of departure. "Lose
no time, my friend; eat quickly; we are about to start." From this
moment I was attached to the personal service of the First Consul, in the
quality of ordinary valet; that is to say, in my turn. This duty gave me
little to do; Hambard, the head valet of the First Consul, being in the
habit of dressing him from head to foot.

Immediately after breakfast we began to descend the mountain, many
sliding down on the snow, very much as they coast at the garden Beaujon,
from top to bottom of the Montagnes Russes, and I followed their example.
This they called "sledding." The general-in-chief also descended in this
manner an almost perpendicular glacier. His guide was a young
countryman, active and courageous, to whom the First Consul promised a
sufficiency for the rest of his days. Some young soldiers who had
wandered off into the snow were found, almost dead with cold, by the
dogs sent out by the monks, and carried to the Hospice, where they
received every possible attention, and their lives were saved. The First
Consul gave substantial proof of his gratitude to the good fathers for a
charity so useful and generous. Before leaving the Hospice, where he had
found tables loaded with food already prepared awaiting the soldiers as
soon as they reached the summit of the mountain, he gave to the good
monks a considerable sum of money, in reward for the hospitality he and
his companions in arms had received, and an order on the treasury for an
annuity in support of the convent.

The same day we climbed Mount Albaredo; but as this passage was
impracticable for cavalry and artillery, he ordered them to pass outside
the town of Bard, under the batteries of the fort. The First Consul had
ordered that they should pass it at night, and on a gallop; and he had
straw tied around the wheels of the caissons and on the feet of the
horses, but even these precautions were not altogether sufficient to
prevent the Austrians hearing our troops. The cannon of the fort rained
grape-shot incessantly; but fortunately the houses of the town sheltered
our soldiers from the enemy's guns, and more than half the army passed
without much loss. I was with the household of the First Consul, which
under the care of General Gardanne flanked the fort.

The 23d of May we forded a torrent which flowed between the town and the
fort, with the First Consul at our head, and then, followed by General
Berthier and some other officers, took the path