which could not be abandoned.

It may be imagined with what delight the General, scarce aged
twenty-six, advanced to an independent field of glory and conquest,
confident in his own powers, and in the perfect knowledge of the country
which he had acquired, when, by his scientific plans of the campaign,
he had enabled General Dumorbion to drive the Austrians back, and obtain
possession of the Col di Tenda, Saorgio, and the gorges of the higher
Alps. Bonaparte's achievements had hitherto been under the auspices of
others. He made the dispositions before Toulon, but it was Dugommier who
had the credit of taking the place. Dumorbion, as we have just said,
obtained the merit of the advantages in Piedmont. Even in the civil
turmoil of 13th Vendemiaire, his actual services had been overshaded by
the official dignity of Barras, as commander-in-chief. But if he reaped
honor in Italy the success would be exclusively his own; and that proud
heart must have throbbed to meet danger upon such terms; that keen
spirit have toiled to discover the means of success.

For victory, he relied chiefly upon a system of tactics hitherto
unpractised in war, or at least upon any considerable or uniform scale.
As war becomes a profession, and a subject of deep study, it is
gradually discovered that the principles of tactics depend upon
mathematical and arithmetical science; and that the commander will be
victorious who can assemble the greatest number of forces upon the same
point at the same moment, notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to
the enemy when the general force is computed on both sides.

No man ever possessed in a greater degree than Bonaparte the power of
calculation and combination necessary for directing such decisive
manoeuvres. It constituted indeed his secret--as it was for some time
called--and that secret consisted in an imagination fertile in
expedients which would never have occurred to others; clearness and
precision in forming his plans; a mode of directing with certainty the
separate moving columns which were to execute them, by arranging so that
each division should arrive on the destined position at the exact time
when their service was necessary; and above all, in the knowledge which
enabled such a master-spirit to choose the most fitting subordinate
implements, to attach them to his person, and by explaining to them so
much of his plan as it was necessary each should execute, to secure the
exertion of their utmo