CHAPTER VI

Wurmser supersedes Beaulieu--Jourdan and Moreau march into Germany,
and are forced to retreat again--The Austrians advance from the
Tyrol--Battle of Lonato--Escape of Napoleon--Battle near
Castiglione--Wurmser retreats on Trent, and is recruited--Battle of
Roveredo--Battle of Primolano--Battle of Bassano--Battle of St.
George--Wurmser shut up in Mantua.


The general was now recalled to the war. The cabinet of Vienna, apt to
be slow, but sure to be persevering, had at last resolved upon sending
efficient aid to the Italian frontier. Beulieu had been too often
unfortunate to be trusted longer: Wurmser, who enjoyed a reputation of
the highest class, was sent to replace him: 300,000 men were drafted
from the armies on the Rhine to accompany the new general; and he
carried orders to strengthen himself further, on his march, by whatever
recruits he could raise among the warlike and loyal population of the
Tyrol.

The consequences of thus weakening the Austrian force on the Rhine were,
for the moment, on that scene of the contest, inauspicious. The French,
in two separate bodies, forced the passage of the Rhine--under Jourdan
and Moreau; before whom the imperial generals, Wartensleben and the
Archduke Charles, were compelled to retire. But the skill of the
Archduke ere long enabled him to effect a junction with the columns of
Wartensleben; and thus to fall upon Jourdan with a great superiority of