More than a month had now elapsed since Alvinzi's defeat at Rivoli; in nine days the war with the Pope had reached its close; and, having left some garrisons in the towns on the Adige, to watch the neutrality of Venice, Napoleon hastened to carry the war into the hereditary dominions of the Emperor. Twenty thousand fresh troops had recently joined his victorious standard from France; and, at the head of perhaps a larger force than he had ever before mustered, he proceeded to the frontier of the Frioul, where, according to his information, the main army of Austria, recruited once more to its original strength, was preparing to open a sixth campaign--under the orders, not of Alvinzi, but of a general young like himself, and hitherto eminently successful--the same who had already by his combinations baffled two such masters in the art of war as Jourdan and Moreau--the Archduke Charles; a prince on whose high talents the last hopes of the empire seemed to repose. To give the details of the sixth campaign, which now commenced, would be to repeat the story which has been already five times told. The Archduke, fettered by the Aulic Council of Vienna, saw himself compelled to execute a plan which he had discrimination enough to condemn. The Austrian army once more commenced operations on a double basis--one great division on the Tyrolese frontier, and a greater under the Archduke himself on the Friulese; and Napoleon--who had, even when acting on the defensive, been able, by the vivacity of his movements, to assume the superiority on whatever point he chose to select--was not likely to strike his blows with less skill and vigour, now that his numbers, and the acquiescence of Italy behind him, permitted him to assume the offensive.