y ordered Serurier, who
was besieging Mantua, to make a last vigorous effort to take that
fortress, but also to assure his retreat westwards if fortune failed
him. Later in the day he ordered him forthwith to send away his
siege-train, throwing into the lake or burying whatever he could not
save from the advancing Imperialists.

This apparently desperate step, which seemed to forebode the
abandonment not only of the siege of Mantua, but of the whole of
Lombardy, was in reality a masterstroke. Bonaparte had perceived the
truth, which the campaigns of 1813 and 1870 were abundantly to
illustrate--that the possession of fortresses, and consequently their
siege by an invader, is of secondary importance when compared with a
decisive victory gained in the open. When menaced by superior forces
advancing towards the south of Lake Garda, he saw that he must
sacrifice his siege works, even his siege-train, in order to gain for
a few precious days that superiority in the field which the division
of the Imperialist columns still left to him.

The dates of these occurrences deserve close scrutiny; for they
suffice to refute some of the exorbitant claims made at a later time
by General Augereau, that only his immovable firmness forced Bonaparte
to fight and to change his dispositions of retreat into an attack
which re-established everything. This extraordinary assertion,
published by Augereau after he had deserted Napoleon in 1814, is
accompanied by a detailed recital of the events of July 30th-August
5th, in which Bonaparte appears as the dazed and discouraged
commander, surrounded by pusillanimous generals, and urged on to fight
solely by the confidence of Augereau. That the forceful energy of this
general had a great influence in restoring the _morale_ of the French
army in the confused and desperate movements which followed may freely
be granted. But his claims to have been the main spring of the French
movements in those anxious days deserve a brief examination. He
asserts that Bonaparte, "devoured by anxieties," met him at Roverbella
late in the evening of July 30th, and spoke of retiring beyond the
River Po. The official correspondence disproves this assertion.
Bonaparte had already given orders to Serurier to retire beyond the Po
with his artillery train; but this was obviously an attempt to save it
from the advancing Austrians; and the commander had ordered the
northern part of the French besieging force to join Augereau be