ry behind it. Those towers are the forts
of the famous lines, which, curiously resembling in shape the
later Syracusan walls enclosing Epipalae, converge inland from
the eastern and western extremities of the city, looking
down--the western line on the valley of the Polcevera, the
eastern, on that of the Bisagno--till they meet, as I have
said, on the summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to
rise from the sea, and become more or less of a table land,
running off towards the interior, at the distance, as well as I
remember, of between two and three miles from the outside of
the city. Thus a very large open space is enclosed within the
lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast
intrenched camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In
the autumn of 1799, the Austrians had driven the French out of
Lombardy and Piedmont; their last victory of Fossano or Genola
had won the fortress of Coni or Cunco, close under the Alps,
and at the very extremity of the plain of the Po; the French
clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa--the
narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which
extends from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the
Arno. Hither the remains of the French force were collected,
commanded by General Massena; and the point of chief importance
to his defence was the city of Genoa. Napoleon had just
returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could
not be expected to take the field till the following spring,
and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from
without--every thing was to depend on his own pertinacity. The
strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a
position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the
population of a great city, held out to the enemy a hope of
reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its
supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval
commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of
his naval force to the Austrians; and, by the vigilance of his
cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left along the
Riviera, was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the
inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of
well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the