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04 - Story of Napoleon by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall · Story of Napoleon

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of the Story of Napoleon the Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall.
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  Speaker 1: This li Bovox recording is in the public domain. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Patrick Seville. Chapter four Napoleon as Consul. When Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: arrived in France, the people greeted him more joyfully than ever.
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  Speaker 1: They were weary of the rule of the Directory and
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  Speaker 1: longed for a change. Napoleon had never meant to be
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  Speaker 1: a soldier and conqueror. Only he meant to be a
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  Speaker 1: ruler too. He soon saw his chance and took it.
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  Speaker 1: He had been made commander of all the troops round Paris,
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  Speaker 1: and now one day he appeared at the head of
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  Speaker 1: his soldiers in the courtyard of the palace, in which
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  Speaker 1: the French Assembly or Parliament sat, amid a fearful noise
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  Speaker 1: of shouts, beating of drums, and tramp of feet. The
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  Speaker 1: assembly was turned out at the point of the bayonet.
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  Speaker 1: That night, Napoleon slept in the palace of the Luxembourg
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  Speaker 1: with the title of Consul of France. There were three
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  Speaker 1: other consuls, but the others were a mere pretense. Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: was the true ruler. Napoleon returned from Egypt in October
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  Speaker 1: and by the middle of December he was first consul.
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  Speaker 1: Then for the next few months he gave himself up
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  Speaker 1: to ruling under his firm hand. France, which had been
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  Speaker 1: born and tossed in wild unrest for eight years, now
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  Speaker 1: seemed to find a little calm. But all around the
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  Speaker 1: borders of France there was war still. Austria and Britain
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  Speaker 1: were her chief enemies. With Britain at this time, Napoleon
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  Speaker 1: would have been glad to make peace, could he have
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  Speaker 1: done so on his own terms. Austria he meant to crush,
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  Speaker 1: and to crush in such a way as would make
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  Speaker 1: Europe ring with the name of Bonaparte. He meant to
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  Speaker 1: do great deeds at which the world would stare in wonder.
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  Speaker 1: He meant to have peace too. At peace. After victory,
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  Speaker 1: the army of Italy was still fighting under a brave
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  Speaker 1: general called Messina. But now he was shut up in Genoa,
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  Speaker 1: a British fleet bombarding him from the sea, and an
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  Speaker 1: Austrian army surrounding him on land. Food was growing scarce,
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  Speaker 1: and his men were but worn out skeletons. The Austrians
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  Speaker 1: believed that they should very soon beat him, and then
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  Speaker 1: they would be able to march into France. Napoleon now
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  Speaker 1: gathered an army called the Reserve, with which he gave
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  Speaker 1: out He was going to march to the help of Messina.
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  Speaker 1: But the Austrians laughed at the Reserve army, for it
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  Speaker 1: was made up of ill fed, half clothed, raw recruits.
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon went to Dijon to review these new recruits, but
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  Speaker 1: he stayed there only two hours and was soon speeding
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  Speaker 1: on his way to Geneva. For three months, Napoleon had
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  Speaker 1: been silently and secretly gathering troops, which by different ways,
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  Speaker 1: had been sent towards Switzerland. There too, engineers had been
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  Speaker 1: sent to examine the passes through the Alps. Now everything
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  Speaker 1: was ready, and the great commander also went speeding to
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  Speaker 1: the land of snow mountains. When Napoleon arrived at Geneva,
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  Speaker 1: he gathered his engineers around him and began to study
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  Speaker 1: the map of the Alps. Is it possible to pass,
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  Speaker 1: he asked. It is barely possible, said an engineer. Very well,
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  Speaker 1: replied Napoleon. Let us be going. Then Napoleon began one
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  Speaker 1: of his most famous marches. He crossed the Alps, and
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  Speaker 1: while the enemy awaited him in front, he appeared suddenly
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  Speaker 1: behind them. The army was divided into four, each part
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  Speaker 1: going by a different way. The ways through the mountains
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  Speaker 1: were called passes. The passes which Napoleon now chose were
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  Speaker 1: a Great Saint Bernard, the Little Saint Bernard, the Mont Sennie,
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  Speaker 1: and the Saint Gothard. Napoleon himself went by the Great
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  Speaker 1: Saint Bernard. It was a tremendous march, for in places
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  Speaker 1: there was not even a track, and the men had
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  Speaker 1: to stumble as best they could over rough broken stony ground.
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  Speaker 1: Up in tip they struggled for A pass is only
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  Speaker 1: comparatively low. That is low when compared with the huge
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  Speaker 1: mountains near The Great Saint Bernard pass is more than
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  Speaker 1: eight thousand feet above sea level. It was hard enough
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  Speaker 1: for men laden with knapsack and gun to toil upwards,
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  Speaker 1: but to drag heavy cannon up was still harder. The
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  Speaker 1: path was so terrible that it was found to be
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  Speaker 1: quite impossible to bring them up on their carriages. No
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  Speaker 1: wheels could pass over the grounds, so each cannon was
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  Speaker 1: taken from its carriage and was put into the trunk
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  Speaker 1: of a tree which had been hollowed out to fit it.
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  Speaker 1: A hundred men were then harness to each tree trunk,
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  Speaker 1: and so the cannon were dragged over snow and ice
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  Speaker 1: along narrow, giddy paths where only the chaumet or the
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  Speaker 1: goatherd had left a track. The carriages were taken to pieces.
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  Speaker 1: The wheels were slung on poles and carried on men's shoulders.
