have rushed from the heights of the Appenines into the plains on the right bank of the Po, proceeded rapidly up this river, and effected a junction with the army of Italy, in the environs of Voghera. The 13th of June he attacked Modena, and in two hours overthrew the column of General Hohenzollern, which was posted upon the glacis of the place. The French grenadiers entered the town with the Austrians, and made more than 2000 prisoners.

The divisions of Montrichard and Rusca, which ought to have seconded the attack of Modena, by the route of Bologna, not having yet arrived, Macdonald was informed that a column of cavalry retarded their march: it was a squadron of the legion of Bussy, to which all means of retreat were cut off by the taking of Modena. Macdonald, fully confident that that body would surrender without any difficulty, advanced towards the grand road, within a ' quarter of a mile of the infantry which was stationed on both sides of the road. By way of precaution, I observed to Macdonald, that I thought I had better remain with my grenadiers, and that he would do well to do the same. "Don't you see," replied he, very courteously, "that they are caught as though in a mouse trap?" When he was an hundred paces distant from the Austrians, he hollowed out to them to surrender. "We surrender!" replied the officer, and returned his sabre into its scabbard, continuing to advance with the greatest tranquillity. When come up within pistol-shot, he ordered his troops to draw their sabres, and to charge; he himself falling upon Macdonald, struck him three blows with his sabre, upon the head, threw him off his horse, and then mingled with the escort, which, attacked by the whole squadron, took to flight. The grenadiers were very much embarrassed about firing, for fear of killing their own men. After a fray of ten minutes, a few Austrians succeeded in entering Modena, where they were made prisoners: the greater part of them, however, perished; in this latter number, was the commanding officer, well worthy of a better fate. He was a young man of eighteen, of a good countenance, and of considerable abilities. His generous resolution of forcing his way to rejoin his army, cannot but be praised; he would have succeeded in it had it not been for the ambuscade of grenadiers. Macdonald, who was supposed dead, came off quit for the three cuts of the sabre, which were but slight, and the contusions occasioned by the fall from his horse.

On the 17th the advanced-guard reached Placentia, and on the 18th General Ott was attacked and beaten. The coming up of the Russian advanced-guard, forced the French to draw back and to take a position on the right of the Trebia. On the 19th the whole army was reunited upon the right bank of that river. Two strong van-guards were stationed upon the left bank. Suwarrow and Melas attacked them with the choice of their troops, made a great slaughter, but could not force them to quit their position. The 20th of June, Macdonald acted upon the offensive: he crossed the Trebia with the whole of his army, 40,000 strong. General Melas was at first beaten. Suwarrow, who was gaining in the centre, sent General Rosemberg to the succour of his left: and the French were obliged to draw back to their old positions. There was, for a moment, a rout in the centre.

took a very active part in favour of that General, for which he was exiled. Very lately he was appointed to a command, and was created a Marshal.

Macdonald, who was there, had nearly been drowned in the Trebia: he was carried away with the 5th regiment of light infantry, which, being panicstruck, had retreated in the greatest confusion, throwing down their muskets and knapsacks. The cause of this rout was a charge made by nearly 500 Cossacks upon 100 dragoons. These latter retreated at full gallop, and occasioned a great cloud of dust, which was increased by the pursuit of the Cossacks. One frightened fellow cried out, "there is the whole Russian cavalry upon us;" no more was necessary to decide the gaining of this battle, so famous, but till now little known in its true point of view.

Macdonald has been unjustly reproached with having wished to gain a battle without Moreau's participation. It was only in conformity with the orders, or at least the positive advice of that General, that he determined to march upon the rear of the left wing of the Austro-Russian army. He was so zealous in complying with the intentions of Moreau, that he had the weakness to change his own plan of attack to adopt that of Victor, who told him he had it from the General in Chief; this condescension caused the loss of every thing. A diversion on the part of Moreau was relied on, and it was that which determined Macdonald to desist from his former resolution, which was to proceed by forced marches to Voghera, by way of Placentia : if he could have got there by the 17th of June, he would have destroyed the Austrians upon the Trebia, or at least have forced them to pass upon the left bank of the Po. Suwarrow with his twenty-five thousand Russians would not have been able to arrest the march of the army of Naples, composed of choice troops who had made the campaigns of Italy with Buonaparte, and dispersed in one month the sixty thousand Neapolitans commanded by Mack; the Austrians should first have been fought with, and then the Russians. The slowness of the movements of the French army, and some other circumstances which time alone can properly elucidate, forced Macdonald to retreat towards Tuscany, after having lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about ten thousand men.

