. The life of Napoleon I, including new materials from the British official records . own army. On April 27th he decided against thefirst (except for a detachment), because Moreaus advancewas too slow to safeguard his rear on that route. He nowpreferred the Great St. Bernard, but still doubted whether,after crossing, he should make for Milan, or strike atMassenas besiegers, in case that general should be veryhard pressed. Like all great commanders, he started witha general plan, but he arranged the details as the situationrequired. In his letter of May 19th, he poured scorn onParisian editors
. The life of Napoleon I, including new materials from the British official records . own army. On April 27th he decided against thefirst (except for a detachment), because Moreaus advancewas too slow to safeguard his rear on that route. He nowpreferred the Great St. Bernard, but still doubted whether,after crossing, he should make for Milan, or strike atMassenas besiegers, in case that general should be veryhard pressed. Like all great commanders, he started witha general plan, but he arranged the details as the situationrequired. In his letter of May 19th, he poured scorn onParisian editors who said he prophesied that in a monthhe would be at Milan. That is not in my often I do not say what I know ; but never do I saywhat will be. The better to hide his purpose, he chose as his firstbase of operations the city of Dijon, whence he seemed tothreaten either the Swabian or the Italian army of hisfoes. But this was not enough. At the old Burgundiancapital he assembled his staff and a few regiments of con-scripts in order to mislead the English and Austrian. r oo CO p ^- (2! hn G y^ b: a (t| rt m ri %4 H o U uu fc Tl n (L> W O C5 <ti d rn rn < c cu W Uh ffi H XI MARENGO: LUNIiVILLB 227 spies ; while the fighting battalions were drafted by di-verse routes to Geneva or Lausanne. So skilful werethese preparations that, in the early days of May, thegreater part of his men and stores were near the lake ofGeneva, whence they were easily transferred to the uppervalley of the Rhone. In order that he might have amethodical, hard-working coadjutor, he sent Earthierfrom the office of the Ministry of War, where he had dis-played less ability than Bernadotte, to be commander-in-chief of the army of reserve. In reality Berthier was,as before in Italy and Egypt, chief of the staff ; but hehad the titular dignity of commander which the constitu-tion of 1800 forbade the First Consul to assume. On May 6th Bonaparte left Paris for Geneva, wherehe felt the pulse of
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