Russie. Tome
cinquieme, p. 233.]

Notwithstanding this ostentatious display of his hatred of all luxury,
he was excessively fond of diamonds and other precious stones. He was
also exceedingly superstitious, ever falling upon his knees before
whatever priest he might meet, and imploring his benediction. Such men
generally feel that the observance of ceremonial rites absolves them
from the guilt of social crimes. With these democratic manners
Suwarrow utterly detested liberty. The French, as the most
liberty-loving people of Europe, he abhorred above all others. He
foamed with rage when he spoke of them. In the sham fights with which
he frequently exercised the army, when he gave the order to "_charge
the miserable French_," every soldier was to make two thrusts of the
bayonet in advance, as if twice to pierce the heart of the foe, and a
third thrust into the ground, that the man, twice bayoneted, might be
pinned in death to the earth. Such was the general whom Paul sent "to
destroy the impious government," as he expressed it, "which dominated
over France."

With blind confidence Suwarrow marched down upon the plains of
Lombardy, dreaming that in those fertile realms nothing awaited him
but an easy triumph over those who had been guilty of the crime of
abolishing despotism. The French had heard appalling rumors of the
prowess and ferocity of these warriors of the North, and awaited the
shock with no little solicitude.[27] The two armies met on the banks
of the Adda, which flows into the northern part of the Lake of Como.
Suwarrow led sixty thousand Russians and Austrians. The French
general, Moreau, to oppose them, had the wreck of an army, consisting
of twenty-five thousand men, disheartened by defeat. On the 17th of
April, 1799, the first Russian regiment appeared in sight of the
bridge of Lecco. The French, indignant at the interference of the
Russians in a quarrel with which they had no concern, dashed upon them
with their bayonets, and repulsed them with great carnage. But the
hosts of Russia and Austria came pouring on in such overwhelming
numbers, that Moreau, with his forces reduced to twenty thousand men,
was compelled to retreat before an army which could concentrate ninety
thousand troops in line of battle. Pressed by the enemy, he retreated
through Milan to Turin. Suwarrow tarried in Milan to enjoy a triumph
accorded to him by the priests and the nobles, the creatures of
Austria.

[Footnote 27: "Suwarrow