at Pozzuolo and Goito. The front of his line, besides the protection of the river, was covered by intrenchments and strengthened by batteries. A powerful reserve under General Melas, was stationed at Villa Franca, a short distance in the rear of his centre (1); and in his front, across the river at Borghetto, General Pittoni commanded a strong advanced guard. The Mincio, though for the most part of its course deep stream, was fordable at several points, and a bridge communicated between Valeggio and Borghetto.

It was easy to perceive that a jealousy for Mantua, the works and magazines of which were receiving supplies and reparation, had induced Beaulieu, to accumulate the mass of his force on his left and in his centre. Bonaparte, whose object was, in gaining the wished for line of the Adige, to break through the enemies' centre with a view either of destroying both wings in succession, or of driving one into the Alps, and the other into Mantua, determined, by exciting an opposite apprehension in Beaulieu's mind, to produce, if possible, a change in his dispositions. With this design, on the 28th, he pushed forward Kilmaine at the head of eight battalions of grenadiers and fifteen hundred horse, from Brescia to Dezenzano, with orders to skirmish vigorously with the light troops of Liptay, and to make strong demonstrations against Peschiera. At the same time, he detached from Augereau's division, a regiment of light infantry under General Rusca, to Salo, half way up the right bank of the lake of Guarda. These movements, indicating a design of passing round the head of the lake at Riva, of intercepting Beaulieu's line of communication with the