atteries which are not compatible with martial law of
the Prussian type. Napoleon has therefore approached the Alps in
command of men without money, in rags, and consequently indisposed to
stand much discipline, especially from upstart generals. This
circumstance, which would have embarrassed an idealist soldier, has
been worth a thousand cannon to Napoleon. He has said to his army, "You
have patriotism and courage; but you have no money, no clothes, and
deplorably indifferent food. In Italy there are all these things, and
glory as well, to be gained by a devoted army led by a general who
regards loot as the natural right of the soldier. I am such a general.
En avant, mes enfants!" The result has entirely justified him. The army
conquers Italy as the locusts conquered Cyprus. They fight all day and
march all night, covering impossible distances and appearing in
incredible places, not because every soldier carries a field marshal's
baton in his knapsack, but because he hopes to carry at least half a
dozen silver forks there next day.

It must be understood, by the way, that the French army does not make
war on the Italians. It is there to rescue them from the tyranny of
their Austrian conquerors, and confer republican institutions on them;
so that in incidentally looting them, it merely makes free with the
property of its friends, who ought to be grateful to it, and perhaps
would be if ingratitude were not the proverbial failing of their
country. The Austrians, whom it fights, are a thoroughly respectable
regular army, well disciplined, commanded by gentlemen trained and
versed in the art of war: at the head of them Beaulieu, practising the
classic art of war under orders from Vienna, and getting horribly
beaten by Napoleon, who acts on his own responsibility in defiance of
professional precedents or orders from Paris. Even when the Austrians
win a battle, all that is necessary is to wait until their routine
obliges them to return to their quarters for afternoon tea, so to
speak, and win it back again from them: a course pursued later on with
brilliant success at Marengo. On the whole, with his foe handicapped by
Austrian statesmanship, classic generalship, and the exigencies of the
aristocratic social structure of Viennese society, Napoleon finds it
possible to be irresistible without working heroic miracles. The world,
however, likes miracles and heroes, and is quite incapable of
conceiving the action of such forces as