Page:History of Napoleon Buonaparte.pdf/7

ambuscade which threw a column of Croats into confusion, and a feigned charge of cavalry, which consisted only of 25 men, with three trumpets, created such a panic throughout the enemy's flanks, that they retreated on Montebello. Joubert and Rivoli was reported to have been compelled to fall back, and Buonaparte, to aid him, marched with his usual lightning-like rapidity, and arrived at the heights of Rivoli by moonlight, at 2 o'clock in the morning. No movement could have been better timed; the artillery of the Austrian general had not come up, and that of the French prevented any possibility of the Austrians securing the heights. The rout of Alvinsi was complete. Buonaparte had three horses killed under him; but, in spite of his immense exertions, he seemed not to tire. Leaving Massena and Murat to pursue Alvinsi, he hastened with all expedition to the neighbourhood of Mantua, where, at the close of its repeated assaults, Provera and 5000 men laid down their arms; and Wurmser, worn out, made an offer to capitulate. The total Austrian loss at Mantua was 30,000 men, 500 pieces of brass cannon, and a vast quantity of stores remained with the victors. Napoleon next proceeded to the Papal states, where negotiations were again entered into with the Roman envoy; and