The Italian General Lahoz having separated from the French to join the insurgents, whose number and audacity increased daily, Macdonald determined upon evacuating Tuscany and rejoining Moreau at Genoa; this movement was made in good order. After this junction Macdonald obtained leave to return to France, for the purpose of re-establishing his health, which was considerably affected by his wounds and the fatigues inseparable from so toilsome a campaign, which had lasted for nearly a year. He was at Paris at the event of the 18th Brumaire, and was intrusted by Buonaparte with the command of Versailles: he showed on that post more firmness than at the end of the campaign of Italy; he caused the club of Versailles to be shut up, and made the inhabitants sensibly feel that it was high time that a just and energetic government should obliterate the horrors of anarchy and the fatal vacillation of the weak Directory.

Buonaparte, thinking to testify his satisfaction to Macdonald, offered him, in April 1800, the command of one of the corps of the army of reserve, destined to reconquer Italy, under the orders of Berthier. Macdonald, piqued at seeing himself exposed to serve as a subordinate after having commanded in chief, pretended illness from his wounds in the army of Naples. Notwithstanding this refusal, the true motive of which did not escape the

penetration of the crafty Buonaparte, Macdonald was nominated, on the 24th of August 1800, General in Chief of the army destined to penetrate into the Tyrol, through Switzerland, to second the operations of the army of Italy, and favour the movements of the army of Moreau, in Germany, by forcing the Austrians to keep up in the Tyrol from 25 to 30,000 men of their best troops. This campaign consisted of very fatiguing marches in the Alps, in the depth of winter. The French army was about 15,000 strong. General Matthew Dumas, more expert in writing about war than carrying it on, was Chief of the Staff. After having combated more with the difficulties of the roads than with the Austrians, who made but a weak resistance, Macdonald possessed himself of Trent the 7th of January, 1801. The armistice concluded at Treviso the 16th of the same month, put an end to hostilities.

Returned to France, Macdonald was no doubt displeasing to Buonaparte, from his intimate connection with Moreau: he was honourably exiled by being appointed for the embassy to the court of Denmark; he experienced so many disagreeables in that capacity, that he was continually soliciting his recal, which was at length granted him in 1803. Notwithstanding his assiduities at the Thuilleries, he was always coldly received. He appeared to be one of the most eager of the Generals for the nomination of Buonaparte as emperor: nevertheless he thus suffered his ambition to get the better of his pride, which his conduct till now without reproach, ought to have inspired him with: he was not included in the list of Marshals of the empire; he remained unemployed till 1809. He obtained at last orders to serve under the command of Prince Eugene Beauharnois in the army of Italy; he then commanded the right wing of this army, and was considered as the mentor of Eugene. The successes obtained at Laybach and at Raab were the results of Macdonald's combinations. The 6th of July, 1809, at the battle of Wagram, he was charged with the attack of the centre of the Austrian army: he lost in killed and wounded about three-fourths of his column, but he succeeded in making the Archduke Charles fall back; his conduct obtained him a Marshal's staff, which was given him upon the field of battle. Some time afterwards he was named Duke of Tarento.

The faint attacks of Augereau in Catalonia, determined Buonaparte to give him Macdonald for a successor. Gouvion St. Cyr, an officer of great merit, had been recalled from this command in a manner little flattering to him. The surprisal of Figueras by the Catalans, which at first was considered as a triumph for the noble cause of the brave Spaniards, has been found, by the fatality of events, to have been only a snare, in which 4000 choice men, the very soul of the insurrection in Catalonia, have unhappily been taken; so that since the 19th of August, the period that Figueras opened its gates to Macdonald, this rich province appears, in despite of the energy of its inhabitants, to be subjugated to the yoke of the French. Notwithstanding this brilliant result, Macdonald appears to have been recalled from this command. I cannot find out the reason, but in the tone the General assumes in the account he renders of the capitulation of Figueras—“ I please myself,” says Macdonald, in his report to Berthier, “in rendering justice to the army, in the hope that the emperor will view with the eye of favour these brave fellows, intreating your excellency to cause it to be remarked to his majesty,

that his army of Catalonia is a stranger to the event, which has re-united it in this place," &c. How happens it that Macdonald, who does not want for good sense, should have allowed himself such awkward observations? It would have been easy to have convinced himself, long ago, that Buonaparte detests any one who should think proper to take upon himself the language of a monitor, or the part of Phormion of Ephesus, who discussed the science of war in the presence of Hannibal.