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  Speaker 1: Food for the army had to be carried too. This
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  Speaker 1: was laden on mules. They were sure footed, hearty beasts,
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  Speaker 1: accustomed to the wild mountain sides, and so could carry
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  Speaker 1: weight even over the rough path. But with the calvalry
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  Speaker 1: horses it was different. The men dismounted and each man
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  Speaker 1: led his horse as best he could. Thus, for five
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  Speaker 1: days an endless stream of men and horses passed among
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  Speaker 1: the silent hills, churning the white snow into a brown morass,
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  Speaker 1: filling the still air with the hum of voices and
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  Speaker 1: the clank and gangle of steel, awakening the echoes with
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  Speaker 1: the sound of drum and trumpet. On and on went
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  Speaker 1: the men, slipping, sliding, panting, breathless, hardly daring to pause
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  Speaker 1: in places that slows behind should be thrown into confusion,
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  Speaker 1: stumbling knee deep into snow drifts, clambering round boulders, but
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  Speaker 1: always upward and upward. At last they reached the summit
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  Speaker 1: of the pass. Here is the hospice of Saint Bernard,
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  Speaker 1: founded by Saint Bernard de Menthon nearly a thousand years ago,
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  Speaker 1: and here all the year round lived the good monks
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  Speaker 1: of Saint Bernard, ever ready to aid travelers. When the
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  Speaker 1: wearied soldiers reached the top of the pass, the good
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  Speaker 1: monks gave them a meal of bread and wine and cheese,
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  Speaker 1: and then the long descent began. For the horses and mules.
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  Speaker 1: This was almost more difficult in the ascent, but sliding
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  Speaker 1: and stumbling, they at last got over the worst of
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  Speaker 1: the road with no serious accident. But a new difficulty
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  Speaker 1: now arose. Fort Bard had to be passed. This was
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  Speaker 1: only a little four held by four hundred Austrians, but
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  Speaker 1: perched upon a rock. It commanded the tiny town through
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  Speaker 1: which the road lay, and the whole pass, which here
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  Speaker 1: is not more than fifty yards wide. For some time
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  Speaker 1: the French tried in vain to take the fort. Then
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  Speaker 1: at length they discovered a narrow goat track leading round it,
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  Speaker 1: and out of gunshot. By this, one by one the
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  Speaker 1: infantry passed, but it was impossible to take the artillery
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  Speaker 1: that way, so in the dead of night the artillery
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  Speaker 1: men entered the village. They spread chaff and straw upon
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  Speaker 1: the street, and, having muffled every belt or buckle that
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  Speaker 1: might clatter or jingle, they drew the cannon through the town,
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  Speaker 1: almost under the noses of the unsuspecting Austrians. Then, the
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  Speaker 1: last difficulty being passed, the French poured like an avalanche
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  Speaker 1: down upon the plain of Italy. The news of Napoleon's
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  Speaker 1: wonderful march soon reached the famished garrison of Genoa, and
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  Speaker 1: the thought that help was near renewed their sinking courage.
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  Speaker 1: But day after day passed and no rescuing French army
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  Speaker 1: appeared before the walls. Still they hoped on, sick out,
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  Speaker 1: heart and weary. But at length the last spark of
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  Speaker 1: hope died and brave Massina gave in. They had absolutely
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  Speaker 1: nothing left to eat but knapsacks and shoes, grass and roots.
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  Speaker 1: No terms are too good for you, said Lord Keith,
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  Speaker 1: the British commander, So the French were allowed to march
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  Speaker 1: out with all the honors of war. Meanwhile, Napoleon was
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  Speaker 1: passing through Italy in a kind of triumph. It did
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  Speaker 1: not suit his plans to relieve Genoa, so he left
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  Speaker 1: the garrison to starve while he prepared for a great
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  Speaker 1: battle in which all was to be won or lost.
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  Speaker 1: And so at last French and Austrian met again upon
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  Speaker 1: the field of Marengo, a little village not far from
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  Speaker 1: the town of Alessandria. At daybreak on the fourteenth of
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  Speaker 1: June the fight began. It was a fierce and terrible battle.
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  Speaker 1: The Austrians numbered nearly twice as many as the French.
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  Speaker 1: At one time the French fled from the field, crying
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  Speaker 1: all is lost. Again. They rallied, but step by step
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  Speaker 1: they were driven backward and at last fled once more.
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  Speaker 1: The Austrian leader was an old man, over eighty. He
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  Speaker 1: was weary of long fighting, and about three o'clock in
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  Speaker 1: the afternoon, believing the victory won, he left the field.
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  Speaker 1: But at this moment a French officer who had been
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  Speaker 1: at some distance, rode up with fresh troops. I fear
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  Speaker 1: it is a battle lost, he said to Napoleon. I
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  Speaker 1: think it is a battle one, replied he, and rallying
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  Speaker 1: his men and ordering a sudden charge of cavalry, he
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  Speaker 1: turned defeat into victory. Soon it was the Austrians who
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  Speaker 1: were fleeing from the field an utter rout. So completely
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  Speaker 1: crushed was the Austrian army that next day the leader
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  Speaker 1: sent a flag of truce to Napoleon, begging for peace,
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  Speaker 1: and by the treaty which followed, all northern Italy was
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  Speaker 1: given up, almost as it had been at the Treaty
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  Speaker 1: of Campoformio. Thus, at one blow was Italy reconquered. Having
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  Speaker 1: thus startled the world and covered his name with glory,
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  Speaker 1: Napoleon returned to Paris. He had been gone less than
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  Speaker 1: two months. All along the way people crowded to cheer
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  Speaker 1: him as he passed. In Paris, the houses were lit
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  Speaker 1: up night after night in his honor. For hours together,
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  Speaker 1: crowds would stand round his palace, hoping to catch a
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  Speaker 1: glimpse of the conqueror of the Alps, of the victor
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  Speaker 1: of Marengo. Napoleon was delighted with all the fame he
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  Speaker 1: had won a few more events like this campaign, and
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  Speaker 1: I shall perhaps go down to posterity, he cried. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter four,