[546] "Supposing it had proved quite impossible to pass the artillery through the town of Bard, would the French army have repassed the Great Saint Bernard? No: it would have debouched as far as Ivrea—a movement which would necessarily have recalled Melas from Nice."—Napoleon, Gourgaud, tom. i., p 272.
[547] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 188; Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 274.
[548] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 202; Thibaudeau, tom. vi., p 286.
[549] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 198.
[550] Napoleon says, that Massena proposed to General Ott to send in provisions to feed these unhappy men, pledging his honour they should be used to no other purpose, and that General Ott was displeased with Lord Keith for declining to comply with a proposal so utterly unknown in the usages of war.—S. [Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 227.] It is difficult to give credit to this story.
[551] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 231; Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 228. See also Thiébaut, Journal Historique du Siège de Gênes.
[552] "Massena ought to have broken off, upon the certainty that within four or five days the blockade would be raised; in fact, it would have been raised twelve hours after."—Napoleon, Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 241.
[553] Jomini, tom. xiii., p. 210; Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 279.
[554] "One of the first persons who presented themselves to the eyes of the Milanese, whom enthusiasm and curiosity led by all the by-roads to meet the French army, was General Buonaparte. The people of Milan would not believe it: it had been reported that he had died in the Red Sea, and that it was one of his brothers who now commanded the French army."—Napoleon, Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 280.
[555] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 282.