Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text n November 13th
he writes again: "Perchance we are on the eve of losing Italy. None of
the expected reinforcements have arrived.... I am doing my duty, the
officers and men are doing theirs; my heart is breaking, but my
conscience is at rest. Help--send me help!... I despair of preventing
the relief of Mantua, which in a week would have been ours. The
wounded are the pick of the army; all our superior officers, all our
picked generals are _hors de combat_; those who have come to me are so
incompetent, and they have not the soldiers' confidence. The army of
Italy, reduced to a handful of men, is exhausted. The heroes of Lodi,
Millesimo, Castiglione, and Bassano have died for their country, or
are in hospital;[48] to the corps remain only their reputation and
their glory. Joubert, Lannes, Lanusse, Victor, Murat, Chabot, Dupuy,
Rampon, Pijon, Menard, Chabran, and St. Hilaire are wounded.... In a
few days we shall make a last effort. Had I received the 83rd, 3500
strong, and of good repute in the army, I would have answered for
everything. Perhaps in a few days 40,000 will not suffice." The reason
for this unwonted pessimism was the state of his troops. His brother
Louis reported that Vaubois' men had no shoes and were almost naked,
in the midst of snow and mountains; that desertions were taking place
of soldiers with bare and bleeding feet, who told the enemy the plans
and conditions of their army. Finally Vaubois bungles, through not
knowing the ground, and is put under the orders of Massena, while two
of his half-brigades are severely censured by Napoleon in person for
their cowardice.
No. 15.
"_Once more I breathe freely._"--Thrice had Napoleon been foiled, as
much by the weather and his shoeless soldiers as by numbers (40,000
Austrians to his 28,000), and his position was well-nigh hopeless on
November 14th. He trusts Verona to 3000 men, and the blockade of
Mantua to Kilmaine, and the defence of Rivoli to Vaubois--the weakest
link in the chain--and determines to manoeuvre by the Lower Adige upon
the Austrian communications. He gets forty-eight hours' start, and
wins Arcola; in 1814 he deserved equal success, but bad luck and
treachery turned the scale. The battle of Arcola lasted seventy-two
hours, and for forty-eight hours was in favour of the Austrians.
Pending the arrival of the promised reinforcements, the battle was
bought too dear, and weakened Bonaparte more than the Austrians, who
received new troops almost daily. He replaced Vaubois by Joubert.
No. 18.
"_The 29th._"--But he is at Milan from November 27th to December 16th.
Most people know, from some print or other, the picture by Gros of
Bonaparte, flag in hand, leading his men across the murderous bridge
of Arcola. It was during this visit to Milan that his portrait was
taken, and Lavalette has preserved for us the domestic rather than the
dignified manner of the sitting accorded. He refused to give a fixed
time, and the artist was in despair, until Josephine came to his aid
by taking her husband on her knees every morning after breakfast, and
keeping him there a short time. Lavalette assisted at three of these
sittings--apparently to remove the bashful embarrassment of the young
painter. St. Amand suggests that Gros taking the portrait of Bonaparte
at Milan, just after Arcola, would, especially under such novel
conditions, prove a fitting theme for our artists to-day! From
December 16th to 21st Bonaparte is at Verona, whence he returns to
Milan. There is perhaps a veiled innuendo in Barras' letter of
December 30th. Clarke had advised the Directory that Alvinzi was
planning an attack, which Barras mentions, but adds: "Your return to
Milan shows that you consider another attack in favour of Wurmser
unlikely, or, at least, not imminent." He is at Milan till January
7th, whence he goes to Bologna, the city which, he says, "of all the
Italian cities has constantly shown the greatest energy and the most
considerable share of real information."
No. 20.
_General Brune._--This incident fixes the date of this letter to be 23
_Nivose_ (January 12), and not 23 _Messidor_ (July 11), as hitherto
published in the French editions of this letter. On January 12, 1797,
he wrote General Clarke from Verona (No. 1375 of the _Correspondence_)
almost an exact duplicate of this letter--a very rare coincidence in
the epistles of Napoleon. "Scarcely set out from Roverbella, I learnt
that the enemy had appeared at Verona. Massena made his dispositions,
which have been very successful; we have made 600 prisoners, and we
have taken three pieces of cannon. General Brune has had seven bullets
in his clothes, without having been touched by one of them; this is
what it is to be lucky. We have had only ten men killed, and a hundred
wounded." Bonaparte had left Bologna on January 10, reaching Verona
_via_ Roverbella on the 12th.
No. 21.
_February 3rd._--"_I wrote you this morning._"--This and probably
other letters describing Rivoli, La Favorite, and the imminent fall
of Mantua, are missing. In summing up the campaign Thiers declares
that in ten months 55,000 French (all told, including reinforcements)
had beaten more than 200,000 Austrians, taken 80,000 of them
prisoners, killed and wounded 20,000. They had fought twelve pitched
battles, and sixty actions. These figures are probably as much above
the mark as those of Napoleon's detractors are below it.
One does not know which to admire most, Bonaparte's absence from
Marshal Wurmser's humiliation, or his abstention from entering Rome as
a conqueror. The first was the act of a perfect gentleman, worthy of
the best traditions of chivalry, the second was the very quintessence
of far-seeing sagacity, not "baulking the end half-won, for an instant
dole of praise." As he told Mdme. de Remusat at Passeriano, "I
conquered the Pope better by not going to Rome than if I had burnt his
capital." Scott has compared his treatment of Wurmser to that of the
Black Prince with his royal prisoner, King John of France. Wurmser was
an Alsatian on the list of _emigres_, and Bonaparte gave the Marshal
his life by sending him back to Austria, a fact which Wurmser requited
by warning Bonaparte of a conspiracy to poison him[49] in Romagna,
which Napoleon thinks would otherwise have been successful.
No. 24.
"_Perhaps I shall make peace with the Pope._"--On February 12th the
Pope had written to "his dear son, General Bonaparte," to depute
plenipotentiaries for a peace, and ends by assuring him "of our
highest esteem," and concluding with the paternal apostolic
benediction. Meanwhile Napoleon, instead of sacking Faenza, has just
invoked the monks and priests to follow the precepts of the Gospel.
No. 25.
"_The unlimited power you hold over me._"--There seems no question
that during the Italian campaigns he was absolutely faithful to
Josephine, although there was scarcely a beauty in Milan who did not
aspire to please him and to conquer him. In his fidelity there was,
says St. Amand, much love and a little ca Previous Next |