r, the French remained in possession of all the
causeways; so that the blockade of the city and fortress was henceforth
complete. The garrison, when Wurmser shut himself up, amounted to
26,000. Before October was far advanced the pestilential air of the
place, and the scarcity and badness of provisions, had filled his
hospitals, and left him hardly half the number in fighting condition.
The misery of the besieged town was extreme; and if Austria meant to
rescue Wurmser, there was no time to be lost.

[Footnote 10: Vallette was cashiered. Augereau was afterwards created
Duke of Castiglione, in memory of this exploit.]

CHAPTER VII

Affairs of Corsica--Alvinzi assumes the Command of the Austrians on
the Italian frontier--The three Battles of Arcola--Retreat of
Alvinzi--Battle of Rivoli--Battle of La Favorita--Surrender of
Mantua--Victor marches on Ancona--Despair of the Pope--Treaty of
Tollentino.

The French party in Corsica had not contemplated without pride and
exultation the triumphs of their countryman. His seizure of Leghorn, by
cutting off the supplies from England, greatly distressed the opposite
party in the island, and an expedition of Corsican exiles, which he now
despatched from Tuscany, was successful in finally reconquering the
country. To Napoleon this acquisition was due; nor were the Directory
insensible to its value. He, meanwhile, had heavier business on his
hands.

The Austrian council well knew that Mantua was in excellent keeping; and
being now relieved on the Rhenish frontier, by the failure of Jourdan
and Moreau's attempts, were able to form once more a powerful armament
on that of Italy. The supreme command was given to Marshal Alvinzi, a
veteran of high reputation. He, having made extensive levies in Illyria,
appeared at Friuli; while Davidowich, with the remnant of Quasdonowich's
army, amply recruited among the bold peasantry of the Tyrol, and with
fresh drafts from the Rhine, took ground above Trent. The marshal had in
all 60,000 men under his orders. Buonaparte had received only twelve new
battalions, to replace all the losses of those terrible campaigns, in
which three imperial armies had already been annihilated. The enemy's
superiority of numbers was once more such, that nothing but the most
masterly combinations on the part of the French general could have
prevented them from sweeping everything before them in the plains of
Lombardy.

Buonaparte hea