do so by the fact that it was a centre of British
trade, that it contributed much to the supply and repair of the
British fleet, and that the presence of vessels from the latter
enabled an eye to be kept upon the movements of the Corsicans, and
measures to be taken for impeding them.

"The enemy possessing themselves of Leghorn," Nelson had written in
the middle of March, when expecting them to do so by a coastwise
expedition, "cuts off all our supplies, such as fresh meat, fuel, and
various other most essential necessaries; and, of course, our fleet
cannot always [in that case] be looked for on the northern coast of
Italy." Bonaparte had not, indeed, at that time, contemplated any such
ex-centric movement, which, as things then were, would have risked so
large a part of his army out of his own control and his own support;
but in the middle of June, having driven the Austrians for the moment
into the Tyrol, consolidated his position upon the Adige, established
the siege of Mantua, and enforced order and submission throughout the
fertile valley of the Po, which lay in rear of his army and amply
supplied it with the necessaries of subsistence, he felt not only able
to spare the force required, but that for the security of the right
flank and rear of his army it had become essential to do so. The
Papacy and Naples, although they had contributed little to the active
campaigning of the allies, were still nominally at war with France,
and might possibly display more energy now that operations were
approaching their own frontiers. Should the British take possession of
Leghorn with a body of troops,--their own or Neapolitan,--the port
would remain a constant menace to the operations and communications of
the French, and especially at the critical moments when the Austrians
advanced to the relief of Mantua, as they must be expected to do, and
actually did on four several occasions during the succeeding six
months.

Bonaparte, as he was ever wont, diligently improved the opportunity
permitted to him by the need of the Austrians to reorganize and
reinforce Beaulieu's beaten army before again taking the field.
Threatened, as often again in later years, by enemies in divergent
directions, he with the utmost promptitude and by the most summary
measures struck down the foe on one side, before the other could stir.
Occupying Verona in the first days of June, he immediately afterwards
detached to the southward a corps under Augereau