mser, the
absence of a responsible second in command, the ignorance of the
number and positions of the French, the determination to advance
towards Castiglione and to wait thereabouts for Quosdanovich until a
battle could be fought with combined forces on the 7th, the taking up
a position almost by haphazard on the Castiglione-Medole line, and the
failure to detect Fiorella's approach, present a series of defects and
blunders which might have given away the victory to a third-rate
opponent.[61]

The battle was by no means sanguinary: it was a series of manoeuvres
rather than of prolonged conflicts. Hence its interest to all who by
preference dwell on the intellectual problems of warfare rather than
on the details of fighting. Bonaparte had previously shown that he
could deal blows with telling effect. The ease and grace of his moves
at the second battle of Castiglione now redeemed the reputation which
his uncertain behaviour on the four preceding days had somewhat
compromised.

A complete and authentic account of this week of confused fighting has
never been written. The archives of Vienna have not as yet yielded up
all their secrets; and the reputations of so many French officers were
over-clouded by this prolonged _melee_ as to render even the victors'
accounts vague and inconsistent. The aim of historians everywhere to
give a clear and vivid account, and the desire of Napoleonic
enthusiasts to represent their hero as always thinking clearly and
acting decisively, have fused trusty ores and worthless slag into an
alloy which has passed for true metal. But no student of Napoleon's
"Correspondence," of the "Memoirs" of Marmont, and of the recitals of
Augereau, Dumas, Landrieux, Verdier, Despinois and others, can hope
wholly to unravel the complications arising from the almost continuous
conflicts that extended over a dozen leagues of hilly country. War is
not always dramatic, however much the readers of campaigns may yearn
after thrilling narratives. In regard to this third act of the Italian
campaign, all that can safely be said is that Bonaparte's intuition to
raise the siege of Mantua, in order that he might defeat in detail the
relieving armies, bears the imprint of genius: but the execution of
this difficult movement was unequal, even at times halting; and the
French army was rescued from its difficulties only by the grand
fighting qualities of the rank and file, and by the Austrian blunders,
which outnumbered t