VI.

MARSHAL LANNES.

Principle on which Napoleon chose his officers-Passage of Lodi— Battle of Montebello-Battle of Marengo-Siege of SaragossaBattle of Aspern, and Death of Lannes.

BONAPARTE always chose his Marshals on the eclectic principle. Wherever he found one great quality, he laid it under contribution. The great error, even with sensible men is, they bring every one to a single standard and judge him by a single rule. Forgetting the variety everywhere visible in nature, and that the beauty and harmony of the whole depend on the difference of each part, they wish to find in every man that proportion and balance of all his qualities which. would make him perfect. Disappointed in this, they seek the nearest approximation to it; and hence prefer an ordinary intellect, if well balanced, to a great one, if great only in some particular direction. Forgetting that such a character is unbalanced, only because it has at least one striking quality, they reject its aid, or content themselves with more prudent, mediocre minds. This may do for a merchant, but not for a government or military leader. The collection of twenty thousand common minds furnishes no additional strength, while the union of one-twentieth of that number, each of which possesses force in only one direction, gives immense power. It is true, one well balanced intellect is needed to control these con

178

HIS EARLY LIFE.

flicting energies, and force them to act in harmony on one great plan, or they will only waste themselves on each other. Bonaparte was such a controlling mind, and he cared not how one-sided the spirits were he gathered about him, if they only had force: he was after power, acting in whatever direction. A combination of men, each of whom could do one thing well, must do all things well. Acting on this principle, he never allowed a man of any striking quality to escape him. Whether it was the cool and intrepid Ney, ot the chivalric Murat-the rock-fast Macdonald, or the tempestuous Junot-the bold and careful Soult, or the impetuous Lannes, it mattered not. He needed them all, and he thus concentrated around him the greatest elements of strength that man can wield. It is fearful to see the spirits Napoleon moulded into his plans and the combined energy he let loose on the armies of Europe. Knowing the moral power of great and striking qualities, he would have no leader without them. In this he showed his consummate knowledge of human nature, especially of Frenchmen. Enthusiasm, and the reliance on one they never trusted in vain in battle, will carry an army farther than the severest discipline. A company of conscripts would follow Ney as far as a body of veterans a common leader. So would a column charge with Lannes at their head, when with a less daring and resolute man they would break and fly. Moral power is great as physical, even where every thing depends on hard blows. Mind and will give to the body all its force

so do they also to an army. The truth of this was witnessed and proved in our struggle with the parent country.

Jean Lannes was born in Lectoure, a small town

His father was a

in Normandy, in April, 1769. humble mechanic, and designing his son for a similar occupation, he bound him out, at an early age, as an apprentice. In ordinary times young Lannes would probably have remained in the humble station in which his birth had placed him, and become in time, perhaps, a passable shoemaker or carpenter. But the call which the Revolution sent forth for the military talent of France, could not be resisted, and young Lannes ran away from his master, and enlisted as a common soldier in the army. Soon after, he was sent with the army that operated on the Pyrenean frontier. Here he soon exhibited the two striking traits of his character-traits which eminently fitted him for the scenes in which his life was to pass-viz., reckless daring and unconquerable resolution. These qualities shining out in the heat of battle and in the most desperate straits, soon won for him the regard of his officers, and he was made chief of brigade. In this rank he fought under Lefebvre, but soon after, for some cause known only to the Convention, which yet scarcely knew the cause of anything it did, he was deprived of his commission, and returned to Paris. Amid the conflicting elements that surrounded the young soldier in the French capital, he soon found work to do. An ardent republican, his bold politics and bolder manner could not long escape the notice of government, and he was sent to the army in Italy. As chief of a battalion at Milesimo, he conducted himself so gallantly, and fought with such desperate impetuosity, that he arrested Napoleon's attention in the hottest of the engagement, and he made him Colonel on the spot. Crossing the Po, soon after, under the enemy's fire,

180

BRIDGE OF LODI.

he was the first to reach the opposite bank; and finally crowned his brilliant exploits at Lodi, where he was made general of brigade, and soon after of division.

After the successive victories of Montenotte, Milesimo and Dego, Napoleon resolved to push on to Milan. In his progress he was forced to cross the Adda, at Lodi. Twelve thousand Austrian infantry, and four thousand cavalry, with a battery of thirty cannon, stood at the farther extremity of the bridge he was to cross, to dispute its passage. On the first of May, he arrived at Lodi with his army. The Austrian cannon and musketry began immediately to play on the bridge, so that it seemed impossible to reconnoitre the ground. But Napoleon, sheltering his men behind the houses of the town, sallied out into the midst of the deadly storm, and immediately arranged his plan. Forming a column of seven thousand picked men, he placed himself at their head and rushed on the bridge; but the cannon balls and grapeshot and the bullets of the infantry swept every inch of the narrow defile, and rattled like an incessant shower of hail-stones against its stony sides. So incessant and furious was the discharge, that a cloud of smoke lay like a dense fog round it-yet into its very bosom moved the intrepid column. The sudden volley that smote their breasts made those bold men reel, and stagger back as if smitten by a bolt from heaven. For a moment the column wavered and balanced on the pass-for a thousand had already fallen, and it was marching straight into a volcano of fire; but the next moment, seeing themselves supported by the tiralleurs that were fording the stream beneath the arches, the soldiers shouted, "Vire la Repub

lique!" and, receiving the storm of cannon-balls and grape-shot on their unshrinking bosoms, rushed forward and bayoneted the artillery-men at their guns. Lannes was the first man across, and Bonaparte the second. Spurring his excited steed on the Austrian ranks, he snatched a banner from the enemy, and just as he was about to seize another, his horse sunk under him. In a moment the swords of half a dozen cuirassiers glittered above him, and his destruction seemed inevitable. But extricating himself with incredible exertion from his dying steed; he arose amid the sabre strokes that fell like lightning around him; and leaping on the horse of an Austrian officer behind him, slew him with a single stroke, and hurling him, from his saddle, seated himself in his place, and then, wheeling on the enemy, charged the cuirassiers like a thunderbolt, and fought his way through them single-handed, back to his followers. It is said that Napoleon never forgot the bearing of Lannes on that occasion. The fury of a demon seemed to possess him, and the strength of ten men appeared to be concentrated in his single arm. promoted him on the spot. reckless enough, but Lannes' was still more so, and it seems almost a miracle that he escaped death.

No wonder Bonaparte
His own daring was

Napoleon, whom his soldiers here, for the first time, gave the title of "the little corporal," in honour of his courage, was, ever after, accustomed to speak of this sanguinary struggle as "the terrible passage of the bridge of Lodi." It was by such acts of heroic valour that Lannes acquirred the sobriquet in the army of "Orlando" and "Ajax." A few months after, he exhibited the same fearlessness of character and headlong courage, at the passage of the bridge of Arcola.