giments under Generals Haddich, Kaim
and O'Reilly, and the reserve of grenadiers under command of General
Ott, were advancing along the Tortona road and up the Bormida.

The moment they crossed the river the latter columns came in contact
with the troops of General Gardannes, posted, as we have said, at
the farmhouse and the ravine of Petra Bona. It was the noise of the
artillery advancing in this direction that had brought Bonaparte to the
scene of battle. He arrived just as Gardannes' division, crushed under
the fire of that artillery, was beginning to fall back, and General
Victor was sending forward Chamberlhac's division to its support.
Protected by this move, Gardannes' troops retreated in good order, and
covered the village of Marengo.

The situation was critical; all the plans of the commander-in-chief
were overthrown. Instead of attacking, as was his wont, with troops
judiciously massed, he was attacked himself before he could concentrate
his forces. The Austrians, profiting by the sweep of land that lay
before them, ceased to march in columns, and deployed in lines parallel
to those of Gardannes and Chamberlhac--with this difference, that
they were two to the French army's one. The first of these lines was
commanded by General Haddich, the second by General Melas, the third by
General Ott.

At a short distance from the Bormida flows a stream called the
Fontanone, which passes through a deep ravine forming a semicircle round
the village of Marengo, and protecting it. General Victor had already
divined the advantages to be derived from this natural intrenchment, and
he used it to rally the divisions of Gardannes and Chamberlhac.

Bonaparte, approving Victor's arrangements, sent him word to defend
Marengo to the very last extremity. He himself needed time to prepare
his game on this great chess-board inclosed between the Bormida, the
Fontanone, and Marengo.

His first step was to recall Desaix, then marching, as we have said,
to cut the retreat to Genoa. General Bonaparte sent off two or three
aides-de-camp with orders not to stop until they had reached that corps.
Then he waited, seeing clearly that there was nothing to do but to fall
back in as orderly a manner as possible, until he could gather a compact
mass that would enable him, not only to stop the retrograde movement,
but to assume the offensive.

But this waiting was horrible.

Presently the action was renewed along the whole line. The Austrians