run to join the Po.

Beaulieu had advanced to Voltri, while the French withdrew to unite
themselves in the attack upon D'Argenteau. He had now to retreat
northward with all haste to Dego, in the valley of the river Bormida, in
order to resume communication with the right wing of his army,
consisting chiefly of Sardinians, from which he was now nearly separated
by the defeat of the centre. General Colli, by a corresponding movement
on the left, occupied Millesimo, a small town about nine miles from
Dego, with which he resumed and maintained communication by a brigade
stationed on the heights of Biastro. From the strength of this position,
though his forces were scarce sufficiently concentrated, Beaulieu hoped
to maintain his ground till he should receive supplies from Lombardy,
and recover the consequences of the defeat at Monte Notte. But the
antagonist whom he had in front had no purpose of permitting him such
respite.

Determined upon a general attack on all points of the Austrian position,
the French army advanced in three bodies upon a space of four leagues in
extent. Augereau, at the head of the division which had not fought at
Monte Notte, advanced on the left against Millesimo; the centre, under
Massena, directed themselves upon Dego, by the vale of the Bormida; the
right wing, commanded by La Harpe, manoeuvred on the right of all, for
the purpose of turning Beaulieu's left flank. Augereau was the first who
came in contact with the enemy. He attacked General Colli, April 13th.
His troops, emulous of the honor acquired by their companions, behaved
with great bravery, rushed upon the outposts of the Sardinian army at
Millesimo, forced and retained possession of the gorge by which it was
defended, and thus separated from the Sardinian army a body of about two
thousand men, under the Austrian General Provera, who occupied a
detached eminence called Cossaria, which covered the extreme left of
General Colli's position. But the Austrian showed the most obstinate
courage. Although surrounded by the enemy, he threw himself into the
ruinous castle of Cossaria, which crowned the eminence, and showed a
disposition to maintain the place to the last; the rather that, as he
could see from the turrets of his stronghold the Sardinian troops, from
whom he had been separated, preparing to fight on the ensuing day, he
might reasonably hope to be disengaged.

Bonaparte in person came up; and seeing the necessity of dislodging the