after his
promotion was fast and regular until he became the general's close
friend and steadfast supporter. Lanusse was only twenty-four but had
been chief of battalion for four years, and now entered upon a
brilliant though short career which ended by his death in 1801 at
Aboukir. The advance of Bonaparte's army began on May thirtieth.
Neither Genoa, Tuscany, nor Venice was to be given time for arming;
Beaulieu must be met while his men were still dispirited, and before
the arrival of reinforcements: for a great army of thirty thousand men
was immediately to be despatched under Wurmser to maintain the power
of Austria in Italy. Beaulieu was a typical Austrian general,
seventy-one years old, but still hale, a stickler for precedent, and
looking to experience as his only guide. Relying on the principles of
strategy as he had learned them, he had taken up what he considered a
strong position for the defense of Milan, his line stretching
northeasterly beyond the Ticino from Valenza, the spot where rumors,
diligently spread by Bonaparte, declared that the French would attempt
to force a passage. Confirmed in his own judgment by those reports,
the old and wary Austrian commander stood brave and expectant, while
the young and daring adventurer opposed to him marched swiftly by on
the right bank fifty miles onward to Piacenza. There he made his
crossing on May seventh in common ferry-boats and by a pontoon bridge.
No resistance was made by the few Austrian cavalry who had been sent
out merely to reconnoiter the line. The enemy were outwitted and
virtually outflanked, being now in the greatest danger. Beaulieu had
barely time to break camp and march in hot haste northeasterly to
Lodi, where, behind the swift current of the Adda, he made a final
stand for the defense of Milan, the seat of Austrian government. In
fact, his movements were so hurried that the advance-guards of both
armies met by accident at Fombio on May eighth, where a sharp
engagement resulted in a victory for the French. Laharpe, who had
shown his usual courage in this fight, was killed a few hours later,
through a mistake of his own soldiers, in a night melee with the
pickets of a second Austrian corps. On the ninth the dukes of Parma
and of Piacenza both made their submission in treaties dictated by the
French commander, and simultaneously the reigning archduke quitted
Milan. Next day the pursuing army was at Lodi.

Bonaparte wrote to the Directory that he h