country. To Napoleon this acquisition was due; nor were the Directory
insensible to its value. He, meanwhile, had heavier business on his
hands.

The Austrian council well knew that Mantua was in excellent keeping; and
being now relieved on the Rhenish frontier, by the failure of Jourdan
and Moreau's attempts, were able to form once more a powerful armament
on that of Italy. The supreme command was given to Marshal Alvinzi, a
veteran of high reputation. He, having made extensive levies in Illyria,
appeared at Friuli; while Davidowich, with the remnant of Quasdonowich's
army, amply recruited among the bold peasantry of the Tyrol, and with
fresh drafts from the Rhine, took ground above Trent. The marshal had in
all 60,000 men under his orders. Buonaparte had received only twelve new
battalions, to replace all the losses of those terrible campaigns, in
which three imperial armies had already been annihilated. The enemy's
superiority of numbers was once more such, that nothing but the most
masterly combinations on the part of the French general could have
prevented them from sweeping everything before them in the plains of
Lombardy.

Buonaparte heard in the beginning of October that Alvinzi's columns were
in motion: he had placed Vaubois to guard Trent, and Massena at Bassano
to check the march of the field-marshal: but neither of these generals
was able to hold his ground. The troops of Vaubois were driven from
that position of Calliano, the strength of which has been already
mentioned, under circumstances which Napoleon considered disgraceful to
the character of the French soldiery. Massena avoided battle; but such
was the overwhelming superiority of Alvinzi, that he was forced to
abandon the position of Bassano. Napoleon himself hurried forward to
sustain Massena; and a severe rencontre, in which either side claimed