ench troops entering the outworks pell-mell
with the retreating enemy, and in less than two hours after the landing
of our first detachments, the tricolour waved over the walls of the
fortress.

Lost amid the greater and more important successes which since that time
have immortalised the glory of the French arms, it is almost impossible
to credit the celebrity attached at that time to this brilliant
achievement, whose highest merits probably were rapidity and resolution.
Moreau had long been jealous of the fame of his great rival, Bonaparte,
whose tactics, rejecting the colder dictates of prudent strategy, and
the slow progress of scientific manouvres, seemed to place all his
confidence in the sudden inspirations of his genius, and the indomitable
bravery of his troops. It was necessary, then, to raise the morale of
the army of the Rhine, to accomplish some great feat similar in boldness
and heroism to the wonderful achievements of the Italian army. Such was
the passage of the Rhine at Strasbourg, effected in the face of a great
enemy, advantageously posted, and supported by one of the strongest of
all the frontier fortresses.

The morning broke upon us in all the exultation of our triumph, and as
our cheers rose high over the field of the late struggle, each heart
beat proudly with the thought of how that news would be received in
Paris.

'You 'll see how the bulletin will spoil all,' said a young officer of
the army of Italy, as he was getting his wound dressed on the field.
'There will be such a long narrative of irrelevant matter--such details
of this, that, and t' other--that the public will scarce know whether
the placard announces a defeat or a victory.'

'_Parbleu!_' replied an old veteran of the Rhine army, 'what would you
have? You'd not desire to omit the military facts of such an exploit?'

'To be sure I would,' rejoined the other. 'Give me one of our young
general's bulletins, short, stirring, and effective:--"Soldiers! you
have crossed the Rhine against an army double your own in numbers and
munitions of war. You have carried a fortress, believed impregnable, at
the bayonet. Already the great flag of our nation waves over the citadel
you have won. Forward, then, and cease not till it floats over the
cities of conquered Germany, and let the name of France be that of
Empire over the continent of Europe.'"

'Ha! I like that, cried I enthusiastically; 'that's the bulletin to my
fancy. Repeat it once mo