ul lands beyond the Alps to gain
fertile fields below them. It was a hard blow, to be sure, that Savoy,
which gave name to his family, and Nice, with its beautiful and
commanding site, should have been lost to his crown. But so far, in
every general European convulsion, some substantial morsels had fallen
to the lot of his predecessors, who had looked on Italy "as an
artichoke to be eaten leaf by leaf"; and it was probable that a slice
of Lombardy would be his own prize at the next pacification. He had
spent his reign in strengthening his army, and as the foremost
military power in Italy his young and vigorous people, with the help
of Austria, were defending the passes into their territory. The road
from their capital to Savona on the sea wound by Ceva and Millesimo
over the main ridge of the Apennines, at the summit of which it was
joined by the highway through Dego and Cairo leading southwestward
from Milan through Alessandria. The Piedmontese, under Colli, were
guarding the approach to their own capital; the Austrians, under
Beaulieu, that to Milan. Collectively their numbers were somewhat
greater than those of the French; but the two armies were separated.

Beaulieu began operations on April tenth by ordering an attack on the
French division of Laharpe, which had been thrown forward to Voltri.
The Austrians under Argenteau were to fall on its rear from
Montenotte, a village to the north of Savona, with the idea of driving
that wing of Bonaparte's army back along the shore road, on which it
was hoped they would fall under the fire of Nelson's guns. Laharpe,
however, retreated to Savona in perfect safety, for the English fleet
was not near. Thereupon Bonaparte, suddenly revealing the new
formation of his army in the north and south line, assumed the
offensive. Argenteau, having been held temporarily in check by the
desperate resistance of a handful of French soldiers under Colonel
Rampon, was surprised and overwhelmed at Montenotte on the twelfth by
a force much larger than his own. Next day Massena and Augereau drove
back toward Dego an Austrian division which had reached Millesimo on
its way to join Colli; and on the fifteenth, at that place, Bonaparte
himself destroyed the remnant of Argenteau's corps. On the sixteenth
Beaulieu abandoned the mountains to make a stand at Acqui in the
plain. Thus the whole Austrian force was not only driven back, but was
entirely separated from the Piedmontese.

Bonaparte had a foo