he order to proceed
to Nice. I was shocked and disgusted by the dreary spectacle of civil
broil, and I thirsted for distinction. The memory of wrong also rankled in
my bosom, and in my dreams I planted the revolutionary banner on the
battlements of St. Michael, and heard myself hailed in the halls of the
insolent Austrian with the acclamations due to a hero.

I joined my regiment; but a government weakened by vacillations in its
form, and dissensions in the capital, permitted the army, with which my
hopes were associated, to languish ill-appointed and inactive. Instead of
running a career of glory, it was forced to contend with the most
depressing privations. In my despondency, a long-delayed letter arrived
from my father. Its contents were almost limited to the earnest request,
that I would immediately hasten home.

Its emphatic urgency, unaccompanied by explanation, assured me that all
went not well. I would fain have obeyed the summons, but it was
impracticable. The Directory, established in authority, ordered the army
of Italy to the field. General Bonaparte, an officer in his twenty-sixth
year, marshaled the way to the Alps.

Napoleon's campaigns in 1796 are familiar to all Europe. It was my fortune
to be present in the most remarkable engagements, and to escape without a
wound. When Wurmser, after repeated defeats, succeeded in recruiting his
forces in the Tyrol, a strong body of our troops, headed by the
commander-in-chief, advanced against a division of 20,000 Austrians
stationed at Roveredo. Our line of march lay through the district of my
birth. A few hours before we were in motion I was summoned to the quarters
of the general. It was the well-known characteristic of this extraordinary
man scrupulously to ascertain the extent of his resources, even to the
qualifications of an individual soldier.

Aware of my knowledge of the country he was about to penetrate, he wished
to make it subservient to his purpose. He questioned me as to the
correctness of some local information, which I perceived had been derived
from the documents of Philippon. Satisfied on these points, he sportively
inquired, if I had any dislike to act as his herald to my old neighbors. I
related my obligations to our German superior, and he promised me ample
powers for discharging them in full.

We were evidently unexpected. No artificial obstacle opposed our progress,
and we proceeded with unexampled celerity. Our advanced posts were only