[Footnote 12: The peasants of the Artenau and the Kinzigthal were commanded by a wealthy farmer, named John Baader. Besides several French generals, Hausmann, the commissary of the government, who accompanied Moreau's army, was taken prisoner.--_Mussinan, History of the French War of 1796_ etc. A decree, published on the 18th of September by Frederick Eugene, Duke of Würtemberg, in which he prohibited his subjects from taking part in the pursuit of the French, is worthy of remark.] CCL. Bonaparte This youth was Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of a lawyer in the island of Corsica, a man of military genius, who, when a mere lieutenant, had raised the siege of Toulon, had afterward served the Directory by dispersing the old Jacobins with his artillery in the streets of Paris, and had been intrusted with the command of the army in Italy. Talents, that under a monarchy would have been doomed to obscurity, were, under the French republic, called into notice, and men of decided genius could, amid the general competition, alone attain to power or retain the reins of government. Bonaparte was the first to take the field. In the April of 1796, he pushed across the Alps and attacked the Austrians. Beaulieu, a good general, but too old for service (he was then seventy-two, Napoleon but twenty-seven), had incautiously extended his lines too far, in order to preserve a communication with the English fleet in the Mediterranean. Bonaparte defeated his scattered forces at Montenotte and Millesimo, between the 10th and 15th of April, and, turning sharply upon the equally scattered Sardinian force, beat it in several engagements, the principal of which took place at Mondovi, between the 19th and 22d of April. An armistice was concluded with Sardinia, and Beaulieu, who vainly attempted to defend the Po, was defeated on the 7th and 8th of May, at Fombio. The bridge over the Adda at Lodi, three hundred paces in length, extremely narrow and to all appearance impregnable, defended by his lieutenant Sebottendorf, was carried by storm, and, on the 15th of May, Bonaparte entered Milan. Beaulieu took up a position behind the Mincio, notwithstanding which, Bonaparte carried the again ill-defended bridge at Borghetto by storm. While in this part of the country, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by a party of skirmishers, and was compelled to fly half-naked, with but one foot booted, from his night quarters at St. Georgio.