314

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

projected, in order to seize tliem. Murat undertook it;and with only one thousand cavalry, leaving the army on "ithe Adige, in six hours he was at Leghorn . The convoy,however, had sailed, through timely information. But inthis expedition Murat gave signal proof of his love of dis-cipline and his disinterestedness; inasmuch as he paid forevery thing on his route, and refrained from levying suchcontributions in an enemy’s capital, as other commanderswould, and he could, have done, to an enormous amount.Sorry am I to confess that this halo of patriotic disinterest-edness and virtue, waned with the withering liberties andsentiments of Republicanism, and in after days, of far moreextensive conquests, became less conspicuous o’er the con- gqueror’s brows. *

The French head-quarters being advanced to Bologna,Napoleon was even obliged to moderate the enthusiasm of |the inhabitants. This seat of learning had always beenconspicuous for liberal ideas and a well-reasoned love of ?liberty; and for many years they had suffered the wretched idestiny of being governed by the palsied theocracy {of Rome. Festivities followed festivities, and they re- ■ceived additional zest and lustre from the presence of IMadame Buonaparte, who had now joined her expectanthusband. Murat, in lieu of conjugal consolation, was, Iam sorry to say, conspicuous for his unauthorised devotionsto the ladies, but little time was allowed him to indulge in .such frivolities. |

The Austrian Marshal, Wurmser , arrived on the field of |action with thirty thousand fresh troops, which, united to |General Melas, formed an army of seventy thousand men, |opposed to the forty thousand of the French . I cannot *enter into details ; but at this juncture Murat, with two ;thousand chosen men, made so sudden an attack upon the ;entrenched camp of the Austrians beforeMantua, that,driving