We ascended this path on foot with some difficulty.  On reaching the summit of the mountain, which commands the fort, Bonaparte levelled his telescope on the grass, and stationing himself behind some bushes, which served at once to shelter and conceal him, he attentively reconnoitered the fort.  After addressing several questions to the persons who had come to give him information, he mentioned, in a tone of dissatisfaction, the faults that had been committed, and ordered the erection of a new battery to attack a point which he marked out, and from whence, he guaranteed, the firing of a few shots would oblige the fort to surrender.  Having given these orders he descended the mountain and went to sleep that night at Yvree.  On the 3d of June he learned that the fort had surrendered the day before.

The passage of Mont St. Bernard must occupy a great place in the annals of successful temerity.  The boldness of the First Consul seemed, as it were, to have fascinated the enemy, and his enterprise was so unexpected that not a single Austrian corps defended the approaches of the fort of Bard.  The country was entirely exposed, and we only encountered here and there a few feeble parties, who were incapable of checking our march upon Milan.  Bonaparte’s advance astonished and confounded the enemy, who thought of nothing but marching back the way he came, and renouncing the invasion of France.  The bold genius which actuated Bonaparte did not inspire General Melas, the commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces.  If Melas had had the firmness which ought to belong to the leader of an army—­if he had compared the respective positions of the two parties—­if he had considered that there was no longer time to regain his line of operations and recover his communication with the Hereditary States, that he was master of all the strong places in Italy, that he had nothing to fear from Massena, that Suchet could not resist him:—­if, then, following Bonaparte’s’ example, he had marched upon Lyons, what would have become of the First Consul?  Melas would have found few obstacles, and almost everywhere open towns, while the French army would have been exhausted without having an enemy to fight.  This is, doubtless, what Bonaparte would have done had he been Melas; but, fortunately for us, Melas was not Bonaparte.

We arrived at Milan on the 2d of June, the day on which the First Consul heard that the fort of Bard was taken.  But little resistance was opposed to our entrance to the capital of Lombardy, and the term “engagements” can scarcely be applied to a few affairs of advance posts, in which success could not be for a moment doubtful; the fort of Milan was immediately blockaded.  Murat was sent to Piacenza, of which he took possession without difficulty, and Lannes beat General Ott at Montebello.  He was far from imagining that by that exploit he conquered for himself a future duchy!