general cause of hatred and suspicion, had a distinct injury to avenge.
Their agent, Basseville, had three years before been assassinated in a
popular tumult at Rome: the Papal troops had not interfered to protect
him, nor the Pope to punish his murderers; and the haughty Republic
considered this as an insult which could only be washed out with a sea
of blood.

Napoleon's plan for gaining access to the fair regions of Italy differed
from that of all former conquerors: they had uniformly penetrated the
Alps at some point or other of that mighty range of mountains: he judged
that the same end might be accomplished more easily by advancing along
the narrow strip of comparatively level country which intervenes between
those enormous barriers and the Mediterranean Sea, and forcing a passage
at the point where the last of the Alps melt, as it were, into the first
and lowest of the Apennine range. No sooner did he begin to concentrate
his troops towards this region, than the Austrian general, Beaulieu,
took measures for protecting Genoa, and the entrance of Italy. He
himself took post with one column of his army at Voltri, a town within
ten miles of Genoa: he placed D'Argenteau with another Austrian column
at Monte Notte, a strong height further to the westward; and the
Sardinians, under Colli, occupied Ceva--which thus formed the extreme
right of the whole line of the allied army. The French could not advance
towards Genoa but by confronting some one of the three armies thus
strongly posted, and sufficiently, as Beaulieu supposed, in
communication with each other.

It was now that Buonaparte made his first effort to baffle the science
of those who fancied there was nothing new to be done in warfare. On the
10th of April, D'Argenteau came down upon Monte Notte, and attacked some
French redoubts, in front of that mountain and the villages which bear