sertion that this command was the "dowry" offered
by Barras to the somewhat reluctant bride is more piquant than
correct. That the brilliance of Buonaparte's prospects finally
dissipated her scruples may be frankly admitted. But the appointment
to a command of a French army did not rest with Barras. He was only
one of the five Directors who now decided the chief details of
administration. His colleagues were Letourneur, Rewbell, La
Reveilliere-Lepeaux, and the great Carnot; and, as a matter of fact,
it was the last-named who chiefly decided the appointment in question.

He had seen and pondered over the plan of campaign which Buonaparte
had designed for the Army of Italy; and the vigour of the conception,
the masterly appreciation of topographical details which it displayed,
and the trenchant energy of its style had struck conviction to his
strategic genius. Buonaparte owed his command, not to a backstairs
intrigue, as was currently believed in the army, but rather to his own
commanding powers. While serving with the Army of Italy in 1794, he
had carefully studied the coast-line and the passes leading inland;
and, according to the well-known savant, Volney, the young officer,
shortly after his release from imprisonment, sketched out to him and
to a Commissioner of the Convention the details of the very plan of
campaign which was to carry him victoriously from the Genoese Riviera
into the heart of Austria.[35] While describing this masterpiece of
strategy, says Volney, Buonaparte spoke as if inspired. We can fancy
the wasted form dilating with a sense of power, the thin sallow cheeks
aglow with enthusiasm, the hawk-like eyes flashing at the sight of the
helpless Imperial quarry, as he pointed out on the map of Piedmont and
Lombardy the features which would favour a dashing invader and carry
him to the very gates of Vienna. The splendours of the Imperial Court
at the Tuileries seem tawdry and insipid when compared with the
intellectual grandeur which lit up that humble lodging at Nice with
the first rays that heralded the dawn of Italian liberation.

With the fuller knowledge which he had recently acquired, he now in
January, 1796, elaborated this plan of campaign, so that it at once
gained Carnot's admiration. The Directors forwarded it to General
Scherer, who was in command of the Army of Italy, but promptly
received the "brutal" reply that the man who had drafted the plan
ought to come and carry it out. Long dissatisf