The Duke of Tarento is of a good size, of a slender make, but robust, pale-faced, with eyes full of fire; his smile sardonic, his gait is military, his manners very polished. I believe him to be a sincere friend. Although he showed a weakness of character in the council of war, which occasioned the loss of the battle of Trebia, we cannot refuse to allow him the firmness necessary to a good General: he paid dear for this complaisance, since he lost the only pitched battle in which he commanded in chief. This fault will have served as a useful lesson to him, to hold firm to his own opinion, and to set off those talents to the best advantage, with which nature has gifted him. The numerous combats, which he has sustained and given in Germany and Italy, almost always with success, incontestibly place him amongst the Generals of the second rank; his cringing conduct to obtain employment does him little honour. He experiences at this time what we see happen every day in society, as a consequence of the strange caprices of men, who appear to increase in coldness in proportion to the anxiety, with which respectable women endeavour to captivate husbands, equally despicable for their most ridiculous jealousy, and the most insupportable tyranny.

ROMAN DISCIPLINE.

WE know through the medium of history, that the Gauls were individually stronger, and collectively more numerous, than the Roman legions, properly so denominated; and that the Greeks were more polished, and more expert in performing, feats demanding agility and corporeal strength; but then the Romans were more eminently qualified to command, being better disciplined, and more deeply versed in the sublime science of war; and it was through that very discipline, which may not unaptly be styled the foundation, the key-stone of their mighty empire, as well as the salient spring of their numberless triumphs, that they subdued the vigour, the numbers, the riches, the politeness, nay the very virtue of other nations.

Leisure Moments in the Camp and Guard-Room,

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGNS.

(Continued from page 47.)

ON the 13th September Lord Cathcart, who on the 31st July had left Great-Britain as our Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of Russia, communicated to the British government that a most obstinate and general action had been fought on the 7th of September, at the village of Borodino, between Mo jaisk and Tjate, on the great road from Smolensk to Moscow.

The Prince Kutusoff, appointed by the Emperor Commander in Chief of all his armies, arrived at the head-quarters at Czarovo Saimische, on the evening of the 29th of August. He found the first and the second armies in junction, but retreating upon Gchatzk, and abandoning Wiasma, General Barclay de Tolli not having thought that position favourable enough for accepting battle.Prince Kutusoff, on his part, resolved not to give battle until he should have received the reinforcements which he expected from Moscow and Kalouga. The Russian army was thus continually reinforcing as it got nearer its resources; whilst the French armies were getting farther from their reinforcements, and weaker as they advanced: This plan had been judged the most proper, in order to compensate for the superiority in numbers, which the enemy obtained from the immense means placed at his disposal by all the Continental states. It was not long before this plan, directed and executed by Prince Kutusoff, afforded a grand and brilliant result. Even before his arrival at the army, he had caused the reserves, commanded by General Milarodovitch, and the Militia of the Government of Moscow, under the orders of Lieutenant-General Count Morcoff, to be directed upon Mojaisk. The village of Borodino, situated 12 versts in advance of this town, is the point on which it was determined to await the enemy. The position behind the village was strong enough on the right and the centre, covered by a ravine and a deep rivulet; but the left, supported by the village of Semenoffka, did not afford the same advantages; it might be turned by the old road from Smolensk to Mojaisk. The General in Chief, to guard against these disadvantages, gave orders for fortifying that wing. He ordered some redans to be constructed on the left of the village of Semenoffka, and a redoubt in front of it, at one cannon shot and a half off. This redoubt was considered as an isolated work, which, even if lost, would make no change in the system of defence, and was intended more particularly to be of service in