rs sustained an irreparable loss in the death
of Desaix, who fell in the moment when his skill and vigour snatched
victory from defeat. The victory was immediately due to Kellermann's
brilliant charge; and there can be no doubt, in spite of Savary's
statements, that this young officer made the charge on his own
initiative. Yet his onset could have had little effect, had not Desaix
shaken the enemy and left him liable to a panic like that which
brought disaster to the Imperialists at Rivoli. Bonaparte's
dispositions at the crisis were undoubtedly skilful; but in the first
part of the fight his conduct was below his reputation. We do not hear
of him electrifying his disordered troops by any deed comparable with
that of Caesar, when, shield in hand, he flung himself among the
legionaries to stem the torrent of the Nervii. At the climax of the
fight he uttered the words "Soldiers, remember it is my custom to
bivouac on the field of battle"--tame and egotistical words
considering the gravity of the crisis.

On the evening of the great day, while paying an exaggerated
compliment to Bessieres and the cavalry of the Consular Guard, he
merely remarked to Kellermann: "You made a very good charge"; to which
that officer is said to have replied: "I am glad you are satisfied,
general: for it has placed the crown on your head." Such pettiness was
unworthy of the great captain who could design and carry through the
memorable campaign of Marengo. If the climax was not worthy of the
inception, yet the campaign as a whole must be pronounced a
masterpiece. Since the days of Hannibal no design so daring and
original had startled the world. A great Austrian army was stopped in
its victorious career, was compelled to turn on its shattered
communications, and to fight for its existence some 120 miles to the
rear of the territory which it seemed to have conquered. In fact, the
allied victories of the past year were effaced by this march of
Bonaparte's army, which, in less than a month after the ascent of the
Alps, regained Nice, Piedmont, and Lombardy, and reduced the
Imperialists to the direst straits.

Staggered by this terrific blow, Melas and his staff were ready to
accept any terms that were not deeply humiliating; and Bonaparte on
his side was not loth to end the campaign in a blaze of glory. He
consented that the Imperial troops should retire to the east of the
Mincio, except at Peschiera and Mantua, which they were still to
occupy.