the gorges
of the Brenta upon the left, and forces the remnant of this fine army to
take refuge in Mantua, where it is finally compelled to surrender.

In 1799 hostilities recommence: the French, punished for having formed
two exterior lines in 1796, nevertheless, have three upon the Rhine and
the Danube. The army on the left observes the Lower Rhine, that of the
center marches upon the Danube, Switzerland, flanking Italy and Swabia,
being occupied by a third army as strong as both the others. _The three
armies could be concentrated only in the valley of the Inn_, eighty
leagues from their base of operations. The archduke has equal forces: he
unites them against the center, which he defeats at Stockach, and the
army of Switzerland is compelled to evacuate the Grisons and Eastern
Switzerland. The allies in turn commit the same fault: instead of
following up their success on this central line, which cost them so
dearly afterward, they formed a double line in Switzerland and on the
Lower Rhine. The army of Switzerland is beaten at Zurich, while the
other trifles at Manheim.

In Italy the French undertake a double enterprise, which leaves
thirty-two thousand men uselessly employed at Naples, while upon the
Adige, where the vital blows were to be given or received, their force
is too weak and meets with terrible reverses. When the army of Naples
returns to the North, it commits the error of adopting a strategic
direction opposed to Moreau's, and Suwaroff, by means of his central
position, from which he derives full profit, marches against this army
and beats it, while some leagues from the other.

In 1800, Napoleon has returned from Egypt, and every thing is again
changed, and this campaign presents a new combination of lines of
operations; one hundred and fifty thousand men march upon the two flanks
of Switzerland, and debouch, one upon the Danube and the other upon the
Po. This insures the conquest of vast regions. Modern history affords no
similar combination. The French armies are upon interior lines,
affording reciprocal support, while the Austrians are compelled to adopt
an exterior line, which renders it impossible for them to communicate.
By a skillful arrangement of its progress, the army of the reserve cuts
off the enemy from his line of operations, at the same time preserving
its own relations with its base and with the army of the Rhine, which
forms its secondary line.

Fig. 3 demonstrates this truth, and sho