Scheerer, reduced the town and citadel of Brefcia, and forced the French to abandon the Oglio. On the twentieth, general Kaim fevereJy beat the rear guard of the enemy's right, at Cremona, and took four hundred prifoners. In this action, the Ruffians, for the first time, were engaged with the French.

The French had fcarcely fuffered a firft defeat, when the hatred felt, and the revenge referved for them broke forth with Italian heat. In a moment, the infurrection fpred itself on the two banks of the Po. The French, difperfed about the country, fell under the blows of those Italians, who were a few days before fo obedient, or were obliged to take refuge in the towns in which they had garrifons. Even fome towns, and among others Mirandola, were taken from them by the armed pealants, fupported by fome light imperial troops. The fparks of this fire paffed, as it were, over the heads of the French, and lighted up the Brefcian, the Bergamese, and Piedmont. The people affembled in feveral places, and where it did not burft it threatened. The fear of feeing a numerous population arriving behind him, and the impoffibility of making head at once against this and the Auftrians, contributed not a little to determine Scheerer to retire, that he might concentrate his force, fecure the fortified places of Piedmont, and receive thofe reinforcements fooner, which were on their way from France, and from Switzerland. But the reverfes, and retreat of this commander, though the former do not appear to have been owing to any thing that could be much, if at all, blamed in his conduct, and the latter, in his circumftanees, was

manifeftly prudent, heightened the deteftation in which he had been held in Paris: where the people, according to the natural exaggera tion of their impetuous minds, did not fcruple to fay, that, during his adminiftration, he had intentionally prepared the ruin of the French army. A court martial was talked of. The cries of the army, and of the jacobin councils, compelled the directory to strip Scheerer of his command, which was given to Mo reau, who was not in their favour, and who was invefted with the command on the banks of the Adda; where the French army was reinforced by fome troops from Piedmont, from Genoa, and from the interior of France, which, in part, made up for the facrifices of men it had been obliged to make, in forming the garrifons of Mantua, Pefchiera, Brefcia, and Pizzighetone.

The pofitions taken by the French were thefe: the left wing of the French army, commanded by Serrurier, defended the upper Adda from Lecco, on the lake of Como, to Trezzo, where it joined to the centre, where Moreau took his ftation, composed of the divifions of generals Victor and Grenier. All the place comprized between Trezzo and Callano was occupied by thefe two divifions. At their right, and behind Caffano, was placed the main body of their cavalry. The bridge-head of Caffano was ftrongly entrenched, and protected by the artillery of the cattle. It was protected likewife by the canal between the Adda and Milan, lined with riflemen, and defended by a great number of batteries raised along the banks of the river. The right of the French army, guarded by general Delmas, had its prin

cipal force at Lodi and Pizzighetone.

On the twenty-third, the allies continued their march without impediment, and encamped on the banks of the Adda, taking their pofitions along that river, and leaving thofe occupied by the French. Their head-quarters were placed at Treviglio. General Kaims' divifion held Pizzighetone in check, obferved the Lower Adda, and advance parties beyond the Po, to Placentia and Parma. One of thefe parties was fent into the latter place to carry off the Pope, whom the French were conducting into France. But the Auftrians, who were not informed of this circumstance, before it was too late, did not arrive at Parma till twenty-four hours after the unfortunate Pius the fixth, had been torn from thence. *

The line occupied by the French on the Adda, though they were only 25,000 ftrong, was of more than fifty miles. Marthal Suwarrow, unable to turn this line, and unwilling to be impeded by it, refolved to force it on the twenty-feyenth, and to make attacks, at the fame time, on its centre and left points, on which it was beft defended. In the night, between the twenty-fixth and twenty-leventh, general Wuckaflowich made himfelf mafter of a flying bridge, which the enemy had been negligent enough to deftroy but imperfectly. Having quickly repaired it, he marched four battalions and two fiquadrons acrofs the

river, and took up a position at Brivio, an important point, fituatedl at the end of the road leading to Milan, from the lake of Como, on the centre of the allied army; to reach the oppofite banks of the Adda, was not fo ealy. It was ftrongly guarded, its courfe rapid and finuous, and its banks fteep,. This palage could be effected only by a concurrence of boldnefs, acti vity, and good fortune. This concurrence marthal Suwarrow hoped to find and obtain in the marquis de Chafteller, his quarter-master general. The marquis having fent an officer of pontooneers, on the night of the twenty-fixth, to reconnoitre the banks of the river oppofite Trezzo; and having received a report that it was impoffible to throw over a bridge at that place, repaired to the fpot himself. He employed fome hundreds of the troops almost all night, in carrying the pontoons and planks neceflary to the conftruction of a bridge, to the edge of the water. At half after five the next morning the bridge was completed. All the light troops belonging to the centre of the allied army, having made hafte to pals the bridge, fell upon that part of the divifion which had occupied Trezzo, drove it from thence and repulfed it to Pozzo. A battle enfued between Pozzo and Brivio, the French were driven out of the village, and fome hundreds made prifoners. General Melas threw a flying bridge, which he had in readiness, over the

Adda

Adda, paffed it with his two divifions, and rejoined, on the fame night, marfhal Suwarrow, at Gorgonzello. The enemy who retired towards Milan were purfued: but the obfcurity of the night, and the fatigue of the allied troops, favoured their retreat. On the morrow, general Melas's divifions, lefs fatigued than thofe of the Ruffian marshal's, marched towards Milan, where they arrived without any obfracle. The imperial troops were received, in that populous capital of Lombardy, with the fame demonftrations of joy they had lavifhed on the French three years before. On the fame night, marfhal Suwarrow arrived at Milan with his whole staff.

