[258] "The Directory adopted the most insulting forms in communicating with the Pope; the general wrote to him with respect. The Directory endeavoured to overthrow the authority of the Pope; Napoleon preserved it. The Directory banished and proscribed priests; Napoleon commanded his soldiers, wherever they might fall in with them, to remember that they were Frenchmen and their brothers."—Las Cases, tom. i., p. 170.
[259] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 25; Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 287.
[260] Botta, tom. ii., p. 199; Thibaudeau, tom. ii., p. 239.
[261] For an interesting sketch of the republic of San Marino, see Seward's Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, vol. iii., p. 276.
[262] Botta, tom. ii., p. 252; Daru, Hist. de Venise, tom. v., p. 544.
[263] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 130.
[264] "The Aulic Council at Vienna, that pernicious tribunal which, in the Seven Years' War, called Laudon to account for taking Schweidnitz without orders, has destroyed the schemes of many an Austrian general, for though plans of offensive operations may succeed when concerted at home, it is impossible to frame orders for every possible contingency."—Gentz, on the Fall of Prussia.
[265] At Bassano, on the 9th of March, Buonaparte thus addressed the troops—"Soldiers! the taking of Mantua has put an end to the war of Italy. You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and seventy actions; you have taken 100,000 prisoners, 500 field-pieces, 2000 heavy cannon, and four pontoon trains. The contributions laid on the countries you have conquered have fed, maintained, and paid the army; besides which you have sent thirty millions to the minister of finance for the use of the public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with 300 masterpieces of the arts of ancient and modern Italy, which it had required thirty centuries to produce. You have conquered for the Republic the finest countries in Europe. The Kings of Sardinia and Naples, the Pope, and the Duke of Parma, are separated from the coalition. You have expelled the English from Leghorn, Genoa, and Corsica. Yet higher destinies await you! You will prove yourselves worthy of them! Of all the foes who combined to stifle the Republic in its birth, the Emperor alone remains before you," &c.
[266] "The river is pretty deep, and a bridge would have been desirable; but the good-will of the soldiers supplied that deficiency. A drummer was the only person in danger, and he was saved by a woman who swam after him."—Montholon, tom. iv., p. 73.
[267] Montholon, tom. iv., p. 72; Jomini, tom. x., p. 33.