to descend from the summit of that pass to Susa, at the head of
the wide and open valley of the same name, where ample pasturage is to
be found; and short day's journey more brings the traveller to the plain
of Piedmont. But it is utterly irreconcilable with the idea that the
Carthaginians passed by the Little St Bernard; for from its summit to
the plains of Ivrea is four days' hard marching for an army, through the
narrow valley of Aosta, destitute for the most part of forage. 7. This
valley of Aosta is very rocky and narrow, and affords many positions
where a handful of men can arrest an army; in one of which, that of
Bard, a small Austrian garrison stopped Napoleon for twenty-four hours;
yet Polybius and Livy concur in stating, that after he descended the
mountains, the Carthaginians experienced no molestation on their way to
the Insubrians, their allies, on the banks of the Po. This is
inexplicable if they were struggling for three days through the narrow
and rocky defiles of the valley of Aosta, but perfectly intelligible if
they were traversing in half a day the broad and open valley of Susa,
offering no facilities to the attacks of the mountaineers.

But if Napoleon's passage of the St Bernard can never be compared to
that of Hannibal over Mont Cenis, it is impossible to deny that there is
a marked and striking similarity, in some respects, between the career
of the two heroes. Both rose to eminence, for the first time, by the
lustre of their Italian campaigns; the most brilliant strokes of both
were delivered almost on the same ground, immediately after having
surmounted the Alps; both headed the forces of the democratic party in
the country whose warriors they led, and were aided by it in those which
they conquered; both had a thorough aversion for that party in their
hearts; both continued, by their single genius, for nineteen years in
hostility against a host of enemies; both were overthrown at last, in a
single battle, on a distant shore, far from the scene of their former
triumphs; both were driven into exile by the hatred or apprehensions of
their enemies; both, after having reached the summit of glory, died
alone and unbefriended in a distant land; both have left names immortal
in the rolls of fame. It is no wonder that such striking similarities
should have forcibly struck the imaginations of men in every land. It is
remarkable that many of the greatest patriots who ever existed have died
in exile, after