CCL. Bonaparte


This youth was Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer in the island
of Corsica, a man of military genius, who, when a mere lieutenant, had
raised the siege of Toulon, had afterward served the Directory by
dispersing the old Jacobins with his artillery in the streets of
Paris, and had been intrusted with the command of the army in Italy.
Talents, that under a monarchy would have been doomed to obscurity,
were, under the French republic, called into notice, and men of
decided genius could, amid the general competition, alone attain to
power or retain the reins of government.

Bonaparte was the first to take the field. In the April of 1796, he
pushed across the Alps and attacked the Austrians. Beaulieu, a good
general, but too old for service (he was then seventy-two, Napoleon
but twenty-seven), had incautiously extended his lines too far, in
order to preserve a communication with the English fleet in the
Mediterranean. Bonaparte defeated his scattered forces at Montenotte
and Millesimo, between the 10th and 15th of April, and, turning
sharply upon the equally scattered Sardinian force, beat it in several
engagements, the principal of which took place at Mondovi, between the
19th and 22d of April. An armistice was concluded with Sardinia, and
Beaulieu, who vainly attempted to defend the Po, was defeated on the
7th and 8th of May, at Fombio. The bridge over the Adda at Lodi, three
hundred paces in length, extremely narrow and to all appearance
impregnable, defended by his lieutenant Sebottendorf, was carried by
storm, and, on the 15th of May, Bonaparte entered Milan. Beaulieu took
up a position behind the Mincio, notwithstanding which, Bonaparte