had old Melas shown any want of judgment or of firmness; but after his defeat, and when he came to negotiate, it seemed as if his eighty-four years had indeed reduced him to a second childhood. Perhaps, however, the Austrian and Italian diplomatists who now gathered around him may be more answerable than he for the pusillanimous, imbecile (or it may be treacherous) throwing up of a game which was not yet lost-of a great game, where the stake was little less than the whole of Italy. Even after his serious reverse Melas might have collected in the field from 40,000 to 50,000 men; General Ott had thrown a great force into Genoa, and most of the fortresses were well garrisoned. Yet, by the armistice, concluded on the 16th June, the Austrians gave up Piedmont and the Genoese territory, with all their fortresses, including Alessandria, which might have stood a long siege, and the superb Genoa, which had only been taken from the French eleven days before this disgraceful armistice, after a very long siege and at an enormous expense. The French were to keep all Lombardy as far as the river Oglio. In return for all these immense sacrifices old Melas, was allowed to withdraw his troops to the line of Mantua and the Mincio. We have been assured, both by French officers and by Italian gentlemen, who were either in Bonaparte's camp or living near the scene of the battle, that when the conditions of the armistice were first made known all were astonished, and many could not believe them.

On his return to Milan from Marengo, the First Consul was received in triumph, like a consul and conqueror of ancient Rome. The Milanese, who are rather distinguished by their honest simplicity, called him the unique man, the extraordinary hero, the incomparable model of greatness, the liberator of Italy; and exulted at his coming to restore liberty to his beloved Cisalpine people. Bonaparte in return gave back compliment for compliment, spoke a great deal about letters, sciences, and arts; about peace and its blessings; and even about religion. He ordered the University of Pavia to be re-opened, and a liberal increase of salary to be paid to its professors; he appointed a number of new men-for the most part of indisputable merit-to fill chairs in that ancient seat of learning. In Milan he created a consulta, or council with legislative power,

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and a committee of government with the executive power; but over all these Milanese or Lombards he put a Frenchman, who, nominally Minister Extraordinary from the French Republic, became Prime Minister and President, or dictator of this provincial government. In all these matters Bonaparte proceeded according to his own absolute will, and on his own single authority, not deigning to inform his brother Consuls, or the Senate, or the Tribunes, or the legislative body at Paris, either of what he was doing or of what he intended to do in future. The Italian democrats and ultra-republicans, with whom alone he had sought friendship and alliance at the time of his first invasion of Italy, were now spurned, reprobated, and driven from the light of his presence as dangerous fanatics, or selfish, rapacious, thoroughly immoral demagogues. The fools did not dare to ask where was the perfect liberty and equality which he had promised them in 1797 :-among themselves they called him an aristocrat, and even a tyrant, but in public they only spoke of him as of a demigod. The men he called around him were all of those classes which had passed for the aristocratic; they were men of family, name, and property, or men of learning and science, there being among them even bishops.

In spite of his triumph, and his boundless power at Milan, the First Consul was rendered very uneasy by news received from Paris. A commercial traveller, who had quitted the plain of Marengo at the moment when Bonaparte's troops were flying, posted to Paris with extraordinary speed, and announced that the First Consul's army had been annihilated. This was on the 20th. The republican party instantly set themselves in motion; they held conferences, they proposed another revolution, they talked of naming Moreau, Bernadotte, and Carnot, Consuls, of making the Senate proclaim the deposition of Bonaparte, that "little Corsican" as they called him, who had through his rash ambition again placed the Republic in jeopardy. They made no doubt that Augereau who commanded in Holland, Bernadotte who was with the army in the Vendée, Moreau with the Army of the Rhine, Jourdan, and others, would support the movement. It is stated in the life of Charles XIV of Sweden, that Bonaparte, when going to set off for Italy,

told Bernadotte, whom he had just appointed to the command of the Army of the West: "I am going to run again the chances of battle. If I should fall, you will be at the head of 40,000 men, within reach of Paris. . . the fate of the Republic will be in your hands. The Republicans of Paris, however, had not much time allowed them for consultation. The next day, 21st, the First Consul's despatch arrived, announcing the victory. The conspirators slunk back again into the shade. Bonaparte, however, had been made acquainted with their machinations by the police. There is a curious letter from Lucien to Joseph, written after the news of the battle of Marengo, by which it appears that the Royalists had been also intriguing at the same time as the republicans.

Bonaparte was almost as angry against General Kellermann as against the republicans of Paris. He could not bear to hear the victory of Marengo attributed to that cavalry officer. In the evening after the battle he said to his secretary, "That little Kellermann made a lucky charge: he struck in at the critical moment; we owe him a good deal. On what trivial events do affairs depend!" To Kellermann he said, in a cold freezing manner, "You made a good charge." "I am glad you are pleased," said the young cavalry leader: "that charge has placed the crown on your head." Kellermann repeated the expression in a letter which was opened at the post-office and conveyed to the First Consul, who felt that the obligation was too great to be forgiven. Kellermann was not promoted like the other generals of Marengo, and he never afterwards enjoyed much of his chief's favour. The fact was indisputable—the French were beaten when the cavalry charge was made; but Bonaparte never liked to have it so stated.

After a few days spent at Milan, he set off on his return to France, leaving to Massena the command of the Army of Italy. In passing through Turin, he appointed a Provisional Government for Piedmont. Everything was to be provisional in Italy until the next peace. He was greeted at Lyons with acclamations, and he laid the first stone of a fine new square, Place de Bellacour. While traversing the sunny hills of Burgundy he said to his secretary, "Well, a few more campaigns like this, and my name will go down