Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

stantly shot, but that he in general sees them obedient and submissive; and concludes by stating, that the French come to break the chains of the Italians, and as enemies only to those Tyrants who enslave them.

CHAP. VII.

BONAPARTE ADVANCES TO THE PO-COMPELS THE DUKE OF PARMA TO SIGN AN ARMISTICE-SENDS THE PICTURES OF CORREGIO TO PARIS-ADDRESSES HIS ARMY-PASSES THE BRIDGE OF LODI-ENTERS MILAN IN TRIUMPH-VISITS ORIANI THE ASTRONOMER-LEVIES CONTRIBUTIONS IN LOMBARDY-HIS VICTORIES CELEBRATED.

AFTER signing the armistice with the King of Sardinia, on the 29th of April, Bonaparte marched his army towards the Po. Massena had reached Alexandria, and seized on the magazines, which the Austrians had sold to the town. On the 6th of May the army of Italy took possession of Tortona; they found here more than one hundred pieces of brass cannon, and immense magazines. Ceva and Coni were in an equal state of defence, and liberally provisioned. Thus the war supported itself, and the successes of the French furnished them with the means of making new conquests. The stipulations of the fourth article of the armistice, induced the general of the Austrian army to believe that Bonaparte wished to cross the Po at Volenza; but Bonaparte hastened by a forced march to Castel-San-Giovanni with 5000 grenadiers and 1500 horse. Andreossi, chief of battalion of artillery, and Adjutant-General Frontin, with 100 dragoons, reconnoitered the Po as far as Placenza, and took five boats loaded with rice, on board of which were 500 sick, and all the army medicines. On the 7th, at nine in the morning,

Bonaparte reached the Po, opposite Placenza. Two squa drons of hussars on the opposite side of the river seemed determined to dispute the passage. The French troops got into the boats, and landed on the other side, when the Austrian cavalry retired. The divisions of the army passed the river in the course of the day. In the mean time Beaulieu, acquainted with the march of the French, was convinced of the uselessness of his entrenchments on the Tesino, and his redoubt at Pavia. On the 8th at noon Bonaparte heard that a division of the enemy was near; he advanced and found them entrenched in the village at Fombio, with 20 pieces of cannon. After a spirited resistance, the Austrians retreated, and were pursued as far as the Adda.

Another body of the Imperialists reached Codogna, the head-quarters of General Laharpe, at two in the morning, and drove in the French videttes. General Laharpe ordered a demi-brigade to advance, when the Austrians were drove back and disappeared; but Laharpe was killed by a ball. General Berthier went directly to Codogna, pursued the Austrians, and took Casal, with a vast quantity of baggage. The passage of the Po was a great operation, as in many places that river could not have been passed in two months. This alarmed all the states of Italy, and the Infant Duke of Parma signed an armistice with Bonaparte.

In this be engaged to pay a military contribution of 2,000,000 livres French money; to furnish 2200 draught horses and harness, and others for the officers and the cavalry; to provide a quantity of wheat and oats; and to furnish 2000 oxen for the French army. Bonaparte also stipulated for twenty of his best paintings, among which was the St. Jerome of Corregio; upon this circumstance, in his letter to the Directory, he attempts to be pleasant, and says, 'I confess this saint has chosen an unlucky moment to arrive at Paris; but I hope you will grant him the honours of the museum." He afterwards, with a degree of modesty becoming his ignorance of the fine arts, requested that they would send some of

the first artists to select and pack up the best specimens of every thing rare and curious which they might judge proper to send to Paris. From this it appears, that he did not literally adhere to the agreement for only twenty pictures; but as the whole affair was a robbery, a little more or a little less makes no difference in his criminality.

Bonaparte, now flushed with conquest, and elevated with the hopes of fresh success, addressed a proclamation to his soldiers, full of deceit and insolent exultation, yet well calculated to effect the purpose for which it was intended. Though the tenor of his dispatches and proclamations display much of the French gasconade, yet they are in general conceived with great strength and elevation of mind, which distinguish them from the common class of such productions, and they contain much apparent philanthrophy; for a great man, who studies well the times in which he lives, never fails, if he is anxious to arrive at power by duping his contemporaries, to adopt the taste of the age, whatever it may be. Cromwell obtained the protectorship by the cant of religion, and Bonaparte adopted the cant of philosophy, the more effectually to disguise his real intentions, and to deceive both true and false philosophers; yet the former was the honester of the two, for he partly believed what he professed-but Bonaparte appears to be totally indifferent to every form of religion, and every species of philosophy, and to use them only as the instruments of forwarding his ambitious purpose.

