The Van Buren press., 1859-09-14
Mgiseellallp.
THE CAPTURE OF IvREE.
BY MISS PARDOE.

The French army was preparing, during
the campaign of 1900, to meet the Aus
TRAN forces under Archduke Charles on the
plains of Italy, and was traversing with al
most incredible difficulty and perseverance,
the stupendous line of the Alps, which ex-
tends from St. Bernard to Nice and Monte
notte-encountering, hour by hour, obsta-
cles s0/nrmidable, that neither the courage
Of the (foops, the immense resources of the
commissariat, nor the military genius of
their leaders, were enabled entirely to over
come them.
Nothing daunted, however, by either suf-
fering or fatigue. they toiled on. as if they
already foresaw that the indomitable will of
their general-in-c was destined to make
them masters of Milan and Turin, to lead
them to Genoa, and to dictate his own
terms of peace to his naughty rival on the
battlefield of Marengo.
Within few leagues of Milan, in a hol-
low between two hills, and ON the left bank
of the Doria Balthea, they at length came
upon the town and fortress of Ivree, which
they scarcely anticipated would venture to
dispute their passage even for an instant
its fortifcations being almost nominal, and
the nature of its position rendering it inn
possible that its garrison could sustain a
regular siege.
They were, however, in error. Courage
Gus, wonderfully adroit, and fanatically pa
triotic, the inhabitants of the town, and the
troops in citadel, consisting only of four
thousand men, with twenty five guns, held
the place three entire days against an army
of thirty thousand men, commanded by
fhrn, Of fho l,,x Il L., al
the best generals in Europe-Bernardotte
Massenna and Lannes.
Furious to find himself arrested on his
march before SO Insignificant an obstacle
Bonaparte-who had taken Alexandria in
day, and Cairo in an hour-and who was
moreover anxious to possess himself of a
position which would facilitate his opera
tions on Milan, issued an order for the divi-
sion under Lannes, to make an attack upon
the town, and to compel a surrender. A
battalion of the twenty second demi- brigade,
led by Gen. Cochet, first escaladed the for
tress, and carried it at the point of the bay
onet; when the French no sooner found
themselves in possession of the fifteen field
pieces which had defended the entrance,
then they turned them upon the town, and
ORCucl IOl tuClI ISSlOuS d pcIhOuS, Uut uI-
obstructed path, along which they boldly
advanced, singing the Marseillaise. After
three hours of a struggle as heroic as it was
hopeless, driven from the citadel, decima-
ted in the streets of the town, shot down on
all sides, when beyond the reach of their
enemies, OF cut down by the sabres of those
by whom they were overtaken in their
fight, few of the Austrian soldiers, and
the mere handful of inhabitants who had
escaped the carnage, took refuge in the house
of The Austrian adjutant general, resolved
to hold out so long as one of them should
be left alive.
In few moments, the residence of the
brave veteran was transformed int0 an ac-
tive fortress loop holes were perforated in
the walls, barricades were hastily erected,
and every energy was exerted to accomplish
an effective defence.
Cochet was the first to enter Ivree but
he was closely followed by Lannes, who
sent an officer and two Iattalions of the en-
emy. We refrain from naming the officer,
out of respect to his family, several of whose
members have since the event we are about
to record, filled with honor themselves, an
elevated rank in the French army; let it
suffice that Major L., who was conspic-
nous in the republican forces for his feroci-
ty and headlong courage, Penetzated At the
head of one of the battalions { BY passing
over the bodies Of the forty gallant fellows
by whom his entrance was opposed into
the house of the Austrian general.
The dauntless man, after having seen all
his little garrison fall and expire around
him, and armed himself with hatchet.
which he wielded with superhuman energy
against his advancing foes; and Is Major
L-sapeared at the door cf the room
where he had taken up his hate post, he
aimed 80 furious blow at his head with
the Formidable weapon, TO which his hand