ion were still following him. There he fell;
but his death, instead of diminishing the ardor of his men, redoubled
it, and they charged with their bayonets upon the column of General
Zach.

At that moment Kellermann, who had broken through both of the enemy's
lines, saw Desaix's division struggling with a compact, immovable mass.
He charged in flank, forced his way into a gap, widened it, broke the
square, quartered it, and in less than fifteen minutes the five thousand
Austrian grenadiers who formed the mass were overthrown, dispersed,
crushed, annihilated. They disappeared like smoke. General Zach and his
staff, all that was left, were taken prisoners.

Then, in turn, the enemy endeavored to make use of his immense cavalry
corps; but the incessant volleys of musketry, the blasting canister, the
terrible bayonets, stopped short the charge. Murat was manoeuvring on
the flank with two light-battery guns and a howitzer, which dealt death
to the foe.

He paused for an instant to succor Roland and his nine hundred men. A
shell from the howitzer fell and burst in the Austrian ranks; it opened
a gulf of flame. Roland sprang into it, a pistol in one hand, his sword
in the other. The whole Consular guard followed him, opening the enemy's
ranks as a wedge opens the trunk of an oak. Onward he dashed, till
he reached an ammunition wagon surrounded by the enemy; then, without
pausing an instant, he thrust the hand holding the pistol through
the opening of the wagon and fired. A frightful explosion followed, a
volcano had burst its crater and annihilated those around it.

General Elsnitz's corps was in full flight; the rest of the Austrian
army swayed, retreated, and broke. The generals tried in vain to stop
the torrent and form up for a retreat. In thirty minutes the French army
had crossed the plain it had defended foot by foot for eight hours.

The enemy did not stop until Marengo was reached. There they made a
vain attempt to reform under fire of the artillery of Carra-Saint-Cyr
(forgotten at Castel-Ceriolo, and not recovered until the day was over);
but the Desaix, Gardannes, and Chamberlhac divisions, coming up at a
run, pursued the flying Austrians through the streets.

Marengo was carried. The enemy retired on Petra Bona, and that too was
taken. Then the Austrians rushed toward the bridge of the Bormida; but
Carra-Saint-Cyr was there before them. The flying multitudes sought the
fords, or plunged into the Bormida under