o doubt the risk he took was awful, and the loss of life
terrible. Critics, too, have pointed out safer ways which they believe
would have led to the same result; be that as it may, in no other way
could the same dramatic effect have been produced. France went wild
with joy. The peoples of Italy bowed before the prodigy which thus
both paralyzed and fascinated them all. Austria was dispirited, and
her armies were awe-stricken. When, five days later, on May fifteenth,
amid silent but friendly throngs of wondering men, Bonaparte entered
Milan, not as the conqueror but as the liberator of Lombardy, at the
head of his veteran columns, there was already about his brows a mild
effulgence of supernatural light, which presaged to the growing band
of his followers the full glory in which he was later to shine on the
imagination of millions. It was after Lodi that his adoring soldiers
gave him the name of "Little Corporal," by which they ever after knew
him. He himself confessed that after Lodi some conception of his high
destiny arose in his mind for the first time.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

An Insubordinate Conqueror and Diplomatist.

Bonaparte's Assertion of Independence -- Helplessness of the
Directory -- Threats and Proclamations -- The General and
His Officers -- Bonaparte's Comprehensive Genius -- The
Devotion of France -- Uneasiness in Italy -- The Position of
the Austrians -- Bonaparte's Strategy -- His Conception of
the Problem in Italy -- Justification of His Foresight --
Modena, Parma, and the Papacy -- The French Radicals and the
Pope -- Bonaparte's Policy -- His Ambition.

[Sidenote: 1796.]

When the news of the successes in Piedmont reached Paris, public
festivals were decreed and celebrated; but the democratic spirit of
the directors could brook neither the contemptuous disregard of their
plan which Bonaparte had shown, nor his arrogant assumption of
diplomatic plenipotence. Knowing how thoroughly their doctrine had
permeated Piedmont, they had intended to make it a republic. It was
exasperating, therefore, that through Bonaparte's meddling they found
themselves still compelled to carry on negotiations with a monarchy.
The treaty with the King of Sardinia was ungraciously dictated and
signed by them on May fifteenth, but previous to the act they
determined to clip the wings of their dangerous falcon. This they
thought to accomplish by assigning Kellermann to share with