The battle of the bridge of Lodi was the next achievement of Bonaparte; his object in risking this battle was to gain possession of Milan, which he had left in his rear, and without which he could not ensure his future success in Italy; he therefore determined to force the passage of the Adda, over the bridge at Lodi. Berthier and all the other generals were against the attempt, for they said if he failed the whole army was lost. Scarcely had he heard their sentiments when he sprang up and exclaimed, 'We must make the attack, my friends, and I'll take the whole responsibility

upon myself.' He immediately flew to execute this daring achievement. Beaulieu had placed the Adda between himself and the French, and waited for them at the end of a bridge, 100 toises in length, and he hoped to stop their progress by covering it with a numerous artillery. This bridge lay at the town of Lodi; it was at the head of it, on the side next the city, that Bonaparte was to plant, under a shower of grape-shot, two pieces of cannon, to prevent the enemy from breaking it down, whilst a column was forming to carry the pass. The French entered Lodi, and Beaulieu, with his whole army, and 30 pieces of heavy cannon, defended the passage of the bridge. Bonaparte formed all his artillery, and the cannonade was kept up for many hours with great vivacity. The troops formed in close column with a battalion of carabineers at their head, followed by all the grenadier battalions, at their charge step, amidst reiterated acclamations of Vive la Republique! They shewed themselves at the bridge; but the Austrians kept up so tremendous a fire, that those who advanced fell by columns; they retreated, but were rallied, aud the slaughter was again dreadful; a second time they retreated, but Bonaparte was immoveable in his determination; again they darted forward, over the dead bo dies of their comrades, and the Generals Berthier, Massena, Cervoni, Dallemagne, the chief of brigade Lasnes, and the chief of battalion Dupat, placed themselves at the head of the column, and passed the bridge; the Generals Rusca, Augereau, and Bayrand, with their divisions, passed the Adda, a few miles below Lodi, when the French began to force the bridge, and attacked the Austrians suddenly in the rear, when they thought the French only on one side of the river, and this decided the fortune of the day. The line of artillery was instantly carried, Beaulieu's order of battle broken, and the French troops spread terror and death in every direction; the hostile army was dispersed, though the Austrian cavalry strove to protect the retreat of the infantry, and charged the French. The Imperialists lost 20 pieces of cannon, and be

tween two and three thousand men, killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. The brave but unfortunate Beaulieu, with the remains of his army, took refuge under Mantua, and abandoned Pizzighitone, Cremona, and all the Milanese, to the French. Bonaparte in his dispatches to the Directory, after stating this memorable battle, observes, That although the French had been engaged in many warm contests, none approached the terrible passage of the Bridge of Lodi; the French pursued the Austrians as far as Pizzighitone, and entered it on the 12th, after a brisk cannonade, and took about 400 prisoners. Cremona surrendered to them, and the vanguard of Bonaparte took the route to Milan, and entered it on the 15th, having received the submission of Pavia, where they found immense magazines of the Imperial army. The conquest of Lombardy might now be regarded as complete; for, although the castle of Milan still held out, the tri-coloured flag floated from the Lake of Como, and the frontiers of the Grisons, as far as the gates of Parma. Such rapid success, in so short a time, made some days of repose necessary to an army so much engaged. The Austrians had quitted Milan soon after the news of the battle of Lodi; and, when the French were about to enter the city, a deputation of the inhabitants carried them the key of its gates. The court of the Archduke departed, and the Archduke and Duchess shewed great sorrow at quitting their capital; the streets and squares, through which they passed, were crowded with people, who shewed neither joy nor sorrow, and few of the nobility attended the court in its fight. The people collected in great crowds to witness the entry of the French, and almost all wore the national cockade; the Imperial arms were taken away from most of the public buildings, and many of the nobility took the arms off their carriages. On the 14th of May, the tree of liberty was planted in the grand square; and on the same day, General Massena entered the city with his troops. A deputation with the Archbishop, went out to meet

F

« ZurückWeiter »