, Brutus and Scipio. Then France would
give a glorious peace to Europe; then their fellow-citizens would say
of each champion of liberty as he returned to his hearth: "He was of
the Army of Italy." By such stirring words did he entwine with the
love of liberty that passion for military glory which was destined to
strangle the Republic.

Meanwhile the Austrians had retired behind the banks of the Mincio and
the walls of its guardian fortress, Mantua. Their position was one of
great strength. The river, which carries off the surplus waters of
Lake Garda, joins the River Po after a course of some thirty miles.
Along with the tongue-like cavity occupied by its parent lake, the
river forms the chief inner barrier to all invaders of Italy. From
the earliest times down to those of the two Napoleons, the banks of
the Mincio have witnessed many of the contests which have decided the
fortunes of the peninsula. On its lower course, where the river widens
out into a semicircular lagoon flanked by marshes and backwaters, is
the historic town of Mantua. For this position, if we may trust the
picturesque lines of Mantua's noblest son,[53] the three earliest
races of Northern Italy had striven; and when the power of imperial
Rome was waning, the fierce Attila pitched his camp on the banks of
the Mincio, and there received the pontiff Leo, whose prayers and
dignity averted the threatening torrent of the Scythian horse.

It was by this stream, famed in war as in song, that the Imperialists
now halted their shattered forces, awaiting reinforcements from Tyrol.
These would pass down the valley of the Adige, and in the last part of
their march would cross the lands of the Venetian Republic. For this
action there was a long-established right of way, which did not
involve a breach of the neutrality of Venice. But, as some of the
Austrian troops had straggled on to the Venetian territory south of
Brescia, the French commander had no hesitation in openly violating
Venetian neutrality by the occupation of that town (May 26th).
Augereau's division was also ordered to push on towards the west shore
of Lake Garda, and there collect boats as if a crossing were intended.
Seeing this, the Austrians seized the small Venetian fortress of
Peschiera, which commands the exit of the Mincio from the lake, and
Venetian neutrality was thenceforth wholly disregarded.

By adroit moves on the borders of the lake, Bonaparte now sought to
make Beaulieu nervous a