The Washington herald., 1914-01-18

/ tau. The re-enforcements at Rivoli had
marched fourteen miles the night before
were now on a twenty mile march toward
| Mantua, most of them without lying
| DOWN They arrived on the new field OF
conflict in time not only to avert the
the Mantaun garrison. but to catch all
the 5000 OF them in net.
Mantua was tottering to its fall The
men hemmed within its walls could no
| longer receive even their half rations
| or salted horse meat Disease. as well
| as famine, threatened their eXtermina-
| tion- Wurmser sent an officer to the
tent of Gen. Seurrier. the commander
of the besieging force TO find out what
kind of bargain could be made. The
messenger boasted. as usual, of the
strength and endurance left in the gar
rison, and of its rich stores. sufficient
bountifully to supply the men for three
months more.
A young French officer. wrapped in
ner of the tent. scribbling on a sheet
of paper. He now rose. and, walking
to the table, threw the paper upon it.
There" said Napoleon" are the
conditions which ] will grant II your
marshal had provisions only for three
weeks and talked of surrender he
would deserve my contempt l know
the extremities to which he is reduced,
and 1 respect his valor. his misfortune.
and his age. Whether he surrenders
tomorrow. in month. or in three
months. he shall have neither better
nor harder conditions. He may stay
as long as his sense of honor prompts
| him to hold out"
| When the Austrian's army hobbled
out Of the Verona gate Of Mantua the
venerable commander humbled before
his youthful conaueror, Napoleon had
left the scene, and the aged Wurmser
soeo S iR1asd Freneh inSS noW had iooOS captives
to their credit within less than a
| month.
On to Vienna.
Austria. victorious against the army
of the Rhine. if so often overwhelmed
by the army of Italy, called the young
royal commander, the Archduke
. the west to try his lance with the
I younger republican commander and
save the capital of the Hapsburgs.
Age had not proved to be a match
and Wurmser seventy-nine. But
Charles was even younger than Napo-
| leon. only twenty-five, and the new
| campaign was to be a competition be-
tween generals who had no more than
entered manhood
from Verona to Vienna But there were
no Vienna expresses. no trains de luxe,
the wildly picturesque passages of the
Eastern Alps
Part of the way over which he led his
troops, with their cannon and supplies,
was no more than a mule track, where
cart never had been. They climbed
and stumbled and pulled and hauled up
the sleety mountain sides. They labored
over the heights through three feet of
snow, where there was not guiding
footprint before them. They waded and
leaped the torrents in the valleys.
Women Camp Followers.
One of the problems that troubled Ma
poleon In undertaking this rigorous cam
paign was to free his army from the
handicap of a large following of women.
The French are at once martial and a
domestic people, and they are prone to
mix the two qualities in war time.
Notwithstanding the precautions taken
to detain the women camp followers in
Italy, Napoleon found that many had
emuggled themselves into his column He
issued an order therefore that all of
them be chased out of the ranks and sent
under guard two marches in the rear and
that any woman still remaining without
authority should be smudged with black
and exposed two hours in public square.
The French came upon the Austrians