Beaulieu was obliged to abandon the Mincio, as he had before the Adda
and the Po, and to take up the new line of the Adige.

Meanwhile an occurrence, which may be called accidental, had nearly done
more than repay the Austrians for all their reverses. The left of their
line, stationed still further down the Mincio,--at Puzzuolo, no sooner
learned from the cannonade that the French were at Borghetto, than they
hastened to ascend the stream, with the view of assisting the defence of
their friends. They came too late for this; the commander at Borghetto
had retreated before they arrived. They, however, came unexpectedly;
and, such was the chance, reached Valleggio after the French army had
pursued the Austrians through it and onwards--and, at the moment when
Buonaparte and a few friends, considering the work of the day to be
over, and this village as altogether in the rear of both armies, were
about to sit down to dinner in security. Sebetendorff, who commanded the
Puzzuolo division, came rapidly, little guessing what a prize was near
him, into the village. The French general's attendants had barely time
to shut the gates of the inn, and alarm their chief by the cry "To
arms." Buonaparte threw himself on horseback, and galloping out by a
back passage, effected the narrowest of escapes from the most urgent of
dangers. Sebetendorff was soon assaulted by a French column, and
retreated, after Beaulieu's example, on the line of the Adige.
Buonaparte, profiting by the perilous adventure of Valleggio, instituted
a small corps of picked men, called _Guides_, to watch continually over
his personal safety. Such was the germ from which sprung the famous
Imperial Guard of Napoleon.

The Austrian had, in effect, abandoned for the time the open country of
Italy. He now lay on the frontier, between the vast tract of rich
provinces which Napoleon had conquered, and the Tyrol. The citadel of