Part 1 (2/2)
Suddenly the march of the whole army was arrested by a fort, built upon an inaccessible rock, which rose pyra cannon, skillfully arranged on well-constructed bastions, swept the pass, and rendered further advance apparently is of this unexpected obstruction spread from the van to the rear Napoleon i the oat path, he threw hiround, when a few bushes concealed his person fro and carefully exas He perceived one elevated spot, far above the fort, where a cannon ht by possibility be drawn Froed upon the unprotected bastions below Upon the face of the opposite cliff, far beyond the reach of cannon-balls, he discerned a narrow shelf in the rock by which he thought it possible that a le file, along this giddy ridgeAnd even the horses, insured to the terrors of the Great St Bernard, were led by their riders upon the narrow path, which a horse's hoof had never trod before, and probably will never tread again The Austrians, in the fort, had thethirty-five thousand soldiers, with nu to the side of the rock But neither bullet nor ball could hare, and upon its suhts of sleeplessness and toil, laid himself down, in the shadow of the rock, and fell asleep The long line filed carefully and silently by, each soldier hushi+ng his coht not be disturbed It was an interesting spectacle, to witness the tender affection, bea from the countenances of these bronzed and orn veterans, as every foot trod softly, and each eye, in passing, was riveted upon the slender for Napoleon
The artillery could by no possibility be thus transported; and an army without artillery is a soldier without weapons The Austrian commander wrote to Melas, that he had seen an army of thirty-five thousandthe face of Mount Albaredo He assured the cole piece of artillery had passed or could pass beneath the guns of his fortress When he riting this letter, already had one half of the cannon and ammunition of the army been conveyed by the fort, and were safely and rapidly proceeding on their way down the valley In the darkness of the night trusty reat caution and silence, strewed hay and straw upon the road The wheels of the lues were carefully bound with cloths and wisps of straw, and, with axles well oiled, were drawn by the hands of these picked men, beneath the very walls of the fortress, and within half pistol-shot of its guns In two nights the artillery and the baggage-trains were thus passed along, and in a few days the fort itself was compelled to surrender
Melas, the Austrian commander, nooke in consternation to a sense of his peril Napoleon--the dreaded Napoleon--had, as by a miracle, crossed the Alps He had cut off all his supplies, and was shutting the Austrians up fronitude of his peril, he no longer thought of forcing his march upon Paris The invasion of France was abandoned His whole energies were directed to opening for hie back to Austria
The itated hier of descending to the deepest abyss of defeat It was also with Napoleon an hour of intense solicitude He had but sixty thousand men, two-thirds of ere new soldiers, who had never seen a shot fired in earnest, hom he was to arrest the march of a desperate army of one hundred and twenty thousand veterans, abundantly provided with all the most efficient ht escape, at leagues' distance from each other It was necessary for Napoleon to divide his little band that he uard them all He was liable at any moment to have a division of his ar force, and cut to pieces before it could receive any reinforceht, and night and day, he was on horseback, pale, pensive, apparently in feeble health, and interesting every beholder with his grave and melancholy beauty His scouts were out in every direction He studied all the possible movements and combinations of his foes Rapidly he overran Lombardy, and entered Milan in triuh the net hich he was entangled He did every thing in his power to deceive Napoleon, by various feints, that the point of his conte clarion tones, appealed to the enthusiasan our march, one department of France was in the hands of the enemy Consternation pervaded the south of the Republic You advanced Already the French territory is delivered
Joy and hope in our country have succeeded to consternation and fear The eneain his frontiers
You have taken his hospitals, his azines, his reserve parks
The first act of the can is finished Millions of men address you in strains of praise But shall we allow our audacious enemies to violate with impunity the territory of the Republic? Will you permit the army to escape which has carried terror into your families? You will not March, then, to meet him Tear from his brows the laurels he has won Teach the world that a malediction attends those who violate the territory of the Great People The result of our efforts will be unclouded glory, and a durable peace!”
