instead of damaging the other public works, he took a laudable care to preserve them, and to protect them from the ruder part of his soldiery, and from the more destructive vengeance of the native Italian democrats and levellers. If, in the refectory of a monastery situated within the walls of Milan, that glorious fresco painting, the Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, was brutally damaged, it was certainly not owing to, but in spite of, the young Commander-inChief. The Directory continued the practice adopted by the Convention, of sending commissioners to head-quarters, vested with extraordinary powers. These men, who were nearly all civilians, were far more rapacious, and infinitely more vindictive, than the military; and they very often assumed the right of giving orders to the Commander-in-Chief, and even of directing his military movements. Bonaparte soon told them that they were no longer masters; that they were only servants of the Government; that it was he who commanded in Italy; and that, instead of taking their orders, he would expect to be obeyed by them.

In spite of the Directory, who had told him their commissioners were the proper authorities for all diplomatic negotiations on the spot, he presently took the whole business of diplomacy into his own hands, and negotiated truces and treaties as he himself thought best under circumstances of which he could best judge.

The Five Kings at the Luxembourg (or the five lawyers, as the soldiers often called them) could not but conceive a jealousy of their aspiring and decided commander. This feeling betrayed itself even in their congratulations on his victories. But how was his ambition to be curbed? The Directors thought that the best way would be to divide the military authority in the country beyond the Alps into two; and they ordered Bonaparte to march forward into Central Italy, with one corps d'armée, and to leave General Kellermann in Lombardy with the other. Bonaparte promptly and plainly told them that such a division of authority would occasion the loss of all the conquests the army had made, and that he would never submit to such an arrangement. "Kellermann," he said, “may do as well as I, especially as I am convinced that our victories are mainly due to the courage of the army; but to place Kellermann with me in Italy

OPINION ON DIVIDED COMMAND.

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would be to spoil everything. I cannot serve willingly with a man who thinks himself the first general in Europe. Besides, I am of opinion that it is better to have one bad general than two good ones. . . . . I have hitherto carried on the campaign without taking anybody's advice, and I should not have done any good had I been obliged to conciliate the opinions of others. My actions have been as quick as my thoughts. If I were to be hampered in my operations by the commissioners of the Government-if the commissioners should have the power of altering my plans, and changing the disposition of the divisions of the army-you must expect no good result. Divide your forces in Italy, take away the unity of military direction, and you will lose the first opportunity of dictating the law to your enemies. The present position of our affairs in Italy requires one general possessed of your entire confidence; if I am not to be that general, I shall not complain, and I will endeavour to win your esteem in any other capacity. Every commander has his own method for making war. General Kellermann has more experience than I have, and may do better than I can, but he and I together, we shall spoil the business." The Directors found themselves obliged to succumb, and Bonaparte was allowed to go on in his own way. General Kellermann was left with the Army of the Alps, which served as a reserve to that of the Army of Italy.

It may be well, here, to remind the reader that there were two Kellermanns, father and son. The father, who is now in question, and who was subsequently Duke of Valmi, Marshal of France, &c., entered the army as a common hussar as early as 1752, and had fought in many battles before Bonaparte was born. Even under the old régime, his courage and his abilities had raised him from a common soldier to the rank of a colonel. The son was Kellermann, Count of Valmi, Lieutenant-General, Inspector General of Cavalry, &c., who fought nobly in this first Italian campaign, and afterwards at the battle of Marengo, and who measured swords with the English in Portugal and Spain.

From the bridge of Lodi, the Austrian General Beaulieu fell back in perfect order upon the Mincio. Without the army of Piedmont he was numerically too weak to defend that line. In fact, having only

24,000 men, his movement had been one of retreat ever since the armistice of Turin had been concluded. Now, therefere, having reinforced the Austrian garrison in Mantua, and thrown some supplies into that place, he withdrew behind the Adige into the Tyrol, there to await the arrival of fresh Imperial troops. Thus, all Lombardy was at the feet of the conqueror, except Mantua, and that fortress was soon blockaded by the French.

