On the next and following days the division of General Séras had several little engagements with the enemy, during which I continued to command my fifty hussars, doing scout duty, to the general's satisfaction. In his report to General Championnet General Séras praised my conduct in stately terms and reported it also to my father; so that when, a few days later, I brought my detachment back to Savona, my father received me with every sign of affection. I was in raptures. When I rejoined our bivouac where the regiment was all again assembled, the troopers of my detachment who had got there before me related what we had done, always giving me the lion's share of the success; so I was received with acclamation by officers and soldiers, as well as by my new comrades the non-commissioned officers, who presented me with my sergeant's stripes. That day I saw, for the first time, Pertelay junior, who was just back from Genoa, where he had been for some months on special service. I made great friends with this excellent man, and was sorry that I had not had him for mentor at the beginning of my career, for he gave me good advice, which made me quieter, and caused me to break off my connection with the 'gang.'

The commander-in-chief, having in view certain operations in the interior of Piedmont, in the direction of Cuneo and Mondovi, and being very short of cavalry, directed my father to send him the 1st Hussars. As a matter of fact, we could stay no longer at La Madona, for want of forage. I took leave of my father with much regret, and departed with the regiment. We followed the Corniche as far as Alberga, crossed the Apennines, in spite of the snow, and reached the fertile plains of Piedmont. The commander-in-chief fought a series of actions in the neighbourhood of Fossano, Novi, and Mondovi, with varying success.

In some of these fights I had occasion to see Brigadier-General Macard, a soldier of fortune, who had been carried by the whirlwind of the Revolution, almost without intermediate steps, from the rank of trumpet-major to that of general officer. He was an excellent specimen of the officers who were called into existence by chance and their own courage, and who, while they displayed a very genuine valor before the enemy, were none the less unfitted by their want of education for filling exalted positions. He was chiefly remarkable for a very quaint peculiarity. Of colossal size and extraordinary bravery, this singular person, when he was about to charge at the head of his troops, invariably cried, 'Look here! I'm going to dress like a beast.' Therewith he would take off his coat, his vest, his shirt, and keep on nothing except his plumed hat, his leather breeches, and his boots. Stripped thus to the waist, General Macard offered to view a chest almost as shaggy as a bear's, which gave him a very strange appearance. When he had once got on what he very truly called his beast's clothing, General Macard would dash forward recklessly, sabre in hand, and swearing like a pagan, on the enemy's cavalry. But he very seldom got at the m, for at the sight of this giant, half naked, hairy all over, and in such a strange outfit, who was hurling himself at them and uttering the most fearfull yells, his opponents would bolt on all sides, scarcely knowing if they had a man to deal with or some strange wild animal.

General Macard was, as might be expected, completely ignorant, which sometimes caused great amusement to the better-educated officers under his command. One day one of these came to ask leave to go into the neighbouring town to order himself a pair of boots. 'By Jove!' said the general, 'that will suit well; as you are going to a shoemaker, just come here and take my measure and order me a pair too.' The officer, much surprised, replied that he could not take his measure, as, never having been a shoemaker, he had not the least idea how to set about it. 'What!' cried the general, 'I sometimes see you pass whole days looking at the mountains, pencilling and drawing lines, and when I ask you what you are doing, you answer that you are measuring the mountains; well, if you can measure objects more than a league away from you, what do you mean by telling me that you cannot take my measure for a pair of boots when you have got me under your hand? Come, take my measure without any more ado.' The officer assured him that it was impossible; the general insisted, got angry, began to swear; and it was only with great difficulty that other officers, attracted by the noise, succeeded in bringing this ridiculous scene to an end. The general never would understand how an officer who measured the mountains could be unable to measure a man for a pair of boots.

You must not think from this anecdote that all the general officers of the Army of Italy were of the same sort as brave General Macard; far from it. It included a great number of men distinguished for their education and their manners, but at this period it still contained several commanders who, as I have just said, were out of place in the upper ranks of the army. They were gradually eliminated.

