Here it was that the final battle took place, as he had predicted.
We know the results. At eight in the morning 45,000 Austrians invited battle.
At five in the evening they were nowhere to be seen; it was as though an earthquake had swallowed them up; Alvintzy had been wiped out at a single stroke.
There was still Provera to be dealt with.
Provera followed the plan indicated in the letter intercepted by my father; he slipped away from Augereau and threw a bridge over Anghiari, a little above Legnago. He marched on Mantua, which he intended to reinforce with nine or ten thousand men.
Augereau had obtained knowledge of his crossing; falling upon his rear, he took 2000 of his men prisoners; but Provera continued his march with the remaining 7000.
Luckily, Bonaparte learnt these details at Castelnovo. He was about the same distance from Mantua, he had Frenchmen under his command, and he would therefore reach it before Provera.
If he did not arrive, and if the garrison attempted the sortie Wurmser had been ordered to take in Alvintzy's letter, the blockading corps would be caught between two fires.
Masséna's division received orders to march at double quick pace to Mantua, where it should arrive the same evening. The reserves from Villa-Franca were to take the same route and march at the same speed.
Finally, Bonaparte himself galloped off to reach Mantua before nightfall.