Kellermann's reward was a warrant for his arrest and a summons to appear before the Convention.
It was to replace him whilst he went to give an account of his victories, that my father was called to the Army of the Alps.
His first care on arrival was to reconnoitre the enemy's lines and to re-establish the broken communications between the Army of the Alps and the Army in Italy; while busied over these preliminary operations he sent the Convention a plan of campaign which was adopted.
All this time my father was making friends with the boldest chamois-hunters; he made one or two excursions with them to show them that he was capable of making one of their party, and, when he had gained their confidence, or rather their devotion, by hunting with them among the snows, he converted his hunting comrades into guides.
One morning the general left his army in command of General Bagdelaune, took provisions to last several days, and set out with three of his faithful hunters.
He was absent five days; during these five days he examined all the passes by which it might be possible to reach the redoubt on Mont Cenis. This work was no easy task, for the passes could only be examined by night; and the least false step would have hurled a reckless scout into the precipices.
He returned on the fifth day.
Mont Cenis was the strategic point, the pivot on which all his plans had to turn; Mont Cenis, with its everlasting snows, its bottomless abysses, and its impracticable paths, was reckoned impregnable.
As he re-entered the camp my father remarked: