out to the advantage of
Charles. But he was neither as wily nor as indefatigable as his enemy.
The French drew back, apparently exhausted, and bivouacked as if for
the night. The Austrians, expecting nothing further that day, and
standing on the defensive, followed the example of their opponents.
Two hours elapsed, when suddenly the whole French army rose like one
man, and, falling into line without an instant's delay, rushed for the
stream, which at that spot was swift but fordable, flowing between
wide, low banks of gravel. The surprise was complete; the stream was
crossed, and the Austrians had barely time to form when the French
were upon them. They fought with gallantry for three hours until
their flank was turned. They then drew off in an orderly retreat,
abandoning many guns and losing some prisoners.

Massena, waiting behind the intervening ridge for the signal, advanced
at the first sound of cannon into the upper valley of the same stream,
crossed it, and beset the passes of the Italian Alps, by which
communication with the Austrian capital was quickest. Charles had
nothing left, therefore, but to withdraw due eastward across the great
divide of the Alps, where they bow toward the Adriatic, and pass into
the valley of the Isonzo, behind that full and rushing stream, which
he fondly hoped would stop the French pursuit. The frost, however, had
bridged it in several places, and these were quickly found. Bernadotte
and Serurier stormed the fortress of Gradisca, and captured two
thousand five hundred men, while Massena seized the fort at the Chiusa
Veneta, and, scattering a whole division of flying Austrians, captured
five thousand with their stores and equipments. He then attacked and
routed the enemy's guard on the Pontebba pass, occupied Tarvis, and
thus cut off their communication with the Puster valley, by which the
Austrian detachment from the Rhine was to arrive. It was in this
campaign that Bernadotte laid the foundation of his future greatness.
He was the son of a lawyer in Pau, where he was born in 1764.
Enlisting as a common soldier, he was wounded in Corsica, became chief
of battalion under Custine, general of brigade under Kleber, and
commanded a division at Fleurus. The previous year he had shared the
defeat of Jourdan on the Rhine, but under Bonaparte he became a famous
participant in victory. A Jacobin democrat, he was later entrusted by
the Directory with important missions, but in these he had litt