Having assembled the Army of Reserve at Lake Geneva, he was in a position where, if the necessity should arise, he could march to the assistance either of Moreau in Germany or of Suchet on the Var. Had Melas succeeded in forcing the Var, Bonaparte would doubtless have marched south along the west side of the French Alps in order to unite the Army of Reserve with Suchet's forces for an attack against Melas. The strategical skill of Bonaparte appears in this arrangement. Though he expected to cross the Alps, yet up to the last moment his army was so situated that he was prepared for any contingency that might arise. Though the campaign of Marengo, as planned and executed by him, was a bold and hazardous undertaking, yet a careful analysis of the operations shows that nearly all of them were marked by extreme caution. It will be found, too, that his strategy was almost perfect for accomplishing his ends. In fact one of the great merits of Napoleon was that he knew how to produce a maximum effect with a minimum force. The whole theatre of war was an open book to him. He saw just where the battle should be fought in order to produce the greatest results. Though the Austrians in this campaign numbered nearly a quarter-million of men, and stretched from the Gulf of Genoa to the Main River, yet Bonaparte was able, while still at Paris, to picture in his mind the whole strategical situation, and to indicate Stokach in Germany and the Stradella Pass in Italy, as being the two most important points within this immense theatre of operations. These two places were the keys of the territory occupied by the two Austrian armies. Here the greatest results could be produced with the smallest efforts. Here, in each case, a victory could be obtained with the least loss to the French. Bonaparte's caution is seen in the fact that he would not set out to cross the Alps until Moncey's corps was well on its way towards Italy. Before beginning the movement, he wished to be certain that he would receive this re-enforcement, and to make sure of his communications with Switzerland. He knew that he might be attacked in the plains of Piedmont before he could reach Milan, and might lose his communications by way of the Great St. Bernard Pass. If, however, Moncey succeeded in reaching Italy, Bonaparte would then have uninterrupted communications with the great stronghold of Switzerland.