General Wuckaffowich, by furprizing the paffage of the Adda at Brivio, and pofting himself at that place, had cut off the line of communication between the centre and the left of the French. This divifion, commanded by Serrurier, was on the point of being furrounded, on the twenty-eighth, by a body of Auftrians and Ruffians under Wuckaffowich, battered in every direction with his artillery, and charged with his cavalry: when the general, whofe force was now reduced to three thousand men, demanded to capitulate, which was granted to him. The conditions were, that the whole troops fhould lay down their arms and be made prifoners of war. The generals and officers, however were permitted to return to France, on their parole, not to serve again until exchanged.

This laft condition was a mark of respect fhewn to the bravery of 'old general Serrurier, and to the probity of his conduct.* The battle of the twenty-feventh, and the actions to which it led, on the upper Adda, coft the republicans five thousand men made prifoners, befides four thoufand wounded or killed. The lofs of the allies, on thefe different heads, amounted at leaft to two thoufand five hundred men, and thirty-two pieces of cannon on the field of battle, and a much greater number at Milan, Thus it appears that the imperialists fought for the fafety of Verona under its walls, on the twentyfixth and even thirtieth of March, and that eight-and-twenty days after, they were established in Mi lan, having, in the interval, invested two fortreffes, forced the paffage of a river lined with entrenchments, obtained two brilliant victories, killed or wounded more than fif teen thousand men, made a like number of prifoners, and taken more than one hundred pieces of cannon,

After the battle of the Adda, Moreau, compelled to yield the Milanefe to the conquerors, found himfeif in a very embarraffing fituation. He had with him scarcely fifteen thousand; and what remained of his forces, on his right and left, hardly amounted to ten thoufand more. With this fmall number, he had at once to preserve his communication with Switzerland, to defend the approaches of Turin, to cover the fortified places of east

ern

advantageous pofition which he had taken. General Wuckaffowich, taking poffeffion of the whole of the left bank of the Upper Po, abandoned by the French, pushed his advanced pofts as far as Chiavaffo. A ftrong detachment of his corps, under the command of prince Charles of Rohan, entered the valley of Aafti, and took poffeffion of Jorea. The centre of the Ruffian army, under general Rofenberg, occupied the Lummeline, prefenting a front against the French army. The left wing traverfed the duchy of Parma, and occupied Bobbio. The right pushed its advanced pofts as far as Vaghera. On the rear of the army, colonel Stranch gained more and more ground in the Valtelline, and took the important poft of Morbegno. Prince victor of Rohan, with two thoufand men, aided by the inhabitants of the country, after taking poffeffion of Como, pursued the enemy, who had retreated to Chiavenna. Another corps, fent from Milan, proceeded as far as Arona, on the lake Maggione. Such is the condenfed picture of the multiplied operations which the allied army undertook at the beginning of May: operations which divided it into a great number of corps, and thus, very much reducing the principal body of the army, afforded Moreau the hope of being able to maintain his ground. The allies were acting on a line almoft circular round the bafon, formed by the Alps and Appenines, and interfected by the Po. Of the great variety of objects which this campaign, in Italy, embraced, and the multiplicity of actions going on, at the fame time, in different places, it is utterly impoffible, in any other than a history profeffedly

6

and folély military, to give a de tailed account. All that can be done in the political hiftory of Europe, on our fcale, is to keep an eye on the principal bodies of the contending armies; to record the most ftriking circumstances, and the principal events of the campaign; and to mark the moft critical periods, and the final iffue of the whole.

Conformably to the plan already mentioned, marfhal Suwarrow de fermined to attack, at the fame time, both Moreau's flanks. On the fourteenth of May, the allied army pafled the Scrivia, and encamped at St. Juliano, thus taking a pofition on the right flank of Moreau. Neither this movement, nor another by general Wuckaffowick on the other fide, fhaking the firmness of Moreau, marfhal Suwarrow, hoping to weary him out by a new movement, gave orders to his army, in the night of the fixteenth, to fall back and to go and pafs the Po, near Casa Tifma, and from thence to proceed towards the Sefia. Moreau, informed of this order, or for fome other reason, in the night of the fif teenth, threw a bridge of boats over the Bormida, and on the fixteenth, in the morning, paffed that river with ten thousand men. He overthrew the advanced pofts of the allied army, and drove them by Maringo, towards St. Juliano. An action enfued, in which, after feve ral viciffitudes, he was forced to retreat, and at the fall of the night, to draw back all his troops acrofs the Bormida, with a lofs of one thousand two hundred men in killed, wounded, and prifoners. On the twenty-fifth, in the afternoon, the combined army, compofed of three Auftrian, and one Ruffian divifion, more than thirty thousand strong, encamped within a

league