The 1st Hussars took part in all the combats which at this time were fought in Piedmont, and went near to lose considerably in its encounters with the Austrian heavy cavalry. After several marches and counter-marches and a succession of small affairs almost every day, General Championnet, having brought up the centre and the left of his army between Cuneo and Mondovi on the l0th Nivose, attacked several divisions of the enemy. The fight took place in a plain intersected with low hills and clumps of wood. The 1st Hussars attached to General Beaumont's brigade were placed at the extreme right of the French army. As you are aware, the number of soldiers and officers comprising a squadron is fixed by the regulations. Our regiment, having suffered in the preceding affairs, could only put three squadrons in line that day instead of four; but there remained some thirty men as supernumeraries, among them five non-commissioned officers, including myself and the brothers Pertelay. We were formed in two sections, commanded by the brave and intelligent Pertelay junior. General Beaumont, who knew his capacity, directed him to scout on the right flank of the army, giving him no special instruction, but orders to act as seemed best under the circumstances. We therefore left the regiment and went to search the country. Meanwhile a brisk combat took place between the two forces. After an hour we were falling back on our main body without having met anything on the flank, when Pertelay perceived in face of us, and consequently on the extreme left of the enemy's line, a battery of eight pieces, whose fire was doing much execution in the French ranks. With unpardonable imprudence this Austrian battery, with a view of getting better aim, had been brought up to a little plateau seven or eight hundred paces in advance of the infantry division to which it belonged. The commander of the artillery believed himself to be quite safe, thinking that, as the point which he occupied commanded the whole French line, if any force was detached to attack him, he would perceive it in time to fall back on the Austrian line. He had not considered that a little clump of trees very near his position might conceal a body French. It did not as yet contain any; but Pertelay resolved to lead his section thither, and thence to charge upon the Austrian battery. To conceal his movement from the enemy's gunners he acted on the well-known principle that in war no one takes any notice of a solitary horseman. His design, as he explained it to us, was to send us individually round by a hollow road until, one after another, we should get behind the wood, which was to the left of the enemy's battery; thence we were to make a dash upon it all at once without any fear of his shot, seeing that we should come up on the flank of the guns; we should capture these, and bring them to the French army. The movement was executed without being perceived by the Austrian gunners. We went off one by one, and by a circuitous march reached the rear of the little wood, where we re-formed our section. Young Pertelay put himself at our head; we passed through the wood and dashed, sabre in hand, on the enemy's battery, just as it was pouring a terrible fire upon our troops. We sabred some of the gunners, the remainder hid under the ammunition wagons, where our swords could not reach them.

Pertelay's instructions were neither to kill nor wound the drivers, but to force them at the sword's point to push their horses on and to draw the guns as far as the French line. This order was satisfactorily carried out with regard to six pieces, the drivers remaining mounted and following our injunctions. But those of the other two guns, whether through fright or determination, dismounted from their horses. The hussars might pull the animals by the bridles as they would, they could not be got to move. The nearest battalions of the enemy were coming up at the double to support their battery; minutes were like hours for us. At length Pertelay, satisfied with having captured six guns, gave orders to abandon the others and to gallop in with those we had taken upon our own army. Prudent as this step was, it proved fatal to our gallant leader; for hardly had we begun our retreat when the gunners and their officers, emerging from below the ammunition wagons which had protected them from our swords, loaded with canister the two guns which we had not been able to carry off, and sent a hail of missiles into our backs.

You can imagine that thirty troopers, six guns harnessed each to six horses and driven by three drivers, marching in loose order, presents a wide surface, so nearly every missile told. We had two sergeants and several troopers killed or wounded, and one or two of the drivers; several horses, also, were disabled--so much so that the greater number of the teams were thrown into disorder and could get no farther. Pertelay, with the most perfect coolness, gave orders to cut the traces of the killed and disabled horses, to replace the killed and wounded drivers by hussars, and to go forward as fast as we could; but the few minutes which we lost in carrying out this order had been utilised by the commander of the Austrian battery. He let us have a second volley of canister, which caused us fresh losses; but our blood was up and we were resolved not to abandon the six guns which we had captured; we again succeeded in patching everything up as well as we could and in resuming our march. We were almost touching the French line, and were beyond the range of canister, when our enemy changed his projectile and sent two round-shots at us, one of which broke poor Pertelay's back.

Meanwhile, our attack on the Austrian battery and its result had been perceived by the French army and the generals ordered the lines to advance. The enemy recoiled, which allowed the remains of our detachment to return to the ground where our poor comrades had fallen. Nearly a third of the number had been killed or wounded. At the beginning of the action there had been five non-commissioned officers; three had perished; there remained only the elder Pertelay and myself. He, poor fellow, had been wounded and was in still greater pain of mind than of body, for he adored his brother; and we also keenly regretted him. While we were doing the last duties by him and removing the wounded, General Championnet came up with General Suchet, his chief of the staff. The commander-in-chief had seen the exploit of our battalion. He called us together beside the six guns which we had just taken and gave us the greatest praise for the courage with which we had succeeded in ridding the army of a battery that had been causing great damage. He added that in order to reward us for having thus saved a great number of lives and contributed to the success of the day, he wished to use the power given to him by a recent decree of the First Consul instituting arms of honour, and that he granted to the detachment three swords of honour, and a sub-lieutenancy, authorizing us at the same time ourselves to name those who should receive these rewards. More keenly did we then regret the loss of the younger Pertelay, so well fitted to be an officer. The swords of honour, which three years later entitled their wearers to the Cross of the Legion of Honor, fell to the elder Pertelay, a corporal, and a trooper. Then came the naming of the one of us who was to have a sub-lieutenancy; all my comrades pronounced my name, and the commander-in-chief, remembering what General Séras had written to him about my conduct at San Giacomo, appointed me sub-lieutenant. I had only been sergeant a month. At the same time I must admit that in the attack and capture of the guns I had done no more than my comrades; but, as I have already said, none of these worthy Alsatians felt himself fit to command as an officer, so they unanimously named me, and the commander-in-chief was kind enough to take account of the proposal in my favour which General Séras had made. I may say, too, that possibly he was glad to do what would please my father. At all events this was the view that my father took of my rapid promotion, for, as soon as he heard of it, he wrote forbidding me to accept it. Suchet, the chief of the staff, and the latter had answered that the commander-in-chief would certainly be hurt if one of his divisional generals claimed to disapprove a nomination which he had made in virtue of powers conferred on him by the Government, my father permitted me to accept, and I was gazetted sub-lieutenant on the 10th Nivose, year 7 (December 1799).

