But war--what war? Where should he wage it? An article of the
constitution of the year VIII. forbade the First Consul to command the
armies in person, or to leave France.

In all constitutions there is inevitably some absurd provision. Happy
the constitutions that have but one! The First Consul found a means to
evade this particular absurdity.

He established a camp at Dijon. The army which occupied this camp was
called the Army of the Reserves. The force withdrawn from Brittany and
the Vendee, some thirty thousand men in all, formed the nucleus of
this army. Twenty thousand conscripts were incorporated in it; General
Berthier was appointed commander-in-chief. The plan which Bonaparte
explained to Roland in his study one day was still working in his mind.
He expected to recover Italy by a single battle, but that battle must be
a great victory.

Moreau, as a reward for his co-operation on the 18th Brumaire, received
the command he had so much desired. He was made commander-in-chief of
the Army of the Rhine, I with eighty thousand men under him. Augereau,
with twenty-five thousand more, was on the Dutch frontier. And Massena,
commanding the Army of Italy, had withdrawn to the country about Genoa,
where he was tenaciously maintaining himself against the land forces of
the Austrian General Ott, and the British fleet under Admiral Keith.

While the latter movements were taking place in Italy, Moreau had
assumed the offensive on the Rhine, and defeated the enemy at Stockach
and Moeskirch. A single victory was to furnish an excuse to put the Army
of Reserves under waiting orders. Two victories would leave no doubt
as to the necessity of co-operation. Only, how was this army to be
transported to Italy?

Bonaparte's first thought was to march up the Valais and to cross the
Simplon. He would thus turn Piedmont and enter Milan. But the operation
was a long one, and must be done overtly. Bonaparte renounced it. His
plan was to surprise the Austrians and to appear with his whole army on
the plains of Piedmont before it was even suspected that he had
crossed the Alps. He therefore decided to make the passage of the
Great Saint-Bernard. It was for this purpose that he had sent the fifty
thousand francs, seized by the Companions of Jehu, to the monks whose
monastery crowns that mountain. Another fifty thousand had been sent
since, which had reached their destination safely. By the help of this
money the monastery was to be amply