., pp. 444-446; Oncken, "Zeitalter," vol. ii. p. 45.]

[Footnote 139: A Foreign Office despatch, dated Downing Street,
February 8th, 1800, to Vienna, promised a loan and that 15,000 or
20,000 British troops should be employed in the Mediterranean to act
in concert with the Austrians there, and to give "support to the
royalist insurrections in the southern provinces of France." No
differences of opinion respecting Piedmont can be held a sufficient
excuse for the failure of the British Government to fulfil this
promise--a failure which contributed to the disaster at Marengo.]

[Footnote 140: Thiers attributes this device to Bonaparte; but the
First Consul's bulletin of May 24th ascribes it to Marmont and
Gassendi.]

[Footnote 141: Marbot, "Mems.," ch. ix.; Allardyce, "Memoir of Lord
Keith," ch. xiii.; Thiebault's "Journal of the Blockade of Genoa."]

[Footnote 142: That Melas expected such a march is clear from a letter
of his of May 23rd, dated from Savillan, to Lord Keith, which I have
found in the "Brit. Admiralty Records" (Mediterranean, No. 22), where
he says: "L'ennemi a cerne le fort de Bard et s'est avance jusque sous
le chateau d'Ivree. Il est clair que son but est de delivrer
Massena."]

[Footnote 143: Bonaparte did not leave Milan till June 9th: see
"Correspondance" and the bulletin of June 10th. Jomini places his
departure for the 7th, and thereby confuses his description for these
two days. Thiers dates it on June 8th.]

[Footnote 144: Lord W. Bentinck reported to the Brit. Admiralty
("Records," Meditn., No. 22), from Alessandria, on June 15th: "I am
sorry to say that General Elsnitz's corps, which was composed of the
grenadiers of the finest regiments in the (Austrian) army, arrived
here in the most deplorable condition. His men had already suffered
much from want of provisions and other hardships. He was pursued in
his retreat by Genl. Suchet, who had with him about 7,000 men. There
was an action at Ponte di Nava, in which the French failed; and it
will appear scarcely credible, when I tell your Lordship, that the
Austrians lost in this retreat, from fatigue only, near 5,000 men; and
I have no doubt that Genl. Suchet will notify this to the world as a
great victory."]

[Footnote 145: The inaccuracy of Marbot's "Memoires" is nowhere more
glaring than in his statement that Marengo must have gone against the
French if Ott's 25,000 Austrians from Genoa had joined their comrades.
As a matter of fact, Ot