rmed
this service so impetuously, that the Austrian troops took refuge in the
castle, and the French made good their lodgment in the houses below. For
some hours the garrison poured down grape-shot at half-musket distance
upon the French, but at last out of compassion for the inhabitants, the
fire slackened, and ere day broke Buonaparte had effected his main
purpose. The streets of the town having been strewn with litter to
deafen sound, the guns, covered with straw and branches of trees, were
dragged through it under the very guns of St. Bard, and without exciting
the least suspicion in its garrison. Next morning the Austrian sent on
a messenger to Melas, with tidings that a large division of the French
had indeed passed by the goat-tracks of Albaredo, but that most
certainly not one great gun was with them. Buonaparte, meantime, was
hurrying forwards with horse, foot, and artillery too, upon Ivrea.

The march of the Consul received no new check until he reached the town
of Ivrea, where, after two days' hard fighting, Lannes at length forced
an entrance, and the garrison, with severe loss, withdrew. Buonaparte
then took the road to Turin, and the vanguard had another severe piece
of service at the bridge of Chiusilla, where 10,000 Austrians had been
very strongly posted. Lannes broke them, and pursuing as far as Orca,
cut them off from their magazines at Chevagno, and seized a vast
quantity of stores which had been embarked on the Po. The advance was
now within one march of Turin, while Murat occupied Vercelli, and the
other divisions (those of Moncey, Chabran, and Thureau), having
accomplished their several Alpine journeys, were pouring down upon the
low country, and gradually converging towards the appointed rendezvous
on the Ticino. Buonaparte had thus overcome the great difficulties of
his preparation, and was ready with his whole army to open the campaign
in good earnest against Melas.

The blockade of Genoa had been kept up all this time; while Suchet
resolutely maintained the last line of defence on the old frontier of
France. On the 22nd of May Melas made a desperate effort to force the
passage of the Var, but failed; and immediately afterwards received his
first intelligence of the movements of Buonaparte, and the defeat of his
own detachment at the bridge of Chiusilla. He perceived that it was high
time to leave Suchet to inferior hands, and set off to oppose in person
"the army of reserve." Suchet, on his p