Buonaparte, after making himself master of some scattered corps which had not been successful in keeping up with Wurmser, re-appeared once more before Mantua.  The battle of St. George—­so called from one of the suburbs of the city—­was fought on the 13th of September, and after prodigious slaughter, the French remained in possession of all the causeways; so that the blockade of the city and fortress was henceforth complete.  The garrison, when Wurmser shut himself up, amounted to 26,000.  Before October was far advanced the pestilential air of the place, and the scarcity and badness of provisions, had filled his hospitals, and left him hardly half the number in fighting condition.  The misery of the besieged town was extreme; and if Austria meant to rescue Wurmser, there was no time to be lost.

[Footnote 10:  Vallette was cashiered.  Augereau was afterwards created Duke of Castiglione, in memory of this exploit.]

CHAPTER VII

Affairs of Corsica—­Alvinzi assumes the Command of the Austrians on the Italian frontier—­The three Battles of Arcola—­Retreat of Alvinzi—­Battle of Rivoli—­Battle of La Favorita—­Surrender of Mantua—­Victor marches on Ancona—­Despair of the Pope—­Treaty of Tollentino.

The French party in Corsica had not contemplated without pride and exultation the triumphs of their countryman.  His seizure of Leghorn, by cutting off the supplies from England, greatly distressed the opposite party in the island, and an expedition of Corsican exiles, which he now despatched from Tuscany, was successful in finally reconquering the country.  To Napoleon this acquisition was due; nor were the Directory insensible to its value.  He, meanwhile, had heavier business on his hands.

The Austrian council well knew that Mantua was in excellent keeping; and being now relieved on the Rhenish frontier, by the failure of Jourdan and Moreau’s attempts, were able to form once more a powerful armament on that of Italy.  The supreme command was given to Marshal Alvinzi, a veteran of high reputation.  He, having made extensive levies in Illyria, appeared at Friuli; while Davidowich, with the remnant of Quasdonowich’s army, amply recruited among the bold peasantry of the Tyrol, and with fresh drafts from the Rhine, took ground above Trent.  The marshal had in all 60,000 men under his orders.  Buonaparte had received only twelve new battalions, to replace all the losses of those terrible campaigns, in which three imperial armies had already been annihilated.  The enemy’s superiority of numbers was once more such, that nothing but the most masterly combinations on the part of the French general could have prevented them from sweeping everything before them in the plains of Lombardy.