I was one of the last officers promoted by General Championnet. Being unable to hold his position in Piedmont in presence of a superior force, he was compelled to retreat across the Apennines and bring the army back into Liguria. Such was his grief at seeing a portion of his troops disband because he was no longer given the means of provisioning, that he died on the 25th of Nivose, fifteen days after he had made me an officer. My father, being the senior general of division, became provisionally commander-in-chief of the Army of Italy, with his head-quarters at Nice. He returned thither, and with all haste sent back into Provence what little cavalry still remained, for there was no longer any store of forage in Liguria. The 1st Hussars therefore returned to France, but my father kept me with him to act as aide-de-camp.

During our stay at Nice my father received orders from the Ministry of War to take up the command of the advanced guard of the Army of the Rhine, whither Colonel Ménard, as his chief of the staff, was to follow him. We were all very much satisfied with this new post, for the Army of Italy had become so demoralised by want of supplies that it seemed impossible to maintain our position in Liguria. Nor was my father sorry to get away from an army that was breaking up, and seemed about to tarnish its laurels by a shameful retreat, q the result of which would be to throw it back behind the Var. He made ready, therefore, to depart as soon as General Masséna should arrive to replace him, and he sent M. Gault to Paris in order to buy maps and make the necessary preparations for our campaign on the Rhine. But destiny had decided otherwise, and my poor father's grave was marked out on the soil of Italy.

Masséna arrived to find but the shadow of an army. The troops, unpaid, almost unclad and unshod, were receiving only quarter rations, and dying of starvation or epidemic sickness, the result of privations. The hospitals were full, and medicine was lacking. Bands of soldiers, even who1e regiments, were every day quitting their posts and making for the bridge over the Var. They forced their way into France, and scattered about Provence, declaring themselves ready to return to their duty if they were fed. The generals had no power against such a mass of misery; every day their discouragement grew, and they were all asking for leave on the ground of illness. Masséna had, indeed, hoped to be joined in Italy by several of the generals who had been taking part in the defeat of the Russians in Switzerland: among them by Soult, Oudinot, and Gazan. But none of these had as yet come, and the pressing need must be met.

Masséna, who was horn at Turbia, a township in the little principality of Monaco, was the wiliest of Italians. He was acquainted with my father, but at first sight he judged him to be a man of magnanimous nature, above all things patriotic. In order to get him to stay, therefore, he approached him on his most sensitive side, appealing to his generosity and love of his country, and pointing out how much more to his honour it would be to stay with the Army of Italy in its misfortunes than to go to the Rhine where things were prosperous. He offered, moreover, if my father would stay, to take upon himself all responsibility for his neglect of orders. My father was over-persuaded, and, not liking to leave the new commander-in-chief while things were in confusion, agreed to stay. He made no doubt that Colonel Ménard, his friend, and chief of the staff, would follow his example and decline to serve on the Rhine; but here he was mistaken. Colonel Ménard, though assured that there would be no difficulty in getting the order revoked, held himself bound to obey it, and lost no time in reaching Paris, where he obtained the post of chief of the staff to General Lefebvre. My father felt his defection keenly. The post he had held was filled by Colonel Sacleux, an excellent man and soldier, of a kindly but grave and serious disposition. His secretary was a young man named Colindo, son of one Trepano, a banker at Parma, who became an excellent friend of mine. Spire was left at Nice with the bulk of the baggage, and my father repaired to Genoa, to take up the command of the three divisions composing the left wing. He lodged in the Centurione Palace till the end of the winter l799-1800.

At the beginning of the following spring my father learnt that Masséna had given the command of the right wing to Soult, who had just arrived. At the same time he received orders to return to Savona and resume the command of his old division, the third. Though sorely hurt at this supersession by an officer much his junior, he complied with the new arrangements.

Meanwhile great events were preparing in Italy. Masséna had received reinforcements, and re-established some measure of order in the army. The famous campaign of 1800, which led to the siege of Genoa and the battle of Marengo, was about to open.