plains owe to the
mountains not only their fertility and prosperity, but their very
existence. Numberless rills which rise amid the icy summits of the
great chain, or the lower peaks of the minor one, combine into ever
growing streams of pleasant waters which finally unite in the sluggish
but impressive Po. Melting snows and torrential rains fill these
watercourses with the rich detritus of the hills which renews from
year to year the soil it originally created. A genial climate and a
grateful soil return to the industrious inhabitants an ample reward
for their labors. In the fiercest heats of summer the passing
traveler, if he pauses, will hear the soft sounds of slow-running
waters in the irrigation sluices which on every side supply any lack
of rain. Wheat, barley, and rice, maize, fruit, and wine, are but a
few of the staples. Great farmsteads, with barns whose mighty lofts
and groaning mows attest the importance of Lombard agriculture, are
grouped into the hamlets which abound at the shortest intervals. And
to the vision of one who sees them first from a mountain-top through
the dim haze of a sunny day, towns and cities seem strewn as if they
were grain from the hand of a sower. The measure of bewilderment is
full when memory recalls that this garden of Italy has been the prize
for which from remotest antiquity the nations of Europe have fought,
and that the record of the ages is indelibly written in the walls and
ornaments of the myriad structures--theaters, palaces, and
churches--which lie so quietly below. Surely the dullest sansculotte
in Bonaparte's army must have been aroused to new sensations by the
sight. What rosy visions took shape in the mind of their leader we can
only imagine.

Piedmont having submitted, the promised descent into these rich plains
was not an instant deferred. "Hannibal," said the commanding general
to his staff, "took the Alps by storm. We have turned their flank." He
paused only to announce his feats to the Directory in modest phrase,
and to recommend for preferment those who, like Lannes and Lanusse,
had earned distinction. The former was just Bonaparte's age but
destitute of solid education, owing to the poverty of his parents. He
enlisted in 1792 and in 1795 was already a colonel, owing to his
extraordinary inborn courage and capacity. Through the hatred of a
Convention legate he was degraded from his rank after the peace of
Basel and entered Bonaparte's army as a volunteer. There