The capture of the bridge at Arcole was essential to the success of the Italian campaign. For three days the Austrian army gallantly opposed the attacks of Napoleon’s forces, and it was only by the personal courage of the young general that victory was finally won. Bonaparte personally led a rush across the bridge at Arcole, and he was the real vital force in the battle. He saw his staff killed or wounded about him during the onslaughts. Once he himself was swept by a counter attack of the Austrian forces into a swamp, where he nearly perished. Napoleon’s army consisted of 18,000 men, which he had moved over the narrow and rugged roads with heavy baggage at a rate of fourteen miles a day for three consecutive days,--the same rate at which Stonewall Jackson made his marches through the Shenandoah Valley. It was a remarkable achievement under the conditions Napoleon had to face. And with this force he met an Austrian army of 40,000 and defeated it signally after a bitter engagement. COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: EMPEROR NAPOLEON--BY FRANCOIS GÉRARD] EMPEROR NAPOLEON, from the painting by François Gérard, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.” TUESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION EMPEROR NAPOLEON “I shall now give myself to the administration of France.” That was the statement of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 after he had overthrown the government and had instituted a consulate, to which he was elected first for ten years, and then for life. There were three consuls, and Napoleon was known as the first consul. To one of his sublime ambition, however, the thought of association in government was unbearable. Two years later, despite his attitude expressed in his own words, “I am a friend of the Republic; I am a son of the Revolution; I stand for the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Napoleon determined to make an office for himself that would be absolute and hereditary. The title of king had grown hateful to the people of France; so Napoleon chose “emperor” instead, and in 1804 he assumed the title and the office.