Arrived On The Plain, I Was Conducted
To The Spot Where The First Consul Stood At The Time That He Perceived The
Approach Of Desaix's Division.
I figured to myself the first Consul on his
white charger, halting his army, then in some confusion, riding
Along the
line exposed to a heavy fire from the Austrians, who cannonaded the whole
length of the line; aides-de-camp and orderlies falling around him, himself
calm and collected, "spying 'vantage," and observing that the Austrian
deployment was too extended, and their centre thereby weakened, suddenly
profiting of this circumstance to order Desaix's division to advance and
lead the charge which decided the victory on that memorable day, which,
according to Mascheroni:
splende
Nell' abisso de' secoli, qual Sole.
The whole field of battle is an extensive plain, with but few trees, and to
use Campbell's lines:
every turf beneath the feet
Marks out a soldier's sepulchre.
The Column, erected to commemorate this glorious victory, has been thrown
down by order of the Austrian government - a poor piece of puerile spite,
but worthy of legitimacy. Alexandria is, or rather was, for the
fortifications no longer exist, more remarkable for being an important
military post than for the beauty of the city itself. There is, however, a
fine and spacious Place, which serves as a parade for the garrison, and
being planted with trees by the French when they held it, forms an
agreeable promenade. The fortifications were blown up by the Austrians
before the place was given over to the Sardinian authorities, a flagrant
breach of faith and contract, since by the treaty of 1814 they were bound
to give up all the fortified places that were restored or ceded to the King
of Sardinia in the same state in which they were found when the French
evacuated them, and the Austrians took possession provisorily. The French
regarding (and with reason) this fortress as the key of Lombardy always
kept the fortifications in good repair and well provided with cannon. But
the Austrian government, knowing itself to be unpopular in Italy and
trembling for the safety of her dominions, being always fearful that the
Piedmontese Government might one day be induced to favour an
insurrectionary or national movement in the north of Italy, determined,
finding that it could not keep the fortress for itself, which it strove
hard to do under divers pretexts, to render it of as little use as they
possibly could do to the King of Sardinia; so they blew up the
fortifications and carried off the cannon, leaving the King without a
single fortified place in the whole of his Italian dominions to defend
himself, in case of attack, against an Austrian invasion.
On the morning of the 15th August we passed thro' Tortona, now no longer a
fortress of consequence. All this country may be considered as classic
ground, immortalized by the campaigns of Napoleon, when commander in chief
of the army of the French Republic in Italy, a far greater and more
illustrious role than when he assumed the Imperial bauble and
condescended to mix with the vulgar herd of Kings.
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