e most perilous kind. The genius of Carnot had devised
a great scheme of operations, of which one half was thus at once cut
short. He had meant Moreau and Jourdan, coalescing beyond the Rhine, to
march upon the Tyrol; while Buonaparte should advance from the scene of
his Italian conquests, join his brother generals on that frontier, and
then march in union with them to dictate a peace before the gates of
Vienna. All hope of this junction of forces was now at an end for this
campaign. The French saw themselves compelled to resume the defensive on
the western frontier of Germany; and the army of Italy had to await the
overwhelming war which seemed ready to pour down upon Lombardy from the
passes of the Tyrol.

Wurmser, when he fixed his headquarters at Trent, mustered in all
80,000; while Buonaparte had but 30,000, to hold a wide country, in
which abhorrence of the French cause was now prevalent, to keep up the
blockade of Mantua, and to oppose this fearful odds of numbers in the
field. He was now, moreover, to act on the defensive, while his
adversary assumed the more inspiriting character of invader. He awaited
the result with calmness.

Wurmser might have learned from the successes of Buonaparte the
advantages of compact movement; yet he was unwise enough to divide his
great force into three separate columns, and to place one of these upon
a line of march which entirely separated it from the support of the
others. He himself, with his centre, came down on the left bank of the
Lago di Guarda, with Mantua before him as his mark: his left wing, under
Melas, was to descend the Adige, and drive the French from Verona; while
the right wing, under Quasdonowich, were ordered to keep down the valley
of the Chiese, in the direction of Brescia, and so to cut off the
retreat of Buonaparte upon the Milanese;--in other words, to interpose
the waters of the Lago di Guarda between themselves and the march of
their friends--a blunder not likely to escape the eagle eye of Napoleon.

He immediately determined to march against Quasdonowich, and fight him
where he could not be supported by the other two columns. This could
not be done without abandoning for the time the blockade of Mantua; but
it was not for Buonaparte to hesitate about purchasing a great ultimate
advantage by a present sacrifice, however disagreeable. The guns were
buried in the trenches during the night of the 31st July, and the French
quitted the place with a precipit