lish plan in his pocket, which had been furnished
by the Directory in a temporary reversion to official tradition,
ordering him to advance into Lombardy, leaving behind the hostile
Piedmontese on his left, and the uncertain Genoese on his right. He
disregarded it, apparently without hesitation, and throwing his force
northwestward toward Ceva, where the Piedmontese were posted,
terrified them into a retreat. They were overtaken, however, at
Mondovi on April twenty-second, and utterly routed, losing not only
their best troops, but their field-pieces and baggage-train. Three
days later Bonaparte pushed onward and occupied Cherasco, which was
distant from Turin, the Piedmontese capital, but twenty-five miles by
a short, easy, and now open road. On the twenty-seventh the
Sardinians, isolated in a mountain amphitheater, and with no prospect
of relief from their discomfited ally, made overtures for an armistice
preliminary to peace. These were readily accepted by Bonaparte; and
although he had no authorization from the government to perform such
functions, he was defiantly careless of instructions in this as in
every subsequent step he took. The negotiation was conducted with
courtesy and firmness, on the basis of military honor, much to the
surprise of the Piedmontese, who had expected to deal with a savage
Jacobin. There was not even a word in Bonaparte's talk which recalled
the republican severity; as has been noted, the word virtue did not
pass his lips, his language was that of chivalry. He stipulated in
kindly phrase for the surrender of Coni and Tortona, the famous "keys
of the Alps," with other strongholds of minor importance, demanding
also the right to cross and recross Piedmontese territory at will. The
paper was completed and signed on the twenty-eighth. The troublesome
question of civil authority to make a treaty was evaded by calling the
arrangement a military convention. It was none the less binding by
reason of its name. Indeed the idea was steadily expanded into a new
policy, for just as pillage and rapine were ruthlessly repressed by
the victorious commander, all agreements were made temporarily on a
military basis, including those for indemnities. Salicetti was the
commissioner of the Directory and there was no friction between him
and Bonaparte. Both profited by a partnership in which opportunities
for personal ventures were frequent, while the military chest was well
supplied and remittances to Paris were