The very day Napoleon left Paris, Desaix arrived in France froht, and punctiliously honorable, he was one of the fehoarded Napoleon as infinitely his superior, and looked up to him with a species of adoration; he loved hi which amounted almost to a passion Napoleon, touched, by the affection of a heart so noble, requited it with thefriendshi+p Desaix, upon his arrival in Paris, found letters for him there from the First Consul As he read the confidential lines, he was struck with the melancholy air hich they were pervaded ”Alas!” said he, ”Napoleon has gained every thing, and yet he is unhappy I must hasten to meet him” Without delay he crossed the Alps, and arrived at the head-quarters of Napoleon but a few days before the battle of Marengo They passed the whole night together, talking over the events of Egypt and the prospects of France Napoleon felt greatly strengthened by the arrival of his noble friend, and ined to him the command of a division of the army ”Desaix,”
said he, ”isintervieith Desaix,” said Bourrienne to Napoleon the next”Yes!” he replied; ”but I had my reasons
As soon as I return to Paris I shall make him Minister of War He shall always be my lieutenant I would make him a prince if I could
He is of the heroic mould of antiquity!”
Napoleon was fully aware that a decisive battle would soon take place Melas was rapidly, fro laconic and characteristic order was issued by the First Consul to Lannes and Murat: ”Gather your forces at the river Stradella On the 8th or 9th at the latest, you will have on your hands fifteen or eighteen thousand Austrians Meet them, and cut them to pieces It will be so many enemies less upon our hands on the day of the decisive battle we are to expect with the entire army of Melas” The prediction was true An Austrian force advanced, eighteen thousand strong Lannes ly posted, with batteries ranged upon the hill sides, which swept the whole plain It was of the ut with the other vast forces of the Austrians Lannes had but eight thousand men Could he sustain the unequal conflict for a few hours, Victor, as some miles in the rear, could come up with a reserve of four thousand ainst which they were to contend, and of the carnage into the , with shouts of enthusiasrape-shot froh his ranks Said Lannes, ” I could hear the bones crash inhours, froe continued Again and again the e At last, when three thousand Frenchround, the Austrians broke and fled, leaving also three thousand mutilated corpses and six thousand prisoners behind the to the aid of his lieutenant, arrived upon the field just in time to see the battle won He rode up to Lannes The intrepid soldier stood in thewith blood in his exhausted hand--his face blackened with powder and s and terrific strife Napoleon silently, but proudly sot not his reward From this battle Lannes received the title of Duke of Montebello, a title by which his fauished to the present day
This was the opening of the can It inspired the French with enthusiasm It nerved the Austrians to despair Melas now deterh the toils Napoleon, with intense solicitude, atching everynot upon what point the onset would fall Before day-break in theaccu seven thousand cavalry and two hundred pieces of cannon, made an impetuous assault upon the French, but twenty thousand in nuo Desaix, with a reserve of six thousand o, that he could not possibly be recalled before the close of the day The danger was frightful that the French would be entirely cut to pieces, before any succor could arrive But the quick ear of Desaix caught the sound of the heavy cannonade as it ca over the plain, like distant thunder
He sprung from his couch and listened The heavy and uninterrupted roar, proclaimed a pitched battle, and he was alarmed for his beloved chief Immediately he roused his troops, and they started upon the rush to succor their comrades Napoleon dispatched courier after courier to hurry the division along, while his troops stood firh terrific hours, as their ranks were plowed by the es of their foes At last the destruction was too awful for mortal men to endure Many divisions of the ar ” All is lost--save hihtful disorder ensued The whole plain was covered with fugitive, swept like an inundation before the multitudinous Austrians
Napoleon still held a few squares together, who slowly and sullenly retreated, while two hundred pieces of artillery, closely pressing theround was left encumbered with the dead It was now three o'clock in the afternoon Melas, exhausted with toil, and assured that he had gained a complete victory, left Gen Zach to finish the work He retired to his head quarters, and immediately dispatched couriers all over Europe to announce the great victory of Marengo Said an Austrian veteran, who had before encountered Napoleon at Arcola and Rivoli, ”Melas is too sanguine Depend upon it our day's work is not yet done Napoleon will yet be upon us with his reserve”
Just then the anxious eye of the First Consulespied the solid colu his spurs into his horse, outstripped all the rest, and galloped into the presence of Napoleon As he cast a glance over the wild confusion and devastation of the field, the exclaimed hurriedly, ”I see that the battle is lost I suppose I can do no more for you than to secure your retreat” ”By no means,” Napoleon replied with apparently asby his own fireside, ”the battle, I trust, is gained Charge with your column The disordered troops will rally in your rear” Like a rock, Desaix, with his solid phalanx of ten thousandbillow of Austrian victory At the same time Napoleon dispatched an order to Kellere the triumphant column of the Austrians in flank It was the work of a ed Napoleon rode along the lines of those on the retreat, exclaih
