st ability in carrying it into effect.

Thus, not only were his manoeuvres, however daring, executed with a
precision which warlike operations had not attained before his time; but
they were also performed with a celerity which gave them almost the
effect of surprise. Napoleon was like lightning in the eyes of his
enemies; and when repeated experience had taught them to expect this
portentous rapidity of movement, it sometimes induced his opponents to
wait in a dubious and hesitating posture for attacks, which, with less
apprehension of their antagonist, they would have thought it more
prudent to frustrate and to anticipate.

The forces which Bonaparte had under his command were between fifty and
sixty thousand good troops, having, many of them, been brought from the
Spanish campaign in consequence of the peace with that country; but very
indifferently provided with clothing, and suffering from the hardships
they had endured in those mountains, barren and cold regions. The
cavalry, in particular, were in very poor order; but the nature of their
new field of action not admitting of their being much employed, rendered
this of less consequence. The misery of the French army, until these
Alpine campaigns were victoriously closed by the armistice of Cherasco,
could, according to Bonaparte's authority, scarce bear description. The
officers for several years had received no more than eight livres a
month (twenty-pence sterling a week) in name of pay, and staff-officers
had not among them a single horse. Berthier preserved, as a curiosity,
an order dated on the day of the victory of Albenga, which munificently
conferred a gratuity of three louis d'ors upon every general of
division. Among the generals to whom this donation was rendered
acceptable by their wants were, or might have been, many whose names
became afterward the praise and dread of war. Augereau, Massena,
Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, and Murat, all generals of the first
consideration, served under Bonaparte in the Italian campaign.

The plan of crossing the Alps and marching into Italy suited in every
respect the ambitious and self-confident character of the General to
whom it was now intrusted. It gave him a separate and independent
authority, and the power of acting on his own judgment and
responsibility; for his countryman Salicetti, the deputy who accompanied
him as commissioner of the Government, was not probably much disposed to
intrude his opinions. He had b