Milan was the scene of great gaiety and festivity. The Commander-in-Chief already lived like a king, in a splendid palace, with a Court of Italians around him. Every day he received addresses and deputations got up by malcontents in various and even distant parts of the Peninsula. These patriots, as they styled themselves, did all in their power to facilitate to the French the invasion and conquest of their native country. In some respects their services were of inestimable value: they acted as secret emissaries all over Italy, and especially at Venice and other places in the rear of the Austrian army; and they were always as ready to dupe and misdirect the generals of the Emperor as to convey correct information to the French head-quarters.

And in addition to these revolutionary bands, who did their work

without pay or fee, there were others composed of Italians, who took money for what they did. Not a few ladies, extravagant in their habits and needy in their circumstances, became purveyors of secret intelligence, and even managers of espials and plots. These Italians were all paid by Italian money and Italian spoils; and as coin flowed plentifully into the military chest from the contributions paid by the different states, the French general, although remitting large sums to the Government at Paris, had the means of being liberal at Milan.

Bonaparte was recalled from this easy and profitable work by intelligence that Wurmser was coming against him with part of the Imperial army, which had retreated before Moreau. The German veteran descended from the valley of Trento with from 50,000 to 60,000 men, consisting of some divisions he had brought with him from the Rhine, the remains of Beaulieu's troops which he had collected in the Tyrol, and some Tyrolese levies.

Bonaparte, who stated his own forces in the field at 44,000, wrote from Verona on the 24th of July, that Wurmser was moving down large columns by the valleys of the Adige and the Brenta. "We are in observation, ready at the first opportunity to cross the Adige and resume the offensive. Woe to either of us who makes a blunder in his calculations!"

Blind as ever to the fatal consequences of dividing his forces, Wurmser split his army into two, moving himself with the larger half along the eastern shore of the Lake of Guarda, and sending Quosdanowich with the other division along the western bank. Bonaparte, who had raised his blockade of Mantua and concentrated his forces, instantly threw their entire weight upon Quosdanowich, crushed him at Lonato, drove him back into the mountains, and then, turning quickly round, faced old Wurmser with a force now nearly double that of the Austrians; and in two bloody battles fought near Castiglione, on the 3rd and 5th of August, the dull but brave old man was defeated, and driven back into the Tyrol with the loss of his artillery and of several thousand men. Bonaparte followed him up the lower valley of the Tyrol, defeated an Austrian division on the 4th of September, and entered as a conqueror into

the city of Trento. Wurmser then suddenly struck away across the mountains to the east of Trento, and descending the valley of the Brenta, again entered Italy and advanced to Bassano, where he was joined by some reinforcements from Carinthia. But his active young opponent followed close upon his rear, , and all that the veteran could do was to throw himself into the important fortress of Mantua with some 18,000 men, the wretched remnant of his army.

It was on the 14th of September when Wurmser got within the walls of the Virgilian city. By the end of October, as the snows were beginning to whiten the ridges of those Alps, two fresh Austrian armies were descending into Italy. The British Government had supplied the Court of Vienna with some more money; the Emperor had made a solemn appeal to his hereditary subjects, and to the bold Hungarians; and, misuse them as she would, the warlike resources of Austria were immense, and the loyalty and firmness of the people untouched. But again these two armies, instead of being united in the mountains, out of the reach of the enemy, and then poured down on the plain as one torrent, were allowed to come dribbling in different directions, and to get into the presence of the French divided and far apart. Marshal Alvinzi descended from Carinthia upon Belluno with 30,000 men, while Davidowich, with 20,000 men, moved down from the Tyrol. The two armies united would hardly have been a match for Bonaparte, who could bring at the least 45,000 men into action; but as it was arranged, they had between them to traverse nearly one-half of the breadth of Italy, before Alvinzi and Davidowich could join at the appointed spot between Peschiera and Verona, whence they were to march together to Mantua, where Wurmser was to be released; and the general with the Sclavonic name moved at a snail's pace. With the mass of his forces Bonaparte rushed to meet Alvinzi, and gave him battle at Le Nove on the 6th of November; but instead of defeating him, he himself sustained a terrible repulse, and retreated next day towards Verona to pick up the shattered columns of Vaubois, who was retreating before Davidowich. Contrary to what might reasonably have been expected, Alvinzi, overcoming every obstacle, reached the heights of Caldiero, in front of Verona. But instead of finding