r
and fighting with the fury of a Cossack, he was just the man required to
continue General Melas's successes over the soldiers of the Republic,
discouraged as they had been by the weak vacillations of Scherer.

The Austro-Russian army of one hundred thousand men was opposed by only
twenty-nine or thirty thousand French. Souvarow began as usual with a
thundering blow. On 20th April he appeared before Brescia, which made a
vain attempt at resistance; after a cannonade of about half an hour's
duration, the Preschiera gate was forced, and the Korsakow division, of
which Foedor's regiment formed the vanguard, charged into the town,
pursuing the garrison, which only consisted of twelve hundred men, and
obliged them to take refuge in the citadel. Pressed with an impetuosity
the French were not accustomed to find in their enemies, and seeing that
the scaling ladders were already in position against the ramparts, the
captain Boucret wished to come to terms; but his position was too
precarious for him to obtain any conditions from his savage conquerors,
and he and his soldiers were made prisoners of war.

Souvarow was experienced enough to know how best to profit by victory;
hardly master of Brescia, the rapid occupation of which had discouraged
our army anew, he ordered General Kray to vigorously press on the siege
of Preschiera. General Kray therefore established his headquarters at
Valeggio, a place situated at an equal distance between Preschiera and
Mantua, and he extended from the Po to the lake of Garda, on the banks of
the Mencio, thus investing the two cities at the same time.

Meanwhile the commander-in-chief had advanced, accompanied by the larger
part of his forces, and had crossed the Oglio in two columns: he launched
one column, under General Rosenberg, towards Bergamo, and the other, with
General Melas in charge, towards the Serio, whilst a body of seven or
eight thousand men, commanded by General Kaim and General Hohenzollern,
were directed towards Placentia and Cremona, thus occupying the whole of
the left bank of the Po, in such a manner that the Austro-Russian army
advanced deploying eighty thousand men along a front of forty-five miles.

In view of the forces which were advancing, and which were three times as
large as his own, Scherer beat a retreat all along the line. He destroyed
the bridges over the Adda, as he did not consider that he was strong
enough to hold them, and, having removed his headquart