It is now our turn to advance Recollect that I aitives, reanimated by the arrival of the reserve, ie in front and flank was instantly ered A perfect tornado of bullets from Desaix's division swept their ranks They poured an answering volley into the bosoms of the French A bullet pierced the breast of Desaix, and he fell and almost immediately expired His last words were, ”Tell the First Consul thatdone enough to live in the recollection of posterity” The soldiers, who devotedly loved hie his death The swollen tide of uproar, confusion, and dis billows in the opposite direction Hardly one moment elapsed before the Austrians, flushed with victory, found themselves overwhelmed by defeat In the midst of this terrific scene, an aid rode up to Napoleon and said, ”Desaix is dead” But aside by side Napoleon pressed his forehead convulsively with his hand, and exclaimed, mournfully, ”Why is it not permitted me to weep! Victory at such a price is dear”
The French nowwith shouts of victory
Indescribable dismay filled the Austrian ranks as wildly they rushed before their unrelenting pursuers Their rout was utter and hopeless When the sun went down over this field of blood, after twelve hours of the h to appall the heart of a demon More than twenty thousand hu and the dead, weltering in gore, and in every conceivable foruration
Horses, with lionies Fragons of every kind were strewed around in wild ruin Frequent piercing cries, which agony extorted fros of anguish, which, like wailings of the storht were now descending upon this awful scene of reat, that notwithstanding the ut night lingered ahile thousands of the wounded and the dying bit the dust in their agony
If war has its chivalry and its pageantry, it has also revolting hideousness and de there in agony Bullets respect not beauty They tear out the eye, and shatter the jaw, and rend the cheek, and transform the huaze but with horror Fro er to be recognized by friends, and passed a weary life in repulsive deformity Mercy abandons the arena of battle The frantic war-horse with iron hoof tra and inflamed wounds the splintered bones, and heeds not the shriek of torture Crushed into the bloody mire by the ponderous wheels of heavy artillery, the victim of barbaric war thinks of mother, and father, and sister, and home, and shrieks, and abonds who follow the caled corpse is covered with a few shovels-full of earth, and left as food for vultures and for dogs and he is forgotten forever--and it is called gloryHe who loves war, for the sake of its excitelory, is the most eminent of all the dupes of folly and of sin He who loathes ith inexpressible loathing, ill do everything in his power to avert the dire and horrible calamity, but ill, nevertheless, in the last extremity, with a determined spirit, encounter all its perils, fro to sacrifice himself and all that is dear to hi of his fellow-e of the world, and we also fully believe that he will receive the approval of God Washi+ngton abhorred war in all its fore of the field of Marengo, Napoleon can not be held responsible Upon England and Austria edy Napoleon had done every thing he could do to stop the effusion of blood He had sacrificed the instincts of pride, in pleading with a haughty foe for peace His plea was unavailing
Three hundred thousandupon France to force upon her a detested King It was not the duty of France to sub the sword in self-defense, Napoleon fought and conquered ”Te Deum Laudamus”
It is not possible but that Napoleon must have been elated by so resplendent a victory He knew that Marengo would be classed as the most brilliant of his achievements The blow had fallen with such terrible severity that the haughty allies were thoroughly humbled
Melas was now at his mercy Napoleon could dictate peace upon his own terms Yet he rode over the field of his victory with a saddened spirit, and gazed mournfully upon the ruin and the wretchedness around hih the heaps of the dead hich the ground was encumbered, he met a number of carts, heavily laden with the wounded, torn by balls, and bullets, and fragments of shells, into most hideous spectacles of deforrating the splintered bones, and bruising and opening afresh the inflamed wounds, shrieks of torture were extorted from the victims Napoleon stopped his horse and uncovered his head, as theTurning to a co wounded like these unhappy s”
Aexpression of sympathy never has been recorded
He who says that this was hypocrisy is a stranger to the generous impulses of a noble heart This instinctive outburst of eated by policy
Napoleon had fearlessly exposed hi this conflict His clothes were repeatedly pierced by bullets balls struck between the legs of his horse, covering him with earth A cannon-ball took away a piece of the boot fro a scar which was never obliterated
Before Napoleon Marched for Italy, he had made every effort in his power for the attainnani for the first advance fro peace Upon the field of Marengo, having scattered all his enemies like chaff before hi the air, and the groans of the dying swelling upon his ears, laying aside all the for and earnestness he wrote to the Emperor of Austria This extraordinary epistle was thus commenced: