France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Fiction; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Fiction
the campaign; from the time Zurich was retaken, France was secure from
invasion. August 30, Molitor defeated the Austrian generals, Jellachich
and Luiken, and drove them back into the Grisons. September 1, Molitor
attacked and defeated General Rosenberg in the Mutterthal. On the 2d,
Molitor forced Souvaroff to evacuate Glarus, to abandon his wounded,
his cannon, and sixteen hundred prisoners. The 6th, General Brune again
defeated the Anglo-Russians, under the command of the Duke of York.
On the 7th, General Gazan took possession of Constance. On the 8th you
landed at Fréjus.--Well, general,” continued Bernadotte, “as France will
probably pass into your hands, it is well that you should know the state
in which you find her, and in place of receipt, our possessions bear
witness to what we are giving you. What we are now doing, general,
is history, and it is important that those who may some day have an
interest in falsifying history shall find in their path the denial of
Bernadotte.”
“Is that said for my benefit, general?”
“I say that for flatterers. You have pretended, it is said, that you
returned to France because our armies were destroyed, because France was
threatened, the Republic at bay. You may have left Egypt with that fear;
but once in France, all such fears must have given way to a totally
different belief.”
“I ask no better than to believe as you do,” replied Bonaparte, with
sovereign dignity; “and the more grand and powerful you prove France to
be, the more grateful am I to those who have secured her grandeur and
her power.”
“Oh, the result is plain, general! Three armies defeated; the Russians
exterminated, the Austrians defeated and forced to fly, twenty thousand
prisoners, a hundred pieces of cannon, fifteen flags, all the baggage of
the enemy in our possession, nine generals taken or killed, Switzerland
free, our frontiers safe, the Rhine our limit--so much for Masséna’s
contingent and the situation of Helvetia. The Anglo-Russian army twice
defeated, utterly discouraged, abandoning its artillery, baggage,
munitions of war and commissariat, even to the women and children who
came with the British; eight thousand French prisoners; effective men,
returned to France; Holland completely evacuated--so much for Brune’s
contingent and the situation in Holland. The rearguard of General Klénau
forced to lay down its arms at Villanova; a thousand prisoners and three
pieces of cannon fallen into our hands, and the Austrians driven back
beyond Bormida; in all, counting the combats at la Stura and Pignerol,
four thousand prisoners, sixteen cannon, Mondovi, and the occupation of
the whole region between la Stura and Tanaro--so much for Championnet’s
contingent and the situation in Italy. Two hundred thousand men under
arms, forty thousand mounted cavalry; that is my contingent, mine, and
the situation in France.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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