lied I, growing more confident
as I saw that he became more attentive. 'If I understood them aright,
Soult held a position called the "Monte Faccio." Is there such a name?'

'Go on,' said he, with a nod of assent.

'That this could not long be tenable without gaining the highest
fortified point of the mountain. The "Monte Creto" they named it.'

'The attempt on which has failed!' said Massena, as if carried away by
the subject; 'and Soult himself is a prisoner! Go on.'

'They added, that now but one hope remained for this army.'

'And what was that, sir?' said he fiercely. 'What suggestion of cunning
strategy did these sea-wolves intimate?'

'To cut your way through the blockade, and join Suchet's corps,
attacking the Austrians at the Monte Ratte, and by the sea-road gaining
the heights of Bochetta.'

'Do these heroic spirits know the strength of the same Austrian corps?
did they tell you that it numbered fifty-four thousand bayonets?'

'They called them below forty thousand; and that now that Bonaparte was
on his way through the Alps, perhaps by this over the Mount Cenis----'

'What! did they say this? Is Bonaparte so near us?' cried he, placing a
hand on either shoulder, as he stared me in the face.

'Yes; there is no doubt of that. The despatch to Lord Keith brought the
news a week ago, and there is no secret made about it in the fleet.'

'Over Mount Cenis!' repeated he to himself. 'Already in Italy!'

'Holding straight for Milan, Lord Keith thinks,' added I.

'No, sir, straight for the Tuileries,' cried Massena sternly; and
then correcting himself suddenly, he burst into a forced laugh. I must
confess that the speech puzzled me sorely at the time, but I lived
to learn its meaning; and many a time have I wondered at the shrewd
foresight which even then read the ambitious character of the future
Emperor.

'Of this fact, then, you are quite certain. Bonaparte is on his march
hither?'

'I have heard it spoken of every day for the last week,' replied I; 'and
it was in consequence of this that the English officers used to remark,
if Massena but knew it, he'd make a dash at them, and clear his way
through at once.'

'They said this, did they?' said he, in a low voice, and as if pondering
over it.

'Yes; one and all agreed in thinking there could not be a doubt of the
result.'

'Where have you served, sir?' asked he, suddenly turning on me, and with
a look that showed he was resolved to test the charac